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A deadly brown snake slithered into Ramilla's home. She knew exactly what to do next
Barefoot in her Adelaide kitchen, Ramilla remembered some important advice she’d learnt at an English class when she came face-to-face with one of Australia's most dangerous animals.
Published 24 April 2022 9:59am
By Peta Doherty
Source: SBS News
Image: Ramilla had never seen a snake before coming to Australia. (SBS News / Peta Doherty)
Ramilla was pouring a cup of water for a toddler she was babysitting when she looked down and saw “a black long thing” on the kitchen floor.
“I felt goosebumps creep up my arm,” she says in a mixture of English and Hindi.
Ramilla wasn’t out in the Australian bush; she was standing in her suburban unit, set in a cement covered block, on a main road in Adelaide.
“I saw a creature and I didn’t know what it was. It was very, very, shiny, and it was gliding,” she says.
“I didn’t know if it was a snake, but then I saw it moving and I was even more scared.”
Ramilla points to where she says the snake came in from. Source: SBS News / Peta Doherty
It would later be identified as a baby eastern brown, the second deadliest land snake in the world. While this one was only 30cm long, even the babies contain enough venom to kill 40 people.
As it glided by Ramilla’s bare feet, the word “still” popped into her head.
Two weeks earlier, the English class Ramilla attends had received a live demonstration from a snake catcher. Migrant students had been taught about dangerous animals in Australia and what to do if they encountered one.
“I remembered you should freeze and you are not supposed to poke or touch the snake,” she says.
I remembered you should freeze.Ramilla
Ramilla, who moved to Australia from India five years ago, had been attending the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) at TAFE SA for several months.
Under the free language program, funded by the federal government, students can complete a Certificate Three qualification in spoken English.
AMEP is taught by registered providers across the country and due to a recent change in legislation that removed restrictions on who could attend, the program is now open to more migrants.
The snake was only 30cm long but even the babies contain enough venom to kill 40 people. Source: Supplied
Ramilla grew up in a remote rural village in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, 50 kilometres from the nearest school. Her father died when she was five and so wasn’t able to educate her.
When she was 16, she married a 40-year-old widower who had four children. She went to live with them in Mumbai and they had two more children together, but her husband died a decade later.
Aged 26 and with six children to care for, Ramilla says gaining an education as an adult became impossible.
Now in her late forties, the English program has not only helped her learn a language but also equipped her with life skills. It was just her luck that dealing with snakes was covered just before the incident with the baby eastern brown, which took place last year.
Despite her fear for the child she was caring for that day, who was playing in the lounge room, Ramilla managed to follow the advice she’d learnt.
She stayed still. Very still. Then, she watched as the snake slithered past her and make its way across the hall and into her bedroom.
When her adult son Yogesh returned home, he was impressed. The snake was shut into Ramilla’s bedroom and his mother and the boy were safely outside waiting for him.
“I didn’t know what to do but my mother helped me. She took the pages from her TAFE workbook and told me what the teacher had told her to do,” Yogesh says in English.
Ramilla learnt about snakes as part of the Adult Migrant English Program. Source: Supplied / AMEP/TAFE SA
South Australia’s Department of Environment and Water advises on its website: “Snakes are generally shy and will not attack unless provoked”.
“If you see a snake inside your home, get all people and pets out of the room immediately. Shut the door and fill the gap underneath with a towel, then call a professional snake catcher for assistance.”
“I thought, ‘I think it is a snake, I should call the snake catchers,’” Ramilla says.
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Snake Catchers Adelaide owner Rolly Burrell, whose company came to collect the snake, says it isn’t uncommon for a baby brown to turn up in a suburban home.
A female snake will lay up to 40 eggs in September which can be transported along a drain, in compost or picked up and deposited by a bird, before hatching in February.
“They can pop up anywhere,” he says. “The babies, of course, don’t have as much venom as the mother, but they still contain enough venom to kill 40 people.”
A snake catcher demonstrates at a class for Adult Migrant English Program students. Source: Supplied / AMEP/TAFE SA
Ramilla says she would never have known what to do if she hadn’t been to the English class.
“Where I was living in an apartment in Mumbai I didn’t ever see snakes. Going to TAFE was the first time I saw a snake.”
Ramilla is one of more than 14,000 students across Australia who have returned to the classroom in the past year after changes were made to the eligibility criteria of the Adult Migrant English Program.
Up until April 2021, eligible students were limited to 510 hours of free English tuition and had to enrol within five years of arriving in Australia. Those restrictions were formally removed with federal government legislation following sustained community pressure.
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs says the reforms are aimed at removing barriers to learning English.
“Higher English proficiency will enhance migrants’ prospects for further education and future employment as well as support their full participation in the Australian community”.
Ramilla is still attending the English classes. Source: SBS News / Peta Doherty
The curriculum has also been upgraded so students can reach vocational rather than functional English.
At the end of March 2022, there were 54,000 students enrolled with more than 20 per cent studying in regional and remote areas.
TAFE SA AMEP course manager Peter Begg says 510 hours was only suitable for migrants who arrived in Australia with “relatively good” English.
“The changes are really important for people who have come into the country with low levels of English and have had no hope of reaching even functional English in 510 hours.”
“We’ve had people come back in who’ve been in the country for 10 years and have never taken part in an English language class.”
We’ve had people come back in who’ve been in the country for 10 years and have never taken part in an English language class.Peter Begg, TAFE SA AMEP course manager
But while the Adult Migrant English Program has been extended, the Refugee Council says it’s still not available for all.
One of the council’s researchers told SBS News there are still close to 100,000 people in Australia in the process of applying for asylum who are still blocked from taking part.
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs says the program “is available to migrants and humanitarian entrants who have low levels of English and hold a permanent visa or an eligible temporary visa and to Australian citizens who previously held a permanent visa”.
“Migrants and humanitarian entrants who arrived in Australia after 1 October 2020 must also meet registration, commencement and completion time limits.”
Julianne Warner is one of the teachers on the program at TAFE SA and says additional funding for interpreters would also help students who haven’t learnt to read or write in their own language to be ready for the workforce.
“If you don’t have interpreters, some of them don’t come to school because it’s too intimidating,” she says.
“They just need to hear some positive encouragement in their own language and they need explicit instructions in their first language and then they are really keen to learn.”
She has met the challenge by enlisting the help of volunteer interpreters – up to five come every day to support her class of mostly Afghan women. The women include some who fled the Taliban only last year.
Ramilla is thrilled to be able to have as many classes as she needs, saying the original allocation just wasn’t enough time to grasp a new language.
“My hour finish, not enough, and I stay home and I’m very sad.”
She has already gained many extra months of tuition and is looking forward to continuing to study and improve her English.
“Unlimited hours and I’m happy, in my future very good English.”
She has not only improved her spoken English with the classes but has also had the opportunity to learn to read and write.
“I was really scared when I went to the class for the first time.”
“I was trying to hold the pencil, but I couldn’t get the grip right, because my fingers wouldn’t clamp on to the pencil in the right way.”
“Now I can learn because I’ve been able to do the extended hours.”
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