Venom The Heroic Search for Australia's Deadliest Snake

In the early years of the 20th century, an awareness was growing among European Australians of an unexpected threat, one that seemed the very embodiment of the dark, ominous power of the Australian bush. To the Indigenous people of the Guugu Yimithirr nation, it was nguman; to the whites it was the taipan, an eight foot, lightning fast venomous snake whose bite meant certain death. Venom is an examination of European settlers' troubled and often antagonistic relationship with the land, seen through the lens of the desperate scramble for an antivenom, and highlighted by the story of George Rosendale, a taipan bite victim of the Guugu Yimithirr nation.

Brendan Murray is a writer whose short stories have twice received National Literary Awards from the Fellowship of Australian Writers. Brendan was joint winner of the 2017 Ned Kelly Award for Best True Crime for The Drowned Man.