Things that Sting in the NSW Goldfields... (PICS)

This Post is fairly Image Intensive - You've already got a recent thread for the Victorians and the 'bitey' insects they might encounter - and I'm just about to head out to my local NSW Goldfields soon as the weather is warming up.  The last time I set foot in the bush I ended up in hospital with a Snake Bite.  So it's always worth carrying precautions like a First Aid Kit, some Snakebite Bandages and at the very least be wearing long pants during Snake Season... if not Jeans and Snake Gaiters. We need to watch our for other hazards, like slipping on gravel, slipping between rocks, falling, flash floods, dehydration, heatstroke and sunburn.  But critters are far less predictable.

With the exception of some stinging Saddleback caterpillars that I keep forgetting to photograph, these are some of the critters to be wary of in the NSW Goldfields - all of which I tend to encounter regularly.  And most of them are out and about right now due to the early summer kicking in...
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Myrmecia pyriformis, also known as the Bull Ant or Inch Ant, Brown Bulldog ant 


A more colorful Bull Ant - this one was found in St Ives. 


Red Spider Ant - Leptomyrmex rufipes - At the Sunny Corner Goldfields. I'm pretty sure these can spray formic acid 

ANTS
The most common critters I encounter in the goldfields are the Bull Ant (which occur in a variety of colors and two sizes).  They grow up to 3cm long and are also known as Jumper Ants and Inch Ants.  They're essentially a wingless wasp and the stings are well known to induce anaphylaxis and even death.  Myrmecia pyriformis (Bull Ant) is described by Guinness Book of Records as the deadliest ant species on Earth and grow up to 23mm long.  There's recorded deaths occurring within 12 minutes from a single sting.  They are profoundly painful. These ants are believed to have such good eyesight and memory that they can use telegraph poles, trees, cars and the sun to navigate. Every year, these nests produce dozens of winged queens.


Black Bull-Ant I encountered on my street in Sydney.  (Wife's thumb for scale)  


The tiny, common "Green-Head Ant" (Rhytidoponera metallica) is about 4mm long 

I've seen these Bull Ants track people from over 40 feet away and then travel that entire distance just to sting them.  I have no idea how farmers are able to protect their cattle from these ants because they'll climb your leg by the hundreds if you step near their nests.  The last time I was stung by one of these ants was on Black Butt Mountain near Portland and my kidneys ached for two or three hours afterwards.  A common prank by locals and other prospectors is to drop a lead bullet or pellet down the nest entrance of these ants.  The next metal detector to wave over the target will result in a nasty surprise if they attempt to dig it.

We have thousands of other species of ants as well.  Those tiny, common 4mm long black ants with the green hue can pack a sting for such a tiny critter.   Children often get stung by them when sitting down with bare legs. Prospectors often have them invade their food.  They're generally shy.  The red "Meat Ants" that make those huge mounds are said to be stingless but can still bite.


Water Scorpion - from my Gold Pan in Wyndeyer - near Mudgee (NSW) 

WATER SCORPIONS
The Water Scorpion (Laccotrephes tristis) is common in any body of water and they can also fly from pond to pond.  They're sometimes found when panning in the creeks and they feed on fish, frogs and tadpoles.  They pierce their prey with a sharp rostrum (mount part that looks like a spike) which then injects and enzyme that dissolves the flesh.  This "sting" is perhaps one of the most excruciating in the insect world.  If you're gold panning and encounter one of these, don't try handling it.  The bite is comparable to being shot with a .22 caliber bullet, something I've personally encountered both of. The cause of the intensity of this pain is presumably from the enzyme. You have to feel sorry for the critters they feed on.


Paper Wasp nest at Wattle Flat  


Paper Wasp nest at Hill End


European Wasps from a nest in my yard that took 6 treatments to destroy.

WASPS & BEES
The next most common threat is Paper Wasps - because they make their nests on both the longer grass stalks and also on short shrubs at around waist-height.  In some districts these wasps are on every 20th bush you pass.  Those too can inflict a savage sting.  In more recent decades, the European Wasps have settled in Australia.  These European Wasps, which often build nests underground, definitely present a deadlier hazard but they are rarer (so far) in the goldfields. My wife and I were attacked by Bees on the Turon a few years ago.  She was stung around 4-6 times.  They were in her clothes and her hair, everywhere.  The nest was right at the carpark near Cole's Bridge and those bees had stung others and their children there who arrived before us.  I reported the nest to Bathurst council and they came back and obliterated the colony.  They even cut some of the tree open with a chainsaw.  The nest entrance was on the GROUND (of all places).

Something I was taught when I was a kid was that native bees were "stingless".  More recently I learned that out of the 1,700+ species of native Australian bees that exist, just Eleven (11) species are actually stingless.  I have no idea which ones those are. I had one blow into my eye once. It was not stingless and it was not fun.  I have never been stung in the eye before.


The venom injecting apparatus on the front pair of legs on a Centipede (almost got bitten taking this picture).


My finger for scale - next to a Centipede in the gold-bearing slate at Turondale.


A "House Centipede" - often found near Hill End. Surprisingly, these are also venomous.

CENTIPEDES
Then there's the Centipedes.  The larger species can be incredibly fast.  They have rotating hooks on the tips of each leg and use them to latch on to prey.  If they snag your gloves or skin, that head will immediately attempt to inject venom from the two modified legs at the front of the Centipede.  The larger species, often found when digging for nuggets, can produce a profoundly painful bite.  Some instances of tissue damage from necrosis have been recorded.


A 'Tiger Leech' on my hand in the Turon River, NSW.

LEECHES
The one thing I dislike (yet regularly encounter) are the Leeches.  Australia has a few different varieties and all of these are incredibly tiny compared to the Giant Amazonian Leech from South America.  You tend not to notice the smaller leeches until they've fed.  But the larger "Tiger Leeches" are big enough that you can feel the sting of their initial bite. They're attracted to movement, vibration, heat, carbon dioxide from your breath and also water movement in creeks.  They regularly climb into my gold pans or stick to the undersides of my boots. Leeches have three jaws with around 300 teeth - so they produce a unique tri-shaped bite mark.  They inject a numbing agent so you don't notice them feeding and then they produce an anticoagulant.   Leeches can jump, something only discovered this year.  And if burned, they will usually vomit toxins into the bite... so it's better to find other methods to remove them.  Most leech bites bleed for 10 hours but can also bleed for days.  

* French soldiers drank water from leech-infested ponds during Napoleon's attempted conquest of Egypt.  Days later, many of them were dead because the water was filled with leeches that attached themselves to the throat lining of the troops when they drank their water... These leeches swelled with blood when they fed, blocking off the airways and asphyxiating the men.


A common tick in a "questing" position.  Hooks on the front legs allow them to latch on to passing animals. or people.


These things can be so darned small but they can easily kill your pets or ruin your own life.

TICKS
The ticks are mostly a problem on the Coastal areas... such as the South Coast and the Central Coast.  I never see them out West although you'd imagine they'd be there.  They tend to thrive in the Mogo goldfields and down around Braidwood NSW.  These can be incredibly problematic and present a hazard to your pets if they hitch a ride home with you on your clothing or equipment.  I'd say ticks present a serious threat to people because here in Australia they can (and do) carry the Mammalian Meat Allergy virus.  I've met people who have contracted this.  If they eat meat after being bitten by a tick carrying this virus, they get violently ill.  It can last for many months or many years.  Some people have had it for more than 5 years and can no longer eat Meat, Beef, Lamb, Port, Veal, Kangaroo or Goat.


Black Rock scorpion under UV light that I caught in the Canberra region.


Common Marbled Scorpion - this one was found at Hill End, NSW.

SCORPIONS
Fortunately two two scorpions we tend to encounter in the Eastern goldfields are the common Marbled Scorpion (which is REALLY common) and the larger Black Rock Scorpion which I often encounter in the Canberra goldfields.  Their stings are considered non-life threatening.  The Rainforest Scorpion from Queensland is said to be able to produce a more powerful sting in terms of pain... but the Flinder's Range Desert Scorpion is likely to pack a bit more punch.  Australian scorpions tend to be quite a lot less deadlier than their African and American relatives.


Moving a Goanna to relocate it... this one was about a third grown - but still very strong.


The Common Goanna (Lace Monitor) - my finger for scale. This is a 6.5 foot long adult.


The Common Goanna (Lace Monitor) - near my house.


I was bitten by a snake about 4 seconds after this photograph was taken. Goanna was photographed with my iPhone.

GOANNAS (Monitor Lizards)
They're all over the place on a warm day but don't be tempted to handle these large lizards ...and be wary of dozing off under a tree if you've recently eaten lunch without washing your hands.  Goannas are attracted to the smell of meat, especially fatty foods like sausages.  I once woke up to one that had licked my fingers and was opening its mouth to bite them - after having a BBQ on Frazer Island.  In recent years I had to pick one up to relocate it a few years ago and despite the lizard being only half grown, its muscles, claws and serrated tail drew a lot of blood, requiring my wife's assistance to help remove it so we could let it go again. The most devastating part of these lizards are the large, serrated, re-curved teeth - which will cut you to the bone and right through the tendons with even a gentle bite. Scientists discovered just a few years ago that all of our monitor lizards have a 'mild' venom.


A young Sydney Funnel Web Spider - Found on the side of the road under a piece of bark.


Sydney Funnel Web Spider - note the venom droplets on the tips of the fangs.  Mouse Spiders don't tend to do that.

SPIDERS
Sydney Funnel Web Spiders are rarely encountered (if at all) because they generally reside in the Sydney-to-Blue Mountains region - however, the Sydney Funnel Web Spiders have been photographed recently in Bathurst goldfields on two occasions this year. In one instance the adult male spider was climbing the wire mesh on a window.  Mouse Spiders tend to be more "squat" in build.  The Males are lighter and often have bright Red and blue markings on the "face". The females are glossy black and much larger.  Mouse Spiders (especially females) look very much like the Funnel Web spiders but have shorter, blunter spinnerets. They have venom proteins similar to the Funnel Web Spider and most scientists treat them as being just as potentially deadly.  The Mouse Spiders got their name when one of Australia's early botanists saw one pursuing a mouse on the floor.


Redback Spider - photographed at the Parramatta Miner's Den store.

The Redback Spiders and Mouse Spiders are more likely to be encountered in Victoria, NSW and Queensland goldfields.  The Mouse Spiders are often found when digging or lifting rocks in the goldfields and are potentially deadly. Any suspected bite from a Mouse Spider should be presented to the nearest hospital immediately.  The Redback Spider produces a venom that is (drop-for-drop) deadlier than the Funnel Web Spider and is 13x more toxic than the American Black Widow Spider.  Yet the venom yield is so small that deaths are far less common.  The Redback Spider once killed a woman in under 15 minutes when she was fatally bitten on the neck.  I was bitten on the wrist last year by one when moving things in my garage but the effects were minor... because the spider was small (half grown) and it was crushed when I was lifting boxes.  Bites are common but complications are rare due to the small fangs and the small venom yield.


A Red-Bellied Black Snake on the side of the Road - Turondale, NSW.


A Copper Head snake sunning itself - NSW.


A Copper Head snake that I drove over accidentally. - photographed in the Sunny Corner Goldfield - NSW.


Large Tiger Snake - photographed on the Central Coast - NSW.


Death Adder - hidden under the soil and leaves - NSW.


Some of my precautions... which didn't exactly work as I was bitten on the hand about 50M from where this picture was taken

SNAKES
I wear a lot of protective equipment in the bush and carry both a first aid kit and a Beacon.  But all those efforts won't prevent you from getting bitten on the hand if you sit down.  I was crouched on the ground on the grass beside the Turon River to photograph an adult Goanna on a tree when I was bitten by a snake that I'd photographed previously. It was concealed in the grass and may have been bitten earlier by the Goanna.  This was recently, in December 2023.  This is the one venomous snake I've never previously bothered to show abundant caution with and would often chase them.  The Brown Snakes and Death Adders, both of which are relatively common here (along with the Copper Head snakes) are higher on my list of concerns.  Especially Tiger Snakes which have a painful and deadly venom as well. The Forestry Rangers tell me that they wear waders when working in the long grass and that if they step on a Tiger Snake, it generally swings up and bites them above the knee, and sometimes even around the waist area.

The Eastern Brown Snake is the once species we all dread and is the most commonly encountered... though I haven't seen many in the bush. It's venom (from memory) is something like 840 times the toxicity of the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake from North America.  They're aggressive too.  Every now and then I bump into someone who says "Did you see the size of that Brown snake sunning itself on the path?!!" and I'm often concerned because I didn't see anything when I came from that direction.




Puncture marks behind my thumb.

I was grazed on the back of the left hand recently by a Red Bellied Black Snake whilst I was getting up off the ground after photographing a goanna.  The venom I received was less than a full dose.  The two punctures swelled up like two bee stings.  Then the symptoms went away for a few days.  A week later I found myself bleeding out in Westmead Hospital with massive blood clots in my bladder.


My "Urine" Sample was almost pure blood.

I went through 41 saline bags during my two visits.  The hospital needed my bed so they sent me home after day-4, even though my body was still hemorrhaging.  But then they re-admitted me again when I started to bleed out a second time the moment I got home.


Drainage tubes and blood clots from the venom. 

There's really only one way to get the clotted blood out of your bladder.  This resulted in sending into shock from the excruciating pain of manually extracting the blood clots from my bladder.  I lost 3 liters of blood, nearly 750ml of which had formed blood clots.  The shock of the pain from the procedures caused the hair on the back of my head, my left forearm and my left leg to fall out.  It still hasn't quite grown back yet.


One of the several hundred blood clots the doctors manually removed. This was a smaller one. 


Yours Truly. 

Sad to hear & I can only hope you're well on your way to a full & speedy recovery Nero.
So many things we detectorists tend to take for granted whilst out bush detecting for gold, but must always keep in mind to be prepared for the unexpected scenario/situation.
Like you say, one must take or carry with them at least the minimum of necessities when out bush, for that unexpected event.
To name but a few things I carry with me when out detecting of which cover most, but not all scenarios or major accidents, are a couple of good  snake bandages, a small bottle of Iodine as a disinfectant for cuts & or stings, Band aids of various shape & size for cuts & and a small bottle of  eye wash solution for irritated eyes. Here in Vic I rarely have to traverse through thick dense scrub, but even on cleared isolated bush tracks I have come across the odd rare olive green or brown snake, crossing over the road or tanning its but on a rock (same when traversing through remote or isolated rocky gully's or creeks. No doubt come the hotter weather, there'll be more than one type critter out bush to contend with.
All the above, are of a very light package for one to carry with them when out bush detecting & although one might never have need to use any of them, I certainly wouldn't go without.
Other gear in regards to prospecting out bush should also be a part of ones arsenal, like a good 5 watt hand held CB & reliable GPS navigator, especially when meandering through thick scrub or forest, hundreds of meters away from ones vehicle or camp site & of course carry plenty of water.

Kon

Thanks nero for a great read, I've encountered quite a few of these critters but not as close as you
As I've stated before the inch [bull] ant as I call it, sends shudders down the old spinal cord and makes me squeal like a little kid .
They operate in stealth mode, if you see one you know there's another dozen or two behind it. RUN!!!
As for your clotting problem I've seen several people in emergency over the years bleeding out through the bladder, it's a very difficult thing to stop.
Time to by a lotto ticket.



cheers moredeep

I got extremely lucky in 2014. I got a signal and knelt down to dig. I was given a rude awakening by the first bite on my bum through the jeans.

The next 5 stings at least were on my ankles. I shudder to think how many stings I would have got a few seconds later as they crawled up my jeans leg. Most stings were through the thick Explorer socks. Purple ankles for more than 2 weeks.

In the 80's I was tormenting a bullant nest with the coil and one snuck up behind me. No regards for the Geneva Convention those things.

Strangely I have never encountered a snake in over 40 years of detecting, thankfully.

Regards Axtyr.

I have a few snake stories for anyone bored enough to read on. I'm going out again next weekend and I expect to see the snakes out with the weather being so uncharacteristically warm in "Winter" right not.  There was a warning from the staff at the Austrlian Reptile Park (at Somersby) last week that the sightings of snakes are everywhere right now.  Today marks the first day of Spring. The Turon area, where I was bitten last and where I expect to be again, is known for Brown Snakes up higher on the hills and Red Bellied Black Snakes near the water.  These two species also prey on each other.


Death Adder Habitat map.


An adult Death Adder that I photographed a few years ago.

My biggest concern is not the snakes I should be able to see but the ones that hide under the soil near rocks and pathways... the Death Adders.  And I know they've been spotted at both Ophir and Oberon goldfields.  These snakes can be so small that they are literally no longer than your pinkie finger (juveniles) but are often mistaken for a Blue Tongue Lizard... for reasons I can't quite explain. Reptile and Wildlife champion of the 70s, Harry Butler, once said the Death Adder could kill an adult in just 12 minutes. One of the members of my local prospecting club was bitten on the sole of his boot by a Death Adder when he knelt down to dig a target at Tibooburra Goldfield in the later 2000s.  He bought some snake gaiters after that.

Most snake bites in Australia tend to be the result of people attempting to move or handle a snake.  The 41yo man who was fatally bitten in Western Australia in 2014 was trying to move a snake away from his Laverton camp where his friends and family were set up. The snake involved was a Western Brown Snake (aka: Mengden's brown snake/Gwardar).   Most of the Brown Snake bites appear to be on people's feet, toes and ankles.

My first close encounters with snakes was when I was very young.  I believe I was around 5 years old and my father had taken the family to look at some real estate property and vacant land in Melbourne.  I was stumbling around on this property as my mother sat in the car and my father spoke with a salesman.  I found a snake.  It was incredibly shy and I followed it along some protruding rocks before pinning it with my hand and picking it up from behind the head.  I took it to my father and the salesman recoiled in abject horror screeching "That's a Brown Snake!".  I had to transfer the grip on the snake's head to the salesman and he threw it into the tall grass.  It raised its head and hissed but that was the end of the incident.


A harmless Blind Snake that was under a rock in the Wattle Flat goldfields (NSW).


The sharp tail spine on the same Blind Snake. It's used as an anchor to prevent predators pulling them out of their burrows.

I caught this harmless Blind Snake under a rock in Wattle Flat (Sofala Goldfield) a few years ago (see images above) and despite having handled these many times before, this was the first time I've been "skunked" by one.  It was presumably irritated because it wanted to burrow back underground and I wanted to take pictures of it. After about 10 minutes I learned a valuable lesson... They have a great trick up their sleeve:  It released a truly awful smell using an oily substance released from under its scales.  It got on my fingers and my camera, and then my pockets and my shirt. Then it migrated to the frames of my sunglasses before I requested someone else connect my car seat-belt for me so I didn't have to touch anything else.  It's best described as a "pungent smell", better than the scent from a Long Neck Tortoise but certainly vastly inferior to the stench of a North American Skunk.  And of course, this was before were wandered off to Sofala to buy lunch.  So after scrubbing my fingers and lens with KFC hand sanitizers and washing my hands repeatedly under the sink at the cafe's bathroom, I still had to bring my hands towards my face to eat my burger and fries... and I wanted to throw up every time I tried to take a bite.

My parents used to be involved with Charity groups in the Third World and I was forced to tag along.  I used to look for Cobras in the temple ruins in Asia and they were often wedged in the gaps between the stone blocks.  I stupidly tried to catch an adult Nile Monitor, to the amusement of the locals. And those things, despite their size, are fast. A smaller one bit me on the thumb, which I deserved.  I still have a picture of it someplace.  When I was 15 years old I went to a remote village in the mountains in Sri Lanka and was standing in front of a rice field looking to see if the were any snakes as they might be attracted to mice in the rice paddy.  I looked down and saw movement.  I was standing on a Russell's Viper with my right foot and it was twisting left and right, biting the rubber on my thongs (flip-flops) that I was wearing, I leaped away and was grateful I wasn't bitten.  The venom of the Russell's Viper is a really nasty one that contains neurotoxins, necrotic agents and coagulants that turn your blood into thick jelly. I think I was fortunate to avoid a bite on that day.  It had the loveliest markings and patterns on its back but I would not have survived the venom as there was no radio in the village and it was about a 3 hour drive back to civilization. Our hotel guard opened fire on some Tamil rebels with an automatic weapon that night. I'm not likely to go back there again.

Before I went into High School, I was climbing down a rope on a cliff face near Castle Hill, close to Glenorie when I was 16yo.  I was halfway down when I spotted a coiled Diamond Python on the ledge below me.  I instinctively grabbed it behind the head and it responded by instinctively wrapping itself around my forearm.  The constriction began and in less that 20 seconds there was literally no blood flowing to my arm.  The hand holding the snake went numb.  It then dawned on me that I only had one free hand and that one was gripping the rope.  I couldn't let go of the snake without getting bitten.  I chose to let go of the rope and fell about 14 feet to the ferns below which broke my fall.  The snake was fine.  We took some pictures of it at the house and let it go near the cliff.

On the 13th September 2010, I was carrying metal detectors and gear on a private property at Wattle Flat in the early morning - with my wife following about 10 feet behind me... and the soil went from rocky and iron-infused red soil to a lovely green moss with green grass where there was a small clearing.  I said to my wife that this was a great place to spot a snake and she immediately started chanting "Snake, Snake, Snake".  I stopped moving and turned to face here and said "where?".  Both her hands were full... she had a detector in one hand and a pick in the other - so she nodded towards me with her head.  I'm scanning the rocks nearby and said "Where?  I can't see it." She replied "It's right between your legs!".  I looked down and there was an absolutely massive Red Bellied Black Snake underneath the weave of the grass and I had one foot on once side of the snake where I'd stepped over it, and the other foot on the other side of it.  The snake was moving slowly but its head was going into a very small hole at the base of a tree to my right.  I went to grab its tail and my wife (who is Canadian but knows our snakes well) said "Don't you dare!".  So this snake that was easily 2 meters long - which made it larger than average.  The maximum length they grow to is 2.55m.  


It's hard to spot... or even see in this picture.  But there's a 2m+ Red Bellied Black Snake under that grass.

I spotted a juvenile Red Bellied Black Snake on the Turon a few years ago and tried to photograph it without success.  It was very fast and tried desperately to evade my friends and I over the rocks.  The body was a beautiful matte black and the underside was cherry-red.  It was a gorgeous snake and I chose to leave it be.

At Sofala I chased a couple of Red Bellied Black Snakes from the carpark down to the trees on the shore of the river and they raced around the trees before disappearing into small holes that looked like cicada holes.  I was at the camping point there near the small bridge that crosses into the private properties and was wading in the water before a leech bit my calf under my jeans when I approached a submerged log with a shovel. As I backed out of the river (I was walking backwards to try to spot the leech if it was following me) I heard a hiss behind me and when I turned I saw a large Red Bellied Black Snake on the pebbles on the shore near my pack.  The snake had lifted the front half of its body off the ground and was in a strike position so I splashed water on it with my shovel and it went back down to the ground and immediately moved off again.

The local electrician from Wattle Flat pointed out a large Eastern Brown Snake sunning itself on the side of the road - near the functioning mine at Sofala when he was waiting to cross a single lane bridge there.  He said it was the largest he'd ever seen.  I saw another disappearing into rocks at sunset when I was returning to my vehicle at Dark Corner.  My friend saw me leaning in (because the end of the snake's tail was still protruding) and simply said "Don't.  I'm not carrying you back to the car." The Brown Snakes can easily climb back up their own length of body to strike - so they're probably not to be handled without considerable risk.

Quite some years ago I was at the North Parramatta Lake Reserve and was trying to see if there were any remaining Leaf-tailed Geckos in a rocky crevice between two boulders that I knew used to thrive there.  I climbed up to the cliffside and was peering into the crevice when something close to my eye moved very fast and blocked the light from the sun. It was so close that my eye couldn't focus on it.  I yanked my head back and it was a Funnel Web Spider that had run out from its silken tube and straight at my eye.  My eyelashes has touched the snares at the end of the tube. That was a very close call.



Taipan Habitat Map.

I'm pretty sure this was an adult Coastal Taipan.  They can get much larger than this.

The Coastal Taipan and its variants are considered to be the deadliest snake in the world.  Even the professional snake handlers and venom extractors don't mess around with this species.  But they show up in quite a few locations in Australia where Prospectors venture.  There was a suspected Death from one in Townsville, Queensland in 2015.  Followed by two more confirmed lethal bites by Coastal Taipans in 2016.  There's been many others but if you go back through the listings of bites, there sure were a lot of deaths from Tiger Snakes in Australia.  You can read them yourselves here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_snake_bites_in_Australia

In the late 1990s, I was transporting glass containers with Funnel Web Spiders in them inside a leather camera bag that I'd caught at St Ives and was intending to donate to the Australian (Gosford) Reptile Park for venom extraction.  The Bag which was on the floor of the front seat of my car and I had to brake hard to avoid a collision with a truck and another car that had collided in front of me.  The bag slammed into the foot-well of the front passenger seat and I heard all the jars inside it shatter.  I was out of that car like a flash.  Fortunately the leather bag was intact.  At the end of the day, the largest Funnel Web had killed all the others before I could remove it.


Not every brown colored snake is venomous.  This adult python has a lovely brown shade and a soft mottled pattern. I think he was ready to shed his skin when I took this picture because his slitted eye is quite dull.

There's a note attached to the Government MMSI Beacons listing for my Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) that mentions that I occasionally encounter and photograph venomous wildlife in the goldfields.  They suggested I add this information and even said they'd put a doctor on any helicopter that might be summoned should my beacon be triggered.  I'll bet they don't.

I keep a pressure bandage on the door of my car now so I can get to it quickly or offer it to someone else that needs it. The Bushman's insect repellent seems to be the best solution to prevent leeches, ticks, ants and mosquitoes. Sunscreen is perhaps overlooked by many of us, including myself. A hat can also be very useful to prevent too much direct sun exposure. But the things that sting us are everywhere.

* I asked a prospector how he thought the old timers in the 1880s dealt with the stinging ants (those Bull Ants) and he said they likely boiled a kettle of hot water and poured it down the nest.