[Carruthers]

Not every wild creature in Australia is out to kill you by lethal sting or venomous bite. Some are benign to the point of only subjecting you to a little light crushing.

An Australian woman who woke in the early hours after her table lamp crashed to the floor found a 16ft python curled around her bed.

It is believed the huge scrub python had been living in the walls and ceiling of Trina Hibberd’s house near Cairns for more than a decade.

But on Monday morning – an abnormally cool day in tropical northern Australia – the snake left his hiding place and began to explore Ms Hibberd’s house.

The huge python – estimated to weigh nearly 40kg — slithered along the veranda then up her lounge room wall, flicking the light switch on, onto a painting, and then into a bedroom, where it knocked over the lamp.

Julie Birrell, who was staying with Ms Hibberd, raised the alarm.

“All hell broke loose,” said Ms Hibberd, of the unscheduled 4.30am wake-up call.

The women filmed the snake sprawled across the house, stretching across the lounge room wall and into the bedroom. They called a professional snake catcher after locking the snake in the bedroom.

While the snake’s awakening was dramatic, it was not the first time it had made an appearance.

Ms Hibberd said she first saw it 15 years ago, when it poked its head into the bathroom when she was having a shower, and had nicknamed it Monty.

“We knew the snake was around but I had never seen it inside, not that I know of,” she said. “I’ve never seen it in its full length.”

Monty was still in the bedroom when Dave Goodwin, the snake catcher, arrived.

“We walked into the bedroom and it was hanging from the curtain drapes down to the bedside table — and that was only a third of him,” Mr Goodwin said.

“It was a good monster. We locked ourselves in the bedroom and grabbed him around the neck. He coiled around my arm but we managed to put him a container.”

It is the second biggest snake Mr Goodwin has seen in his career.

Monty was released into a local water treatment plant at Mission Beach which backs onto native bushland.

The Times