Originally Posted by mohogony

Yes l check my toilet everyday incase there a deadly Taipan snake in it and under by bedsheet everday incase theres a nest of deadly funnel web spiders and l don't dare wonder into my backyard incase l get eaten by a croc or a man eating koala.

Originally Posted by mohogony

Educating people about snakes spiders or sharks is a total waste of time and money becasue they kill almost no one ,the money should be spent on road safety , road accidents kill 1,600 people a year, snakes and spiders kill 2 people. l have lived in OZ for 30 years never been bitten by a snake spider or attacked by any dangerous creature apart from a dog and l don't know anyone who has and l go bushwalking and swimming in the ocean all the time,but l know plenty of people who have been killed or injured in car accidents.

Originally Posted by livinginreality

Think yourself lucky then I personally don't feel its a waste of time educating people about snakes,spiders ect.It should be mandatory when it comes to kids!My kids (aussies)were well aware of the dangers and I recall one day,a brown snake had slithered into the school yard and they immediately evacuated the grounds,called the snake catcher and it was only from some savvy kid that reported it to the teacher in time that no kids were hurt.You don't have to frighten the living daylights out of your kids whilst educating them!

Originally Posted by mohogony

Educating people about snakes spiders or sharks is a total waste of time and money becasue they kill almost no one ,the money should be spent on road safety , road accidents kill 1,600 people a year, snakes and spiders kill 2 people. l have lived in OZ for 30 years never been bitten by a snake spider or attacked by any dangerous creature apart from a dog and l don't know anyone who has and l go bushwalking and swimming in the ocean all the time,but l know plenty of people who have been killed or injured in car accidents.

Originally Posted by Dorothy

I've said it before and I'll say it again...We came here in 2006 with 5 children. In the past 2 1/2 years we've lost one to a man eating shark while we were sitting on the beach having a picnic. Bloody shark came right out of the water and took him. We lost another to a 6' spider wearing size 12 Adidas. I'm not sure what kind of spider it was, but I didn't bother to check under the toilet seat that morning and voila! One less child. The third was lost to a snake which was hiding in a shoe. Those brown snakes are really wily buggers, I'll tell ya. Though how anything could have survived in my kids' shoe is beyond me. It must have really been looking for someone to kill.

Now, I have 2 kids left and we're thinking we really should move somewhere that crocs are prevelant. Anyone know of nice places in Darwin?

Originally Posted by tking

In 8 years I have not seen a redback, funnelweb, snake of any description or a shark in the wild. The only freaky thing I have seen is a huntsmen and that was sorted with a spray of mortein.

Originally Posted by folic

We had redbacks in Burleigh, on the Gold Coast. Didn't realise, until the experienced pest control man told us. He was hypervigilant I suppose, having recently spent 2 days in Gold Coast hospital after being bitten by .. a redback. Hurt like hell, he said -- and can kill a child or small pet .. as well as making a 'big strong man' (like himself) very sick.

Came to Sydney for a few years and now we live just 8 clicks from the CBD. New residential complex and crawling with .. redbacks. And huntsmen which come down from the big 'native' trees they saw fit to blight us with. Woman next door has a one year old. She spends a lot of time removing redbacks from around her home and nearly flipped when she found one inside the tracks of the front sliding doors.

When we lived in the South Burnett and went rural for a few years, we tramped through the bush talking our faces off, unaware of dangers. Until one day we came home to learn our lovely Collie had been killed by two red-bellied black snakes which had set up home under the house. My mother got under the house (about 3/4 metre headroom under there) and dealt with them using a short handled axe we used to chop kindling wood. Then she burnt them for good measure (she's from Yorkshire with a bit of Irish in there somewhere -- still going strong at 80-odd, only these days she deals with drug-dealer neighbours on the Gold Coast).

Some years ago, we tried acreage living in Elanora (Gold Coast again) overlooking the golf courses. Our little poodle was being a bit noisy. We asked him to be quiet, but he kept it up, so we went to investigate and discovered he was having a great time killing nasty snakes, out in the yard. As far as we knew, he was a novice at it, yet still he had three of them (not huge ones) lying on the ground with what seemed to be broken backs.

But the gigantic carpet-snake which wound itself over the archway leading to the pool didn't scare us (well, not too much, anyway). Turned out the kids had known he was hanging around for ages. They'd called him 'Eddy' and liked him, but nevertheless, we called in the man from Fleay's to take Eddy away.

As a kid on the Surfers beach, I saw a tourist brought in from behind the breaker-line by life-savers. He'd been attacked by sharks and was dead by the time they got him onto the beach. It was pretty graphic. I still remember him lying there with a huge section of himself missing. Still remember his name, in fact, but won't mention it here as it may disturb any of his relatives who might see this.

Kids at Tallebudgera lived on the caravan park that used to be there. While their parents slept-in, the kids were raiding the bread-box each morning for bread to feed their 'pet fish' down in the shallows ... before same kids went in for a play in the water further down towards the bridge. It was featured in the Gold Coast Bulletin .. oh, maybe 20 years or so ago. Turned out the 'pet fish' was a massive shark. When one of the fathers got up early and saw it, he turned a whiter shade of pale .. later told the Bulletin that his kids and others had been feeding the 'fish' for at least two weeks. After that, the mystery of all the missing pet dogs was solved, sadly. And Pet Fish was hunted out through the bar by lifesavers in a rubber-ducky.

In Sydney, we saw on the tv news that professional fishermen had killed a giant bull-shark that was cruising around the Homebush Bay luxury units. There was a bit of a stink from conservationists, who argued that bull-shark attacks were rare. The fishermen argued otherwise, but were publicly shamed. This was not long after the Sydney Olympics. Of course, all of Australia heard recently about the bull-shark which attacked an Australian Navy diver closer to the Harbour Bridge, and this time, the conservationists kept it quiet. If you visit Sydney, you'll see dozens of people plying their way around the Harbour (and in Homebush Bay) in canoes and other light craft. Aussies like to live dangerously.

Originally Posted by Grayling

....and utter boredom

Originally Posted by lastere

that's not entirely relevant, but nice try
how many of the 1,600 were drunk/speeding/driving at 3AM saturday etc. maybe 1,200. probabilities are a little tricky.

it's the same with shark attacks vs lightning. maybe lightning kills more in nominal terms, but you have to calculate shark attacks based on those who enter the water/surf-hours etc etc. if i stay on the shore my risk is 0. whereas i can get struck by lightning on the beach.

Originally Posted by Dorothy

I've said it before and I'll say it again...We came here in 2006 with 5 children. In the past 2 1/2 years we've lost one to a man eating shark while we were sitting on the beach having a picnic. Bloody shark came right out of the water and took him. We lost another to a 6' spider wearing size 12 Adidas. I'm not sure what kind of spider it was, but I didn't bother to check under the toilet seat that morning and voila! One less child. The third was lost to a snake which was hiding in a shoe. Those brown snakes are really wily buggers, I'll tell ya. Though how anything could have survived in my kids' shoe is beyond me. It must have really been looking for someone to kill.

Now, I have 2 kids left and we're thinking we really should move somewhere that crocs are prevelant. Anyone know of nice places in Darwin?

Originally Posted by hantsfamily1

I have to get up 10 minutes earlier than in the UK to check the whole house and all the family shoes everyday for nasty creatures......

Originally Posted by london52

Chill man, its bad....but not that bad.

Originally Posted by Broad Shoulders

Again QLD has the most killer doctors there too. Whatever you do, do not go bushwalking in Bundaberg

Originally Posted by Holbrob

What about the drop bears!!! Nobody has mentioned the drop bears!!! Run for your lives

Originally Posted by ozzieeagle

Bugger people got in with the Drop bears before I could. Bloody dangerous as all hell if an aggresive Koala takes you out. Then we have swooping Magpies every spring, now they can cause a nasty peck, and knock you off your bike. (figured I'd put a credible part in)


Strangest thing of the lot, is the Roo Shoo'ers, when the Roos get to plague proportions and start blocking up the highways etc, and people have to go out and shoo them away. Nice job if people like living in the bush.

Oh oh, I can hear a flock of Galahs eyeying up my cat in the Back Yard, best bring him in, wouldnt want him taken off and eaten.

Locust plague anyone ?

Originally Posted by Pollyana

Yeah, definitely a plague of locusts this year - they had daylight saving in WA, which apparently allowed the locusts extra time to breed........