Moving fast, the eastern brown snake darts its body out of the unlatched white alcove.
With agile sleight of hand, Billy Collett – operations manager at the Australian Reptile Park on NSW's Central Coast – hooks the three-metre reptile and carefully grabs it by the tail.
We are standing in a heated, humid room, surrounded by dozens of enclosures.
READ MORE: Why Australia's deadliest snake is so lethal
Behind each glass door is a highly venomous Australian snake.
"The brown snakes are wild, while pretty much all the others are bred," Collett says, holding up the wriggling reptile.
"This is a wild-caught eastern brown from the Gold Coast.
"This is an average-sized male, but they can get bigger.
"A drop of venom could kill 100 people."
The reptile, which happens to be Australia's second most venomous snake after the inland taipan, thrashes angrily, flicking its tongue.
Despite being Australia's deadliest snake, responsible for the most fatalities, Collett said eastern browns are not the most difficult to handle.
That honour goes to coastal taipans, a cousin to Australia's most venomous snake.
READ MORE: What to do if you encounter a deadly snake, spider or jellyfish
"Coastal taipans are probably one of the smartest of our Australian snakes," Collett said.
"I personally find them the most challenging to handle.
"Browns snakes are excited, they just sort of go crazy and defensive.
"The coastal will wait for the exact perfect moment to strike.
"They're very calculated – a seriously dangerous snake."
The comments came as 9news.com.au went behind the scenes of the park's venom program to learn what's involved with milking these dangerous creatures, which is all done to save Australian lives.
How antivenom is made
The park has been supplying terrestrial snake venom for the sole purpose of antivenom production since the 1950s, while the funnel-web spider program was introduced in 1981.
Five species of venomous snakes are milked for venom: taipans, brown snakes, death adders, tiger snakes and king browns.
Funnel-webs, Australia's most dangerous spider, and redback spiders are the eight-legged critters milked for spider antivenom.
The programs are estimated to have saved more than 25,000 lives since their inception, with deadly bites plummeting dramatically.
READ MORE: Three new spider species discovered in Australian Alps
Despite being home to 21 of the 25 most toxic snakes in the world, Australia only has, on average, one to two snake bite fatalities each year.
And there's not been a fatal spider bite since 1981.
"We milk each snake species once a fortnight, and then we refrigerate the venom, and freeze dry it," Collett said, holding up a vial of crystallised taipan venom.
"Pretty scary to think that's enough venom to kill about, I'm not even joking, 50,000 people.
"It's serious, toxic stuff."
From there, the frozen venom is sent to Seqiris, a lab in Victoria, where it's rehydrated.
A tiny amount is injected into horses once a week for a minimum of six months.
"The horses' immune systems are so strong they start producing venom-resistant plasma," Collett explained.
"At the end of the six-month, or nine-month period, depending on the species, that venom-resistant plasma is extracted and separated out.
"Everything else goes back into the horse, and it's back in the paddock that afternoon eating grass.
"I've been down and seen it, it's crazy.
"You have your taipan horses, your death adder horses in a paddock, they're categorised by species, and they're living completely normal lives."
Challenges of producing, and administering, antivenom
Over the decades, Collett said, the Reptile Park's process has developed into a smooth and seamless one.
But milking the animals is not without its challenges.
Sourcing enough funnel-webs to produce a life-saving vial of spider antivenom is one of the main difficulties encountered.
Collett said one vial of snake antivenom takes about 30 milkings, whereas spider antivenom takes a whole "lot more".
"We rely on public donations for our funnel-web program," he said, pointing to a spinning centrifuge behind him.
It's packed with vials of funnel-web venom.
"What I'm processing now is from about 3000 funnel-web milkings and that's only just going to make the next order," he said.
"I need to do that four times a year, and the males only live for about 12 months, whereas we can have a taipan live for about 15 years.
"It's not a long life for a male funnel-web, unfortunately, but we'll never fall to critical levels.
"Even if we have to go out until 2am trying to find one."
We leave the room full of venomous snakes and make our way to a new one, in a separate building.
Rows of clear plastic containers line the shelves of this small room.
Each is filled with a venomous black spider.
The funnel-webs donated to Australian Reptile Park have to be housed in a cool, dark room between 22 and 23 degrees to match the arachnids' favoured habitat.
The production of spider antivenom follows a similar process to snakes, but rabbits are used instead of horses.
In Australia, the provision of antivenom to bite victims is free of charge but for hospitals, vials can cost between $400-1000.
"Spider antivenom is really responsive and people seem to take it really well," Collett said.
"Maybe 20 per cent of people, not quite, are allergic to snake antivenom.
"If you are allergic you can still get it, they will start giving you adrenaline with it.
"You will know within about two, three minutes if you are.
"You start blowing out in red rashes, start feeling tight in your throat, feeling hot and stiff.
"They'll cut you off, hit you with adrenaline and introduce it to the feeding bag."
While it's helpful to know what species of snake you've been bitten by, Collett said there's a general vial that can be administered.
"It's a mix of everything and that's if they have no idea what you've been bitten by and you're crashing really badly," he said.
Sitting next to a table laden with open containers and rearing funnel-webs, Collett ponders if he has an animal he's most fazed by.
His answer is surprising.
"Koalas," he said deadpan.
"I've never not been bitten by a koala."
The man with the container
Leaving the facility under a stormy summer sky, a leather-clad man riding a motorbike pulls up.
He hops off his bike, clutching a tightly lidded jam jar.
Inside the glass vessel, packed with dirt, is a very alive funnel-web.
The man is more than happy to show it off.
"We caught this at my daughter's apartment, just down the road," he tells 9news.com.au.
"Thought I'd quickly run it up to these guys."
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