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Stacey Moseley
A vicious magpie and a brown snake almost ruined one Byron Bay real estate agent’s open for inspection earlier this month.
Lloyd Lawton of Ray White Byron Bay was showing a three bedroom property in Ewingsdale to a potential buyer when he heard screams from down the road.
The seller (who wishes to remain anonymous to avoid the story affecting the sale) had agreed to go for a bike ride while the property was being shown.
During the ride an aggravated magpie had begun swooping on the woman and in her attempts to escape the bird’s attack she began swerving on her bike.
She then lost control and crashed the bike but not before she had run over the tail of a brown snake, which promptly sprang up and bit the woman on the ankle.
“We ran down to see if she was OK,” Mr Lawton told Real Estate Business, “but at that point we didn’t realise the extent of her injuries. I didn’t know she had been bitten and later in the hospital they discovered she had dislocated her shoulder as well.
“We all worked together,” he said. “As I put her in my car, the potential buyer – who also happened to be a renowned professional surfer – took the bike up to the house and shut the door.”
Mr Lawton had to swerve in and out of traffic to get the vendor to Byron District Hospital. The drive normally takes five minutes, according to Mr Lawton, but on this occasion it took more than double that.
Despite visible marks on the woman’s ankle, medical staff believed the snake had not released any venom.
It was a “freak accident”, according to Mr Lawton, who said the property was not “rural” by any stretch of the imagination.
“Snake bites and crazy magpies are not something I have to consider normally; it was a freak accident that made that open for inspection very interesting,” he said.
“If I was showing properties further out then you would consider issues of wildlife and you would use common sense – you wouldn’t take a potential buyer through long grass when showing the property, and things like that.
“Being from Byron Bay, we deal with a lot of interesting people from all walks of life, from the uber wealthy to the more strange and interesting. It is an exciting place to work but that is definitely the most unusual inspection I’ve ever had.”
According to Mr Lawton, the house is still on the market but has received an offer.
“It is a beautiful property,” he says. “I have no doubt in my mind that it will be selling soon.”
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