Snakes
Submitted: Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 10:39
ThreadID:
13851
Views:
2737
Replies:
20
FollowUps:
9
This Thread has been Archived
Marbro
How common are snakes in the outback? I've talked to people who say they see them when they take trips and the snakes have been run over. One German lady said that on her outback trip the driver ran over several snakes during the 14 days .
A tour guide/driver who drives all over WA tells me he has never actually hit a snake while driving and rarely even sees one. I'm not sure who's being more straight forward, the driver/guide or the other people who say they see them. Are snakes common?
Reply By: paul - Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 11:09
Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 11:09
In 1987 i rode around australia on a motorbike going bitumen and dirt, i went north in winter and went south in summer. Camped out 90% of the time, often just hooked off the road until out of sight.
I never saw one live snake.
But hey, snakes are hard to see, when i was growing up our dog always found them. So i'm sure they were sliverying everywhere around me many times. But they don't like to attack big things (cept maybe taipans and king browns when they get provoked)
AnswerID:
63563
Reply By: ross - Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 11:43
Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 11:43
Marbro,
both you sources are probably correct. It will have a lot to do with he weather and the seasons.
They are very common,even in the outer suburbs of the warmer cities at the beginning of summer.
They like to crawl onto warm rocks or roads and are at their fastest but unfortuntely are not fast enough to get out of the way of a speeding vehicle.
Running snakes over intentionally is seen as sport to some in this country but it is illegal and detrimental to the balance of wildlife.
AnswerID:
63570
Reply By: Member - Alan- Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 12:38
Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 12:38
I saw a lot of snakes mostly at night when working East of Fitzroy on the road construction. Mostly attracted to the lights on my truck when I was working on the road machinery, or after the thousands of frogs at the dams we constructed for the water carts.
Never a problem though and I avoided running them over whenever possible.
One of the wogs hated them (he hated everyone and everything!) and would kill any he saw even if they were in a remote location away from
camp.
Leave them alone and you'll normally never have any probs. with them.
AnswerID:
63575
Follow Up By: Goran - Saturday, Jun 19, 2004 at 00:36
Saturday, Jun 19, 2004 at 00:36
Wogs ????? What are you refering to mate???
FollowupID:
324997
Reply By: Member - Camper (SA) - Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 13:11
Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 13:11
Bushwalking on Kangaroo Is. lately along a track over which malley roots ran when one of the roots over which I was stepping came alive! Partner's scream was more frightening than the snake which I probably would not have even seen. Makes you wonder how I would have fared if it had bitten me - we were some distance from help.
Have resolved to carry an elastic bandage in future in similar situations.
On
Yorke Peninsula over summer we encountered a brown about on metre long near the camping ground and walked quietly along with it for about 1/2 hr watching it go about its business which was fascinating and quite safe - we kept a respectful distance and it ignored us almost totally.
Give them a bit of space and treat them with respect and you are fine. Wear jeans or other thick trousers and be careful in long grass.
But watch mallee roots extra carefully!
Camper
AnswerID:
63581
Reply By: Willem - Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 17:14
Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 17:14
In 30 years of driving around this country I may have seen 20 snakes and most of those would have been in tropical Australia. There you will find pythons on the move in the wet season. They are fun to catch and then to release again. I go out of my way to miss a snake if it is on the road. Snakes are part of our life cycle.
The most dangerous snake in Australia, if not the world, is the Fierce Snake which is found in the
Simpson Desert and
Birdsville environs. So take heed all you desert travellers :-)
AnswerID:
63608
Reply By: Voxson (Adelaide) - Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 17:19
Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 17:19
Well to answer your question......
I used to ride dirt bikes on my friends property in the
Adelaide hills for years and never saw a snake....
Then my friend who is a snake catcher for Govt took me back to his property years later and we snuck around looking for reds and browns and found a dozen in about 2hrs at the same property we never saw a snake when we were younger....
Any noise or vibration and they are gone and most snakes seem to stay clear of roads.... So what i am saying is that there are bucket loads sliding around near us in the country at all times (except cold months) but we never see them because they hear us coming a mile away....
The times we have gone looking we have found heaps just lieing around near their little homes in the ground....
From what Scott tells me a Brown snake would be hard pressed to even bite through a good pair of socks because their fangs are only about 3 - 4mm in length... Most people are bitten straight onto flesh....
Now this is from my friends mouth not mine...(about the fang length)....
AnswerID:
63609
Reply By: Rosco - Bris. - Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 20:15
Thursday, Jun 17, 2004 at 20:15
I've been heading off to the same property each year for the last 20 or so years. Up between Inglewood and Texas (Qld). This is trap rock country and the area is full of Brown's and Death Adders.
We always go up in winter and have never seen a single snake. A mate, who's a local reckons he comes across one virtually every other day in summer. One time they were baling lucerne and ended up with a big brown wound up in a bale of hay...and boy, was he cranky.
There's a pile of flitches in one spot .. left behind by the local sleeper cutters.
Our usual line, when we have a new chum on board is to suggest he should strip down to his jocks and .. armed with a short bit of fencing wire, slither in and see how many nasties he can stir up.
Never seem to have many takers ... funny that.
AnswerID:
63645