By Kerry Larsen

A three metre amethyst python gave two local men and their kids a fright on Saturday night after they nearly ran over it as it lay on a Port Douglas road.

Darren Wall, coach of the Port Douglas Crocs reserves side, was driving down Langley Road at 8.30pm when he discovered the mammoth serpent.

“I actually thought it was a stick when I drove past it,” Darren said. “I said to the bloke next to me ‘Was that a snake?’ and we thought we had better turn around and have a look.

“It had its head up in the air, just lying across the road, absorbing the warmth.”

As Mr Wall’s boys quickly grabbed their iPhone to take a photo, the largely nocturnal, non-venomous snake gave Mr Wall a reminder who was boss.

“I told to my boys not to be scared. But when I touched it on the tail, its head spun around and I started running,” he laughed.

After initial concern about the snake living close to a neighbourhood childcare centre, a nearby creek running between the rear of the Oaks Lagoons resort and Andrews Close suggests a more appropriate habitat.

The Oaks Lagoons site was, until about six years ago, native landscape with dense melaleucas and ground scrub ideal for housing slithering critters.
 
Sun Palm Transport director, Alan Hamilton, who lives next to the Langley Road creek, said he had seen the snake in the creek on numerous occasions and had gone to the lengths of installing fine, snake-proof mesh along his fence line.

“Not that it would keep it out, it would get into the property if it wanted,” he said.

“I have actually seen two pademelons (small marsupials similar to wallabies) on my front lawn recently. They’re probably coming in for some green grass to eat, it’s been pretty dry lately.

“But if they’ve seen that snake, I’m sure they’ve made a quick exit.”

The diet of the amethyst python, or Morelia amethistina, generally consists of birds, fruit bats, rats, possums, and other small animals.

Larger specimens are known to catch and eat wallabies, waiting by creeks and river banks for prey.