Hi,
I mightn't live in Qld or be all that that familiar with their licensing system but do have quite a bit of experience with captive vens.
I live in NSW and have held a R4 reptile keepers license (that allows me to keep all species of Australian snakes including highly venomous species) for just on 30 years. Elapids aren't that hard to keep. In fact some are even easier to maintain than pythons. The primary concern is safety and not just for the keeper but house hold members, neighbours and visitors. So it's a case of respect for the critter, knowledge of each individual species husbandry requirements, no showing off or free handling, locked cages, locked room, knowledge of snake bite first aid and elastic bandages on hand in case of a mishap. Over this time I've kept everything from Tais and Death Adders to what I currently hold in the way of Red Bellied Blacks, Tigers and Colletts.
Just like Sdaji, when I first started my adventure with herps it was a situation where we were self taught and I actually cut my teeth with reptiles catching wild vens as a kid back in the 1960s. Back then we'd spend our weekends and school holidays either riding our bikes or catching trains to comb local bush haunts, cemeteries and national parks in search of snakes as well as other reptiles. Couldn't count the number of Red Bellied Blacks, Eastern Browns, Tigers, Broad Headed Snakes, Yellow Faced Whips, Small Eyes, Swamp (Marsh) Snakes, Golden Crowns and Mustard Bellied Snakes (aka Rhodogasters and more recently Blue Mountains Crowned Snake) I caught back then. But I can tell you that there were days spent down south of Nowra with like minded mates when we would regularly turn up over 100 Whips and a similar number of Small Eyes plus a couple of dozen Broad Heads and Rhodogasters in a single day. There were no licensing or restrictions in place back then but we pretty much practiced catch and release with only the odd specimen taken to add to our collections or to swap with others.
In fact the first snake I caught was a Red Bellied Black at Earlwood NSW followed by a juvenile Eastern Brown at George's River National Park just south of Revesby NSW. All before I was 12 years old.
Like Sdaji, I'm not for these 2 day snake courses to learn how to handle vens, In fact I believe they are pretty useless and as Sdaji alludes can provide a sense of false confidence for the good intentioned but inexperienced punter. I was one of the original "snake Catchers/relocators" in NSW way back in the 1970's when the service was undertaken on a voluntary basis at the request of NSW NPWS. My wife was actually one of WIRES original snake handling trainers and the number of people who did the course, went out thinking they were a snake handler/catcher to engage a hot Brown to only quickly find out that it was not as easy as it appeared at training and many actually gave the game away soon after. Mind you it was different when WIRES introduced snake handling courses back then in the 1990's. It wasn't like it is today with all these facebook show ponies that know nothing about snake ecology, bio-dynamics or carrying capacities ply their trade. Even back in the 1990's it was a voluntary service undertaken as a community service. I still do it as a community service these days but only on vary rare occasion when someone in the community is stuck in a situation where there is potential danger to the person or persons and/or the snake. From personal knowledge and experience I am able to successfully diffuse 99% of requests for assistance over the phone. My most recent removal was only a few weeks back where I removed a highly strung Stephen's Banded Snake from inside a house in Thora near where I live in Bellingen on the NSW mid north coast.
So I'd suggest that if you are keen to keep vens and before wasting money on a snake handling course you might like to consider aligning yourself with an experienced keeper, joining a herp society or try to volunteer at a wildlife sanctuary or zoo where you'll get to meet not only keepers but also very experienced field workers who can give you tips and point you in the right direction.
Cheer,
George.