Catching snakes on a plain, just outside Canberra

Gathered together with six of the organisation’s experienced snake handlers, we’d mostly enlisted to confront our fears, develop confidence and learn more about the creatures which terrify a good slice of the population.

Little did we realize that as the weekend wore on, many of us would become so comfortable with snakes that we’d volunteer to take phone calls from distressed district homeowners who regularly call Wildcare to have a snake removed from their property.

Australia is home to some of the world’s most dangerous snakes. And Canberra, the bush capital, is home to many of these.

The prolific Eastern Brown snake is one. It is the second deadliest snake in the world, just lagging the Taipan, or Fierce Snake. Like many Australians, I’d had several Browns around my property and once, in an inadvertent act of stupidity managed to chase one under my house instead of back out into the paddocks.

Reflecting on this act of lunacy, I signed up for the Wildcare course with a desire to manage snakes better, to learn their behaviors and, if necessary, to be able to treat snake bite.

The ACT is also blessed with the Tiger snake (4th deadliest), the Death Adder and the Red Bellied Black, a comparative venom laggard, which ranks 22nd on the snake league table for toxicology.

Wildcare is an organisation dedicated to the health of our natural fauna. Through its volunteer workforce, it restores all numbers of injured native creatures back to health and catches and releases animals that find themselves in danger due to their proximity to towns or homes. Its primary objectives include providing a high standard of rescue, care, rehabilitation for sick, injured, orphaned and displaced native fauna for successful release into the natural environment.

Snakes obviously rank right at the top of the list for rescue and removal, hence the course, which teaches people to be able to safely manage the creatures, which are actually quite beautiful.

Our instructors split us into three groups and wasted no time in introducing us to the object of our fears, which had been caught in the bush in the week before the course.

A small black snake appeared in the middle of our circle, prompting one woman to step away, pronouncing to us all that she was “absolutely terrified.”

By Sunday, she had bravely overcome her fears, and summoned the courage to bag many Browns safely.

The key to my confidence came with the knowledge that snakes are interested in one thing alone: getting away. Our instructor stressed that snakes had no interest in biting us and there was no chance of getting bitten if we stood still.

This proved completely true. Many times a snake went right through our legs as we practiced getting them into our snake bags in the supervised safe environment.

One snake, in its bid for freedom, even went a small distance up the pant leg of one member of our group, who had the presence of mind to stand absolutely still.

No-one was bitten, no-one came close to being bitten, although we held our collective breath as the so-called “trouser snake” was gently extracted by the instructor.

As the weekend progressed we graduated from the relatively placid Blacks to Tigers and then on to the faster and deadlier Browns.

I have to admit there’s nothing like catching a Brown snake by the tail to get the blood pumping and adrenaline flowing. The act involved more than confronting fear and past apprehension regarding our most misunderstood predators

It also involved total commitment to an act that many would consider insanity – reaching out at just the right moment to control something that has the ability to kill you.

The great thing was that everyone managed to do it. In reality, it really wasn’t that hard provided you followed the excellent instruction.

I watched as someone’s granny pursued an escaping six foot Brown across the terrain, instructor in tow, anxious to bag the snake before the instructor took over.

By the end, just about everyone was routinely popping into their snake bags the reptiles that frequent the nightmares of many Australians. We “graduated” after pulling apart a pile of brush to catch a large Tiger snake that was hidden in its depths.

It was hard not to pinch yourself and say: am I really doing this? But on reflection, I realized that this was a silly question. I had done it and quite easily.

It was a question based in ignorance and deep fear of an animal that should be respected, but shouldn’t be feared at all.

Like pulling apart a brush pile to catch a snake, the course allowed me to systematically dismantle my misconceptions and irrationalities and control the fears that had always lurked within.