In the early years of the twentieth 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 grew up on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula and has been writing for as long as he can remember. Though his first love is nonfiction, he also enjoys writing creatively; his short stories have twice received National Literary Awards from the Fellowship of Australian Writers.

Read More