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SNAKE TALES
My First Brush With A Taipan.
But not the last!
In January 1977, we rented an old farmhouse for 9 months while our house was being built. We had paid the deposit and moved in before finding out the largest taipan ever found in Australia was killed just across the road from our little farmhouse at Nindaroo, 13 kilometres from the bustling sugar town of Mackay in North Queensland. It was recorded as 12 foot long! Bloody hell.
Even though we had sugarcane farms around us on three sides, I thought we’d be safe as the house was high-set. I didn’t know snakes could climb stairs!
It wasn’t until Easter that I had my first run-in with one. It was Thursday night. I’d put the kids, aged 6, 3 and 6 months, to bed. I was under the house showering. I took longer than usual as we were going away the next day – so was washing and conditioning hair, shaving legs etc all the time keeping half an eye on a huge frog sitting in the corner of the shower.
I’m not frightened of frogs — I just didn’t want him jumping on me unexpectedly. Wrapping a towel around me, I hurried up the back steps, stopping half way up to look at a stick leaning against the back door. As I stood there watching, the stick started to wave side to side and try to curl itself onto the door knob. This is when I yelled out to my husband who…
