I guess I've been watching Animal PLanet too much lately. They had something on the other night about a croc vs a great white whcih set me to thinking (a very dangerous thing mind you). Ok the whole country is surrounded by water which is in the southern part due to the coldness infested with Great Whites and in the north with all those fun loving Makos and Tigers. The top 3 deadliest sharks in the wold. They also have the worlds deadliest jelly fish. Now on land , they have the meanest land critter even grumpier than outr wolverines and badgers....the Tasmanian Devil (that thing was born pissed-off). Of the 10 deadliest snakes in the world 7 reside in Austrailia the top three... the Fierce, Taipan and Brown. hey have a spider over there that makes the bite of a brown recluse look like a bee sting. and so on.....and so on.... The point is, no one in his right mind should want to live there, yet they do and quite happily I might add. So the $64,000 is....are they crazy, brave, or in denial? #:-) :-)

I won't take my hat off 'cause me solar panel that drives the sex machine might overheat. :-)

BUT as a new Australian Citizen (as of yesterday) I have to say that the answer is none of them.

On a day to day basis we never think about the snakesor spiders. Yes we do take precausions all the time but most are done on a subconsious basis. I have seen large 5foot king browns out in the paddocks and given then a wide berth but if the same snake was in my fenced house yard it would be dead. Most people are bitten when they are trying to kill the snake, which is only trying to defend itself.

The colorful array of bird and animal life that we have which is not deadly more then makes up for odd few that are. At the moment we have a pet huntsman spider inside. At 4inches in diameter he is only a small one but he is harmless and keeps the insects down.

Did you know we also have 3 or 4 species of scorpions as well as torantula spiders as well?

I personly would live nowhere else now as this truely is Gods own country. Even if my solar panel overheats now and again LOL :-)

Cheers
Cliff

Don't forget that, in addition to the crocs, you could also run into Bull Sharks, considered by many experts to be the most dangerous species of shark, in Australia's rivers.
And I thought I had it bad up here in the Pacific Northwest with forests full of bears, cougars (not the Washington State University variety, of which I am one), and bigfoot!

Congratulations Mr Roo. Good on yer (or something like that.)


As to the original question, I personally would give one or two body parts, nothing required of course, to visit Australia. I would just stay as far away as I could from the critters Blaster talks about.

4" spider eh? I'd love one of those but my wife and daughters would go nuts. They freak out over daddy long legs.

It's funny but someone I knew visited Australia and told me of the precautions people take to avoid some of these deadly animals. It seemed OK to me until she mentioned spiders that lurk in the toilet and bite dangly bits. That alone was enough for me to cross Australia off my Places to Visit list.

:-) LMAO! Martin only you could have came up with that line. To funny!

Garry

When i visited Australia 5 years ago, i used the public toilet in one of their tourist attractions.

finished my business, flushed and voila! An eight-legged freak was swimming in the whirlpool

i dont know if it was hiding in there while i was doing my business or it crawled in after i stood up. Or it liked the smell of my dinner?

the thought gives me shivers everytime!

I live in Africa, but that doesn't mean we have elephants and lions roaming the streets...

Mr Roo, congrats! Where you from originally?

I'm a Kiwi (New Zealander) as well

Are you now a hopping kiwi, or a feathered kangaroo?

a bit of both but still flightless LOL :-) :-) :-)

(or witless as the wife calls me from time to time :-) )

Seems an interesting combination... Maybe it is a new species???

Cliff

Congratulations on becomming an Aussie

I should also mention that some of our sea snakes are the deadliest in the world and they make land snakes look like harmless pythons.

I must admit that when I went on an army exchange to NZ we thought it was great - no snakes and only 1 spider and that was related to the red-back and black widow - so we could crawl around in the bush (as grunts do) without any fear of the wildlife. If you saw a spider it just got squashed.

Sharks are great - vaccuum cleaners of the sea. I encountered many in my earlier life as a spear fisherman. They aren't put in the ocean to eat humans otherwise nobody who went swimming would come out alive. You just have to have your wits about you and know a few of their habits. Crocs are a different kettle of fish though. I know a couple of fellows who were diving when they came across crocs - and they would turn their backs on the sharks to face the crocs.

Just last week there was an attack on Cape York where a 4.2metre croc took a man from a tent that was 40 metres from the waters edge. He is alive because a 60 year old woman jumped on the Crocs back and another camper happened to have a rifle and shot the croc dead. The victim and lady both went off to hospital with severe fractures but are alive.

I guess that we only have about 1 fatal croc attack per year on average and about the same with sharks.

At least on land we don't have anything like Africa and the Americas with large cats and bears etc to chomp on us.

Brian

Living in Texas now, all I have to deal with is the occassional Alligator which luckily have only been a few feet long (at the Boy Scout camp) Have to check shoes for scorpions which are abundant, large hornets, Bull sharks.rattlers. Its the Fire ants whose sting is like a bee and are rampart and the African Killer bee which swarm and will chase you for up to a mile. They also seem to have the intelligence to wait for you if you jump in water. Ain't nature grand. As for Austrailia...someday guys I swear it if I ever get enough money to go international traveling again I'm heading that way.

I lived in Oz for 14yrs rarely saw any poisonous spiders they keep out of your road usually.I got attacked by a magpie in Canberra nearly scalped me the Ba..... In Sydney at night theres a menagerie on the loose moths the size of birds and cockroaches you could scateboard on the preying Mantis are nice to look at though, one came through the open window one night landed on the mrs dress,well you should have heard the screams :-) Only thing I ever got bit by was a Bull ant when I was in the bush my leg swelled up like a balloon hurt like hell.

LOL.... over here we worry more about the two legged animals than the four legged kind.

Yeah, Australia does have its share of nasty creatures including the ‘salty’ crocs and dunny spider.




In Southern Africa they have the Honey badger, quoted from honeybadger.com “The Honey badger or ratel is a tenacious small carnivore that has a reputation for being, pound for pound, Africa's most fearless animal despite its small size. It is even listed as the "most fearless animal in the world" in the 2002 Guinness Book of Records.”

Even lions think twice before taking this thing on. I’ve seen a video of one of these taking on a lioness. The lioness won, but not before the ratel broke her jaw, condemning her to a slow death.



Only, near Seal Island, just off Cape Town do Great Whites FLY! See http://www.greatwhite.org/lo_trips.htm (above photo is from the site).

Funnily though, in Africa, Hippopotami kill more people than crocs, but people are still more afraid of crocs.

Blaster, as to the connotation “African Killer bee”, they have been in Africa for thousands of years and are called simply bees, not killers!

As Tarok said; “I live[d] in Africa, but that doesn't mean we have elephants and lions roaming the streets...” :-)

I think the bee he is talking about is the cross between the African bee and the European bee.

These indeed are killers as they are very, very aggressive.

NZ is second to Victoria, British Columbia; in the list of places I'd emigrate to if I was rich. Sorry Cliff and the others, I'd love to visit Oz and meet you guys but even the thought of a snake makes me wanna rush off for suit of armour, 50cal, shotgun and flame-thrower - me and snakes is like women and spiders, I get petrified when they're on the telly even.

Every country has its share of dangerous animals. Up in Alaska its all the bears like the Polar, Kodiak, and Grizzly Though any bear is deadly. The Puma/mountain lion hunts people in southern Calif, and we have Great whites along the Pacific Coast in abundance. But Austrailia just seems to have more than its fair share and what they have is gauranteed to kill you QUICK. (the snakes,and jellyfish especially). Thing is most of us have to go out in the woods/or whatever you call your wilderness area. In Austrailia, the critters shows up in the big city. I saw one of those Steve Irwin shows where a guy opened up the hood of his car to find one of those super-poisonous brown snakes curled up there

G'day all,
I was on an exercise a few years ago in Rockhampton QLD with a US Marine unit. A few people had allready gone down with a few spider bites and Marine Stings(jellyfish). And a few of the Marine's asked us about some of the local wildlife. Being a nice bloke and all, I (that is we) decided to advise them on the very dangerous "Kangawallafox", the forever angry "Drop Bear", and not to forget the fast and deadly "Hoopsnake".
Now dont get me wrong, but most of them knew we were full of sh** . But still a few of the Marine's we spoke to that night belived that we were for real. Right down to one of our blokes showing a scare he had receved on his lower left leg from a "Kangawallafox". In fact he receved it from his wife after a 6 hour drinking session and he tripped down his front stairs running away from her.
Most of the kids over here learn at a very young age what is fun to pick up and play with and what will eat your hand off. But for the most part there are not that many problems with the wild life.

Cliff, congrats mate.
Do everything right and your an Aussie.
Stuff something up and you a Kiwi. :-)


Cheers all Jason