South Australia: Mt. Gunson Mine.
During the winter months the temperatures at night often dropped well below zero, minus 8 the coldest recorded during my time on site by the thermometer that hung on the wall just outside the mine office for many years as the warm sandy soils quickly gave up their heat during the night.
While progressing through the management levels John Holcroft was the shift supervisor and for a while I performed the lesser role as his assistant.
John was colour blind in the extreme which also included to some degree night blindness, often when describing something to do with colour I would often be looking for a green something when all I could see was yellow.
John was also an amateur herpetologist, an ideal pursuit in a land full of reptiles many of which had the capability of killing a grown man in twenty minutes.
While driving along the haul road John would often shout for me to stop. Then race from the vehicle to a blue salt bush off in the immediate area plunge his hand into a bush and pull out a highly venomous snake which to me had the same identical colouring to the surroundings.
The latest capture was quickly placed inside a small calico bag and tied securely for later study.
After recording details in a huge book he carried about, its weight, length, number of scales, type, and colouring which I would often be brought in to correct his interpretation it would then be released back into the wild close to where it was found.
Puzzled as to how he could see something so well camouflaged from quite impressive distances he would inform me the snake was quite a reddish to lite brown in colour hiding in a blue bush.
Often when seated opposite his desk it would take a little time to realise we were also accompanied by a snake or two coiled up on the desk as well, John was also in the habit of picking up dead snakes during his travels to add to his book of records.
I was often the victim who sat though one of his lectures on the variations in the local Western Brown snake something that was quite venomous, though it took just a little longer to kill you than the Inland Taipan which also frequented the area and one of the most deadly in the world.
John often pointed out the Western Brown also came in black, brown with black stripes and what was often called the five ring snake which could also have more than five rings, he also found a specimen that was closer to a creamy white colour.
John was often asked by the Adelaide University Herpetology dept to supply unusual or interesting samples.
During one of our sudden stops he discovered an unusual snake, one he had never seen before and sent many photographs to Adelaide Uni who also became excited by the find.
John sent the snake to Adelaide to have it identified and catalogued.
Later when inquiring about it's return he was informed the snake had been dissected, he stopped sending live specimens.
During dark rainy nights while making our rounds I was often asked to stop, and get out in the rain to collect frogs we had caught in the headlights of the vehicle, These were needed to feed Boris, his ill tempered 3 or 4 meter children's python.
A wild life television program contacted him one day in the 1980's to supply a snake for a show they wanted to film in and around Woomera. John had an excellent example of the required snake on hand so he agreed to take part.
On the day of filming the snake, a Western Brown was placed in a foam box with ice to cool it down a little to make it docile for the well known wild life presenter to easily handle.
Showing up on the film site with the snake, John discovered the producers had chain-sawed a hole in the back of a large Myall tree opposite a large knot hole, the idea was for John to lay in a shallow pit behind the tree, suitably covered and camouflaged so when the presenter poked his hand in through the hole, John was to place the lethargic lethal snake in his hand so it would appear he had drag it out of the knot hole, he would then go on to inform the viewers of the details of this species of snake.
John, seeing what they had done to a very slow growing 250 year old tree, which, to a casual observer, looked like a rather unspectacular looking tree, they had effectively killed it, he was furious and refused to take part in the filming, informing them the tree had been growing in that location long before Captain Cook had discovered Australia.
Tourists.
Often a tourist vehicle would pull up in front of the mine office. Most times these were sent by the Woomera Police after the occupants had reported a snake had climbed into the vehicle while camping several days before. The occupants would climb out of the car wearing every garment they had with them as padded protection should the snake attempt to bite them. Often this was how people arrived on site in 40c (103f) degree temperatures.
John would boldly open the car and begin unloading their possessions one piece at a time, opening, unfolding, lifting, shaking in search of the wayward reptile, if nothing found he would then venture into and under side of the vehicles fittings, flaps and substructure until it was either found or he was satisfied none existed.
Any discoveries were bagged tied, measured, recorded, and identified before being released back to the wild.
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