![A tiger snake being milked at Australian Reptile Park. A tiger snake being milked at Australian Reptile Park.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/6b2c6783-018c-4167-85ab-593820d99f0f.jpg/r0_0_4272_2848_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
EXTRACTING venom from a deadly snake, we imagine, is not the most relaxing job around.
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Australian Reptile Park general manager Tim Faulkner has been doing it for a long time.
"I've worked with venomous snakes for 17 years and have never been bitten," Tim told Topics.
"It's a very particular person that can do it."
What was needed was the "right practice, right mentality and a deep respect for the snakes".
Tim said there was "no easy way" of extracting the venom.
The snake was restrained and put on a vial - similar to a shot glass.
![Australian Reptile Park general manager Tim Faulkner milking venom from a tiger snake. Australian Reptile Park general manager Tim Faulkner milking venom from a tiger snake.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/2eef4cb8-6861-40e2-940d-a4bca02f4299.jpg/r0_0_3456_5191_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"It chews down and delivers its venom," he said.
We spoke to Tim after he won the Australian Geographic Society award for conservationist of the year.
The park, which is based at Somersby on the Central Coast, is Australia's sole supplier of snake and spider venom for the production of anti-venom.
Tim said the park had extracted snake venom since the 1950s.
Eric Worrell, who founded the park, began collecting snakes for anti-venom around this time.
"The park and the anti-venom program developed hand in hand," Tim said.
Australia has the 10 most venomous snakes in the world, and the park keeps a collection of 250 deadly snakes.
The park freeze-dries the venom and sends it to Commonwealth Serum Laboratories in Melbourne, where it is injected into Percheron horses.
The horses are well looked after.
"It doesn't make them sick because they've got such a big volume of blood," Tim said.
"Slowly but surely, the horses build up antibodies to the venom, which are extracted."
About 2000 to 3000 people a year suffer snake bites, with 300 to 500 receiving anti-venom.
Tim said the park was "happy to have a hand in saving many Australian lives".
![A funnel web spider being milked at Australian Reptile Park. Picture: Gary Brown A funnel web spider being milked at Australian Reptile Park. Picture: Gary Brown](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/daf1c611-f097-41d8-936b-6de0fe6c60de.jpg/r0_0_4165_1990_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
AS WELL as snakes, funnel web spiders are milked at the park to make anti-venom.
Running low on supplies, the park called last month for the public to catch funnel webs in jars for its anti-venom program.
Tim Faulkner said this call for help was "a continual push".
Sometimes they receive female funnel webs, but only the males can be milked.
"The males only live naturally for six to 12 months, so by the time we get them - although we treat them like kings - their life is short," he said.
"We need community support - don't squash them, send them to us."
The park has a video on YouTube showing how to catch a funnel web safely.
It aims to collect 300 male funnel webs a year to provide 3000 milkings.
Tim sometimes received "beautiful letters", from parents of small children bitten by funnel webs, thanking him for the park's work.
Email Damon on topics@theherald.com.au, tweet him @Lakemacjourno, or call on 4973-7709.