Once the Japanese group had left Cairns on Friday morning, Cal and I hired a car and did a trip from Cairns to Trinity Beach then up to the tablelands where we walked down to look at Barron Falls and then to Lake Barrine, one of the volcanic lakes on the Atherton Tableland. However, before we did that I wanted to re-visit the grave of Kevin Budden, who at the age of 20, travelled by himself to Cairns from Sydney, in search of a taipan that he could collect and send to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories in Melbourne so that work could be done on the development of an antivenom. This was in 1950 when a bite from a taipan meant death.After several weeks searching the Cairns district, Kevin did catch a taipan that he found while in the process of eating a rat. He managed to catch it but was unable to safely bag the snake, so with a firm grip around the seething animal's neck, he hitch-hiked back into town (yes a passing driver did give him (and the almost 2 metre long taipan) a lift.
Unfortunately, when he was attempting to put the snake into a bag at his friend's place, the taipan managed to free itself from his grip and snapped quickly at his hand. And in a fragment of an instant, the deadly snake had changed things forever. Kevin Budden died the next day in Cairns Base Hospital, but the taipan was sent, on Kevin's wishes, to Melbourne where it was milked by David Fleay and the venom was used in early experimentation for the antivenom which became available in 1955.
There's a beautiful piece written by his friend, Neville Goddard, who had accompanied Kevin and another friend, Roy McKay, to far north Queensland, the year before, when they were unsuccessful in finding a taipan, on a silver plaque on the gravesite.
I am still hoping to convince Cairns City Council to memorialise Kevin Budden in a street name. My first attempt, several years ago, was unsuccessful but I will try again.
4 comments:
That's a very moving story. What a shame though. I can't imagine picking up a hitchhiker with a snake attached!
Having only recently heard the story of Kevin Budden I am disappointed that I did not visit his grave when in Cairns. He should have far greater recognition than he does. Selfless bravery pursuing a deadly snake so that others could benefit from the anti-venom. Sure beats the guys that hit a ball with a stick or chase a wobbly ball that are paraded as heroes. Kevin Budden I salute you, you are magnificent.
Kevin was my mother’s cousin. She only used to say she had a cousin who died of a taipan snake bite. My father printed off the story of Kevin to show us children. I was recently in cairns on holidays and went and visited his grave. Such a brave man. It would be lovely if a street was named after him.
Yeah the book venom was a great insight into Kevin's short but remarkable Life a true pioneer of anti venom and deserves his place in Australian history.a street name isn't much to ask
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