Shock as eight foot snake skin found on Granville woman’s veranda

A miniature foxy alerted his 90-year-old owner to signs of an unwanted visitor after a huge reptile’s creepy calling card was mistaken for a leftover Christmas decoration. PHOTOS.

A snakeskin found hanging from the lattice of a verandah at a Granville home.

An elderly woman is on high alert after an eight-foot-long snakeskin was found hanging from the roof of the veranda of her Granville home.

Colleen Austin, 90, said her dog, a miniature foxy named Beau, had previously alerted her to the presence of snakes on her veranda, but this time it was the sight of the snakeskin that set him off.

In the past she’d called out snake catchers to remove the unwanted reptiles, Mrs Austin said, while others had just left of their own accord.

This time, the sheer size of the snakeskin shocked her.

At first she thought it was a festive streamer left over from Christmas, but when she looked closer, she saw the scale marks.

A snakeskin found hanging from the lattice of a veranda at a Granville home.

A snakeskin found hanging from the lattice of a veranda at a Granville home.

When her son-in-law came to have a look at it, he held it up beside him, revealing the length.

“He’s a very tall man at six feet,” she said.

“When he hung it beside him, it was a good two feet taller than him.”

Mrs Austin has an area on her veranda which is full of plants.

She wants someone to have a good look around that area to make sure there are no new reptile residents living there.

The skin has since been identified as belonging to a coastal python, which can grow up to four metres in length.

Coastal pythons are not venomous and have no fangs, however do have small, sharp teeth.

Last year, Fraser Coast snakecatcher Drew Godfrey told the Chronicle no two days were the same in his line of work.

Colleen Austin with her dog Beau.

Originally from The Central Coast in New South Wales, Mr Godfrey moved to the Fraser Coast seven years ago for a “change of pace”.

But when he arrived he quickly realised some residents were shooting snakes or “smacking them with shovels” when found on properties.

Mr Godfrey wanted to do something about it, so using his skills he picked up from his environmental studies he started voluntarily relocating snakes before turning it into a business.

“Snakes are more scared of us, than we are of them,” Mr Godfrey said.

His advice to anybody who sees one in their house is to “leave them alone” and let the professionals look after them.

Originally published as Shock as eight foot snake skin found on Granville woman’s veranda