The results have been announced, and 2009 has not been that bad at all really:
So where the bloody hell are you? 
I can deal with everything being poisonous and the sun trying to boil me alive, but the internet is censored there. If I can’t have my goat-on-fire porn then count me out.
Hmm, I’ll think about it. Tell me about the oil tankers in the neighborhood: did any of them have the front fall off this year?
What about the koala maulings?
This.
When you have the best job in the world, and can be nearly killed by a jellyfish the size of a matchhead, people start to think that maybe, just maybe, they will STAY AWAY. 
Si
Not censored YET, and we still might be able to stop it, although Senator Stephen Conroy is a…word unsuitable for this forum, and banned in the Pit.
I keep writing and calling my MP.
That is hilarious. I hadn’t seen that one before.
Ummm…I’m not quite sure if the maintainers of that web site know that the men in that video clip, John Clarke and Brian Dawe, are a well-known comedy duo though. I’m getting the tiniest faint whooshing of a “taking it seriously” vibe… :eek:
The key word there is “nearly”. You can actually be killed outright in any country if you get hit by a truck or a large rock falls on you from a great height. Compared to those, being stung by a jellyfish is rare and almost a relief.
Yeah but they haven’t released the number of deaths caused by drop bears…
Someone want to clue me in as to what the hell a “drop bear” is. I"m guessing at a whoosh, but I wan to know for sure. Never heard this term before. Please fight some ignorance here. Thanks.
Edit: nevermind, Google is your friend. Thanks.
Dude,
They have the outback. They have goats. Get yourself a goat, a large magnifiying glass, and head out back for some fun. Who needs the internet to live vicariously through when you can have the real deal 
My favorite Discovery Channel show is the one on Killer Jellyfish (second: Giant Squid). That wouldn’t keep me away, but the air fare, unfortunately, would wipe out my retirement nest egg…
I visited the outback a fortnight ago – visiting my father’s home town of Hay. They had a total fire ban there, so setting fire to a goat using a magnifying glass would get you into serious trouble. Play it safe, and use an unlit goat. 
In other Australia-related news, last night I discovered that the local Sobeys mega food store stocks Tim Tams! I will have one after lunch.
Re: the OP… there’s a minor issue of Australia beiong almost exactly halfway around the world from me…
They’re the Australian equivalent of snow snakes.
I will be happy to show up and visit as soon as someone buys me a ticket. 
Every time I save up enough money to afford a vacation there – over $1000 for the cheapest round trip airfare, plus food, lodging, internal transportation, and so on – I get hit with some expense like … oh, $3000 in home repairs that are needed NOW, $2000 for car repairs, and so on.
I have a choice between buying a new laptop computer and a cruise or a vacation in Cancun. It’s not such an easy choice with a trip to Australia, where the choice is a few days in Sydney and a few in the Gold Coast versus a new furnace, or sacrificing a good portion of a rainy day buffer. Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa aren’t cheap destinations for a Yank.
Have you Ausies cleared up the baby-eating-dingo problem?
There have been no cases of a baby eating a dingo for some months now: Australian boabies have been trained to eat sharks and crocodiles instead.