A two-metre Eastern brown snake, dubbed the largest of its kind in the world, has found a new home at the Australian Reptile Park after being caught in a suburban backyard.
And there is a fair chance more snakes of a similar size are currently lurking in long grass on the east coast.
The snake, dubbed 'Gigantor', is 50 centimetres longer than an average Eastern brown snake and is almost three times heavier coming in at two kilograms.
He has been helping the Reptile Park's life saving anti-venom program with great success so far, providing 30 milligrams of venom per milking as opposed to the average amount of 11 to 12 milligrams.
Around 3000 people are bitten by snakes in Australia each year and the most common bites are from brown (76 per cent), tiger (18 per cent) and black (6 per cent) snakes.
Eastern brown snakes are the second deadliest in the country after the Inland Taipan and are quite common in Sydney and the Central Coast
Curator at the Australia Reptile Park Liz Gabriel said Gigantor was definitely one of the biggest snakes she had seen and estimated he was over three years of age when he was found in a Brisbane backyard.
"He's just huge to tell you the truth," Ms Gabriel said. "We measured him and milked him to see what the venom output yield was from him and it was astounding.
"Even though he's a big snake and representative of the dangerous snakes that people see out and about, he's also a snake that will save lives in the coming years. The anti-venom here saves about 300 lives a year."
The venom is extracted from three-millimetre fangs which contain potent neurotoxins that cause paralysis and incoagulable blood. From there, the venom is given to a company which produces snake anti-venom.
Ms Gabriel said Gigantor was fairly relaxed when he was milked on Wednesday morning.
"Eastern brown snakes are quite a nervous species as a whole and he certainly portrayed that defensive nature," she said.
"For a big animal of his size and one that has come out of the wild, he wasn't too bad."
