Question for Australians

[quirkyquerty]

Genuine question- are you not frightened all the time of swimming and meeting a shark, cleaning and meeting a deadly spider, getting the bikes out of the shed and meeting a deadly snake and so on and so forth?

Or is that just certain parts of Australia? It fascinates me!

Lots of posters saying they don't go out far into the sea but aren't most shark attacks on swimmers in shallow waters? You are still more likely to get struck by lightning though!

Beware of Kookaburras too. They’re precision dive bombing machines! I missed the sign at a cafe warning us to be aware of them, felt a slight flutter against my nose and half the arancini ball I was putting in my mouth disappeared into a tree!
That bird deserved it, I was very impressed.

Yes, they do indeed take the food as it’s on the way to your mouth. There is a weekly outdoor event here that does a bbq and they must actually watch to see if bacon is put on it as the majority of people they go for have had bacon added. Sometimes they get the bacon off in one go as they dive through, others they get the sausage but drop it pretty quickly (guessing too hot?). It’s a funny one. They are bold.

@proppy Lots of posters saying they don't go out far into the sea but aren't most shark attacks on swimmers in shallow waters? You are still more likely to get struck by lightning though

Thats because you are more likely to encounter a great white on the coastal ocean beaches. They like to attack from below, so they have to have the depth to do it. All attacks in harbours, rivers etc are generally bull sharks who only attack you from the side/front and shallow water doesn’t worry them.

They are fast too! About a month ago I was eating at a picnic table in one of the forested areas, just minding my own business, when BANG. Before I knew what had happened a Kookaburra had swooped down and was sitting in the tree next to us eating what I had been holding. Right next to me me was a sign, "Don't feed the birds." I guess the birds aren't aware!

IsolatedWilderness , they’re clever little buggers, but no reading skills!

And zero shame. They then laugh about it🤣

Kooks are ace, I once spent an idle hour on YouTube, watching them eat snakes.

Statistically, you are more likely to die from being killed by a cow in the UK than if you are in Australia being killed by a snake. SUPER UNLIKELY - ARE YOU SCARED OF COWS?

Well, now I am

Also, reading this thread as a huge arachnophobe, I'm now wondering if houses in Scotland can be sprayed for spiders...

I thought of this thread this morning when I realised DS had left his hiking boots in the garage with all the other camping/hiking stuff... he was just about to put them on without looking inside. Sure enough, fucking redbacks inside both shoes.

We had a wonderful goldfish pond. I say "had", as I noticed the amount of goldfish decreasing. The mystery was solved when I saw a kookaburra line up the pond from the branch of a nearby gum tree and dive-bomb the pond, ending up with a jiggly goldfish lunch. All the rest of the fish were sadly taken before I could work out an effective way of protecting them.

@Morestrangerthings I don’t spend time worrying about gum trees (or branches from other trees, either - and yeah, those Moreton Bay Figs are huge), just pointing out that they are noted for it (and not home to savage koalas, lol).

GoldenAye· Yesterday 11:25

Netting is the answer, my parents have some tubs and a small pond with nets. Herons took their neighbour's fancy goldfish.

Anyway, nice ping pong ball sized hailstones in Sydney, yesterday! We're currently in the channel to Darwin Harbour, because of the cyclone out at sea.

No, these things just don't happen.
I've only ever seen sharks at SeaWorld. You can get your house sprayed for spiders, but we don't because spiders are great for keeping other crawlies under control. I've seen red backs before but never at my house. We had a green tree snake on our fence a few years ago, it just lay there looking at people walking by (most of them didn't see it) then it went back to its tree and we've not seen it since. I know we have more than our fair share of scary critters here, but you very rarely see any sign of them.

I got attacked by a magpie when I lived in Australia.

Reckon that the two wild snakes I saw in a four week trip was lucky!

but visiting a friend’s parents when they explained that their house was built on an area where they’d been a bush fire in the 60s, and so inevitably there would be one again. Scary.

I think maybe the difference is that you don’t walk in woodland and long grass. I lived in th US and there is poison Ivy, jiggers, snakes etc so you keep to clear paths or parks whereas here you can head off wild camping wherever you choose (I’m in Scotland) over the hills without a worry.

The creatures I’m actually afraid of are the large goannas. They’ve carried off my baby chickens on more than one occasion.