A creek, pond or wetland can help narrow a snake sighting, but it does not identify the snake on its own. This directory collects profiles whose researched habitat includes creeks or wetlands.
For example, Red-bellied Black Snakes are often found around freshwater, as described by the Australian Museum. Queensland’s regional snake guide also describes keelbacks near freshwater and coastal brackish areas. These examples should not be treated as an exhaustive shortlist for every region.
Compare your state, the surrounding habitat and visible markings. A snake swimming or resting beside water still needs the same space as one on dry land.
Compare a snake by location and appearance · Browse all snake profiles
Selected from creek or wetland habitat records. This is a freshwater-edge browsing group, not a sea-snake directory or a guarantee of local occurrence.
Photo: garywwilson · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Acrochordidae
Acrochordus arafurae
The Arafura File Snake is an aquatic northern Australian snake with loose skin and a dark, mesh-like pattern. It lives mainly in freshwater streams and billabongs but also enters estuaries and the sea.
Non-venomous in the consulted field-guide source.
Collected at Wickham Point, Northern Territory. Black-and-white journal photograph; whether the specimen was live or preserved when photographed is not stated. This image cannot show its living colour.
Photo: T. Parkin · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Parahydrophis mertoni
A little-known venomous sea snake recorded in northern Australian coastal waters, including mangrove estuaries around Darwin.
Venomous
Deceased Barkly death adder photographed on a road at Marrakai, Northern Territory. Body posture is not representative of a living snake.
Photo: Max Tibby · CC0 1.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Acanthophis hawkei
Barkly Death Adder is a stout-bodied death adder associated with the black-soil plains of the Barkly Tableland and fragmented populations in western Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Highly venomous
Photo: Max Tibby · CC0 1.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Cryptophis nigrostriatus
Black-striped Snake is recorded in north-eastern Queensland from Rockhampton to the Torres Strait; southern New Guinea is a separate foreign occurrence. It is slender, reddish-brown to pink above with a dark stripe along the body.
Venomous
Photo: Max Tibby · CC0 1.0 (Licence)
Homalopsidae
Cerberus australis
Bockadam is a northern Australian water snake recorded from coastal Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Revised accounts describe variable grey to red colouration, with plain or partly patterned forms and a possible stripe behind the eye.
Weakly venomous (rear-fanged)
Photo: Christopher Watson · CC BY-SA 3.0 (Licence)
Pythonidae
Morelia bredli
A large non-venomous python of central Australia's rocky ranges and woodlands.
Non-venomous
Photo: Max Tibby · CC0 (Licence)
Colubridae
Tropidonophis mairii
A small non-venomous snake often found around freshwater in northern and eastern Australia. Its grey or olive-brown body commonly carries broken dark bands. It closely resembles the venomous rough-scaled snake, so neither the waterside setting nor rough-looking scales proves an identification.
Non-venomous
Photo: Max Tibby · CC0 1.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Denisonia devisi
A heavily built, banded inland snake with a patchy eastern Australian range.
Venomous
Photo: Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Licence)
Colubridae
Dendrelaphis punctulatus
A very slender, agile snake with a long tail, often seen moving through gardens or low branches. Despite the name it may be olive, brown, black or even blue. Green colour is only one possible appearance of this non-venomous species.
Non-venomous
Photo: Max Tibby · CC0 1.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Hemiaspis damelii
A plain grey to olive-grey snake associated with floodplains and temporary wetlands in NSW and Queensland. Young snakes have a dark head marking that reduces with age.
Venomous
Photo: Bryce Watts-Parker · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Austrelaps ramsayi
A venomous snake of moist upland areas in south-eastern Australia. Its back ranges from dark grey to reddish brown, and the lips have contrasting bars.
Dangerously venomous
Photo: Max Tibby · CC0 1.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Austrelaps superbus
A variable venomous copperhead of lowland south-eastern Australia.
Dangerously venomous
Photo: Edward Bell · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Homalopsidae
Pseudoferania polylepis
A weakly venomous northern Australian water snake that feeds on fish, frogs and crustaceans.
Weakly venomous; large specimens should be treated with caution
Photo: Max Tibby · CC0 1.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Hemiaspis signata
Marsh Snake is a small east-coast snake with an olive to grey back, dark belly and paired pale facial lines.
Venomous
Photo: Brendan Costello · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Pythonidae
Liasis olivaceus
A very large olive python of drier northern Australia. The Pilbara subspecies occurs in Western Australia, while the species-level range also includes the Northern Territory and Queensland.
Non-venomous
Photo: Stewart Macdonald · CC BY 2.5 (Licence)
Elapidae
Denisonia maculata
A stout brown-to-black snake of central-eastern Queensland. The flanks are lighter and may have dark streaks; it is associated with wet areas and feeds mainly on frogs.
Venomous
Elapidae
Pseudechis papuanus
A stout, dark snake with Australian records on Boigu and Saibai Islands in the Torres Strait.
Highly venomous
Port Darwin Sea Snake (Hydrelaps darwiniensis) deceased beach specimen.
Photo: Rod Lowther · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Hydrelaps darwiniensis
Port Darwin Sea Snake is a small mangrove and coastal sea snake with a light grey or yellowish body and many dark bands.
Venomous
Photo: The original uploader was Figaro at English Wikipedia. · Public domain (Licence)
Elapidae
Pseudechis porphyriacus
A glossy black snake often seen around creeks, wetlands and farm dams in eastern Australia. Red or pink along the lower sides is a useful clue, but it can be hidden by the snake's position and is much paler in some northern animals.
Venomous
Photo: Ged Tranter · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Tropidechis carinatus
A dangerously venomous, strongly keeled snake of wetter habitats in eastern Australia.
Dangerously venomous
Photo: Em Lamond · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Elapognathus minor
A small Western Australian snake with a dark-grey, patternless body and pale neck bars.
Venomous
Photo: Max Tibby · CC0 1.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Pseudechis guttatus
A large dangerous black snake with variable dark, pale and broken-crossbanded forms, recorded from New South Wales and Queensland.
Dangerous; the species is venomous
Photo: dhfischer · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Rhinoplocephalus bicolor
A small live-bearing snake from south-western Western Australia, often associated with shelter near swamps.
Venomous
Photo: Max Tibby · CC0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Notechis scutatus
Tiger snakes may be banded, faintly marked or completely plain. They are robust snakes associated with many southern wetlands, but also occur in drier habitats. A black snake in Tasmania, or one without stripes, can still be a tiger snake.
Highly venomous
Photo: dhfischer · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Pythonidae
Liasis fuscus
A large non-venomous python associated with northern waterways.
Non-venomous
Photo: Donna Belder · CC BY 4.0 (Licence)
Elapidae
Elapognathus coronatus
A small live-bearing snake of coastal southern and south-western Western Australia.
Venomous
Photo: Lachlan Copeland · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Licence)
Homalopsidae
Fordonia leucobalia
A coastal northern Australian water snake with glossy dark upperparts, pale underside and irregular spots.
Probably weakly venomous (rear-fanged)
