# Snake handlers in demand on mine sites



## Fuscus (Nov 25, 2011)

Snake handlers in demand on mine sites | Australian Mining


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## Digitaliss (Nov 25, 2011)

Its good see they are teaching them how to deal with the snakes rather than telling them to kill them


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## timske (Nov 26, 2011)

if only the mines give me that job ive been applying for .. it would be so much easier lol


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## Bandit05 (Nov 26, 2011)

My bf works in the Pilbara, since Ive got back into keeping snakes he keeps a watch out for them, the other day he locked up the truck for a 7ft Olive Python crossing the road nearly sending the crew through the windscreen ( normally they run over them but he is changing their views on snakes ). A worker got bit in camp at night by a Taipan a few weeks back, nobody knew what to do with it except kill it.


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## junglepython2 (Nov 26, 2011)

Bitten by a tai in the pilb? Unlucky.


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## PilbaraPythons (Nov 26, 2011)

You mean unlikely, considering they don't occur here


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## Echiopsis (Nov 26, 2011)

Bandit05 said:


> My bf works in the Pilbara, since Ive got back into keeping snakes he keeps a watch out for them, the other day he locked up the truck for a 7ft Olive Python crossing the road nearly sending the crew through the windscreen ( normally they run over them but he is changing their views on snakes ). A worker got bit in camp at night by a Taipan a few weeks back, nobody knew what to do with it except kill it.



You relocate it like any other snake found on site. All the sites ive worked on have had atleast one person trained to remove them and we regularly hear about new courses being run.
No Tais in the Pilbara, talking up the 'deadliness' just makes the big tough miners that scream like little girls when then see a Delma feel better :lol:


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## junglepython2 (Nov 26, 2011)

PilbaraPythons said:


> You mean unlikely, considering they don't occur here



That's what I was getting at.


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## chilli-mudcrab (Nov 26, 2011)

A good friend of mine Rob Spivey is the town snake catcher at a mine in remote N.T where I used to work. Being on the same shift and neighbor's I was involved in quite a few incidents over the years. Our boss, Rio Tinto had no drama with him leaving work to attend calls. Mainly saw olives,waters , and childrens with an occasional death adder


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## Bandit05 (Nov 26, 2011)

Well I did say I thought they were only in Qld but thats what he was told but as usual on this site I should have kept my comments to myself, as your all experts on what goes on in mining sites too I will leave you to it...



Why do I waste my time


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## Darlyn (Nov 26, 2011)

Bandit05 said:


> Well I did say I thought they were only in Qld but thats what he was told but as usual on this site I should have kept my comments to myself, as your all experts on what goes on in mining sites too I will leave you to it...
> 
> 
> 
> Why do I waste my time




Hey bandit you're just relaying the story. I must admit I thought they didn't occur in the Pilbara, but wasn't totally sure. Pretty sure Echio is right, blokes talking up a terrifying snake experience.


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## chilli-mudcrab (Nov 26, 2011)

like the calls to a deadly brown snake which always ended up as olives


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## Bandit05 (Nov 26, 2011)

All I know is he was told it was a western taipan and the guy was lucky to be alive, I will leave it to the EXPERTS on here to make it up as they wish


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## Elapidae1 (Nov 26, 2011)

Lol


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## junglepython2 (Nov 26, 2011)

chilli-mudcrab said:


> like the calls to a deadly brown snake which always ended up as olives



Or all the king browns around melbourne


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## chilli-mudcrab (Nov 26, 2011)

a bit random but I love it when you show someone a python and tell them its a python and they ask if its poisonous ***


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## Bandit05 (Nov 26, 2011)

Sorry it was a western desert or central ranges taipan, I just asked him


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## Pike01 (Nov 26, 2011)

Still nowhere near the Pilbara.


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## hazza88 (Nov 27, 2011)

i work on the mines in the Pilbra and catch snakes part of working in Emergency response and if you get caught killing a snake you get kicked of site and would never work for them again due to them being protected under the mines environmental policy


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## Echiopsis (Nov 27, 2011)

Bandit05 said:


> Sorry it was a western desert or central ranges taipan, I just asked him




Errr no. You dont have to be an expert to read a field guide either, give it a crack, youll save yourself some frustration in future :lol: Try Western Brown on for size, Pseudonaja mengdeni.


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## $NaKe PiMp (Nov 27, 2011)

Bandit05 said:


> Sorry it was a western desert or central ranges taipan, I just asked him



um doesnt take an expert to realize that is one piece of very false information,sorry


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## Elapidae1 (Nov 27, 2011)

It's amazing how this misinformation spreads as well, I recently had someone tell me that Dugites were the most common snake on mine sites in WA's north, I corrected the person only to be told that the local Ranger had said this, whether he did or not doesn't matter it still lends weight to the story and makes it believable, so next time a Western Brown, Mulga, Olive etc is seen by a group of people it only takes one person with supposed knowledge to remark that it's a dugite and the myth is perpetuated 10 fold.
A similar thing happened down south last year where we were called to a site to remove a Dugite only to be told by a number of people that they were probably copperheads, Someone had started the myth and it had obviously been retold a number of times.


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## PilbaraPythons (Nov 27, 2011)

If you can't handle learning a few new things from experienced people here, then run away and bawl somewhere else bandit.
There are indeed plently of experts on here, after all this is a reptile site.


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## Bandit05 (Nov 27, 2011)

You dont have the BALLS to make me bawl little man


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## PilbaraPythons (Nov 27, 2011)

Yes , they are indeed smaller than your gullibility


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## Echiopsis (Nov 27, 2011)

Interesting signature Bandit, the irony is almost painful.


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## camspeed (Nov 27, 2011)

Pretty sure nearly everyone I've met has claimed to have seen a taipan in their backyard. Or if it's a big brown, it's a king brown lol


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## junglepython2 (Nov 27, 2011)

PilbaraPythons said:


> Yes , they are indeed smaller than your gullibility



Bahahahhahahaha!


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## Enlil (Nov 30, 2011)

I just wonder about the distribution of many species, whether they occure here and there. This is because of the lack of research on reptile studies, and as to what species actually occure in remote localities.


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## Poggle (Nov 30, 2011)

Bandit05 said:


> You dont have the BALLS to make me bawl little man


this


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## Poggle (Nov 30, 2011)

PilbaraPythons said:


> If you can't handle learning a few new things from experienced people here, then run away and bawl somewhere else bandit.
> There are indeed plently of experts on here, after all this is a reptile site.



nor this


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## Poggle (Nov 30, 2011)

Is really appropriate or on line with what the thread was intentially discussing. These petty fueds are getting lame on here. Mods you guys seem to cut some crap from forums yet allow other threads to continue... Y is this ?


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## Snowman (Nov 30, 2011)

Unlike a lot of people on this forum, pilbara pythons isn't an arm chair herpetologist. He's clearly spent more time in the field and his back yard the pilbara than most. It's important to have wrong information corrected to stop the myths and ridiculous stories that people like bandit spread.


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## Poggle (Nov 30, 2011)

Snowman said:


> Unlike a lot of people on this forum, pilbara pythons isn't an arm chair herpetologist. He's clearly spent more time in the field and his back yard the pilbara than most. It's important to have wrong information corrected to stop the myths and ridiculous stories that people like bandit spread.



I completely agree... i think for the area he is apart of he certainly knows his stuff... what i am more getting at is that alot of threads recently are going no where FAST... starts off as normal thread and then a disagreement and then backand forth and back and forth.


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## noni (Nov 30, 2011)

has anyone noticed the comment thats just appeared at the bottom of the article... Snake handlers in demand on mine sites | Australian Mining


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## Sunny (Nov 30, 2011)

this guy came off a mine site


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## Snowman (Nov 30, 2011)

Poggle said:


> I completely agree... i think for the area he is apart of he certainly knows his stuff... what i am more getting at is that alot of threads recently are going no where FAST... starts off as normal thread and then a disagreement and then backand forth and back and forth.



Yeah I see your point. I think Bandit should have just accepted that the story she was told was false or contained false information. I don't know Pilbara Pythons. But I have seen him on Dvd's and his name referenced on a number of occasions. He knows his stuff, and I asume Bandit didn't realise she was talking with an expert. However even I (just a hobby keeper) know that taipans dont occur in the Pilbara. I've spent a lot of time up there myself too working on gas plants and iron ore mine sites. I find the problem is most often that people don't like to be told their wrong (despite the facts showing that there are no taipans in the Pilbara for example). It seems to be a knock to their pride or ego. Really she should have just accepted that she was given bad information from people who don't know a king brown from a stimson python... We do have taipans in WA. Just not up there. 

BANDIT05: perhaps get your bf this cheap book for Christmas. Field Guide to Snakes of the Pilbara, Western Australia, Brian Bush and Brad Maryan, 9781920843670


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## Echiopsis (Nov 30, 2011)

noni said:


> has anyone noticed the comment thats just appeared at the bottom of the article... Snake handlers in demand on mine sites | Australian Mining



Hilarious, more like internationally recognised joke. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story though eh? :lol:


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## varanid_mike (Nov 30, 2011)

Echiopsis said:


> Hilarious, more like internationally recognised joke. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story though eh? :lol:



Ha ha. Appropriate that his mark is at the bottom, much like a skid mark would be and made of much the same material. "The skid mark of Australian herpetology"


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## Elapidae1 (Nov 30, 2011)

Sunny said:


> this guy came off a mine siteView attachment 228387



Western Brown

LOL, I seriously doubt Peter Smiths relocation courses would be given the ok in WA.


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## the_tzr (Nov 30, 2011)

The rules at our mine site is - if any reptile is spoted it needs to be reported straight away. email gets sent out to everyone at site so they know not to go near it. then we have a local guy who comes in and removes it to another place off site . At our open pit we have had a fair few snake coming out now its heating up but is alot harder to control when you have 60t mine trucks flying around. if one does get killed it gets moved away by the snake handler and then reported to DSE aswell. If any animal gets killed or injured on site, or even off site on the roads to the mine it has to be reported to DSE. this is part of what out environment guys have to do with all there other things eg dust, noise checks etc 

Just thought ill let you know what our site HAS to do 

Chris


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## Fuscus (Dec 1, 2011)

noni said:


> has anyone noticed the comment thats just appeared at the bottom of the article... Snake handlers in demand on mine sites | Australian Mining


He has taken to spamming reptile news stories using trolls who sing his praises loud and long. We should be thankful that the story didn't include where the sun shines from. I try and counter by stating his past acts hardly scream "safety" but they rarely get published. In fairness to the papers I assume that most of his spamming efforts don't get published either.


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## Sunny (Dec 1, 2011)

Elapidae1 said:


> Western Brown
> 
> LOL, I seriously doubt Peter Smiths relocation courses would be given the ok in WA.



strap snouted brown (pseudonaja aspidhorinchya) hard to tell from photo


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