The Brisbane Airport signs leaving tourists on edge

It’s enough to set a visitor’s blood running cold, with these signs at Brisbane Airport leaving tourists looking over their shoulder.

Somebody get Samuel L Jackson – we’ve got snakes near our planes.

Jackson’s profanity-laden line from the cult classic movie Snakes on a Plane, has been repeated ad nauseam in recent times by travellers at Brisbane Airport with the arrival of new signs warning patrons that “snakes have been sighted in this area”.

Samuel L. Jackson in a scene from Snakes on a Plane. Picture: New Line Pictures

Signs warning of the presence of slippery serpents slithering around the precinct have been in place at the airport for years, but posters put up in August in a bright shade of red are attracting more attention.

The signs are scattered across the airport’s sprawling footprint, including one near the car park outside the international terminal arrivals hall.

It’s an early reminder for international visitors that they are arriving in a land full of potentially lethal native critters – almost as soon as they step off the plane.

One of the signs at Brisbane Airport warning of snakes in the area. Picture: Reddit

Since the signs were put in place there have been several posts on social media.

“C’mon, Australia. Give the tourists a few hours at least before you try to kill them,” one user commented on Reddit.

Another wrote: “How you know you’ve really landed in Australia.”

But another user said: “It’s Brisbane.You could reasonably have this sign on most streets.”

Months later and the signs are still causing fear among tourists.

A group of European backpackers posed for photos with the signs on Wednesday night before nervously checking the trees and gardens as they made their way through the car park.

Over the years there have been several social media posts of snakes found in the area, even on the tarmac.

Brisbane Airport Corporation media manager Peter Doherty said the precinct, with 900 hectares of grasslands and a 285-hectate biodiversity zone, meant snakes would occasionally be spotted.

“Brisbane Airport has recently enhanced its signage to alert visitors about the presence of local wildlife,” he said.

“Queensland is home to approximately 120 snake species, and approximately 65 per cent of these are venomous.

“As Brisbane becomes more urbanised, Brisbane Airport’s biodiversity zone will become even more important, and with it, the occasional snake sighting.”

He said signs had been at the airport for decades, but the new, larger red boards had been installed in August ahead of the start of snake season “to create better awareness for the millions of international visitors who exit the terminal each year to visit Queensland”.

He said with World Wetlands Day taking place on Friday, February 2, it was “worth noting

that Brisbane Airport’s tidal flats make up 1 per cent of the tidal flats in Moreton Bay yet support 3.8-7.3 per cent of the estimated migratory birds that visit the Bay”.

“The fact that the wetlands are located at an airport means they are

in a restricted area and so go undisturbed, without the threat of humans or pets,” he said.

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