Things that could kill me (or do some serious damage).

I have started to compose a list of species which I should definitely try to avoid during my time in Australia.  Not everything down under is out to hurt me, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

- Crocodiles: Crikey!  Watch out for crocs!  Usually, there are warning signs, like this one along the Esplanade in Cairns.  Apparently, the density of crocs increases as you move north along the Queensland coast.

- Box jellyfish:  Another damper on swimming in the ocean.  You don’t want to be stung by a box jellyfish, a.k.a. stinger, because it could be your last swim.  Some beaches will have stinger nets, and the lifeguards strongly prefer that you swim inside them.  However, the nets may not completely keep stingers out, so you are further advised to wear wetsuit type clothing to protect your bare skin from tentacles.  Some cities take even further safety measures with man-made swimming areas, such as the rock pool in Townsville (still not guaranteed 100% safe) and the lagoon in Cairns.  High stinger season in Northern Queensland is from November to May – the warmest time of the year.

- Reef species:  Simple rule:  Don’t touch anything around the reef.  Don’t even pick up pretty shells… it might contain a cone snail.  Large cone snails have harpoons that can penetrate through gloves/wetsuits.  It can be fatal.

- Paralysis tick:  Such a tick, if attached to your head for a couple of days, could give you paralysis.  The threat of paralysis by tick became so much more real for me when I was trying to remove a tick from another volunteer’s head.  (He went to the doctor afterwards just to be safe.)  Another volunteer found one attached near his temple.  So check for ticks often.

- Stinging trees:  I don’t plan on eating unknown plants, but here’s one that you don’t want to touch.  Stinging trees have big heart shaped leaves.  These leaves, along with the stems and fruits, are covered in tiny hairs that inject neurotoxins.  The painful symptoms can persist for months.  If you find yourself having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the rainforest, make sure you avoid using the leaves of the stinging trees.  Ouch!

Stinging trees can grow fairly large, but here is a photo of the baby stinging tree that a volunteer accidentally sat down.  The baby trees tend to have less neurotoxin, so he felt pain for only a day or so.

- Snakes:  If you look up the top most venomous snakes in the world, you’ll see that most of them are found in Australia.  However, most of these snakes do not want to bite you… so as long as you give snakes plenty of space to do their thing and don’t threaten them, you should be fine… right?  Except for the more aggressive snakes – the death adder (come on, look at its name!) and maybe the Eastern brown snake – that will come after you.  So if you want to hang out around a snake to figure out if it’s a death adder or not, be my guest.  I’ll be far away by then.

- Spiders:  Lots of venomous spiders here too, including redback spiders (related to black widows) and white-tail spiders (found one among the dirty pots in the nursery).  Here’s a photo of a St. Andrews Cross spider – low risk but they look pretty cool.

    

- Cattle:  Beware of car-eating cows!