Brit backpacker gets nasty shock when he peers into bunch of bananas

This is the heart-stopping moment a British backpacker working at an Australian farm 'jumped about a mile' in shock after discovering a huge snake concealed inside a bunch of bananas.

James Nightingale, 22, from Haywards Heath, West Sussex, had the surprising encounter while working on a banana plantation in Tully, Queensland, on the east Australian coast.

The recent economics graduate, who studied at Bristol University, decided to go travelling after his degree and is currently making his way up the east Australian coast.

Although he could have taken on construction work in Brisbane paying £22.50 an hour, he was happy to secure lower-paid farm work at £15 an hour up north to give him a more 'authentic' time in Australia.

'I thought it's part of the Australian experience, this is something I'm going to do, I'm going to see a bit more of the country. 

'In these small towns the rent is quite cheap and I thought it'll be a laugh,' explains James.

The solo traveller settled on Tully, part of the Cassowary Coast region, which is a major banana-growing area in north Queensland. 

Alongside Innisfail and Kennedy, Tully - which has a hot and humid climate - produces more than 90 per cent of Australia's bananas.

But while working in the banana shed one day, James had more of an adventure than he had originally bargained for.

His co-workers, who had been out in the fields, brought in large bunches of bananas which had been placed into a plastic bags to retain their moisture content.

'It was my job to grab the bananas off the conveyer as they came round, tie ropes around the top of the bunch and hang them back onto the hooks,' explained James.

'There's always a risk that something will be in these bananas. Really often you'll see mice nests, but sometimes there are rats as well - and one tried to bite me once.

'They can give you leptospirosis, so a lot of the people working on these farms are more worried about the rats than the snakes. If they bite you it can be quite nasty.'

Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection that can cause flu-like symptoms, but in some cases it can develop into more serious conditions such as kidney failure, bleeding and jaundice.

James recalls he was taking the bag off the bananas carefully in case there were any rodents when he suddenly spotted something very different.

'I was just like, 'Oh, my God!,' he recalled.

'I jumped about a mile. I shouted out, 'there's a snake!'

Encouraged by a colleague to video the creature, he said: 'I peered in to see how big the snake was and I just sort of started bursting out laughing.

'My colleague, when he eventually saw it, said 'f***ing hell, this thing's enormous.'

The reptile was black and brown in colour and measured around two metres long, according to James.

An expert from the National Centre for Reptile Welfare has since identified it as Dendrelaphis punctulatus, also known as the common Australian tree snake, which is non-venomous.

After warning his co-workers about the snake in the bananas, which were at this point still moving along the conveyor belt, one of them alerted their boss.

James said: 'He came along with what looked like litter pickers, grabbed the tail of the snake, controlled the head and just slowly moved it back off the bananas until he could pick it up and move it away.'

He added: 'I'm not sure if it was venomous or not, I think most likely it was a tree snake, but really I have no idea. 

'I've seen a few snakes during my time in Australia - but this one is by far the biggest I've ever seen.' 

Snakes are most active from September to January, as the cold-blooded reptiles warm up in Australia's summer months.

The common tree snake, which is non-venomous, is native to many parts of Australia, especially in the eastern coastal areas.

It has a slender body and tail, is frequently pale yellow on the throat and belly, and has large eyes with typically golden-coloured irises. 

Around 3,000 people are bitten by snakes in Australia each year, but the mortality rate is extremely low thanks to widespread public awareness and access to medical facilities.