Why does it seem like everyone here is Australian?

More
15 May 2025 15:27 #328516 by langdons
It seems all permanent, long-standing members, contributors, moderators, etc. are Australian.

Why is this?

Why would a place with a hot climate have lots of people who work with heat-producing machinery in a room that likely has no A/C?

Machines likely need cooling water (fresh, not salty), a rarish thing in Australia. 

I suppose close proximity to Asia is nice, but is kinda counterracted by the fact that it's far away from the USA (though Trump is successfully making proximity to the US less desirable).

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • tommylight
  • tommylight's Avatar
  • Away
  • Moderator
  • Moderator
More
15 May 2025 15:43 #328517 by tommylight
I am not in Australia.
I do like Australia, with all the creatures that can kill people easily, mostly because of people.
The following user(s) said Thank You: pommen, unknown

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
15 May 2025 19:54 #328529 by unknown
The plants can be pretty rough as well.
The beer's good, no I no longer indulge.
The back roads are great for a fang & scratch.
Funny thing is Australia is hot & dry but Aussies have a rep for being pretty quick on a wet circuit, go figure.
Another good thing is the drive in bottle shops, ya can get beer, wine, spirits and chips and other party supplies without having to get out of your car. Unlike some nanny state countries where you can't even buy beer & spirits in the same place. The same country that was so scared of Trump they voted in the same party that made them a laughing stock that was led by Castro's son and used to club baby seals. The same country that you can't walk the street with a beer or other drink in your hand, and you pay for stuff with loonies. Oh and don't ask for a hamburger with the lot, they can't fathom it.

To be fair we only got electricity yesterday and fire the week before. Fresh water, that's for cowards that are scared to go to creek to grab some water cos there might be a salty wanting to eat you. Or a shark that wants to bite a leg off, a blue ring that wants to end your day.
The following user(s) said Thank You: tommylight

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 May 2025 08:18 #328672 by rodw

I am not in Australia.
I do like Australia, with all the creatures that can kill people easily, mostly because of people.

Nothing to worry about, we don't have any man eating lions, tigers bears, wolves and similar carnivores. The only potential maneater is our snapping handbags, the salt water crocodiles. But they typically live in less populated regions to the north. The freshwater Crocs are not maneaters and their teeth are designed to catch fish...

So that leaves a few of the most deadly snakes in the world that fortunately have a very poor venom delivery mechanism (grooved fangs instead of hollow) and are typically timid unless cornered, two spiders (funnel-web and redback) and the blue ringed octopus mentioned... Nothing to worry about!
The following user(s) said Thank You: tommylight

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • tommylight
  • tommylight's Avatar
  • Away
  • Moderator
  • Moderator
More
18 May 2025 08:50 #328675 by tommylight
OK, so pretty much even, we have Bears (no Grizzly though), Wolves, Foxes, wild Bore, Eagles, Falcons, Hawks, and one of the more venomous snakes with hollow fangs looks same as Rattle Snake but smaller nose and no rattle so you do not hear it coming ... or going... , rare scorpions but never seen bigger than 5cm, plenty of non lethal spiders.
Those are all native here, so about 4-5 snake bites per year (this goes over 15 when summers are really hot), 1-2 bear attacks per year rarely lethal as the biggest bear i have seen here is about the size of a human when standing up, and about 1 dead every year or two from wolves.
What we got as presents from UN personnel after the war:
Real Rattle snakes
The redback spiders (found one on my bedroom window about 15 years ago and wondered how it got here, so thank you Australia :) )
Some strange weasel like creature with a very angry face
Some mostly black birds that imitate my whistling perfectly, messed with me for years as whenever i heard them i thought my brother was calling me, always at night hence the long period to figure out.
Flesh eating bacteria that unfortunately is still present, about two months ago last case
Some type of giant wasp, survived for 3 years here due to mild winters but vanished after 2 strong winters, about 4-5cm in size, extremely aggressive, got bitten by it once, got a 5mm big red itchy bump that went away after half hour.
And we got probably more California Trout than California, plenty of restaurants have their own small fish farms, and plenty have been released in the rivers, so now we can very rarely find our native Trout.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 May 2025 14:25 #328696 by unknown
Depending on what source you read Australia has anywhere from 10 out 15 fifteen to 20 out of 25 of the most deadliest snakes. As Rod said almost all aren't that aggressive and would rather be left alone.
I can testify to that, my Beagle tracked one for about 10 minutes, effing Brown of all things, and all the poor bastard wanted to do was get away. Bloody dog has a thing about snakes, most beagles like rabbits and the like, but my weirdo dog tracks snakes....gotta be really on the ball when walking him near areas with bush.
A other funny thing about Oz, we have the largest population of wild camels....reckon in the next 25 or so generations they'll get poisonous like every thing else.
Actually it's not that bad, it's only really the coastal areas of Australia where people live, maybe 200k in and after that it's pretty sparse.
Just need a bit of common sense, don't annoy the wildlife, careful which plants you touch and don't go on the other side of the railing to get a closer look at the Blow Hole.
Oh and don't argue with the Highway Patrol, they're the guys the Outlaw MC gangs rejected for being too anti social and morally corrupt.
The following user(s) said Thank You: tommylight

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
19 May 2025 12:24 #328738 by rodw
Careful now, I grew up 500 miles from the coast and 90 miles from the nearest town! The brown mulga snake I grew up with is supposedly the third most deadly in the world. I tripped over a log once to find one sunning himself under my chest when I landed. We both got a fright, I froze and he took off. Another time, I met one in the house coiled up 2 feet in the air ready to strike at me. Maybe I was about 10. Took me a couple of weeks before I got him with the .22 under Mum's dressing table!

Yet I only ever knew two people who got bitten, both on the foot while riding a horse. One was my grandfather and they had to hit the snake with a stick to make him let go and the other was a young girl about 12, the daughter of a drover. Both lived through the event! I don't think much venom got past the kangaroo skin upper on their RM Williams riding boots!

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
19 May 2025 14:00 #328744 by unknown
We moved to Ingleburn, not far from Campbelltown, in the very late 70's. At the time they were building a lot of housing commission places, the joys of coming from a "broken home", anyways all the building was causing the snakes to look for new places. Usually the first sign you got was the 2 dauschhunds going off their heads, and sure enough there was some snake or another making themselves at home.
Funnily enough the worst incident we had wasn't a snake bite but 2 of the neighbours' boys decided to sniff glue and start taking shots at each other with slug guns.
"But dad I only shot him in his glue"

On there was also the mattress fire under the house due to one of the neighbours and his girlfriend smoking and having a pash session.

And no I was only 6 or 7 at the time, we were just general menaces, favourite was running through the pond outside the doctors surgery. 40 years later I was working at the railway station when they were doing upgrades at Ingleburn, and yep the doctors surgery and pond were still there. I thought about it, but too many aches and pains to run through it, plus it was pretty cold that day.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.086 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum