Geraldton Golf Club’s resident cocky Charlie has a licence to kill

They can bring out all the big guns they like to stop the cocky invasion in Geraldton, but nothing is going to gag this cocky. And Charlie is, to say the least, a pretty cocky fella. He has reason to be. When a big western brown snake recently slithered into Charlie’s cage, he was on borrowed time. Charlie gives plenty of mouth to members of Geraldton Golf Club — where he lives in a cage between the 18th and “19th” holes — and he did the same to his slippery unwanted visitor. Charlie only needed one bite to kill the snake. Club professional Daniel Bennett was on his way to give lessons when he saw the snake, curled up but alive. Members called a snake catcher, but when Dave McIntosh arrived, the snake was dead. “I was glad it was dead, because they tell me Charlie is a cranky old so and so, and I didn’t want to be in his cage trying to catch a snake,” Mr McIntosh said. “Charlie got the snake right in its heart; he hardly left a mark. I was amazed, and don’t know whether it was luck or experience from his long life. The snake was humungous. “Western browns are the most common snakes around Geraldton and they are very venomous snakes. They are around between August and April.” As for Charlie, he’s been around a lot longer. It’s reputed Charlie was owned by a man who liked a drink or three and the bird learnt a fair amount of language from patrons leaving an old Geraldton hotel. Golf club members still hear plenty of “blue” words — and have learnt from experience not to get their fingers too close to his beak. For many years, Charlie was cared for by Ian Taplin, a former shearer and later a longtime live-in groundsman at the golf club before his death. Mr Taplin had aviaries and many, many birds — but none like Charlie. “He says a lot of naughty things, he’s pretty well-known,” Mr Taplin said years ago in an interview. Nothing’s changed, except Charlie can add “snake killer” to his CV.