A man in his 40s has died from a snake bite after showing a mate what is suspected to have been a deadly eastern brown snake in his hands at his home in Townsville in north Queensland.

Neighbour Brett Boggs helped carry out CPR after the man collapsed in the driveway of his home in the suburb of Deeragun.

"He came over to ask me what the snake was and he had it in his hands — I wasn't entirely sure — it was brown so it looked like a brown snake to me," he said.

"I said, 'I'm pretty sure it's poisonous'."

Mr Boggs said his mate told him he had been bitten on the finger.

"We had a look and he was showing me, and I couldn't really see anything — he had really hard calloused hands so you couldn't see anything," he said.

"He went down the road and asked someone down there and they said something about a tree snake, so he didn't think too much of it and within a few minutes [a woman] was yelling for help."

Mr Boggs said it was traumatic experience.

"It was pretty hard, it was scary at the time, didn't really have time to think about it. Just had to do it. I could see she couldn't go anymore," he said.

An eastern brown snake is believed to have been responsible for the fatal bite. ( ABC News )

Paramedics were also called, but Northern Beaches Station acting officer-in-charge Lauren Clayton said officers' resuscitation attempts also failed.

Ms Clayton said they had been called to 66 snake bite incidents over the past year in the Townsville region but they were rarely fatal.

She urged people to learn first aid.

"If someone has been bitten by a snake, the most important bit of information we can provide is one to keep the patient calm," she said

"The other thing we recommend is not to wash the wound and if you can bandage over the snake bite firmly and moving up the limb."

Townsville snake catcher Jamie Chapel also urged residents to know what they should do when bitten.

He said people should never try to kill a snake.

"It's not worth losing yours or someone else's life over —no snake is ever harmless — it's either venomous or non-venomous and any snake that feels threatened will bite in defence," Mr Chapel said.

"Do not take the chance — call a snake catcher."