The Aussies

It’s a good thing that Matthew Wright has Urban Cowboy good looks, swagger and an Aussie accent – otherwise we’d probably skip an invite to a backyard barbecue at his place in Australia – you never know what you’ll run into. According to Wright, who was the guest of honor at the Residence of Australian Ambassador and Mrs. Joe Hockey, that would most likely include wildlife, reptiles, snakes, and anything that crawls and slithers.

“Growing up,” he told Hollywood on the Potomac, “I was into fishing and just loved getting out there and catching a lot of deadly snakes when I was about six……..brown snakes. That sort of drove mum a little bit mad; but she taught me right from wrong when working with wildlife. We had our own farm animals, but she didn’t like me dealing with the deadly ones that were always present as a young kid. We lived in Papua, New Guinea for about nine months and I was off with the locals there catching sea snakes. These are some of the deadliest snakes in the world but you don’t have fear when you’re a kid. She understood that and tried to keep me safe and keep me away from it all so we did a few deals together. I could have my own pet snakes that weren’t deadly if I would stop catching. So it’s pretty much from that drive I had when I was a kid just growing up that it developed into bigger and better things. Now I collect crocodile eggs and fly choppers for four months of the year. That’s just finished now. I think I did my last few days last week. Other times of the year, I’m catching and I’m moving large crocs throughout the northern territory.”

The occasion for the celebration at the Ambassador’s residence was Season Two of Nat Geo WILD’s Outback Wrangler……that would be Wright. “It‘s our own production,” he told us. “We did the first season with Nat Geo of Outback Wrangler and the second season as well. But now we run the production; so myself and Nick and Ash, who are business partners. are in the middle of filming the third season. Nat Geo has partnered with us to do that production as well.”