Correct!.. coming from a venom-nerd. Have a gold star!
Most aussie snakes are elapids, so have mostly neurotoxin venoms - hits you where it hurts, shuts down your brain and paralyses you until you either have a heart attack or suffocate - basically complete respiratory failure. Doesn't take long either, it's all over and done with in 12 hours or so. Due to lack of tissue-damaging toxins (cytotoxins) in Aussie snake venom, yes, they very rarely hurt and have minimal swelling beyond what you'd expect from a puncture wound.

Rattlers are vipers and tend to have haemotoxic/cytotoxic venoms, which cause major swelling, hemorrhaging, heart attack, and tissue death. Mainly in your organs such as liver, lungs and heart, and it HURTS. It usually kills you from internal bleeding or organ failure. Thus, pressure bandaging the area is bad for these kinds of snakes, as you're just going to cause even more severe damage to the area affected. The more painful the bite, the more cytotoxin it contains. Tends to be long slow and painful too... can take up to 3 days to kill you. Even if you do survive it, you've still got to find a doctor who's experienced in snakebite treatment. You could end up with some eejit who's first idea of treatment is to cut off the affected limb (still happens A LOT in the States) due to compartment syndrome, or to fillet open the limb to relieve the pressure. You just got to damn hope you get a good doctor if you want your life back after a serious viper bite!

However, venom composition still varies between snakes - you could be uber unlucky and have a nice 50/50 mix of the two main types!
( Bathory, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 16:28, Reply)