The grass was dry and the ground was cracked on New Year's Day when a four metre python made a feast of a mother wallaby in Bernie Worsfold's backyard.
The snake had slithered out from the lush bush that surrounds his home in far-north Queensland when he snapped photos of the wallaby being eaten whole.
"It wraps around the wallaby like you are grabbing something with your hand… It cracks its jaw open and proceeds to start strangling and suffocating the wallaby," Mr Worsfold told Newshub.
He says it took around three hours for the python to swallow his prey but the story the viral photos don't tell is that Mr Worsford tried in vain to save the mother's baby.
"Actually I was touching it while it was eating… I was trying to get the joey out of the mother and I got it, but it was dead."
He says it will take the snake a long time to digest his meal.
"He will just turn around and go to the bush and hide. Hibernate for the next three or four months."
This isn't the first time he had seen a wallaby fall victim to a monster snake.
"It took me a while to detach from being emotional about it but now I just see it as a part of nature,"
A few weeks ago, Mr Worsford had a particularly heart breaking encounter.
"There was one behind my window, this one got a smaller wallaby and it was fascinating to see. [The wallabies] all surrounded the snake, the mother was so upset she kept jumping on the snake to get it to let go."
Sadly the wallaby died but Mr Worsford has learned to accept it is part of the circle of life.
"They are gentle creatures that won't hurt anyone. He is just searching for food, especially since the forest has been declined."
Newshub.
