Let’s stop spreading stupid misinformation. Crocodile attacks are rare in Australia, and only occur in the three states that span the top of the country. 62 attacks over nearly 40 years in a country with a population of over 21 million. That’s not exactly what you’d call statistically significant.
There have been no deaths from spider bite since 1979.
There are 2-4 deaths per year from snake bite in Australia. There are 12 or fewer deaths from snake bite per year in the US.
Can I say that there is no way that I will visit Australia until all those uncouth, uncultured, rude and altogether too good at sport Australians are safely spayed, neutered and locked up in zoos for us to observe from a safe distance?
Yeah I suppose if I stay near the cities and don’t venture out into the wild I’ll be okay.
I know, rationally, that only a couple people a year die from crocodile attacks, and all my fears in this thread have been expressed half jokingly. I know I’m much more likely to get into a traffic accident in Seoul than be eaten by a crocodile in Australia. But in all seriousness, there’s something so primitive about the possibility of being eaten by a croc that freaks me out more than the idea of getting knocked off my boyfriend’s motorbike.
Fears notwithstanding, I probably will visit Australia sometime in the next decade or so. Everyone I know who’s been there has raved about it.
Just to add to the fear and loathing, a few days ago, a little girl had been collecting sea-shells on the beach where her family were enjoying the summer holidays. She gathered up her salty treasures and was washing them in the bathtub at home when out dropped a blue-ringed octopus.
That article is not a masterpiece of accuracy. Stinging trees reach full rainforest canopy height which is a hellava lot more than seven feet. When they are that big they aren’t a problem as the leaves are too high up to bother you. The small ones are the problem. They are an opportunistic plant that grows up very quickly when there is a break in the canopy caused by something else falling down. With experience, you know that it is when you come across a break in the canopy that you have to watch out.
I’ve walked under and around plenty of stinging trees and I wonder about the accuracy of the “risk of inhaling them or getting them in the eyes” thing as I’ve never had a problem, nor heard of anyone doing so.
They do hurt like hell though. I brushed a stinging tree leaf very lightly with the edge of my ear once and it was one of the most painful things I’ve ever done.
I have visited Australia, and New Zealand to boot, and I’d go back in a shot. Loved them both. But the 20-hour plane trip was torture - I never knew my ass could fall asleep. Really.
It’s interesting how people in the US say “The flight to get there is too long!”, whereas people in Australia/NZ just accept that it’s a 10 hour+ flight to anywhere of interest and deal with it.
I mean, it’s a 12 hour flight from Los Angeles to London but I don’t hear people saying “I’m not going to the UK; it’s too far away!”, although those same people will say they don’t want to go to Australia because… it’s a 12 hour flight from Los Angeles.
I didn’t say that I wouldn’t go back because of the flight - just that the flight was long and uncomfortable. And while my flight was “only” fourteen hours from L.A., it took me another six to get to L.A. from my home in Atlanta. For that matter, my nine-hour flight to London was a literal pain in the ass, as well. Didn’t stop me from going.
As I said, if I had the bucks, I’d be back in Sydney in a heartbeat.
That is, I think, a valid criticism. Australian culture is generally similar enough to US or British culture to be a bit… disappointing to the international visitor from those countries.
The scenery in Australia is great, though, as Cicero rightly observes. But there’s not likely to be much culturally in somewhere like Sydney to appeal to someone from, say, San Diego.
