# Seriously, are you reluctant to come to Australia because of dangerous wildlife? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 4, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612 "2010-01-04T13:34:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/81 "2010-01-06T18:28:05Z")
Crocodile is one of the few animals that absolutely terrify me. I will never visit Australia because of it. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/82 "2010-01-06T19:28:56Z")
Put me down as “Will treat dangerous wildlife with a healthy respect” but it’s not a deal-breaker at all. We have our own dangerous wildlife in the USA. The main reason I haven’t been is you’re on the other side of the freakin’ Earth and airfare is expensive and airports can be a big hassle these days. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/83 "2010-01-06T19:29:39Z")
> [@Aghris](#): > > I think the only animal I’ve seen that did not have some means to kill man was the wombat, but I could be mistaken. Depends on whether we’re packing heat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/84 "2010-01-06T20:49:10Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > In nearly 50 years of living in Australia, I’ve never seen a huntsman spider. Are you serious **Giles**? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/85 "2010-01-06T21:09:53Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > Some trepidation involved going to the dunny in out-of-the-way campsites o/` There was a redback on the toilet seat... o/` ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/86 "2010-01-06T22:38:41Z")
Given that Australia/NZ is as far away from me as you can get whilst still remaining on the planet then I think you can chalk me up as another “too far, no thanks”. Which is kind of a shame as I have family over there, but there are way waaaaaaaaaaaay too many places I want to see in Europe before I start thinking further afield, and when I do I still have a lot of Asia and the Middle East that I’d rather do first. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/87 "2010-01-07T03:51:31Z")
> [@RetroVertigo](#): > > Crocodile is one of the few animals that absolutely terrify me. I will never visit Australia because of it. Alligators kill as many if not more people in the US than are killed here by crocs every year. You live in St Louis, which is about 1000km from alligator range, but you will never visit Australia because of crocodiles even though most of Australia is much, much further from the range of crocodiles than a mere 1000km. How can you tolerate living where you do? ---
**Author:** ![Shadow21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Shadow21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadow21)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2010, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/88 "2010-01-09T09:23:23Z")
[QUOTE=kambuckta] Quote:Originally Posted by Giles In nearly 50 years of living in Australia, I’ve never seen a huntsman spider. Are you serious Giles? [/QUOTE] _swings head left and looks at the one on her wall_ I’m with kambuckta. How can you not have **ever** seen one? 😕 _waves at kambuckta - one Riverinean to another_ ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/89 "2010-01-09T15:10:45Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > In nearly 50 years of living in Australia, I’ve never seen a huntsman spider. > [@kambuckta](#): > > Are you serious **Giles**? :dubious: > [@cgg419](#): > > [Clock Spider says it all](http://deepsquats.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/clockspider.jpg) > > I would LOVE to visit Australia to be honest, but I would have a heart attack if I saw one of those fuckers :eek: > [@Shadow21](#): > > _swings head left and looks at the one on her wall_ > > I’m with kambuckta. How can you not have **ever** seen one? :confused Apologies: I looked at the [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider), found them described as 250-300 mm, and thought, “I’ve never seen a spider that big!” However, I have seen spiders like that, but just one tenth of that size. They’re quite pretty, and not really frightening at all (to me, at least). ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/90 "2010-01-09T17:32:45Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Alligators kill as many if not more people in the US than are killed here by crocs every year. > > You live in St Louis, which is about 1000km from alligator range, but you will never visit Australia because of crocodiles even though most of Australia is much, much further from the range of crocodiles than a mere 1000km. > > How can you tolerate living where you do? [National Geographic | National Geographic](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/0912_050912_alligators.html) Since 1948 only 18 people have been killed by alligators. That isn’t even a good weekend for crocs. Though rumors say after the new Orleans hurricane they were munching the bodies floating around. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/91 "2010-01-09T21:29:26Z")
Huh? I can’t say that I’ve ever heard that your wildlife was inherently more dangerous than the beasties over here. We’ve also got poisonous snakes and large carnivores. As well as _really_ large herbivores who could kick your skull in if so inclined. The _only_ reason I haven’t visited Australia is lack of money. If that weren’t an issue I’d be booking my flight **now.** ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/92 "2010-01-10T19:51:34Z")
> [@Shadow21](#): > > _waves at kambuckta - one Riverinean to another_ ::kam stands on roof and waves back:: 😛 (then runs inside very quickly to get outta the heat, urghhhh). ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/93 "2010-01-10T23:51:34Z")
> [@Aghris](#): > > - Camping on Fraser Island is a whole lot of fun, as long as you mind the dingos. These dogs can be very aggressive. It’s a similiar situation to bears in the US, the usual story of people not doing the right thing and feeding them, or leaving food easily accesable. Despite plain and obvious signs and warnings about the danger. So the dingo’s come to associate people = food. And from there it’s a not a big step for the dingoes to go from: people = food to people are food. Adults don’t have over much to fear to be honest, but children are just about the right size for those enboldened dingo’s to go ooh lunch!! There were two different incidents ~2-3 years back of young children being mauled to death. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/94 "2010-01-11T01:19:58Z")
What surprises me is the number of people saying “It’s so expensive to visit Australia!!Eleventy!Shift+One!” A return flight from Sydney to Los Angeles at the moment is around AUD $1200 or so, and even a return flight from LA-Sydney is under USD$2,000 on QANTAS- no doubt it’d be significantly cheaper on Virgin Pacific or Delta if you shopped around. I realise these aren’t insignificant amounts of money, splitting the difference and calling it $1500 return doesn’t strike me as being unreasonably expensive either, especially not for the distance being travelled. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/95 "2010-01-12T22:19:39Z")
Several years ago, my wife, my sister-in-law (an Australian) and I were walking along a paved path in a park. They were ahead by about 50 feet as I ambled along. When I glanced to the side of the path, I saw a large brown snake just a few feet off the track. I called out to my SIL. “Hey, did you see this snake you just walked by?” She came back quickly, and told me it was a Brown snake and I agreed…of course pretending it was the color she referred to…but knowing it was actually a very poisonous snake. We left the snake undisturbed, and it acted in kind. My brother and his wife live in rural NW Victoria, and coexist with the wildlife well, except for rabbits. It does help that both of us have biology backgrounds. So…no, I don’t avoid Oz because of the critters. They aren’t nearly as bad as the long flight to get there from the US. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/96 "2010-01-12T23:04:34Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > What surprises me is the number of people saying “It’s so expensive to visit Australia!!Eleventy!Shift+One!” > > A return flight from Sydney to Los Angeles at the moment is around AUD $1200 or so, and even a return flight from LA-Sydney is under USD$2,000 on QANTAS- no doubt it’d be significantly cheaper on Virgin Pacific or Delta if you shopped around. > > I realise these aren’t insignificant amounts of money, splitting the difference and calling it $1500 return doesn’t strike me as being unreasonably expensive either, especially not for the distance being travelled. Perhaps it’s because you guys probably have to pay a lot of money to fly almost anywhere, being way down there and all. 🙂 That is insanely expensive to me. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/97 "2010-01-12T23:35:15Z")
I’d visit despite the critters. Had a friend who did diving down there some time ago, and the bugs were impressive! But I believe he had the same scorpion/spider concerns when he was in Texas, so…I’d rather visit Australia than Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/98 "2010-01-13T01:08:14Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Perhaps it’s because you guys probably have to pay a lot of money to fly almost anywhere, being way down there and all. 🙂 That is insanely expensive to me. It’s about the same price as a 40" LCD HD TV here- so it’s not cheap in a hey-why-not-jump-on-a-plane-and-have-a-weekend-somewhere sense, but I’d hardly call it an extravagant or insanely expensive price for a 12 hour flight on a reputable airline to a foreign country. YRMV, evidently. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/99 "2010-01-13T01:37:06Z")
I’ve had an unreasonable fear of Australian wildlife since seeing a kangaroo with boxing gloves 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612/100 "2010-01-13T01:48:09Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > I’ve had an unreasonable fear of Australian wildlife since seeing a kangaroo with boxing gloves 😉 Did you mistake it for a giant mouse and get laughed at because you let a mouse beat you up? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-are-you-reluctant-to-come-to-australia-because-of-dangerous-wildlife/523612.md?page=6)