Here is some very useful information.
Tas Parks and wildlife site has a page on
Snakes of Tasmania.
The bottom few lines of that page is quite amusing...
They have dedicated pages to each of the three types of snakes in Tasmania.
Tiger snakeLowland CopperheadWhite lipped snakeThey also have a
Living with Wildlife page with a link to the Department of Primary Industries and Water. There, a page can be found -
Living with SnakesThis page also has a link to a downloadable PDF file from the Tas parks site,
Living with wildlife - Snakes (right click and "Save target as", or click to open)
These last two links have detailed information including recommended first aid - well worth reading. I just learned myself that one of the early symptoms of Tiger Snake bite is a massive frontal headache.
A few things I can share -
Our recent Walls of Jerusalem overnight walk, we saw 7 snakes - 3 Tigers and 4 White lipped. All but one was on or near the track.
Some snakes have hyperdermic fangs, where the poison is injected like a needle. Some snakes don't - they have a different system -
None of the Tasmanian snake species can truly inject poison, relying instead on it flowing down a groove in the fangs. However, in old snakes the groove overgrows forming a hollow tooth. Tiger Snakes make up for a poor delivery system by having a large quantity of very powerful venom. The venom of the white-lipped whip snake has never been recorded as causing death to a human. Tasmanian snakes cannot bite through shoe leather or gum boots.
The delivery system of the poison running down the groove, therefore, it stands to reason that if the snake bites you through gaiters or something, this will improve your chances of survival as the initial contact fabric or whatever has a chance to restrict or capture some of the venom.
Regardless, any bite should be treated as serious.I always wear my gaiters. I figure that with gaiters, two pairs of explorer socks (one to my knees), long trousers (I never walk in shorts), surely that has got to improve my chances if a bite does occur.
The closest I have come (that I know of....) to what would have resulted in a bite was on my Frenchmans walk in 2005, one more step would have landed my foot right beside the head of a tiger snake, fortunately I heard it then saw it, boy did I back-pedal!! Its head was flattened and wide and it was hissing - I read somewhere that this is a behavior displayed pre-empting a strike.
The last reported death from a Tiger snake bite in Tasmania was a handler in 1977, and the last person killed by a Tiger snake in the bush was in 1966.
Read and learn the information available at the above links. It's good info and can assist to make you a little more comfortable about sharing our wonderful outdoors with them.