Eric Worrell was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n herpetologist

Herpetology

Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles...

 and writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 who was a pioneer in the production of snake anti-venom in Australia.

Worrell was born in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and grew up in Paddington

Paddington, New South Wales

Paddington is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Paddington is located 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Sydney and the Municipality of Woollahra...

. During the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 he worked as a civilian blacksmith

Blacksmith

A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

 on the installation of shore artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 in Darwin

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

 while studying and collecting reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s.

In 1949, Worrell opened the Ocean Beach Aquarium at Umina Beach

Umina Beach, New South Wales

Umina Beach is a suburb within the City of Gosford local government area on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia.By road, it is north of Sydney and south of Newcastle....

 on the New South Wales Central Coast. It was here that he first started supplying snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

 venom

Venom

Venom is the general term referring to any variety of toxins used by certain types of animals that inject it into their victims by the means of a bite or a sting...

 to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories

CSL Limited

CSL Limited is a global specialty biopharmaceutical company that researches, develops, manufactures and markets products to treat and prevent serious human medical conditions...

 (CSL) in Melbourne. In 1958, he moved to Wyoming, New South Wales

Wyoming, New South Wales

Wyoming is a suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, located northeast of Gosford's central business district. It is part of the City of Gosford local government area....

, establishing the Australian Reptile Park

Australian Reptile Park

The Australian Reptile Park is located at Somersby on the Central Coast, New South Wales in Australia. It is about North of Sydney, and is just off the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway...

. In 1996, after Worrell's death, the Park was moved to Somersby

Somersby, New South Wales

Somersby is a semi-rural locality of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, located to the northwest of Gosford along the Pacific Highway...

.

In 1970 Worrell received an MBE

MBE

MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...

 in recognition of his lifesaving role in the development of snake anti-venoms. In the same year the ARP began supplying funnel-web spider

Funnel-web spider

Funnel-web spider can refer to:* Araneomorph funnel-web spider, the modern funnel-web spider, suborder Araneomorph* Australian funnel-web spider, including** Sydney funnel-web spider* Funnel-web tarantula:** Dipluridae, suborder Mygalomorphae...

venom to the CSL in the process of developing an anti-venom. He died of a heart attack, aged 63, in 1987.

External links

• Australian Reptile Park