Mulga (King Brown) bites cause moderate localised effects of swelling, bruising and pain at the bite site. The toxicity of their venom is relatively low but they make up for it by delivering it in huge quantity. A glancing puncture from such a snake is very unlikely to cause death. Browns on the other hand do not cause significant local effects at the bite site and the toxicity of their venom is a major factor why they are they are responsible the majority of deaths due to snakebite in Australia - one to two deaths per year, on average. Could have saved myself the effort of the foregoing as it actually states in the article: “Testing later revealed Karl had been bitten by a western brown.”
The guy’s Dad said he was surprised – I am uncertain as to whether that refers to his son picking it up or his son thinking it was a python. His Dad went on to say: "He's actually quite knowledgeable (about snakes)... "I've had it relayed to me ... one of the kids had, in fact, picked it up and he took it off him."
Having witnessed first hand the effects of a Brown envenomation, I think the ambos did well to get any coherent information out of the guy. It is a bit hard to know what happened. Small browns are more often confused with Common Tree Snakes than pythons. Whatever, it sounds like he has taken from a kid and been bitten without knowing. Irrespective, you would have to query just how truly knowledgeable he really was. Perhaps a very sad case of “a little knowledge is dangerous”.
Blue