Australia is well known for its creepy crawlies and things that bite. In fact, Australia has more insects, reptiles and animals that can kill you than any other country in the world. And although great white sharks and saltwater crocodiles get a most of the bad press these are only just two of the many that flourish in Australia.
Growing up in the bush the ones we had to watch out for were snakes. We had quite a few varieties around our house, and so you had to keep your wits about you all the time and watch where we put your feet. These weren’t just ordinary snakes; nope these were some of the most deadly and venomous in the world.
My dad had no fear of snakes, after working in the sugar cane fields of North Queensland for many years – incredibly his first year in bare feet armed only with a hat, pair of shorts and a cane knife he navigated both the insidiously sharp cane stumps, rat infestations and the hundreds of snakes which inhabited the fields all without major mishap.
Even after he could afford boots, I’m not sure he was keen on them given the extreme heat and constant sweat became more of a hindrance than a help.
One of the things that almost every household in Australia had, at least when I was growing up was a length of twisted fencing wire made into the shape of a shepherd’s crook which was hung on a nail adjacent to the back door of our house. Most of them were about 5 – 6 feet in length and very sturdy. The intent was to break the snakes back first, to make it immobile before killing it.
This became the “go-to” weapon to ward off and kill any snakes in and around our house. Not surprising we’d get between 2 – 5 snakes per year, mostly around the house or in the backyard and if the shepherd’s crook was too far away, he would have to use a shovel or fencing picket. The most common snake we’d get would be the Tiger snake, which were relatively large and grew to about 4 – 5 feet in length. There were two things that distinguished a Tiger snake from its contemporaries – first the yellow stripes across its back, but more so it’s very aggressive nature, they would have no inhibitions about trying to strike you and would rather fight than slink off.
These guys were not to be trifled with under any circumstances!
Next most common were black snakes, I remember coming home from primary school one day with my brother (James), I would have been about 10 years old and he 8 and as we rounded the bend in the road (actually on the hill where we used to race our billy carts) there was a black snake sunning itself across the road. The scary part was that it stretched the entire width of the road and must have been close to 10 feet long. Yikes!
We tried throwing stones at the snake to try scare it away, but it remained completely unfazed by the attention and continued to sun itself happily. Our only alternative was to turn around and walk back the half mile to the next road so we could get home via the long route.
Another late afternoon I remember walking out the back door and finding a rather large and noisy snake hissing at me from about 2 feet away. Our house was surrounded by a large rock wall (the house was built into the side of a hill) and so the snake was sitting at almost eye height…I was frozen with fear! Yeah, this is the part where I let out a scream from a horror movie.
Fortunately for me dad was close by, immediately saw what was happening and grabbed the snake by the tail. Turning away from the house he instructed me to hand him the shepherd’s crook which I did with my trembling hand, by this time the snake was riled up and trying to strike but given his size found it difficult to get enough leverage to make a go of it. No sooner than I had passed the crook to dad than he had it partly placed the snake on the ground and killed it.
After making doubly sure it was dead dad then proceeded to walk nonchalantly up toward our back barbed wire fence with the dead snake in tow. Dad would always hang the dead snakes along the back fence, as he always invariably said “let this be a deterrent to other snakes”. Most summers we’d have a collection of snake carcasses hanging along the fence line…and although I didn’t question him it didn’t seem like much of a deterrent to the other snake’s cos’ if it had how come we’d always get more?
I think the “pièce de résistance” to my snake stories is the one about mum and the snake.
Arriving home from secondary school one afternoon about 5:00 pm I came in the back door and was confronted by a surreal scene. The kitchen floor was a bloody mess, and there seemed to be something spattered all over the white kitchen walls, and that’s not to mention the pool of blood all over the floor with something mixed into it…chunks of something?
Mum sat sobbing at the kitchen table, the bloody shepherd’s crook lying amongst the mess on the kitchen floor. She finally calmed down enough to tell me the story; she had been pottering around the garden and came into the kitchen to find a Tiger snake sitting in the middle of kitchen floor and ready to strike.
Apparently, it had pushed its way through the corner of the fly wire screen door and pushed its way into the house. Mum slowly reversed the couple of steps to the back door and grabbing the shepherd’s crook set about killing the snake.
Not only had mum killed the snake, likely with the first blow or two but in her heightened state of emotions had then proceeded to pulverized it to the point where it had started to disintegrate into small chunks which were now splattered all over the walls.
Unfortunately, this was always going to end badly for the snake! This was one hysterical woman armed with the best snake killing device known to man…yep, it was an ugly scene!
Clearly, she was in no state to clean up “said” snake, or what was left of it so I was the lucky one who got the job. Although in the finest traditions for which I was hoping dad would be proud of me, set about hanging the remains or what was left of the snake on the barbed wire fence with all the others…still not convinced it was a deterrent…
Since these formative years I’ve never been a fan of snakes.
Until next week.
Ciao!
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