Snake catcher has fond memories of Ky visit

By Eileen Sullivan

Jan 31, 2024

Steady hand: Michael Stein holds a giant carpet python in 2013. Photo by Contributed

In February 1971, Gus Underwood caught up with Michael Stein and his offsider, David Cairns, who were Queenslanders visiting Kyabram and other parts of Australia, partly to catch snakes and partially to work during the fruit seasons. Michael had a contract with the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford, NSW, at the time to catch 3000 tiger snakes.

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Michael Stein — a herpetologist now aged 75 — now lives on a quarter-acre property in Queensland that adjoins declared wetlands rich in ecological diversity. He spends his time doing research studying reptiles and amphibians in the wild and monitors wildlife levels in the area around his home.

He ended professional venom collecting in the late 1970s and, at one time, was employed by the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory in Melbourne. He was also an employee of the Hartley Creek Zoo north of Cairns.

Most of his free time has been spent in environmental and social justice activism, and he continues this work presently — mainly by correspondence with the relevant authorities and constantly writing letters on a range of issues, especially environmental ones. He also wrote many letters to the local papers of the time.

He is writing a book about the history of herpetology over the past 50 years and how what he describes as systemic corruption has exploited Australia’s unique reptile populations to the point where most species of pythons, dragons, monitors, freshwater turtles and large species of skinks are rare or near extinction.

He had been on a walkabout with Indigenous people as a child and learnt many bush skills. His best childhood friend, an Indigenous child called Rhubarb, died from a bite from a taipan snake, and he thinks this event directed him towards venom research, as he had been collecting snakes since the age of 12. He doesn’t handle venomous snakes these days unless there is an urgent need, as when other people are around, any snake he may be holding will react to their fear and could bite him by mistake.

Michael contacted the Free Press recently looking for a negative of his photos, which appeared in our local paper in 1971, but it was not available.

Michael has fond memories of his time in Kyabram when he lived with Orm and Thora Pell and was in awe of Thora’s huge and famous shell collection. He also helped Orm drench a few mobs of sheep. He caused a bit of a stir when Harry Gorr invited him to talk at the Kyabram Rotary Club, and Michael took a snake to the meeting.