OK, lets look at that. Spiders. Red backs can give you a nasty bite, but fair dinkum, every kid knows to check under the lid of the outback dunny to avoid that embarassment.
Funnel Webs. No doubt, they are very dangerous- probably the most dangerous in the world. But they only live in the Sydney Basin and Blue Mountains. All the better reason to head inland.
Mouse Spiders- don't think I've ever seen one.
Huntsman. Now you're talking. These spiders are worth worryiong about. 15 inches across and weighing at least a kilo, they scare the absolute bejussus out of me. Can carry an 80 kilo man back to their nest. (Thank God I weigh more than that!)
Solution to spider bites- bite the *******s back!
Snakes- easy. We all know that camoing in summer sucks, and that snakes are cold blooded. So go camping in winter, do up your sleeping bag during the day and you should be right.
Blue ring octopus. Simple- don't pick them up
Box Jelly fish-Nasty. How can you avoid or shoot something you cannot see? The good news is they are rarely found west of the Gt Dividing Range so go camping there.
Salt Water crocs- Generally inhabit where it is hot and humid- terrible weather for camping so don't go there
Great White Shark- Only found where it is too cold to go swimming, and never more than a couple of hundrede kilomteres inland. Seeing as the best camping spots are further inland, sharks are not an issue.
So there you go- OZ is perfectly safe if you want to do something like camping properly.
Isn't it funny.. Australia has something like the top 10 poisonous things (spiders, fish, blue-ringed occo's, snakes - pick one, any one.., even the male platypusses) but we go out into this wilderness only armed with a can of flyspray and sunscreen?! Still, more than one tourist has been caught out by the drop bears.. I was even explaining to the yanks about the dangers of the Murray River bunyips and why you must setup camp behind the barb wire river fences..
Nowadays even the Mozzies are getting dangerous, you can get Ross River Virus from the little buggers. Actually, Aussie Mozzies aren't that little which is why up in the tropics you have to keep the wire netting around the baby at night (to stop the mozzies carrying off the baby). Shotguns are pretty good up north for the mozzies.
Oh for a simple black bear or kodiak.
All my guns got seized by the government back after the Port Arthur fracas (thanks to the former Prime Miniature). So now I'm 'armless.
However, we understand the nature of the American bears and have read all the travel precautions, like make sure you carry pepper spray and wear a small bell to scare the bears away, check for bear poop to see if there are any in the area and so on. (Bear poop can be easily identified by the little bells in it and how it smells like pepper..)
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