Virtually Harmless by Australian Standards

Australia has some of the most beautiful and breathtaking scenery in the world.

The Great Barrier Reef offers snorkelers and divers an unbelievable collection of marine life. On the opposite end of the spectrum of life on Earth, the vast red deserts, dramatic gorges, and unique rock formations of the Outback showcase a different kind of stark beauty.

Daintree Rainforest in Queensland is the oldest rainforest in the world, and it showcases an incredible variety of plant and animal life.

Like the US, Australia’s size and geographic position means that it encompasses every climate from tropical zones to alpine regions, and the landscape is stunning.

Here’s Uluru, an incredible landmark made sacred by indigenous Australians, who migrated over from Africa at least 65,000 years ago:

Uluru from above, Wikipedia

Amid all this beauty also lies danger. Many of the most dangerous animals and plants on the planet live here.

The most venomous land snake in the world lives here. One bite from the inland taipan is enough to kill more than a hundred people. Fortunately for the world, these slithering sliders are super shy, retreating by default from people and other large mammals. As a result, not a single person has ever died by inland taipan bite.

The second most venomous land snake also lives here, and unlike the inland taipan, the eastern brown snake has killed people—15 between 2005 and 2015, in fact. The eastern brown snake is much more active around people, and it has adapted to hunt mice and other small critters that tend to congregate around humans.

If snakes aren’t your thing, how about spiders?

Australia is home to a few spiders with very potent venom, which can kill you (or cause serious injury) if left untreated. The Sydney funnel-web spider, so named because they typically live close to Sydney, and they built little funnels from their webs to escape inward (or emerge outward). Who ever said biologists are bad at naming things?

There’s also the redback spider, which is found all over Australia. These little arachnids are often called the black widow of Australia, and it makes sense: they live in sheds and typical messy urban areas, and they have powerful venom… but maybe not all that venomous after all: only one person in all of Australia has died of a spider bite in the last 3 decades.

Of course, when many people think of Australian wildlife, they think of crocodiles. During my tween and teen years, this meant Crocodile Dundee:

Decades later, Steve Irwin helped to implant this association in a new generation of kids by taking on the moniker The Crocodile Hunter—an ironic name, since Irwin really wasn’t trying to hunt to kill anything. Instead, his goal was for humans and nature to live in harmony, and that meant a lot of education.

Irwin did a great deal of good to this end! Perhaps ironically, or perhaps appropriately, Irwin met his death by way of an Australian animal. A stingray barb through the chest will tend to kill people.

There are plenty more animals that can kill you in Australia, including sharks, octopi, and even ticks that can bite and paralyze you!

There are deadly plants, too. The gympie gympie, or giant stinging tree as it is very appropriately called, has tiny, needle-like hairs that contain a potent neurotoxin. Brushing against them can cause excruciating pain, skin irritation, and even respiratory problems. The stinging sensation can last for weeks or even months!

Then there’s the castor oil plant, commonly used for medicinal purposes for centuries. Unfortunately, the seeds contain ricin, a deadly neurotoxin, and the plant itself is highly toxic. There’s also the more obviously poisonous strychnine tree. Don’t put strychnine in the guacamole!

You get the idea: there are some very scary things that can kill you in Australia!

But how worried should someone be about these things?

First, it’s important to note that fatalities caused by all the snakes, spiders, and sharks in Australia combined are very, very low—fewer than five people per year on average. You’re more than 10,000 times more likely to die from covid while in Australia than by any kind of contact with plant or animal life, for instance, and several hundred times more likely to die by car accident.

Second, scary things are… well, scary. They look different from what we’re used to, and they seem frightening to those of us who haven’t been around venomous snakes or spiders. Fortunately, the statistics show that scary does not have to equal dangerous, at least in the same measures.

Shout to subscriber

Katja

for the hilarious idea for the title of this piece! This came about during a conversation in the comments.

Join in and inspire a future article, or just talk about this one a bit. Have you ever traveled to Australia? If you live in Australia, how’d I do with my descriptions here?