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Dave,

Great looking ground, must be a day for animals and nuggets.

Love the gold Dave, bloody hate spiders, specially in the middle of the night

Great to see you moved the spider away Dave, and not what is usually done.
And another nug to add to collection.

Here is what we brought home in the van last year she's set up home connected from van to frangipani.
Friendly little Sheila cleaning up a multitude of bugs.

upload image online

Yes a female Golden Orb, not sure how long she lives or a bird snaps her up for a snack.
Out on the goldfields if you look closely you will see tiny male spiders hovering around waiting for an opportunity to mate.
Yes, their web is very strong and if you ever bump into it night detecting it startles you.
The female lives on the web continuously spinning protective strands to try and deter predators, birds & hornets.
The only time she leaves the web is to wrap a cluster of eggs in leaf foliage to protect them.
It is extremely rare to be bitten by one, if you were one of the very unlucky you will only experience minor discomfort at bite site.

Another spider, usually nocturnal and once thought to only exist in Queensland is the Tarantula- Selenothulus Foescscheri.
The female has a leg span up to 150mm and lives in a burrow or hollows of three stumps.

I found Mr T (actually Mrs T) at Wilson's Patch, WA years ago after we pulled some stumps for fire wood.
She measured 140mm, I bought her home and kept her in an aquarium for a few months to get her identified. I was asked to send her to Queensland for study purposes but declined and took her back to her home.
She actually escaped from the aquarium and was told by the experts she would not be found. Set my alarm for 2 hour gaps through the night and got up and searched with a torch.
On the third night I found her crawling across the carpet, captured her put her back in the aquarium and she immediately devoured a few crickets. (My daughters then said they would visit again)





She became quite friendly and used to crawl up to glass if I approached, probably expecting a snack.