Whopping 40 kilo snake found in Australian suburb was mistaken for a crocodile

If it's not bad enough to find a snake slithering away in your back garden, the prospect of being faced with a python so large that it was initially thought to be a crocodile is simply the stuff of nightmares.

That's what Rini Steenwinkel, a resident in Queensland, Australia underwent when her neighbour yelled over the fence that a crocodile was loitering in her back yard.

In fact, the creature in question was a whopping 40 kg Amethystine python, that had just feasted on a full-grown wallaby.

The python, which was five metres long, was so large that the snake removal company employed with the task of removing the animal had to call in extra help to take it away.

A sizeable lump indicated that the wallaby had been swallowed whole by the python, which added to the total weight of the snake.

"We decided it would be best to try carry the snake out of the open yard and take him down to a nearby creek," wrote the owner of Cairns Snake Removals.

Steenwinkel also shared some images of the whopping reptile on her Facebook page, and said that the snake was "only twenty metres from my back door".

There are 100 species of venomous snakes in Australia.

Although the amount of poisonous reptiles may be a terrifying thought to a non-native, in reality fewer than 10 people die from snake bites each year in the country.

The Amethystine python in question may have been terrifyingly large, but it is, in fact, one of the non-venomous types of snake found in Australia.

And in spite of its size, it faces some stiff competition in the size stakes.

The longest snake on record is reticulated python named Medusa.

Owned by a haunted house company, Full Moon productions, in Kansas Missouri, the 25ft 2in creature is the star of the show.