Tony Harrison catches eastern brown snakes on Gold Coast

One of Australia’s most venomous snakes has been spotted across the Gold Coast multiple times in the past 48 hours as the weather — and snake season — begins to heat up.

WHEN it comes to the beginning of the snake season, the Gold Coast is just warming up.

Two days into the new year and Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher’s Tony Harrison has already picked up seven snakes from local properties.

A number of cases include the capture of eastern brown snakes, one of the most venomous creatures in Australia.

Eastern brown snake found at Main Beach on January 2, 2019. Picture: Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catchers

One eastern brown identified at Hope Island yesterday died from its wounds after a cat caught it, while Mr Harrison picked up two of the same species within minutes of each other at Main Beach today.

“I caught them about midday, within about 100m of each other,” he said.

The dead eastern brown snake found at Hope Island on January 1, 2019. Picture: Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catchers

“They’re up and down Main Beach, I’ve caught in excess over 1000 snakes here over the past 20 years.”

He said the bushland close to the Spit would be good breeding grounds.

One of the snakes was about half a metre long while the other was up to a metre long.

Mr Harrison said it was getting close to their busiest months of the year — end January to March.

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Second eastern brown snake found at Main Beach. Picture: Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catchers

“That’s when all the baby snakes are starting to hatch,” he said.

He reminded residents to call a snake catcher when a snake was spotted and not to rely on colours when identifying snakes.

He said people should grab a picture of the snake from a safe distance and send it to a snake catcher for correct identification.