About Chris Williams – Urban Reptile Removal
Chris's focus
Chris's work centres on urban reptiles — the snakes, lizards, geckos and turtles that now share Sydney with the people who live here. Cities create winners and losers among native wildlife. Diamond pythons, blue-tongues, water dragons, and red-bellied black snakes have adapted well to suburban life. Others have quietly disappeared from the same streets. Understanding which species are doing what, and why, is the work.
Most of URR's call-outs are about coexistence rather than removal. People want to know what they're looking at, whether it's dangerous, and what to do next. Sometimes that means safely relocating the animal. Sometimes it means leaving it where it is. Either way, the answer comes from someone who has spent 35 years learning how Sydney's reptiles actually behave.
A career with reptiles
Chris began working with reptiles professionally in 1990, training WIRES volunteers in the safe capture and relocation of snakes and other native wildlife.
In 1991 he joined the reptile department at Taronga Zoo, where he worked with highly venomous species including cobras, rattlesnakes and Australian elapids, and contributed to conservation programs for endangered reptiles. He later moved to the Australian Reptile Park, and then to Reptiles Alive, delivering education programs to schools, community groups and workplaces across New South Wales.
In 2014 he was elected President of the Australian Herpetological Society — Australia's oldest continuously operating herpetological society, founded in 1948 — and has held the role since.
Chris founded Snake Ranch in the early 2000s, which grew into one of Australia's largest reptile breeding facilities, housing more than 3,500 animals with a dedicated team. After two decades in real estate alongside his reptile work, he returned full-time to reptiles in 2019, founding what became Urban Reptile Removal.
Books and publications
Chris has written or co-authored six books on Australian reptiles since 2014.
Herpetology titles
The Snake Ranch Guide to Reptile Care (2014) A Tribute to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia and New Zealand (2019), with Chelsea Maier Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea (2022)
Urban and regional guides
Urban Reptiles (2024) — a study of which species thrive and which struggle as Sydney expands. Reptiles of the Red Centre (2025), with Rex Neindorf and Brian Bush — a natural history of the reptile fauna of central Australia. Reptiles of the Greater Sydney Region (2026), with Tim Faulkner — a modern field guide to the snakes and lizards of Sydney's bushland, coast and suburbs.
Several further titles are in progress, including a history of the Australian Herpetological Society (with Gerry Swan) and Megafauna (with Tim Faulkner and Dr Timothy Churchill).
Why people call Urban Reptile Removal
35 years of hands-on reptile experience
Fully licensed and insured
Greater Sydney coverage, every day of the year
Identification of venomous and non-venomous species
Safe, humane relocation
Practical, property-specific prevention advice
Snake safety and awareness sessions for schools, councils and workplaces
URR works with residential properties, construction and demolition sites, real estate agencies, government departments, schools and childcare centres, commercial and industrial premises, and parks and sporting facilities. Chris has personally relocated thousands of snakes across Greater Sydney, from Eastern Browns and Red-bellied Blacks to Diamond Pythons and Golden-crowned Snakes.
If you find a snake
Stay calm. Most snakes are defensive rather than aggressive. They want to leave more than you want them gone.
Keep children and pets away. A safe distance is anything past the snake's body length.
Keep visual contact if you can. Watch from a safe distance without disturbing it. A snake that's been watched continuously is much faster to locate when we arrive than one that's been left to find a new hiding place.
Call us. 0418 633 474.
A call-out fee applies whether or not the snake is found. Attendance, inspection and professional assessment are provided either way.
Snakebite first aid
Call 000.
Keep the patient calm and still.
Apply a pressure immobilisation bandage firmly over the bite site and the entire limb.
Do not wash the bite.
Mark the bite location on the outside of the bandage.
Wait for the ambulance.
Most snake bites in Australia happen when people try to catch or kill the snake themselves. The safest thing to do is step back and make the call.
Sydney's reptiles are part of the city
Greater Sydney's bushland corridors, waterways, and expanding suburbs are home to a remarkable diversity of native reptiles. They are protected under Australian law and they are part of what makes living here interesting.
If you need a snake catcher anywhere in Greater Sydney, call 0418 633 474.
Chris Williams — Founder, Urban Reptile Removal
Chris Williams has been working with Australian reptiles since 1990. He started as a reptile-handling instructor for WIRES, then spent the early 1990s at Taronga Zoo and the Australian Reptile Park, handling everything from cobras and rattlesnakes to Australian elapids, and contributing to public education programs across NSW.
He has been President of the Australian Herpetological Society — NSW's oldest reptile-focused organisation — since 2014, and is the author or co-author of six books on Australian reptiles. Urban Reptile Removal began as a one-man operation in Ryde and now operates across Greater Sydney with a team of trained catchers.
