…which is what most of them are - preventable.
A 24 year old German tourist was taken by a crocodile in the Northen Territory last night.
Despite this board’s fascination with dangerous Australian beasties, if you come here, for the most part it is very safe. The only poisonous snakes when you arrive at Sydney International will be the taxi drivers. The average Aussie has probably never seen a croc in the wild - we are, on the whole, just another bland, urban McNation.
But if you choose to go to wilderness areas, for the love of Og, read the signs, heed the warnings, and listen to the locals. The billabong (waterhole) in which this girl lost her life was signposted as a crocodile area. It’s possible she didn’t understand English (yet there was most likely a pictorial “no swimming” image on the sign), but of course in this tragedy, it isn’t right yet to start apportioning blame. The Tour Guide, though, will be asked some searching questions by the authorities.
We have deadly snakes, spiders, and reptiles. We have tourists (and,stupidly, locals) who die from exposure and/or dehydration in remote areas. For the average tourist, this stuff won’t apply, but if you seek out remote places, please enjoy them safely. We have some of the world’s most beautiful places, and we enjoy sharing them with overseas guests. But please, use your noggin.
I thought this was going to be a story about Steve Irwin, and his subconscious need to poke dangerous animals in sensitive places.
Steve Irwin is not scared of crocodiles. Steve Irwin is also a tosser. 'nuff said.
I’ve seen those signs up in QLD and they are awful hard to miss I’d assume NT would have something similar.
Steve Irwin is good for one thing and one thing alone. If anyone starts trying to get me to say “aboot” I try to get them to say “crikey” like he does. It’s stopped any and all teasing about my accent by my friends.
I might add that outside the zoo I’ve never seen poisonous spiders, snakes or crocodiles.
I’ve come face to face with a funnel web (in the days before a antidote was developed), but I was a stupid kid playing where I shouldn’t have been. My father was bitten on a different occasion, and survived. I’ve seen tiger snakes and red-bellied black snakes a little too close for comfort, and also a wave I was about to catch to bodysurf to the beach had a 2 metre long shark hanging in it.
But on all those occasions I was in a place where caution is expected. If you come to the cities and the tourist spots, it’s pretty much the same as downtown USA. If you go outside those areas, know the risks. But as silent said, most of us have only seen crocodiles in the zoo.
What the hell is a funnel web?
In case you don’t want to follow Darwin’s link, a funnel web is a big poisonous spider. Apparantly my play area when I was a baby was infested with them and mum didn’t find out for weeks. As I don’t remember (I was 2 at the time) I still say that I’ve never seen a poisonous spider in the wild. Plenty of huntsmen though.
A tosser is what Steve Irwin is. Commonly known as a wanker.
Living near a river, I’ve seen plenty of tiger snakes. Dugites are pretty common in the bush, so I’ve seen them a few times too. I’ve also seen a blue-ringed octopus at close range on a reef south of Broome. Red backed spiders are native to WA (we don’t have funnel webs here, OTOH) and they are relatively common in the suburbs of Perth.
I’ve never come close to being harmed though. Come to think of it, no-one I know has. TLD’s point is good one: use your your frikkin’ head and you’ll keep out of trouble.
Sigh.
Is a good one. Use your frikkin’ head.
Redbacks here. P the E nearly got bitten last summer when he picked up his boogie board and there was one sunning itself. But the garden’s infested.
We also get biiiiiiig snakes especially in bushfire weather when they come seeking water.
But in general, as long as you’re careful it’s OK. Stay out of the sea and the irukujandji (sp) won’t get you. Crocs are scary but watch out for their slides and be careful…
We’re just off to Mr P and the Pf’s citizenship ceremonies. I wonder if it is too late to change my mind and take my wee darlings back to safe NZ?
I’ve never seen a croc either. And redbacks seem to be less prolific nowadays…when I was a kid, we DID have redbacks in our outdoor dunny…scared the shit out of me, you might say. Glad to say, the outdoor dunny has been replaced by one of the wonders of modern technology…the flush loo, INSIDE TOO…no redbacks there!
Snakes are rampant pretty well anywhere there is a few acres of bushland, so it’s harder to avoid those. Certainly, taking the kids camping when they were little tackers was an exercise in education, warnings and teaching them how to run the other way when they saw one.
Except for the time we went camping and we were dumping our accumulated rubbish at the national park ‘garbage dump area’. The kids’ dad, being a hero, spotted what he thought was a blue-tongue lizard scuttling amongst the accumulated refuse and jumped into the pit to catch the bugger. It darted into an old shell of a TV…(what an old TV was doing being dumped 70km from the nearest permanent habitation, I’ll never know), but he thrust his hand into the Sanyo and pulled out a 4’ red-bellied black by the tail. I don’t know who was more shocked, him or the snake. However, I’ve never seen a person actually fly before…he ran through air to get back to safe ground, while the snake beat a hasty retreat in the opposite direction to get away from this lunatic Steve Irwin wannabee. The kids pissed themselves laughing, but it DID teach them a lesson in taking the bush and wildlife seriously.
I don’t know what you could do to prevent idiots ignoring
BIG SIGNS that say ‘Beware of the Croc’s’. It’s not as if they are cute and cuddly with just a slight disposition towards being cranky sometimes. They are evil looking dudes, and there is no doubt that if you swim in their personal billabongs, they’re gonna reckon you are the ‘Home Delivered Take Away’ they ordered.
What was that old song they used to teach us in primary school?
“Don’t Ever Smile at a Crocodile”…maybe our German tourist was away sick on that day when the song was taught!!
Now Silentgoldfish there’s something we ought’a tell you. Remember the time your mum popped your play pen in the middle of the freeway because you liked the vroom vrooms?
And when she brought home the piranha fish to put in the aquarium, with the instructions that you alone were to hand feed them?
And don’t forget that fateful day when she asked you to hop on to the top of the roof during the thunderstorm to check whether the TV antenna was safe…
Silent old mate, your mum DID know about the funnelwebs. 
kambuckta, your story made me laugh!
When I was about 10, I was helping my father release wasps as part of a study on Gypsie Moth control on aptly named Rattlesnake Mountain in New York… he was leading the way for fear of snakes, and apparently his foot came down a bit too close to a snake.
RAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTLLLLLLEEEEEEEE!!:eek:
Don’t let anyone tell you that levitation is impossible, because I saw it happen! (I laughed later… at the time I was too busy trying to levitate myself!)
I swear that I heard a reptilian “Hehehehe!” fading off into the underbrush…
Yep Astroboy14 I too have seen levitation in action! However, tell us more about the Gypsy Moth study…it sounds fascinating…did the wasps eventually do their waspish thing, or did the moths triumph and survive to ‘moth’ another day?