# Nsw Licensing For Elapids



## Varanoidea (Mar 23, 2017)

Hey guys,

Actually haven't posted here in so long! I took a bit of a dip in reptiles but I'm back keener than ever. Nice to see this forum is still relatively active. I've never really looked into NSW reptile licensing past R1 until now and I've emailed Parks & Wildlife with my queries but they usually take a fairly long time to reply so I thought I'd post my email here and maybe someone can give me a little information. NOTE I DO NOT PLAN ON KEEPING ELAPIDS ANY TIME SOON. Just wanted to get my head around our states licensing in general.

Hi,

Got some confusions I'd like to clear up in regards to the licensing requirements of keeping elapids in our state.

It is my understanding that to hold species in a higher category, you must have held the same type of animal in a lower category of license.

Now, there are two sections on your website that explain this; however, one section states you must have held a 'basic snake to hold an advanced snake'. This would mean after holding an Class 2 python for one year, I could apply to go up to an Class 2 Category 1 elapid (for example a red-belly black snake) assuming I meet all the other criteria. Basically, I have to hold every level of license before I can move up, which implies it is all one single 'ladder'.

However, the actually Class 2 application states I can only keep higher classes of animals from the same taxonomic groups. Does this mean I must have held Class 1 and Class 2 elapids before I can progress to Class 2 Category 1? Alternatively, is Class 2 Category 1 it's own 'starting point' in that I can apply for it assuming I have held any reptile for a minimum of two years under either Class 1 or 2 and meet other criteria. This would mean I do not have to hold a Class 2 animal for me to apply for Class 2 Category 1. This would imply that Class 2 Categories are their own seperate 'ladder'.

Hope this email all makes sense, I tried my best to structure what I'm trying to understand. Any clarity you can give me would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Jess Lyons


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## saximus (Mar 23, 2017)

I'll try to answer from my own experience with the system (I have R4 so have successfully managed to get through this process three times).

Before applying for R3, the only snakes I owned were pythons - no R1 or R2 elapids. So in my R3 application, all I said was "I have over two years experience in the care and handling of class 1 animals."

The same type of animal thing is only going from R1 to R2. Since R3 and above only contains snakes anyway, it simply refers to "experience in the care and handling of reptiles in a lower category". 

Hope that helps a bit. Note, the last time I upgraded was 2013 but the application doesn't look like it's changed at all.


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## Operation-Goanna (Mar 23, 2017)

And I fought the Vic licencing was hard to get used to..


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## Smittiferous (Mar 24, 2017)

Not sure if sarcasm?


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## eipper (Apr 3, 2017)

As I understand it you need to hold a licence prior to getting your tier 1 elapid, you need to hold it for 12 months before moving to the next level


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## Varanoidea (Apr 4, 2017)

saximus said:


> I'll try to answer from my own experience with the system (I have R4 so have successfully managed to get through this process three times).
> 
> Before applying for R3, the only snakes I owned were pythons - no R1 or R2 elapids. So in my R3 application, all I said was "I have over two years experience in the care and handling of class 1 animals."
> 
> ...



Got this reply from the gov today:

Advanced Category 1 (R3), Advanced Category 2 (R4) and Advanced Category 3 (R5) are all for elapidae so you would need to have kept snakes on the previous licences and held each category of elapidae from R2 for one year prior to applying for the next category.



So you would need to have held snakes on Class 1 for two years, then each category for one year to upgrade to the top.


So they are implying the opposite in that I have to have to have kept things like golden crowns which I think is ridiculous...


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