However, Redland's Snake Catcher owner Tony Morrison said the snake pictured was instead a harmless keelback, which were known for eating cane toads. "They're not dangerous at all," he said. "They're an incredibly important part of our ecosystem." Mr Morrison, who has worked as a snake catcher in the Redlands for more than 20 years, said it was out of character for a keelback to attack a person. "They're just totally harmless," he said.

"They just want to go away." Mr Morrison said people should never try to kill a snake. "The majority of snake bites are actually occurring when people are trying to kill the snake," he said. "Step away and it will go away ... they're not going to chase you." Mr Robinson said he was attacked in a "freak incident" in his family home by a brown-coloured snake on Sunday.

"In the split second that I had as it struck to bite me it looked like an eastern brown," he said. "I had no choice but to fend off its aggressive attack in that moment. "The alternative was to let it bite me, try to capture it and then pray it wasn't an eastern brown." Mr Robinson said if he was not faced with a split-second decision he would have had time to call a snake catcher to safely remove the animal. "And that's what I encourage local Redlanders to do," he said.

"Regrettably I did not have that option in this situation, being so fast, wanting to avoid being bitten, and with children and elderly nearby in the house." Mr Robinson said he had lived on acreage in the Redlands with his family in "harmony with the wildlife that we love" for 16 years. The original Facebook post was swiftly deleted but was captured in a screenshot and re-shared on reptile and snake catcher pages, where it sparked outrage, with some people saying they would contact wildlife authorities. Mr Robinson's parliamentary biography states he has a bachelor of science, with majors in marine biology and zoology from James Cook University.