Kevin Clifford Budden (September 27, 1930[1] – July 28, 1950)[2] was an amateur Australian herpetologist and snake hunter.
Extracting a promise from the truck driver that he would get the snake to someone who would transport it south to researchers, Budden was taken for medical treatment.
Budden's captured snake was sent alive to the Commonwealth Research Laboratories in Melbourne,[8][9] where its venom was successfully milked by zoologist David Fleay,[11] who was at that time the director of Healesville Sanctuary.
[9] Venom from the captured taipan was instrumental in researching and developing an antivenom, which became available in 1955,[12] and saved the life of an 11-year-old Cairns boy before the year was over.
[13] In a 2014 article published in the Journal of Proteomics, University of Queensland venomologist Bryan Fry reported finding specimens of the venom harvested from the taipan that killed Budden.