What snake is this?

Hi Phil. Looks like a Western Brown Snake. The dark head and nape are very characteristic of this snake. Grow up to 150 cm..

Cheers,

Mike

Yep, western brown. I had one have a lung at my truck as I past close to it at 80kph. I thought it would have avoided the oncoming road train which was about 500m away, but no. On the return run it had been run over and I could see what it was.

Thanks for the replies. I thought it was too far south for an inland taipan but it was the closest that I could come up with. I considered a western brown but could not find a suitable description and the black patch on the nape of the neck confused me. Phil

There is a photo on this page of a western brown snake that matches your photo - last photo at the bottom of the page. western brown snake

phil
you will only need a book on snakes if your dealing with politicians
cheers

Snakes are a master of disguise.
My interest is that I encountered what was subsequently identified as an Inland Taipan at Roxby Downs in 1980/1. The picture shown by Phil differs from what I saw in that there is a black diamond banding pattern and the black band at the neck is less definitely designed.
The existence of the Inland Taipan seems to only have been acknowledged since the early 1980's (see wikipedia).

The one I tangled with was about 5 foot and one hellish agro snake. At the time I consulted lots of books and asked anyone considered knowledgeable. About 10 years later a bloke doing a snake pit show dropped one out of his bag exactly identical to the one I saw and defined it as an Inland Taipan. It is now acknowledged that the Inland Taipan darkens it's skin in winter and hence the black diagonal pattern may be associated with this seasonal change.

On the balance I would go with the Western Brown in this case, although pictures alone are not the most definitive identification medium. In fact when googled the subject becomes fascinating reading. To be absolutely sure one would have to deliver a specimen to an expert in matters snakes.

Regards
Pete_G

If you ever find/encounter/come face to face with anything you can't identify, take a photo, note details of when and where and anything else you can think of to help with the identification and email it off to the Australian Museum. They are a fantastic resource. Search & Discover I have sent photos of bones, plants, critters of all sorts and they have always come up with a positive response and usually within a few days.