‘Busiest season yet’: southside snake catcher has twice as many Eastern browns this year
A top snake handler reckons this could be his busiest season yet after catching twice as many Eastern Browns as last year. See his top suburbs for snakes on the southside. LIST
Logan
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A top southside snake handler reckons this could be his busiest season yet and has listed his top 10 Logan snake suburbs.
Logan’s answer to Steve Irwin, Glenn Ozzie Lawrence, said already this season his workload had doubled after attending a record-breaking 120 call-outs since August.
TOP SNAKE SUBURBS ACROSS SOUTHEAST QLD
NORTHSIDE | REDLANDS | SOUTHSIDE | WESTSIDE
Top of his list were rural suburbs of Beaudesert, Jimboomba, Logan Village and New Beith.
But close behind were the newly emerging suburbs of Greenbank, Cedarvale, Veresdale Scrub and Tamborine.
Established suburbs of Beenleigh and Ipswich’s Forest Lake rounded up the list.
Ozzie, a finalist in Logan City Council's Volunteer of the Year awards, said extra rain this year had meant more snakes on the move.
“I couldn’t honestly put a total on it but easily an extra two Eastern browns a day, compared to last year,” he said.
“In saying that though, right now, it’s slowed down a bit from the intense start of the season when it was significantly warmer.”
And the season has not been without its ssssurprises.
After a recent call-out for a common tree snake, Ozzie was ready to leave when he found a hitchhiker — a 2.5m coastal carpet python enjoying some sun dangling out of the driver’s window.
“I’m not a chauffeur so I had to leave him behind,” he said.
“He was massive but I had the car keys and told him he had to find his own way home.”
This month, a friend’s backyard shed at Loganlea turned into a python pit.
“I had a call out to a friend’s property to relocate two large coastal carpet pythons,” he said.
“We were ready to leave when, in the corner of my eye, a third and even larger snake was spotted — and this was all in the one garden shed.”
Last month, Ozzie helped 3 metre python Daisy to cross busy Springwood Rd escape police custody and had nearly become an unwitting chauffeur to two sunbathing python beauties.
DAISY PYTHON ESCAPES POLICE CUSTODY
Brisbane Snake Catchers director Bryan Robinson said if you live near a creek, expect snakes, though most snakes they caught were harmless carpet pythons so there was no need to be alarmed.
Mr Robinson nominated Algester, Carindale, Holland Park and Parkinson as the busiest suburbs in the inner south and inner eastside for relocations.
Surprisingly, Tarragindi was well down the list despite being next to Toohey Forest.
“Riparian (creekside) areas are a much more suitable environment than bushland, so you will see a lot more snakes in houses in those areas,’’ he said.
“Trees are great for birds but snakes need thick cover, lots of dense shrubbery or places like house roofs and wall cavities.
“There’s also more food for snakes where there are houses — rats and possums attracted to garden plants like azaleas, vegetable gardens and fruit trees.’’
Mr Robinson said this year had been busier than 2019, a drought year, but not significantly so.
TOP SNAKE SUBURBS ON THE SOUTHSIDE
Algester
Beaudesert
Beenleigh
Carindale
Cedarvale
Forest Lake
Greenbank
Holland Park
Jimboomba
Logan Village
New Beith
Parkinson
Tamborine
Veresdale Scrub
TOP SNAKE SUBURBS ACROSS SOUTHEAST QLD