A musterer asleep on a remote Northern Territory cattle station got the shock of his life when he woke up to find a snake in his swag with him.

On Tuesday, Lachlan Dingwell, 29, was bitten by the large snake, the species of which is not known, and airlifted to Royal Darwin Hospital.

"The snake wasn't in there when I went to bed, but it was a bit hot last night so I left my swag open," he told ABC Radio Darwin.

"Unzipped and woke up about 12:30am to a pain, like I could feel something on my leg.

"As I woke up I reached down and grabbed hold of the snake and then I realised what I was holding and jumped out of bed."

Mr Dingwell said it took him a moment to compute what had happened.

"I didn't know if I was dreaming to start with, I thought I might have had a bad dream, and then I felt blood running down my leg, and I realised that it had happened," he said.

"I already had the biggest fear of snakes, I'm petrified."

And now?

"Even more petrified," he said.

Riveren Station in the Northern Territory is 600km west of Katherine near the WA border. ( Supplied: centralstation.net.au )

Olive python or brown snake?

Mr Dingwell is a contract musterer living in a camp on Riveren Station in the western NT near the Western Australia border, about 600 kilometres west of Katherine.

He said he bolted to his boss's caravan.

"I ran over to him and eventually got them to wake up, I think they were in more of a panic than I was," he said.

He was flown to hospital at first light by CareFlight, where he remained in a stable condition.

He said he did not know what kind of snake bit him, but he thought it was either a harmless olive python or an extremely venomous brown snake.

An olive python. ( Facebook: Darwin Snake Catchers )

"They've been doing blood tests and that's all come back clear, so they've removed the bandage off my leg now and I'm just in here I think overnight for observations," he said on Tuesday afternoon.

When asked if he was ever going to feel comfortable sleeping in a swag again, Mr Dingwell said he did it all year round because he lived in camps as a contract musterer.

"We're just finishing up for the season so I don't have to worry about it for a few months, but then I think I'll probably zip me swag up every night from now on," he said.

"I think I'll be going on a shearer's stretcher from now on, higher up."

Royal Flying Doctor Service's updated guidelines for treating snake bites