This battle to the death between a snake and goanna didn’t end up well for either creature.
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Pam Forster from the Urandangi pub sent in this amazing photo, which was taken at the height of the floods which inundated the town on Wednesday.
Pam stumbled across the pair of beasts conjoined in their death but could shed little light on what led up to the event.
“Both seemed drowned,” was Pam’s verdict.
Whatever happened may stay a mystery but it isn’t the first famous encounter between snake and the goanna.
In the Healesville and Yarra Glen Guardian of 1940, wildlife expert David Fleay described it as one of the oldest bush discussions.
He quoted Banjo Patterson’s “Johnson antidote” which came from a snake versus goanna contest.
“Loafing once beside the river while he thought his heart would break,
There he saw a big goanna fighting with a tiger snake.”
Can any learned North West Star reader identify the type of snake involved in the Urandangi battle?
Email us on nwseditorial@fairfaxmedia.com.au.
Previously published as Snake and goanna draw in fight by The North West Star.