From Eric Worrell “As a Sunday afternoon jaunt my father would perhaps drive me to La Perouse where I first saw George Cann, the snake-man, and dropped threepences in the collection plate after his demonstrations. After awhile George Cann became used to seeing the little, curly-headed boy in short pants and a blazer standing about for hour after hour. Sometimes he would let me carry a bag of snakes home with him, and the day George Cann himself actually gave me a whip snake was one boasted about for many months.”

CANN SNAKE SHOW – END OF AN ERA AT LA PEROUSE 18th April 2010

It’s 5.13pm and John Cann is making his final exit from the La Perouse Snake Pit in Cann Park, La Perouse.

The first crowds today saw local NSW MP, Michael Daley, and Federal MP, Peter Garrett, who came to make a special presentation. They reminded everyone of the significance of the contribution that the Cann Family had made to our knowledge of Australian reptiles and in helping to save lives with the development of anti-venoms, and education on deadly snakes.

 

The crowds had dwindled by the final show of the afternoon but John was still in top form showing off the Python; in command of the Goanna; taking around George Senior’s Army hat; being photographed with family (including sister Noreen who featured as a baby in this newsreel: Film Clip of George Cann and son in 1938.) and the final pack up – ‘off into the sunset’.

LINK TO CANN FAMILY WEBSITE

 

John Cann also played a critical role in saving the Mary River Turtle and stopping the Traveston Dam

Link to EarthWatch article Deferred Dam Could Be Saving Grace for Endangered Wildlife

TIME TO SAY GOODBYE TO SOME NOT SO CUDDLY FRIENDS:Tim Elliott
January 23, 2010, Sydney Morning Herald

FOR A 72-year-old professional snake charmer, John Cann has done pretty well. “I only got bitten seven times,” he says. “But I certainly remember them all.”

There was the Clarence River snake that bit him on the right index finger and “made me bring up blood clots”.

Then there was the red-bellied black snake that struck the webbing of his thumb and put him in hospital for eight days. And of course, there were the tiger snakes, one of which sent him temporarily blind.

“White blind, though, not black blind,” he says.

“Like flying through clouds in a light airplane until everything went white.”

But Mr Cann will be bitten no more. Having drawn audiences to his Sunday afternoon snake show for more than 40 years, the legendary Snake Man of La Perouse is giving the game away.

“It’s become a bit much,” he said. “My older brother, George, who ran the show with me, died. Then there’s the public risk insurance, and the cost of feeding and housing the animals. I want to travel with my wife, and you can’t do that when you have a weekly show.”

Mr Cann’s involvement was following in family footsteps. His mother, Essie Bradley, was the first snake woman of Tasmania; his father, George Cann snr, was running a snake show in Hatte’s Arcade in Newtown by age 13. After fighting in France during World War I, George snr returned in 1919 to take over the loop in La Perouse, a snake pit that had hosted performances since 1897.

The pit’s previous operators had been a colourful, if luckless, lot: its founder, Professor Frederick Fox, died after being bitten by a krait in Calcutta; the next operator, Garnett See, was killed in 1913 by a brown snake at his first La Perouse show; Tom Wanless, a subsequent owner, died in 1921, struck by a green mamba during a demonstration in South Africa.

In 1938, Cann snr became the curator of reptiles at Taronga Park Zoo, but continued to run the loop on weekends, with help from his young sons, George jnr and John. When their father died of a stroke in 1965, the sons took over. Their father had been bitten often – on his nose, knee, Achilles tendon – so often in fact that he was said to have developed immunity. But John has not been so resilient.

“I have developed a few allergies from my bites, which I guess is another reason to give it away,” he said.

Mr Cann’s last gig will be in the next couple of months – he won’t say exactly when. (”Don’t want no razzamatazz.”) He will hand the show over to the Hawkesbury Herpetological Society, together with his 25 venomous snakes, which he keeps at his Phillip Bay home, together with goannas, pythons, lizards and a small saltwater crocodile.

He plans to pursue his fascination with fresh water turtles.

“I want to go camping, get out and about,” Mr Cann said. “There’s still lots to see out there.”   (All in the family … John Cann with a python in his backyard.
Photo: Kate Geraghty)