I called out to my lovely neighbour and I hauled him out of his shower. He came and identified it as a carpet python, aka cocos- we think it is about 2 metres in length and it was just sunning itself by the railings. We also saw that its body bulged in the middle which might indicate it has recently eaten a rat or a small rodent. He then lent me his book on wildlife which said that these pythons were common in all Brisbane suburbs! They are non venomous but kill by constricting the prey and bites may need a tetanus shot.My thoughts go to Bill Bryson’s book Down Under which warned me that Australia is host to a huge number of these challenging creatures.