Everything is trying to kill you!….Well for the first few weeks at Gundaroo I jumped at everything! I even doubted the move and kept thinking why have we brought our kids to this dangerous place. They will never be able to go outside and play for goodness sake! How different from Pheasents, Robins and Squirrels. A house spider used to make me jump, out here they do the jumping!! I thought a big spider was an inch across, now it’s a hand width! And don’t even get me started on their webs! So in comparison it felt like everything out here was deadly. Not helped by books and the media. As a child born in the time the movie ‘Jaws’ will forever be printed on my mind. But as time went on we started to realise that instead of everything being out to kill us, we are all just trying to live along side each other.

Yes it does happen here, (Australia I mean not just Gundaroo) snake bites and shark deaths etc. But we just can’t live in fear of it, otherwise we would never go out to work, swim in the sea, play, garden and enjoy this beautiful country we have moved to. So we are sensible, we keep the garden, yard and sheds clean and never just pick anything up without thinking. We have trained the boys in snakebite first aid and regularily do on the spot role play so it will be second nature. We wear insect repellant and treat the sheds and properties with insect bombs. Long boots are uniform if we go in any type of long grass. All motor vehicles have first aid and snake bite kits. At the beach we swim between the flags if possible but if not we are just sensible and stay in the shallows. In the river we chuck the dogs in first and make lots of noise!

So have we had any encounters, I hear you ask? Oh yes plenty and if we hadn’t wouldn’t this be a boring blog! Here are a few of them….

Snakes of course…We’ve seen a good selection in our first 2 years here, Red Belly Blacks, Browns, Tai-pans, Tree snakes, swimming snakes and Pythons. The latter, Pythons we embrace as they keep the rodents down and of course yes, they are all called Monty! But as to the poisonous ones we have had a few. The funniest encounter was with a Red Belly on the verander when we first moved in. I was on the phone to my Mum back in the UK at night when suddenly I noticed this long black snake slithering its way towards me. I shouted “snake!”, to attract Toms attention and all hell let loose on the other end of the phone. My Mum cracked off! She was screaming and screaming so loud I couldn’t think straight let alone freak out myself and hang on wasn’t I the one next to it and not safely tucked up in Herefordshire!

The Browns and Tai-Pans have mostly been in the paddocks and seen via the safety of a tractor cab or from the back of a motor bike thank goodness. We had some contractors here installing our irrigators. They were having a smoko (tea break). One of them was sat with his back to a steep bank when the other one opposite said carefully “mate just move slowly over here would ya” …..behind him was a very large Brown snake that had reared up. Apparently it was as thick as his wrist, eewww!

It was a harmless Tree snake that gave me my biggest fright. I was shutting the gate to the horse paddock when I looked up and came face to face with one. It was looking me straight in the eye and only inches away. It had climbed on top of the fence post. Well I don’t know who was more frightened? Me, or the snake! My involuntary scream was like no sound I have ever made before or since thank goodness! Now we have several snake defences but the best is Tonka our wonderful cattle dog. She just gives out a different bark when she see’s one, so we know either to come or go running and so far she’s been sensible and not got bitten. Touch wood!

Insects have never been my strong point especially the flying ones with legs but even I have got used to them. The Christmas beetles are now gorgeous to me. Bumbling around and seemingly ridiculous in their ungainly and dumb way, spending most of the time flailing around on their backs. There are some stingers but actually I have seen more wasps and hornets in the UK. Yes there’s mozzies but isn’t that what insect spray is for? When it’s bad for some times of the year we just eat indoors at night.

I will never forget when we first arrived we inherited a garage full of Red back spiders, which we promptly treated. We missed one though and I found it on my bike as I was cycling up the drive and jeez I jumped off quick! However my biggest bug freak out was a harmless King Cricket stuck in a vent above the bath. OMG I lost it when the legs stuck out and the sound of it fighting against the light was to me, the stuff of nightmares! So very pathetically I got hysterical, and was naked, jumping up and down in the bathroom until my hero husband came to the rescue laughing! Thanks Darling x

Frogs and Gheckos are every where and how we love them! Tree frogs just have to be one of our favourite creatures out here. Such gentle chilled creatures. They do have a negative though -bloody messy. They poop every where and the frogs love living in our toilets up to 20 at a time and unfortunately they don’t know how to use them!

Kangaroos they can be dangerous too! Especially when you hit them accidently with your car! It’s traumatic and so, so sad. On one occasion I was taking the boys to school when I hit a big male and I mean big, the size of a man! We pulled over and he was flailing around blatantly going to die. I just wanted to put him out of his misery but how? In the UK if we hit a deer we would just euthinase it but a kangaroo with those big lethal legs no thanks and besides its illegal here I think? So I stood there with the boys considering my options. I just imagined it if I did try and end his suffering for him what would I do if a neighbour came over the brow of the hill? I could just see it, the new English girl slaughtering our wildlife…yes that would go down well wouldn’t it! Anyway he died quickly, naturally and we paid respect. The next time this happens I will just call the local wildlife department. Another time I was riding over the back country when I saw Tonka fighting with a large six foot male! She was never going to win so we scared him off but they are so fearless especially when your on horse back! Aside from that we don’t have many here and the joy of seeing them never wanes.

In regards to Koalas unfortunatly we don’t see many, well any here. A sign of how rare they are now. It’s been over two years and Tom only saw his first wild one last week, so sad! The only fauna that doesn’t want to harm you it seems are the beautiful birds here, well unless you are Roo our little dog and yes then a majestic Wedge Tail Eagle does pose a threat some what!

We do have dingo’s and wild pigs mind. Especially now we are growing sugar cane. Pigs love the stuff but I am yet to actually see a pig on the property. We know they are there as they have rooted up the paddocks and some contractors working here saw a very large one in the cane. I am not looking forward to that encounter in the future as large means massive out here! Packs of dingo’s cross the farm and occasionally we get lone males too. Last year Tom had one following his tractor for three days. Our main worry with these guys is them attacking our dogs and young stock.

To date no sharks have been sighted thank goodness! We did go and check out a beach a few months ago but on arrival we noticed a sign to our left highlighting the dangers of Crocodiles and a sign to our right about Stone fish and then we looked into the water and the first thing we saw was a Cone Shell . A very poisonous shellfish that stabs you if you pick them up or stand on them so we sensibly decided that beach was not for us!

Last week swimming in Noosa, a Blue bottle jelly fish stung Sam and Tom but with prompt treatment from the lovely life guards it wasn’t so bad or so they say. Apparently it’s like a bad nettle sting and treating it with hot water and then an ice pack does the job. So not as bad as we thought and besides who hasn’t been stung by a nettle in the UK?

I could go on and on with our wildlife encounters but this is a blog and I’m sure you have other places to be. Plus we are never going to have any guests from the UK again if I do carry on!

All in all, we love the wildlife, it’s one of the reasons we are here. Ok, well never the insects for me! But it’s falling to sleep to the lullaby of crickets, cicadas and the chorus of frogs that more than makes up for it. So my tips for surviving the wildlife of Australia…..chill, be sensible, prepare and learn, but mostly be thankful you can see and appreciate it!

And two years later and I am now so relaxed, the boys play freely and we are loving all the wildlife but with a healthy respect and a good knowledge of what to do if the worst should happen.