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With the onset of the warmer weather the chances of coming across a snake in or around your home increases, but this is not a cause for concern. There are a few basic things that you can do to minimise the chance of an encounter. Snakes love to have somehwere to hide and feel secure, they dislike being exposed and in the open. So clean up your garden, remove any piles of timber, sheets of iron or anywhere a snake can hide under. Keep the grass mown, snakes like long grass to move through. If you do see a snake outside, stand still, they have poor eyesight but do detect and react to movement, after a little while the snake will move on.

On very rare occassions you may come across a snake inside the house. If this happens leave a door open to the outside and close all other doors leading further into the house and put rolled up towels on the bottom of them. If after an hour or so the snake hasn't moved on then call a snake catcher or your local Fauna Rescue group or the Department of Environment and Resource management who will be able to give you the number of a local relocator.

Above all do NOT attempt to remove or kill the snake yourself, unless you are 100% positive it is non-venomous as the vast majority of patients presenting to hospitals for snake bite have tried to catch or kill the snake.

Whilst snakes are common in the Whitsunday area, they are not often seen as they are shy by nature and will move away when they become aware of anyone approaching. If you do see one it it most likely to be one of the harmess species like the Carpet Snake or Green Tree Snake. Misidentification is a very common problem even amongst 'experienced' locals......"I've lived here for years I know snakes!!". As a licensed snake catcher I would estimate that around 80% of calls that I recieve are "I've got a Brown Snake",or "Ive got a Taipan". In reality less than 5% of these calls turn out to be either Browns or Taipans.

This website is intended as a source of information about local snakes and to act as a guide to their identification. It is not an exhaustive list but covers the most common snakes that are likely to be encountered in the area. If you would like a snake identified, try to take a good quality digital photo of the whole snake and a close up of the head if possible (don't put yourself at risk doing this) and email it to the address given on the Contact Me page.



Eastern Brown Snake                                          Brown Tree Snake