Grey nomads setting off on a bushwalk in remote country are generally keenly aware of the potential dangers … heatstroke, taking a fall, twisting an ankle, rockslides … but probably top of most people’s phobia lists is being bitten by a venomous snake.
And that fear is probably not going to be eased by the news that a young woman had an incredibly lucky escape after being bitten by a western brown snake while on a hike in WA’s Karijini National Park a week ago.
Megan Brouwer was walking with her husband and five-year-old son in Knox Gorge when her husband yelled: ‘snake!’
“I just knew in the way that he yelled it that it was either on me or very close to me,” Megan told the ABC. “So, I jumped around frantically for a moment then saw it in the corner of my eye, slithering away … it was about a metre long brown snake, which I’ve since learned was a gwardar brown snake.”
The gwardar, or western brown snake, is among the most venomous snakes in Australia.
Ms Brouwer said she, her husband, and an off-duty doctor who was walking in the gorge at the same time, checked her legs and found fresh blood and a puncture wound.
The rescuers had to carry Megan Brouwer across some treacherous terrain. PIC; DFES / ABC
“The off-duty doctor had a pressure bandage and applied that for me,” she told the ABC. “She also had a satellite phone in hand … but unfortunately it wasn’t connecting, we were so far in the gorge … so she then ran to the top of the gorge — which took her about an hour or so.”
It took Karijini rangers, local police, State Emergency Service, and St John Ambulance volunteers, as well as passers-by helping the rescue effort, seven hours to bring Ms Brouwer and her family to safety at the nearest hospital in Tom Price.
The ABC reports she was then flown by Royal Flying Doctor Service to Port Hedland.
“It was like something I’d never experienced before,” Ms Brouwer said. “It was quite surreal being floated through the water holes, being carried and hearing the commands they say to one another in their procedures.”
Knox Gorge is a two-kilometre class-5 hike, and the path itself gets quite narrow at the edge of the cliff, so manoeuvring a stretcher around trees and up the cliff face was pretty challenging.
Fortunately, it transpired that Ms Brouwer had received a ‘dry bite’ so was not envenomated by the attack.
“I was also thankful to the snake for giving me a dry bite,” she said. “I’ve since learned that if he had got me a second time maybe that would’ve been a poisonous bite, but I’m all good … I know a lot more about snakes and I know how best to be prepared when you’re hiking in very remote parts.”
Ms Brouwer recommends that bushwalkers always have a first-aid kit on hand in their hiking pack, including a pressure bandage for snake bites, and she said they should keep their first-aid training up to date.
My husband was bitten by a tiger snake on the Barwon river Geelong 2010?, After realising he had been bitten, he was rushed by car to the hospital , effects severe headache, extremely painful abdominal pain, nausea, and excruciating back pain. He was administered antivenom sent to ICU. After effects double vision for an hour. Then lost taste for a week, ( emalgamite taste in his mouth). Fortunate he was so close to hospital or it may have been fatal
My wife & I have been traveling all over Australia doing wildlife photography for decades, we walk endless kilometers through the bush with our cameras.
We wear bush walking boots & gators most of the time.
We encounter snakes on a regular basis.
Red-bellied Blacks, Tigers, Copperheads & Browns etc. of all sizes.
Respect them, admire them & leave them alone to do their own thing.
A word of advice, never walk around at night bare footed, many snakes are nocturnal hunters.
As long as they also leave me alone to do my own thing they will survive 🙂
why have they got a mule for carrying the stretcher
Two things she did wrong, Jumping around may have caused the snake to bite as it would then have frightened then she ran to the top of the gorge bad thing to do with venom in you the Husband should have done the running and she should have stayed where she was till help arrived!
That’s not how the story reads. I read it as the Doctor had the sat phone and ran to get where she could call, otherwise why would the rescuer’s have to go into the gorge to retrieve the victim when she was already up the top?
I too read it incorrectly first. On re-reading the article I found my mistake – it reads the woman, her husband, AND an off-duty doctor who was walking in the gorge at the same time. The off duty Dr, a female then ran to the top of the gorge.
The title to this article is highly incorrect and typical media scaremongering !
Snakes do NOT simply attack, they DEFEND themselves when threatened, they usually use the dry bite as a 1st line of defence and generally use a venomous bite when they are cornered & seriously threatened, if you see a snake bloody well STAND STILL and let it move away, which it WILL do once it senses that it is not in danger..
Anyone who is going bush walking should educate themselves to the right & wrong way to interact with the wild life they are likely to meet along the way, and EVERY bush walker should have the basic snake bite kit at hand & know how to use it BEFORE they even consider leaving the carpark, if you don’t you’re a bloody idiot.
If you see a snake stand still and let it go about it’s way, if you jump about and carry on like a panicked chimp you will only startle it even more and yes it WILL think it’s in danger and likely get defensive & may strike.
I live in the bush out of Nimbin NSW, lots of snakes, browns blacks rough scales tigers plus diamond pythons and brown tree snakes, also called the night tiger. I have never been bitten, but I have come close a few times. I have learned not to move rapidly, but to back away slowly, most snakes want to escape as much as you do. Brown snakes and rough scale snakes, which hunt at night can be very aggressive especially in spring. A python about the house is good, it scares off the venomous snakes. Always wear boots, and preferably jeans. And always look where you are walking, most people get bitten because they step on the snake.