I grew up in New Zealand, a country that does not have snakes, so it was a shock when I saw my first snake in Queensland. Luckily it was a Carpet Python, which is not venomous, but kills prey by wrapping itself around the bird or animal.
We were living in the country at a place called Carters Ridge, when my husband and I heard a commotion in the chicken pen. We arrived to find the python had already swallowed a hen and the hen was now an obvious lump in the python. It was the other hens who were making the noise that alerted us.
At that stage of my life I had no idea that snakes liked water and often, on a hot day, we would swim in our dam. One day we were in the dam, cooling off, when suddenly we saw a Red-bellied Black snake, which is venomous, moving through the water on the far side of the dam.
The Red-Bellied Black is shiny black with a red belly, but sometimes the underside of the snake looks pinkish or white. The population of these snakes has decreased, because of their habit of preying on cane toads, which are poisonous.
I have only seen tree snakes at my new home and they are non-venomous.
Years ago, my husband and I were on our way to Nambour from our home in Carters Ridge. I was gazing out the side window of the car at the countryside when he said, “Don’t panic. When I stop the car I want you to jump straight out of the car.”
Suddenly I looked down and there was a thin snake moving between our two seats. He stopped the car and jumped out, but I froze and could not even move my hand to undo my seat belt. The snake disappeared into the back of the car. My husband searched for it but couldn’t find where it had gone. We continued our journey with trepidation. I had my legs up on my seat.
We were near Cooroy, so we stopped in the town and went to the local RSL and spent a couple of hours there. We left the windows and car doors open, thinking the snake would leave the car.
Eventually, we thought we had given it enough time to vacate the car, so we drove home. Our original plan of driving to Nambour had now changed.
On the 20 km return journey to Carters Ridge, I kept looking around me for the snake. We were within sight of our home, and I suddenly became brave.
“If I see that snake, I am going to pick it up and throw it out the window.”
Famous last words, next thing the snake was going past my shoulder and disappeared into an air vent on the dashboard.
“Sell the car, I will never get into it again,” I said to my husband.
We sold the car. It took a fortnight to find a buyer, during which time we stayed at home, not wanting to have another snake encounter.
It was probably a harmless tree snake, but for someone who grew up in a country without snakes, snake = scary.
