When John Pringle went to kill one poisoning his cattle, he attacked with a hoe, but the snake covered two metres in an instance and bit an astonished Pringle on the shins. Though the name of the giant brown snake remained unknown, its speed and toxicity was well understood by Northern Queensland farmers. A study of the snakes’ venom found it extremely toxic despite severe deterioration. He sent them to the Australian Museum in Sydney where they were reclassified as oxyuranus mclennani in his honour. Wary early colonists called them “travelling browns” but they remained unknown to science until 1920s bird watcher Bill McLennan shot two large taipans. Unlike the inoffensive black snake, a bite from these large coppery-brown snakes meant certain death. In 1866 she sent the snake to a Hamburg museum where it was identified as a new species but incorrectly as pseudechis scutellatus, a member of the black snake family. Nineteenth century German immigrant Amelie Dietrich was probably the first European to capture a taipan alive. Rosendale’s story is the centrepiece of a fascinating book called Venom by Brendan James Murray about the search for Australia’s deadliest venomous snake. Despite the media frenzy about the deadly taipan, Rosendale was dismissed as “the Abo who survived the taipan.” His nameless survival was overlooked as North Queensland remained paralysed by this most deadly of snakes. Nurses later showed him photos of his blood which was black in places.Īt Hope Vale they called him Mr Famous, but Rosendale had the misfortune to be as black as his blood in a time in Australia when black lives certainly did not matter. Rosendale was rushed by truck over bumpy roads to Cooktown Hospital, where somehow he recovered. A bush doctor then saved his life by cutting along the fang marks until it bled. A man tied a ligature round his leg as he lost consciousness. Rosendale panicked and ran, making matters worse as the venom coursed quickly through his veins. He managed to kick it clear but had two fang marks on his ankle. When Rosendale realised he was bitten he swung his leg around and the 2m long snake remained attached. The people of Hope Vale called it a nguman, its scientific name is Oxyuranus scutellatus but it is most famous by the name others further up Cape York called it, the taipan. It was, however, known and feared by Aboriginal people of the cape. He was bitten by an aggressive snake well over two metres long whose venom was intense and fast, yet it had been unknown to science until a few years before and no anti-venom had been developed. In 1949 Guugu Yimithirr man George Rosendale did what no one had done before him – he survived a taipan bite. Roy Mackay, Neville Goddard and Kevin Budden prior to their 1949 expedition to north Queensland in search of a live taipan.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |