Thrud

I am trying to get an idea of the distribution of nasty critters accross Oz, for example the sandfly, i hear its bad around Sydney.

Crocs seem mostly North and gold coast, bull sharks all around Oz, snakes seem to be everywhere.

any info would be appreciated.

tonyk38

The one thing that can kill you very quickly and painfully is the box jellyfish which is found in all the warmer waters of Australia at certain times of year. People do not go in the water when they're about, and with very good reason......

Deadly snakes are found Australia wide including Tasmania, but the deadliest are found in Qld, the Taipan and the Fierce Snake.

Redbacks, white tails and most other spiders are found throughout the mainland. Not sure about Tas. Sydney is particularly notorious for the most dangerous spider the Funnel Web.

Saltwater Crocs rarely stray as far south as NSW and are pretty rare Gold Coast area too.

Dangerous sharks are found in all waters.

Scorpions are found Australia wide.

Sandflies and mozzies are particularly bad in wetter areas where they breed. Coastal breezes in some suburbs generally keep their numbers down.

You'll find however that you are v. unlikely to encounter any probs from dangerous wildlife. I'd be more concerned about fire ants in the house, which bite as do most Aussie ants, termites eating the house, plus cockroaches, or ending up as a road accident statistic!

The latter may be nothing to do with wildlife but is a whole lot more likely, alas.

Hope that helps a tad.

Edit: The most irritating bug in Australia and possibly the known Universe is the fly. Squizillions of them. Aus is where all the flies in the rest of the world take their hols methinks!

diddy

You should pobably do a search on here for the Dropbear too. They're deadly.

Grayling

Tony is right.
The Box jelly fish is serious problem especially as it make swimming in the sea extremely dangerous anywhere north of mid Queensland in the summer- the very time people want to swim.

Fire ants are dangerous because they commonly cause Anaphylactic shock in people who have never come across them before.This is a particular problem for migrants. Anaphylactic reactions are very dangerous (very similar to the reaction some people get to peanuts etc).

Mosquito's are a serious problem They do not carry malaria in Australia but can cause Dengue fever, Japanese Encephalitis and Ross river fever and I believe west Nile virus is spreading worldwide.
Those mosquito bites may turn out to be more than just an irritation :scared:

Take care

G

tonyk38

Forgot those......God those things claim more lives than anything else! Think Koala with big teeth and you'll get the picture!

DollyDaydream

Sorry, couldn't resist!!!!

http://www.purple.dropbear.id.au/curios/dropbear.html

D D

Thrud

So apart from the dropbear ;-), and excluding snakes, mossies and spiders the distribution
from current ifo I have drawn up, sadly the site only allows a measly 39kb on PDF files.

Scary

Siren & Brian

WTF..... there is shitloads of insects... so what there is 20 million other people that survive

Thrud

So what burbs in North perth, and what critters do you have, apart from flies??

Wibble

aussie73

While snakes, box jellyfish , sharks, crocodiles and all the other nasty creatures in OZ mangage to kill around 10 people a year, there is another creature that no one seems to worry about even though it is the only creature that is likely to cause you death or serious injury in OZ.
It kills 1,000 Australians a year, It has a steel coat and travels at great speed on four wheels.

HiddenPaw

1700 per year is more like it, sadly

Mel Gibson

CANBERRA .................................................. ....................................
:scared: :scared:

johnnie7au

We have lots of Redback spiders in our back yard. They are not aggressive so no prob. If bitten it is painful and can make you quite sick.

Big stinging centipedes.

Mosquitos that carry Ross River and Barmah Forest virus. My daughter was very ill for 6 months with Barmah Forest.

Death adder, Dugites and brown snakes.

My wife got stung on the bum twice by a native wasp!

You learn how to live with them.

Better than coping with Mad cow disease!

Siren & Brian

Well the Ex lives at .......

Ceri

crocs - none in the GC or Brisbane , or anywhere in South east Queensland and NSW - unless you pay a visit to the zoo that is . They stop short of Gladstone , further North.

Used to be crocs around many years ago apparently ( going back over a century) history, when it was all marsh land and farms, it seems cattle were taken by crocs. I have an old document, government report somewhere on the computer regarding this, damned if I can find it though. They did used to come down as far as Brisbane contrary to popular belief that they were never around here. so did Barramundi, but they were fished out.
Last one saw I believe was in the Logan, which was shot. They said it must have been someone's released pet, and not a wild croc that strayed down here.
A couple of tourists thought they saw a croc up the SC last year, nobody could find it though. Anyway, crocs in Brisbane today - no. If you find one , make sure to film it, you could sell the footage of it for a few a grand to " today tonight" ( a so-called current affairs programme) lol

Box jelly fish, none in Brisbane either , they prefer warmer waters.

sandflies ... depends, not too bad at all here in Brisbane but there is a stretch up in the SC that I got bitten to pieces to one evening. Worse than mozzies for itching .

sharks, just don't swim in the night/evening, or dawn, or overcast days, or murky waters, or where people are fishing.. wouldn't worry about it If I were you, do you know how many people are in the water every single day, and how many get attacked?.. you're more likely to get into a crash on the road than attacked by a shark.

The Logan river croc that was shot below, still can't find that Gov report I had, wonder if someone has deleted it, hope not, it was very interesting

cheers