my first bite happened a long time before i got into snakes... i was working at a place called carnarvon gorge which was a nature resort in central queensland. i had driven back to the staff living area after being out pig hunting with with some of the locals guys. I was wearing shorts and hiking boots at the time and had taken 2 steps out of the car when I stood on a "bandi bandi". It latched onto my leg and bit down hard. My first reaction was to grab him and rip him off my leg. Poor litte guy must have lost both of his teeth (as they were later removed from my leg by a nurse at the local hospital). I then remembered someone telling me to catch a snake after its bitten you so they can be identified and an appropriate anti-venom can be given. So next a comical scene of me chasing about this poor little terrified snake ensued until i finally caught him, put him in a pillow case, jumped in to a car and headed to hospital. We were in remote central queensland and the closest hospital was in Emerald, about 2 hours away. The whole time I was freaking out, waiting for the pain, or death to set in. We arrived at the hospital at about 1am, the local snake expert was summoned (from his sleep most likely) and was there within 5 minutes. He carefully looked inside the bag smiled and pulled out the little snake. He seemed more concerned for the snake than me, and after smiling and handling the snake for a few seconds he assured me bandi bandis are only very mildy venomous and not dangerous to humans. He then joked that I was lucky to have even seen one let alone be bitten by one as they are extremely rare and hard to spot. I reckon he was excited to have one to add to his collection at home (just quietly). And that was my first snake bite - from an elapid too, luckily not one of the deadly ones!
