# Australian floods bring a sci-fi landscape of spiderwebs.. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 9, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307 "2012-03-09T18:55:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/61 "2012-03-12T22:36:33Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Why hasn’t anyone taken a flamethrower to the whole thing yet? Do you really want to be attacked by flaming spiders? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/62 "2012-03-13T00:22:18Z")
Just remember if you visit Australia, its like that pretty much everywhere, its just that when there are no flood waters\* you can’t see them!\* 😃 I’ve been spot-lighting in central-north New South Wales and in paddocks that are pretty much bare earth & rock you can see lot & lots of glittering when you sweep the light back & forth - spiders eyes reflecting the light back at you! ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/63 "2012-03-13T02:53:00Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I have a more pressing question: there’s really a place in Australia called Wagga Wagga? Come on now. Wagga Wagga has been split in two by these floods, so it’s really two towns called Wagga now. Spike Milligan used to live in Woy Woy for a long time. Supposedly it means “deep water” in the local aboriginal language, but (he used to say) he could never work out which Woy meant “deep” and which meant “water”. ---
**Author:** ![iftheresaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecae2f/32.png) [@iftheresaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iftheresaway)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/64 "2012-03-13T03:02:17Z")
I love Australia to bits (I visited for two weeks when I was 12 and would move there in a heartbeat if I could take my whole family with me), but I definitely try to block all of the non-cuddly animals/ insects/ sea life from my mind when I think of the place. Just looking at those pictures made me spontaneously evolve wings so I could get the fuck away from all those horrible, sticky, spider-filled webs. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/65 "2012-03-13T05:28:16Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > A “billy” is a teakettle. > “Waltzing Matilda” means “going on the road” as a tramp, or a hobo would. Your Matilda was your swag like a bedroll but with you tools etc. Waltzing Matilda was heading out on the road looking for work. A billy is not exactly a tea kettle, it is a simple pot that in the old days would have been a jam tin with a wire handle. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/66 "2012-03-13T06:05:45Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > 1. billabong: dry river bed Sorry to be pedantic but a billabong is a part of a river that due to falling levels has turned into a landlocked water hole. Pretty good place to camp due to the concentration of fish and also handy to knick a couple of jumbucks to shove in your tucker bag. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/67 "2012-03-13T07:20:22Z")
> [@Gleena](#): > > Heh, I can see where you grew up. > > Also **Taramara** , Curl Curl and Coogee. > > My first ever work call was to Wagga. I said in my fresh off the boat American accent, “Is this Wagga Wagga Smash Repairs?” (Pronouncing it as spelled, of course.) Loooooong pause. “Yep.” > > The girl next to me was wetting herself. > > **I used to say Coogee as “Koo-Gee”. I dunno why.** > > The spiders thing is freaking me out. It made my kid decide Charles Sturt Bathurst was a better choice than CS in Wagga, too, based on those pictures alone. I think you might mean Tamarama; and don’t worry, pretty much every non-native pronounces Coogee that way. I dunno why either - but I do love the endlessly creative interpretations of Woolloomooloo. You’d think the pronunciation of ‘spider’ would be fairly universal across English-speakers coming here. But somehow, what we call a ‘spider’ is a ‘SSPIIIIDAHHHHHHH!!!’ to everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/68 "2012-03-15T04:44:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Woolloomooloo There’s a great mnemonic for the spelling of this iconic Sydney suburb, which is to recite the mantra “sheep-toilet-cow-toilet”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Butterfly\_s\_Ghost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_butterfly_s_ghost/32/3462_2.png) [@The\_Butterfly\_s\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Butterfly_s_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/69 "2012-03-15T08:21:00Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > The repetition of the name indicates “lots of.” “Wagga” is one Aboriginal language’s word for “crow,” so Wagga Wagga essentially means the place of many crows. So - will it be renamed to the equivalent of “Spider Spider” now? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/70 "2012-03-15T10:08:31Z")
> [@Rheintochter](#): > > So - will it be renamed to the equivalent of “Spider Spider” now? :eek: Since I’m pretty sure Wagga is in Kamilaroi country, **Rheintochter** , just for freaky spider mass, and good ol’ Aussie name place weirdness the indigenous renaming of it would be _Gura Gura_. And for no other reason than fuck yeah, I think another Gura should be added. So _Gura Gura Gura_. Advise your travel agent. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/71 "2012-03-16T14:01:43Z")
Ermm… practical question. Say, I go to Australia, would I have any inconvenience at the immigration desk if I pack a flamethrower in my luggage? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307/72 "2012-03-25T00:46:42Z")
An American astronaut has an emergency during his reentry into earth’s atmosphere and his space craft crash-lands in the Australian bush, way out in the middle of nowhere. After what seems like an eternity, he wakes up in a bush clinic, very rustic, dirty, with foul smells and he is bandaged from head to foot. He sees a very large, somewhat gruff looking nurse approaching him as he lay in his cot. “Did I come here to die?” he asks with a deep sense of resignation and fear. “No,” the Aussie nurse, pondering the question for several moments, replies, “Ya came here yester-die.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-floods-bring-a-sci-fi-landscape-of-spiderwebs/615307.md?page=3)