Yeah we have lots of venomous snakes but most aren't dangerous unless you're an idiot who tries to pat them. The only snakes to worry about are Taipans. These are a type of brown snake found on the east coast, up north and in the desert. They are aggressive, bite repeatedly, inject huge amounts of extremely poisonous venom, and actively go after things they regard as food. If you see one you give it a wide berth.
We have tiger snakes in the southern half of the country. These can be pleasant or grumpy. If they are having a good day they will slither off into the bush when they feel a human coming towards them. However, if they are having a bad day, they will stand their ground, rear up and hiss and strike at anything that comes near them. They resemble a cobra when they do this. Tiger snakes are highly venomous and their venom causes your blood to clot really quickly. Their prey or people that get bitten by them usually die from heart failure and have blood that is the consistency of jelly.
We have dugites down here and they are venomous but shy and retiring snakes. They will make every effort to get away and only bite if they have no other choice.
We have death adders in the untouched bushland. These things are very poisonous but are not found where people live and you have to go into areas where people don't go, if you want to see them. They are hard to spot and usually bury themselves under leaf litter or in the dirt. They have a short fat body and the tip of their tail is really thin. They wiggle the tail about and attract lizards to eat.
If you get bitten by an Australian snake, you apply a pressure bandage to the bite and associated limb, immobilise the limb and carry the victim to hospital. If you do this the person has a good chance of surviving if they get medical help within a few hours. Without a pressure bandage they will usually be dead in a few hours.
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We have two species of chocodile in Australia. The saltwater crocodile, which lives in fresh or salt water and can reach 20 feet long. These things are seriously dangerous and will take anything that goes near the water, including people, dogs, cats, buffalo, pigs, kangaroos, and they eat each other and sharks. They scare the absolute crap out of me and are one of the few things I fear in this country. Fortunately they are only found up north and I am down south soto you chocodiles.
Then we have the Johnstone's freshwater crocodile. These are smaller and grow to about 6-8 feet long. They don't normally hang around when they see people but do occasionally bite people and they will take small dogs and other animals. they are found in freshwater up north.
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Male Platypus have a spur on each back leg and these have a venom sack attached to them. The males use this for fighting and self defence against dingos, Tasmanian devils and Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacines) that are now extinct. As long as you don't handle a Platypus, you are fine and won't be injured by one.
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Dingos (native dog brought here from Indonesia by the first Aboriginals) are supposedly dangerous but most pure Dingos will run away as soon as they see a person. There are Dingo hybrids and also feral dogs in the bush and these do attack small children if the dogs are hungry.
Most of the pure Dingos live on Fraser Island off the coast of Queensland. Here they are exposed to people on a daily basis and it is against the law to feed or come in contact with them animals. People get bitten by them because they don't comply with the laws and the poor dog usually gets shot in the process.
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Male Kangaroos (aka roos) fight other males for territory and females. If a male has a bunch of girls with him and he thinks you are getting too close to his women, he will confront you. If he decides to fight you he will try to grapple you with his top legs and then lean back on his tail and kick hell out of you with his bottom/ back legs. The back legs have long nails and can rip you open and people need surgery to be sewn back up after being attacked by males roos. Fortunately most Kangaroos will run as soon as they see people.
Kangaroos are terrified of cars because they get hit and killed by them out in the country. If you are driving at dawn, dusk or at night in the country, slow down to about 70-80km per hour and if you see roos ahead, slow down a bit more. Most accidents happen to cars travelling at high speed (over 100kph) and this doesn't give the roos enough time to get across the road without being hit.
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We have box jellyfish up north, and sharks, stingrays and drop bears. As long as you're careful you are safe, and more people die from cars and bad motorists than from animals in this country. But animal attacks make good news and people like to freak out over a chocodile or shark attack, but don't care about people getting killed by cars every day.
I rest my case.
