HAZARDS OF THE BUSH -

George Clifton was working at Alverstoke reaping grain when he was bitten by a black snake with a red belly (said to be very deadly by the local Aborigines). The snake had wrapped three coils around his forearm and as he tried to remove it, it bit him. He rushed to the house and sprinkled gun powder over the bite site and then ignited it. After doing this three times he hurriedly rode off to Australind to seek medical care.

On arrival the the wound was cauterised and laudanum and ammonia was applied. Even though the treatment sounds almost worse than the original bite, George apparently suffered no lasting ill effects.

Note: It is unlikely that George was bitten by a red bellied black snake as their range is not know to extend to south west W.A. Red bellied black snakes are venemous and can cause people to become ill but at the time of writing, no fatalities have been recorded.

Snakes can sometimes bite and not inject much venom, it usually depends on how threated they feel or if they are hunting.

GET YOUR OWN COPY -

If you would like to get a PDF copy of the stories on this website that you can read offline or even print out and turn into your own hard copy book, you can order through PayPal at the link below. All sales of this book help us to gather more information and stories for this site and our main website. It is only $3.99 AUD!