When prospecting old gold mining areas on the West Coast around 1990 my adult son and I had a scary experience. At the time we were had trekked into an area beyond Nelson Creek in the Grey Valley. The actual location was the upper Gows Creek where dense native bush regrowth had matted old workings.

On this particular bright and sunny day we were exploring above the stony wall of a former sluice face. The shrubbery was so thick we could only make headway using machetes. Suddenly I found I had a writhing snake around my left arm. The snake was about 30 inches long and greenish brown. Such was my fright I immediately flung my arm out and sent the reptile flying down from the height of the sluice face to rocks at its base.

We found our discovery and experience to be unbelievable. Following the event we raised the topic with other West Coast gold miners and were surprised to learn at least 2 others had had similar experiences.

Around 2000 I was doing some work with Crown Enterprise Landcare, the research institute which specialises in New Zealand’s flora and fauna. I related my experience to one their scientists and was surprised this particular person was not as unbelieving as I expected. He told me that there was a belief that in the late 1860’s and 1870’s when numerous gold miners were sailing directly from the goldfields near Melbourne to West Coast ports such as Charleston, Hoikitika, Greymouth and Westport an occasional snake probably came ashore. There are several greenish brown Australian snakes which fit a description of what we encountered. Much of the West Coast climate even in mid winter would be no less hostile than large areas of Victoria in Australia.

It would have been natural for them to seek out stony warm places such as those bared by gold workings. He believed there could easily have been a few small colonies of survivors.

Victorian copperhead similar to snake encountered on West Coast.

Bob Radley PhD., of Blenheim was formerly a partner in Golden Gully Partnership gold mining permit in the vicinity of Gows Wilsons, and Surprise Creeks.

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