Australia would not be a good place for me to visit! With my ADD, I don’t pay attention to anything and that is not a good thing when visiting somewhere where everything wants to kill you! You guys have a lot of shark issues there don’t you? I love watching shark week on Discovery Channel.
The government and news make a big deal over shark attacks around Australia but they are rare. It happens a few times each year and most are small sharks tasting surfboards during the warmer weather. The attacks just about always occur at dawn or dusk when the light isn't as good as during the day. The sharks see a shadow on the surface that resembles a seal (surfer on a board with arms splashing about resembles a tasty seal when viewed from below) and attack it. During the day when the light is good, sharks can tell the difference between a surfboard and a seal.
Occasionally someone gets killed by a shark but it's very rare considering the coastline and how many people go to the beach. Australia is a similar size to the USA and we are completely surrounded by coastline, so there's lots of beaches and seawater. Millions of people go to the beach every day when it's summer. I think it's around 200 people that have died from shark attacks since white man came to Australia a couple of hundred years ago. More people die from car accidents every year than 10 years worth of shark attacks. More people win Lotto than that.
Unfortunately whenever there is a shark attack, the press is all over it and then people get all up in arms about it and pressure the government into killing sharks, which is completely unnecessary. But the government is stupid and even though the scientists say you can't cull sharks because they are all endangered now due to over fishing, the government pays fishermen to go and kill more.
In Australia more people die from other people than native animals. Once in a while someone might get taken by a chocodile up north. But that is generally their fault for going in the water. There are signs up everywhere saying don't go in the water because crocodiles eat you, but people still go in the water. People including tourists drown in the oceans because they swim in a rip due to it having calm water and don't swim between the flags, or they wear a heap of clothing into the water and get dragged under.
Right now it is more dangerous to be walking around the cities and suburbs in Victoria and New South Wales because teenagers are running around stabbing people during the day. And there are similar problems in parts of the Northern Territory where certain indigenous youth are out and about at night causing problems. Although the indigenous ones don't normally carry knives.
Most people that end up in an Australian hospital from "animal attacks" are usually there for spider bites, bee stings and being bitten by unfriendly pet dogs. In all fairness to Australia's animals, yes a number of them are highly venomous but the majority of them don't want anything to do with people and only attack in self defence (Taipan and Sydney funnel web spider are exceptions to this). Basically look but don't touch and you should be fine. Read warning signs about what is in the water (box jellyfish, chocodiles, sharks, etc) and don't go in if it's not safe to do so.
I spent most of my life wandering around the bush looking under plants and collecting things from the wild and have never been bitten by any critters in the wild, apart from the odd ant. I spent years in rivers, creeks and streams, and splashing about in the ocean and never got attacked by anything there except a jellyfish. I have been attacked by dogs on over 50 occasions whilst walking around the neighbourhood and I have been attacked by people too.