Three-metre brown snake skin found

Bob Brinsmead, founder of Tropical Fruit World, with the 2.7 metre skin he found on his property. He believes it came from a deadly eastern brown snake.

Crystal Spencer

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News in pictures - March 2010

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“IT’S humungous” said Tropical Fruit World founder Bob Brinsmead after finding the nearly three-metre skin he identified as from a deadly brown snake.

Mr Brinsmead found the discarded, outgrown skin of the huge snake on the tennis court of his Duranbah property earlier this week.

“I wouldn’t have believed this unless I saw it. I would have said that’s got to be a carpet snake,” he said.

“But I’ve got the skin here to prove it. It would be something near a record size.”

Mr Brinsmead, a former Tweed Shire deputy mayor who has lived on the property since 1972, measured the skin at two metres 71 centimetres.

“I was blown away by it,” he added. “I’ve never encountered one more than six foot (1.82 metres).”

Luckily for Mr Brinsmead the snake had slithered away from its outgrown skin – smaller ‘eastern browns’ though common in the Tweed are among the deadliest of all snakes.

According to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary life sciences curator Matt Hingley however, the snake would not have been as big as its skin.

“A snake’s scales overlap each other,” Mr Hingley said.

“When the snake sheds its skin, instead of scale overlapping scale it could be a third larger than the snake that cast the skin.

“A six-foot eastern brown that sheds its skin, if you hold that up, would be much longer.”

Mr Hingley said eastern browns usually reached only about 1.5metres in length although he had seen some two metres “or just over”.

He warned eastern brown snakes are among the most venomous in the world.

Earlier this month snake experts warned warm weather combined with rain had increased the prevalence of snake sightings and attacks.

Snake facts

Australia has around 140 species of land snake, and around 32 species of sea snakes

About 100 Australian snakes are venomous, although only 12 are likely to inflict a wound that could kill you.

The most dangerous snakes belong to the front-fanged group, which in NSW includes tiger snakes, brown snakes and death adder.

NSW Dept of Environment and Climate Change