“I was born in East London which is a city in South Africa. I spent most of my childhood in Port Elizabeth and then most of my adulthood in Knysna which is a beautiful little town on the Western Cape in South Africa. I left Knysna with my 3 children in 2011. I was a single Mum and I had Australian citizenship through descent as my Mum was born in Australia. I didn’t have to emigrate, I just applied for citizenship which was granted and I’ve been here ever since.
I moved straight to Lismore because my brother lived here with his family. He has a business here and his partner works here in Audiology. When I came here it was really scary at first because I had trouble communicating. I couldn’t find a job because I was terribly shy and I found it hard to speak up. I felt like I didn’t have anything to offer. I moved straight to a house in South Lismore where I stayed for 2 years until a flood made us relocate up to Goonellabah. My kids went to Bexhill Primary School and then on to Kadina High. They didn’t finish school but they all went into careers and I’m very proud of them. They are all doing very well. I have my son Tai and 2 daughters, Ruby and Lily.
I ended up getting some career advice at Tafe and started doing Community Services with them to gain work which I did. I joined WIRES along the way because I found the wildlife here extremely fascinating, coming from SA where the wildlife is shy and reclusive. It was so exciting coming to Australia and seeing Wallabies and Rainbow Lorikeets which are amazing to see for the first time as an adult. Magpies and Currawongs, all these crazy town creatures and I wanted more. I couldn’t believe it when I joined WIRES and I could handle animals as soon as I was registered. Because I lived in Lismore and it’s one of the busiest places for WIRES and also one with the fewest volunteers, I was so busy and I loved it. Wires helped me mentally to actually fit in with like minded people. I felt like I found my tribe. It was the biggest help adjusting from one country to another and I felt there was something for me here. My dog Missy works with me. She’s amazing and she even rescued a Flying Fox for us.
I’ve met the most amazing women, Julie with the birds, Lib with the Bats, Sue with the Wallabies, Leonie with the Echidnas, Jeanette and her Possums, Mel with the birds and Raptors and Katy with the Gliders. All these women are strong mentors and I love them all. Then there’s Don and Renata at Rock Valley, so many amazing wildlife people who have taught me so much. They are still friends.
My specialty is Reptiles. I just love snakes. It’s like they are the underdogs, everyone’s scared of them. When you see that they are just normal animals, a different shape of course and the likelihood of you being hurt by one is so very minimal, because you need to do things to provoke one to be hurt or killed by one. Snakes are simply not as scary as you think they are. I like to show people when I go to their homes, how close I can get to a snake before it does anything. There’s things you can do to help a snake without getting yourself in any danger. It’s all about being calm and evaluating, knowing what the snake is looking at from the snake’s level. There’s always a reason why a snake comes to your property, there’s vegetation, rodents, chickens or water. If you live on a farm like we did there’s hazards everywhere. I love helping snakes and I love a challenge of a snake stuck somewhere, or any animal for that matter. I love rescuing.
After I did my Community Service training I got a job at The House with No Steps, by then I had joined Wires. I worked for 5 years in disability though at the House with No Steps and it was such a lovely job, working with these guys were always so happy to see you. Simon came along after I’d been there for a couple of years. We were friends straight away and started seeing each other. We moved in together at the start of Covid, that was 5 years ago and we’re still together. Simon helps me occasionally with the snake work which can be very handy as he’s 6’4. When Covid happened and all these rules came out, I then started my own business, Safe Snake Services and I became a licensed snake catcher and relocator. I still volunteer for Wires and do snake calls as a Volunteer as much as I ever did but I also do snake relocations and call outs as a private snake relocator so I wear 2 hats.
I would never go to another state where they have Tiger snakes or a snake I’ve never handled, I just know our species really well. Every time I go into a house to find a snake, they are hiding so well. It’s like they don’t want the trouble that will happen if they do get found. Just recently there was a baby Eastern Brown tucked down where the carpet meets the skirting board. It had completely concealed itself for a whole night and half a day until I came and got him out. Brown snakes are my favourite animal and it’s because of their generosity. They know what a bad rap they get, they know how they are hated and they know what a person looks like with a shovel and yet they don’t want to bite us. The amount of time the snake catcher gets brushed by the snakes face, it happens. They make choices not to bite us.
I was relocating a snake and his eyes were opaque which means he is going to shed his skin so he is visually impaired for a time. It’s unfair to relocate a snake who can’t see because he needs to recognise his surroundings. That sort of snake you take into care until he’s finished his shed. I was taking this snake home to put into a venomous snake enclosure and he was so mad that he tried with all his might to get me. He could see through his opaque eyes and hammered the little gap as I was closing the enclosure with such force and speed. I’ve never ever seen a snake with that action and I was so lucky I got it closed. It just proved to me that they are just being nice all the time, they are not even angry when they rear up, they are just giving you a warning. When they are angry they are going to bite you. Don’t stand with a shovel because you don’t want that snake to think of you in a bad way. You want to be friends with that snake, it will think, she’s alright, she protects me when people come around and they say, be careful, there was a snake there, rather than I’m gonna kill it when I see it. You are energetically giving that message and they receive it. They are very astute, it’s their job to survive.
Every snake you are relocating is somebody else’s problem. Even when you take them bush they will go to wherever there’s rats or mice and that’s where there’s people. In a way the snake is telling you there is a rodent infestation in your house and they see it as their job to take out the rats and control the population of rodents. At the same time mother snakes sacrifice their young to Kookaburras and other birds to keep them alive. If we relocate all the snakes there will be a horrible imbalance with some of the bird species that are surviving because of them. You can sometimes find Brown Snakes living in a chicken coop with the chickens in a perfectly agreeable manner. We’ve come across this several times. They are eating the rats and the chickens let them be. They will eat the baby chicks though. All baby animals are attractive to predators.
All animal communicators say, no matter what you do to animals, how much you hurt them, they don’t hold grudges, they don’t dislike you for it, all they want is for you to be ok. If them being here is making you do crazy stuff, like risking your life or getting into trouble, they don’t want anyone to be harmed. It’s so important as well to bond with our dogs and care for them properly because all they want is for us to be happy. They would do anything for us. They are such complex creatures with their emotions and reflecting us in so many ways.
I’ve only been bitten once and that was by a Python who took a chunk out of my arm. It hit a vein so it looked pretty dramatic. It didn’t put me off though. Some times people say. I can’t stand snakes so please take it as far away as you can. This is the Northern Rivers and there are snakes everywhere. If you can get a Brown to relocate itself to the outskirts of your property, that snake will protect your property from other Browns. In suburbia it’s different.
I tell everyone I speak to about snakes to always put a light on outside at night so you can see where you’re walking. A guy in Pearce’s Creek went out to get his glasses out of the car, it was a really hot evening and he stood on a Brown. He got tagged 3 times on the leg and was envenomated. He survived it luckily. 2 weeks later I was getting another snake off his property. Don’t go out in the dark with bare feet, especially in Summer. Snakes know their way around really well. The dangerous ones aren’t the types of snakes who are going to come out of a hiding place to get you. They will hide as far back as they can and only make an exit when they think it’s safe to do so. People who are confronted by snakes is because the snake’s got nowhere else to go or he wants to go behind you. I’ve released a snake from inside a house to outside and I think it should go there because it looks nice for a snake but he kept coming back toward me over an over because his house was behind me and I was blocking the way.
We were called out to an Eastern Brown snake tapping incessantly on a ladies sliding glass door. When she called me she noticed the snake calmed and went away and when she looked there was another Brown snake there who was trapped in a pipe in the side of the wall. It wasn’t mating season and we realised the tapping snake was calling for help for the other snake. (Video in comments) There’s a lot that goes on in a snake’s mind. You should have a healthy fear because they are venomous and they can kill you. They don’t want to be bosom buddies with anybody and they don’t want to be touched.
When a snake appears in your garden, they’ve already sussed you out, they know what you look like. They know what time you go to work and what time you get home. If you go on holiday, who’s looking after your house, your Brown snake. A lot of people comment, I just got back from holiday and there’s a Brown snake in my garden, happens all the time. There’s purpose in snakes being scary. They shake up your day, they make you alter your plans you had that day, they make you phone your daughter or chat to your neighbour, they cause people to connect. When Covid was this big thing, how do you forget all your troubles? Just have a snake come into your house. I wasn’t asked to wear a mask once (laughs).
On the odd occasion snakes will keep coming back to the same place because they like it there, then we take him a bit further away and find him a better place. We have so many beautiful Pythons around and when you see them killed on the road, I reckon that’s irresponsible relocation. No matter how far away you take a snake and release it. They’ll get their bearings and go Right! Home’s that way and whatever is lying between here and there, they will cross it. They can swim, they can climb, so you’re putting them in great danger by relocating them far from their home where they have to cross highways. They are such gentle giants and it’s not their fault we’ve introduced all these animals which is like fast food for them in this built up world we live in. People need to regards them as like Elders in the community and treat them with land rights and respect.
I love Lismore. Every single road you travel on leads you to somewhere beautiful and amazing. I love all the tree canopies. The Northern Rivers is just the best place. People need to be aware of how easy it is to get trees to plant from Friends of Koala. We are supposed to be Koala friendly and people are chopping down trees so we need to plant many more. They grow so fast. They also have a massive range of native trees really cheap. For snake conservation we need to conserve all our wildlife to provide habitat and then everyone can be happy.”