Tag Archives: snakes

Snakes on my Doorstep. Again.

I didn't have a picture of a snake, so...

I didn’t have a picture of a snake, so…

Australia is known for its poisonous snakes – Although it often takes longer (6 to 24 hours), a Tiger snake can bring on death within as little as 30 minutes, Black snakes are also highly poisonous, but it is the aggressive and fast moving Brown snake that can and will bite multiple times and are responsible for killing more Australians per year than any other snake – It’s not just people who try to kill or catch them that get bitten either, it’s people stepping over logs or rocks or people walking in long grass, people who simply do not see them.

Did I mention long grass? Our new (old) little house in its glorious wilderness/pastureland isolation hadn’t been lived in for some time. The grass was long right up to the house and all around it. We have all three of those snakes mentioned here, plus others. When I say here, I really mean here, not just in the area but on the doorstep!

In the first couple of weeks here as I got the grass under control, I saw two snakes immediately on stepping outside, both out in the open and within feet of the house. The first was a Black snake and the second was a Tiger snake (both big ones). Greg saw a third one during a visit here, which vanished into his work shed and we think is a Brown.

These aren’t like pythons that I would gladly pick up and have photos taken with – you don’t mess with these things. While I appreciate snakes and will not kill them, I don’t want them under my feet whenever I step outside. I want our cats to survive too.

Solution? Yes, I actually found one.

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Snakes and Writing – TRUE LIFE.

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When you live IN the wild, you live WITH the wild, particularly when you haven’t got a house and dwell in a hole in the ground – my caravan office didn’t give much protection either as it had gaps and holes, and the animals soon moved in there, as well.

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The subtropical Top End (Northern Territory) of Australia has its fair share of wildlife. There are wild boar (dangerous), dingoes (dangerous), crocodiles (extremely dangerous), buffalo (dangerous), spiders (yep, deadly) and lots of snakes (you bet, dangerous). In our camp we met Whip snakes, Death Adders, Black snakes, Brown snakes, King Browns and a host of others, all deadly poisonous. Except for one type, the giants on the block – Pythons.

Pythons are actually good to have around. They prey on poisonous snakes and keep their number low, but they also grow to enormous size (much bigger than these photographs show) and prey on other animals, including small wallabies and young kangaroos. We had pets to look out for, so I learned to handle them and move them well out of camp whenever they turned up.

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