[Tanny]

I love that bit about checking the toilet seat, and its actualy true if youre using the dunny in the garden. I got bitten by the red-back on the arm and the excrutiating pain lasted for seven days. I had to pack ice on the spot day and night. To have one bite you on the neither region would be a nightmare. When travelling through the bush, be it the dense undergrowth of the forests or the sparse schrub of the outback you will see some of the most deadliest snakes in the world, but be assured, they nearly always dash away from you, mind you ther's always the exception, the Death Adder who lies there in the path curled up waiting for its prey to approach, the blighter dosen't move away and many people are bitten when they tread on it. In the Sydney area of Australia there is the Funnel-web Spider that lives around the houses and has killed quite a few people. In the north of Australia the Marine Crocodile regularly pounces on unwary people or preferably their pet dogs. The list of deadly creatures in Australia goes on and on, Tics, Scorpions, Scrub Bulls, Buffalo, even the Duck-billed Platypus. Iv'e only mentioned the land creatures, the seas around the country kill many more people, Sharks, Sting Rays, Sea Snakes, Box Jellyfish, Cone Shells, Stonefish and Stinging Coral, and on and on. Speaking as a person who has spent 37 years in Australia and who has wandered throughout the outback, sleeping on the ground, sometimes in the swag or open to the elements, and who has swam among the loneyest coral reefs in the country, I would say that it is quite safe living among the most dedliest creatures emaginable. Or was I just lucky.