Snake catcher in five-hour standoff with enormous eastern brown
A snake catcher west of Brisbane has become involved in a lengthy five-hour standoff with an extremely venomous eastern brown snake.
Andrew Smedley said he spent a large part of Tuesday dismantling a rock retaining wall at Marburg to make sure the serpent, which has evaded him for two weeks, did not slip away again.
He shared pictures of the “big boy eastern brown” on the Facebook page Andrew’s Snake Removal proving his persistence finally paid off.
“I arrived at the place at 9am as that’s when he has been coming out to bask in the sun each morning,” he wrote.
The snake catcher said the eastern brown appeared between the rocks right on cue, but quickly slithered back in again to hide.
Mr Smedley waited half an hour, but when there was no sign of the snake he tried to flush it out with a hose.
“We then started digging around the rocks & I pretty stuffed lol but kept persisting but after moving 2 big rocks still no sign of it (sic),” the post continued.
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“I was about to call it a day when I seen a movement in a puddle behind the rocks & yep it was the snake, so I sat on the rock having a Mexican stand off for the next hour.”
He was not going to let the eastern brown get the better of him. The snake catcher waited for the water to recede and once it did he could see more of its body and was able to grab onto it.
Facebook users praised the catcher’s bravery and patience, with one person commenting that they would have brought in an excavator.
“Thats massive. I came across one like that on the weekend while bush walking. It was the biggest brown i have ever seen….until i saw this. Well done mate,” one person wrote.
Not only were people shocked by the deadly snake’s size, they noticed it did not seem enthralled about being relocated.
“He’s not too happy with having his photo taken,” one wrote.
Mr Smedley wrote online that it was his longest snake call to date, but thanked the residents of the home who supplied him with caffeinated drinks while he persisted with the reptile.
