Office workers rally to save snake spotted near major highway: 'It's going to die'
Workers worried about the snake's safety tried to pick it up but struggled to find qualified help.
Sydney office workers had an unusual interruption to their day when they were “surprised” to spot a two-metre-long diamond python curled up near one of Australia’s busiest and noisiest roads recently.
“Some of them thought it was scary and were screaming, others were taking photos,” Joumana told Yahoo News from outside her western Sydney workplace last week. “But I was worried about the snake. Parramatta Road has very heavy traffic — what if it slithered under a car.”
The animal was hiding in one of the only patches of green along the Auburn roadside. After being told the snake was non-venomous and unlikely to bite her, Jourmana tried picking it up, but that proved harder than it looked. She thought the snake looked surprisingly “cute” and she felt sorry for the lost animal.
“The original plan was to put it in a box and take it to the vet. But when I went to grab him he “staunched me and hissed,” Joumana said.
How the python found its way to Parramatta Road, also known as the Great Western Highway, was unclear. The artery runs through industrial hubs, connecting the Sydney CBD in the east with Parramatta in the west.
While office workers and motorists were worried about the snake's safety, getting help proved near impossible.
Motorist struggles to find help for displaced snake
Kathleen was driving by when she spotted the commotion on the side of the road and pulled up to help. She looked up every wildlife rescue group she could find in Sydney but none were able to assist. One operator told her to leave it alone because snakes are on the move because of the warm weather.
“I told them it’s going to die or get run over,” she told Yahoo.
Being on the ground, Kathleen could see the immediate danger the snake was in, and she didn’t want to walk away. She thought the snake had likely hitched a ride to the area on one of the waste disposal trucks that frequent the nearby facility.
“There were so many people from a nearby office watching. And some of the managers were just saying leave it, leave it. But that didn’t sit right with me. It was in a place where it wasn’t meant to be and so distressed, so I wasn’t going to leave it. I wouldn’t have slept at night,” she added.
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Emotions run high as danger looms for snake
Like Joumana, Kathleen felt strangely drawn to the snake. “It just looked like a really nice snake, I know that sounds weird, but it did,” she said.
The snake catchers Kathleen called are small business operators who need to make a living, so they all told her they’d have to charge a fee. After running through all the numbers she accidentally called back the same guy twice.
Chris Williams from Urban Reptile Removal had been hours away when she first called, but three hours later he was closer to the scene.
“He was surprised I didn’t find anyone and was like: What the hell? I was really emotional and he agreed to come right away,” Kathleen said.
How much danger was the snake in?
On Monday, Williams returned to the site to illustrate the immediate danger the snake was in. Heavy trucks, oversized utes, dump trucks and cars were rushing by.
When he arrived at the scene last week, he found the situation to be “a bit of a mess” and he was frustrated that no one closer had been able to help.
“Parramatta Road in Auburn is clearly not where snakes are hanging out. It's one of the busiest roads in Sydney and this diamond python was in a hedge just metres from the cars,” he said.
“It had been a race against the clock as peak hour approached.”
By the time Williams arrived, and the snake had moved on. He searched through the hedges, then tracked it through a fence and into an industrial waste processing facility.
The snake’s initial discovery sparked a sense of urgency, which set the workers’ pulses running. But once Chris spotted the snake the ordeal was over in seconds.
With night falling, the exhausted snake had curled up against the glass of a building, and it was spotted by a cleaner. Williams was able to quickly grab the snake and set it free away from cars in nearby bushland.
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