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Check out our online exhibition
Human fascination with the power of venom and the quest for a universal antidote against this most feared of poisons, is deeply woven into the history of medicine. Australia has some of the world's most venomous creatures. Over thousands of years Australian Aboriginal people incorporated ways of understanding and dealing with these venomous creatures in their cultural and healing practices. Colonial Australia response was fear and fascination. The first exhibits at the Melbourne Zoological Gardens were snakes to warn the local population of their danger. From the first professor of Medicine, George Britton Halford, the University of Melbourne has been part of the global debate on the nature of venom.
Take a walk back through the history of venom in Venom: Fear, Fascination and Discovery.
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