Brown Snake Attacks Local Elderly Woman in Her Garden

An elderly woman was rushed to hospital after being bitten on the hand by a deadly brown snake while working in the garden of her Cowra home.

An ambulance spokeswoman said the 79-year-old woman was gardening at her home in Berallah Place in Cowra about 2pm when the 30cm snake bit her on the hand.

The snake was trapped and placed in a jar for hospital staff to examine, the spokeswoman said. "It was either her or somebody else in the home [that trapped the snake]," she said.

The woman was taken to Cowra District Hospital where she remained in a stable condition. A spokeswoman for the hospital confirmed that the captured reptile was an eastern brown, one of the world's deadliest snakes.

However the bite was not life-threatening and the woman was being kept in hospital for observation, she added.