{"id":440037,"date":"2026-01-27T05:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440037\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T05:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:28:13","slug":"red-bellied-black-snake-hitches-a-ride-on-ute-from-caboolture-to-sunshine-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440037\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-bellied black snake hitches a ride on ute from Caboolture to Sunshine Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

A driver and his passengers got the shock of their lives when one of Australia\u2019s deadliest snakes<\/a> appeared on their moving car \u2014 clinging on for kilometres before vanishing into the engine bay.<\/p>\n

Mark Emsden spotted a red-bellied black snake on his bonnet as he drove at 110km\/h on the Bruce Hwy returning to the Sunshine Coast<\/a> from the Caboolture rodeo.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Venomous snake hitches ride<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fantastic night but this was definitely unexpected on the way home,\u201d Emsden told 7NEWS.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt crawled along the bonnet and greeted us at the windscreen.\u201c<\/p>\n

He said the reptile appeared to be about 2m long.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the entire length of the bonnet,\u201d Emsden told 7NEWS.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though its head was at the windscreen, its tail was still wrapped over the bull bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in shock. but it was amazing to see the vibrant red on its belly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe 2m red-bellied black snake clung to the bonnet of a moving car for kilometres before disappearing into the engine bay. Credit: Olivia Emsden\"DriverDriver Mark Emsden and his passengers were in shock when the venomous snake hitched a ride on their car. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

Emsden said he tried to slow down to avoid harming the snake.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were doing about 40km\/h for a good 5km to 10km, trying to help it get off the car safely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt stayed on board for about 5km until we could pull over.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time we stopped at McDonald\u2019s, we couldn\u2019t locate it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fairly sure it went down into the engine bay somewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s obviously quite a few little nooks and crannies for it to have got into, but we couldn\u2019t believe such a big snake just disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t actually want to drive the car into our garage last night so we left it out on the street just in case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may still be somewhere in the engine bay. We even checked again the next day to be sure it wasn\u2019t hiding in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emsden said the encounter left everyone both shocked and amused.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe what we were seeing. It was funny but also a little nerve-wracking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely didn\u2019t want to hurt the snake. We just wanted it to get back to its environment safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The driver said it was a first for both him and his passengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re new to the Sunshine Coast<\/a>, so seeing a snake like this was a real eye-opener,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Red-bellied black snakes are typically found throughout eastern Australia, from Queensland<\/a> to Victoria<\/a>, often near rivers, creeks, and wetlands.<\/p>\n

The latest case of a snake hitching a ride in a car comes after a coastal carpet python from Queensland was discovered in a vehicle on the NSW Central Coast<\/a>, more than 1,000km from home.<\/p>\n

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Children among eight e-riders rushed to hospital in just five hours<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

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Perfect brownie recipe for healthy back-to-school lunchboxes<\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A driver and his passengers got the shock of their lives when one of Australia\u2019s deadliest snakes appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,651,12194,2270,44,8690,128,15035,11942,118319,3792,338],"class_list":["post-440037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisbane","tag-brisbane-queensland-traffic","tag-nature","tag-news","tag-queensland-news","tag-science","tag-snakes","tag-sunshine-coast","tag-traffic-general","tag-travel","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}