Fourth time was the charm for a snake catcher in the Sunshine Coast, after an eastern brown snake he was called out to remove managed to avoid capture three times.

Stuart McKenzie from Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 posted video to Facebook showing the sneaky snake escaping by slithering through his legs and out of sight in the garden of a property in Nambour.

He said in the Facebook post that the first time he called out to catch the snake, he wasn’t able to see it at all, and it was on the second attempt that it managed to make its getaway. He says in the video that a third effort was made by his colleague, but this was also unsuccessful.

“I made up for it a few days later when we were called back out and I was able to grab the snake before it made it down its hole,” McKenzie wrote. Credit: Stuart McKenzie via Storyful

Video transcript

STUART MCKENZIE: We are back again in Nambour at this house, which I've already caught a brown snake around this tree stump a few weeks ago. It took me two goes. And now I'm back for another one around the same tree stump.

And this is the second go as well, so a bit of deja vu happening. Hopefully it's like last time. And we can catch it on the second attempt-- fingers crossed. Wish me luck. Is it still there?

- Yeah. He's been quite-- he's moving around a bit.

STUART MCKENZIE: I'm going to snake around the back because I know where his hole is. And I'm going to go straight for that. All right, where you going? Where you going? Oh, oh, you!

OK, we're back at Nambour, trying to catch this brown. He's in the tree stump. And I missed it last time. [INAUDIBLE] back. I'm going to throw it between me legs with this tong. I can't make the same mistake. So we will see here we go.

[DOG BARKING]

And which way is he going in, back around?

- [INAUDIBLE]

STUART MCKENZIE: Did he go back around the back?

- Um, he kind of went through the middle there.

STUART MCKENZIE: Like through where he is?

- [INAUDIBLE]

STUART MCKENZIE: I'm still going to go block that hole first, I think.

- OK.

- [INAUDIBLE]

- [INAUDIBLE]

STUART MCKENZIE: Finally got it.

- Yay!

STUART MCKENZIE: Get in the bag. Oh my god.

- Thank you.

STUART MCKENZIE: How good is that? Finally got this brown snake. It was my fault the first time. I completely missed it-- went through my legs. Second time, never saw it. Third time, Heather went out, but had no chance just because it was in the hole and never really came out.

And then fourth time, lucky. And obviously, charged the first time, but not any of the other times because it was my fault. So see you, snakey.