Warning to Aussies after dad captures deadly snake on driveway: 'Screaming'

An dad thought he was looking at a cute baby python. Luckily he hesitated before picking it up.

Sam coaxing the snake into a bucket as his kids watch on. They stand close to his suburban Sydney home's garage.
Dad Samuel originally thought the snake was a python, but the reality was far more dangerous. Source: Sydney Snake Catcher

First, his wife called him on the phone. Then he heard her yell, and she began calling “snake, snake”. But after father-of-four Samuel bravely ran towards her car, what he saw wasn’t scary at all.

“She was screaming... Obviously, I was expecting it to be a lot bigger. When I moved in close it looked like a python,” he told Yahoo News. “Then I thought, wait a minute, the way it was arching up, hissing, and attacking, that’s not a python.”

Samuel was right, it was something much more dangerous than a python. Worryingly he'd been considering picking it up, but luckily he reconsidered.

According to one snake expert, this hesitation saved Samuel a trip to the hospital, or something even worse. “It’s not an exaggeration to say it could have been a matter of life and death,” Urban Reptile Removal’s Chris Williams explained to Yahoo News.

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Samuel's wife was right to be afraid. What she’d discovered as she cleaned her car was a baby eastern brown, the second most venomous land snake in the world. In 2024, an Aussie dad died after attempting to remove one from a childcare centre.

Inset: A baby eastern brown snake under a broom. Background: An adult eastern brown snake.
Baby eastern brown snakes like the one Sam encountered (inset) look nothing like adults. Source: Sydney Snake Catcher/Getty

Juvenile eastern browns deceptively look very different to the deep-brown adult form that most Aussies are aware of. But they’re just as dangerous.

“They’re striped, and they’ve got this demure little head, so you’d think butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth. But they can certainly pack a punch,” Chris said.

“A baby snake would be very scared of the big, bad world out there. When you’re half a centimetre tall everything looks frightening.”

Eastern brown snakes are known to be highly defensive, which is often mistaken for aggression. This means they’re unlikely to bite a human unless they feel threatened.

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According to research by Monash University, 75 per cent of snake bite victims are men, and their median age is 46.5. But deaths from snakes in Australia are very rare. An audit by the National Coronial Information Service found between 2000 and 2016, they killed 35 people, and eastern browns were responsible for 23 of them.

Samuel coaxing the snake into a bucket as his kids watch on.
Sam coaxed the snake into a bucket. But it’s recommended that Aussies don’t try this at home and instead call for a professional. Source: Sydney Snake Catcher

Sam is warning other parents to be careful and not take matters into their own hands if they see a snake in their backyard. If they don’t, both the welfare of the people living there and the snake is likely to be put at risk.

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Eastern browns began hatching around Sydney this week, and snake catchers around the city have responded to several calls.

Sam has experience handling pet pythons, so he felt comfortable coaxing the eastern brown into a bucket. But that's not something experts recommend.

He then made the right decision and called a professional snake catcher for help. His focus was ensuring it was safely removed from the area and relocated away from other houses.

“I thought if it took off, there are a lot of kids in the street, and if it bit someone on the toe or something it would be a disaster,” he said.

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