I sometimes think that whatever created the Earth, specifically created the land mass that would come to be known as Australia as A: a mad alien scientist's breeding ground, and/or B: an experimental playpen when the humans showed up. No offense. :p

Schone, I think you missed a C. option
C. Breeding/testing ground for WETKY** Snakes.


** WETKY -- We Exist To Kill You.


Targan didn't mention that when it comes to dangerous wildlife, quite a bit of it can be found in towns and cities and even on beaches regularly attended by people.
I live in the same city as Targan and at my old workplace, we would get juvenile Dugite snakes coming into the building through the warehouse area and we'd sometime discover adult Dugites sleeping under pallets or hiding under cars in the carpark.

Now Dugites are quite dangerous but they're on the lower end of the scale, the adults prefer to avoid humans so while they're potentially lethal, they tend to get out of your way and while the juveniles are very aggressive much of the time, their venom isn't concentrated enough to kill. But just in case you think they aren't something to worry about, in 2011 a primary school aged boy was bitten by a Dugite that found its way into his bedroom and snuggled up to him while he slept. The boy made a full recovery.

Unfortunately, our towns are also home sometimes to the Tiger Snake. Tiger Snakes also generally prefer to avoid humans and generally prefer to be in the rural areas but you should just keep the hell away from them anyway because even if they aren't cornered, they may decide to chase you just because they can... I know from personal experience and the damned snake followed my friend and I for a good 50 metres before we managed to kill it (we were in a horse paddock, so it was either us, the horses or the snake, we chose the snake after the bastard chose us).

Then we start going up the scale a quite a bit with a snake that's both deadly and an urban dweller, the Eastern Brown Snake. Even juveniles can kill an adult human and while the Eastern Brown is mostly located on the east coast or in the north, it has a relative, the Gwardar AKA the Western Brown Snake. This little charmer is often more aggressive than the Eastern Brown, it's probably pissed that its venom isn't as deadly as the Eastern Brown so it makes up for it by delivering a larger quantity of venom and also by trying to bite you several times.

Now to put that into some perspective, I've encountered all three of these snakes (most often the Dugite but a Western Brown in the backyard killed one of our cats) at least once every three or four years in this city.

There's a few others that fortunately live away from urban areas that are more dangerous such as the Inland Taipan and the Belcher's Sea Snake.

I was chased by a tiger snake when I was a teenager. Those are some bloody angry snakes.

I couldn't count the number of stories from friends and family about dogs being killed by snakes. Nearly lost a cat to a snake bite once too, but amazingly she recovered. Tough little thing. Dunno what kind of snake bit her.

I lived on an island off Dampier when I was a kid and we caught several sea snakes by accident when we were out fishing. Many sea snake species are incredibly venomous but luckily their fangs aren't well-suited to biting humans.

As you'd well know, Stainless, Australian children are taught from an early age to check under the seats of outdoor toilets for redback spiders. They've killed many a kid with a bite on the arse. :(

I'm not sure if I own enough "snake shot" (birdshot in pistol rounds) to live in Australia....

That reminds me, need to look for CCI..... and I second that!

You really think that's heavy enough? This is Australia where even the "tiny" mosquitoes are a serious threat to life and limb.

this is how it is done
 

"how do you tell Australian Mosquitoes apart?"
" By their tattoos"

Up north, the mosquitoes are so big they have to register all flights with Air Traffic Control...

I remember one exercise next to a swamp where the mosquitoes were so big they were biting through our webbing straps!
And the numbers! At least a dozen per square inch!
Needless to say we didn't get much sleep, and I'm not sure if it was the lack of sleep or blood loss that made us so tired.

You was lucky. When I were a lad, there were mosquitoes so big they'd carry children away to drink them dry of all blood later.

Pfft! Is that all?
When we woke up (those who managed to sleep) we'd been moved several metres from where we'd started. Good thing we were fully grown adults or...

Pfft! When I were lad, we 'ad it really tough. We 'ad to catch our own mosquitoes, in the dark, drain our own blood and then forcefeed it to them.
All before supper!

Now you're just taking the piss. ;)

:D

I can always use buckshot. It's the standard "anti-varmint" load around here.

Just came back from a long run to New Orleans. The mosquitoes down there have "Boeing" printed on their wings.

Got to let the " islanders" KNow where real bugs live
 

Yeah and the tail number and location of origin.

At Fort Polk La. We had a built in loss for troops due to Mosquitos.
Really!! Just look at the records for 1966 and '67.
What do you mean they are listed as deserters on the day report, they were taken from bed and barracks by them damn rebel flying bugs?

I hear the Confederate Air Force has two of them back into flying condition but the Government will not let them get tagged because of possible loss of life and property.

We used to say that the mosquitoes at Ft. Riley needed AAA to bring down.

I think you Americans are confusing what you've got
Attachment 3474

With what we here in Australia have
Attachment 3475

Shitstirrer! :p
:D

But am I wrong? ;)

As a side note, there is an airworthy De Havilland Mosquito that's been rebuilt and currently flying at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, VA. It's one of only two currently known Mosquitoes that are still flying as far as I know, Canada's got the other one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Aviation_Museum

One of my first trips when I move to Virginia Beach is to check that place out: My company is moving its US HQ to there at the end of September.

In my opinion, the Mosquito has to be about the sexiest looking WWII era aircraft in existence. Shame there's not more of them still flying.

Well, part of the problem, ironically, would appear to be in the wooden airframe construction, which was utilized by the Brits due to steel shortages, and was in itself a genius feat of engineering.

As far as long-term storage is concerned, steel-framed planes are fairly forgiving as long as they're sheltered from most of the elements. Something with a wooden frame tends to require more delicate maintenance as time goes on along with better shelter, one reason there's very few surviving WW1 biplanes and triplanes today. :(

Let me know when you arrive and I'll show you around. :)

That museum continues to grow as they add more stuff. They even had an airworthy B-17 at one point, but it got sold off to pay some bills. :( They do have a rebuilt ME-262 jet fighter along with a V-1 buzz bomb that still has a working engine, that's always a hoot to watch.

How do they get the pulse-jet to work without actually launching the thing?

You can see a demonstration here. This is at the "Warbirds over the Beach" event they hold each year in May. They have a LOT of reenactors that regularly show up for this representing the various Axis and Allies of WWII, along with sit-downs with a lot of veterans that show up at this too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE594pwumIM

I would like to see how they started it- without a compressor stage the V1 needed the launch rail, and an initial impetus, to get enough airflow through it to develop thrust.
Interesting that the crowd cheer when it stops. My dad heard a few of them, but only heard one stop. No one cheered...

Considering the quality of Laser-cut kits nowadays, d'ya think they'd make a 1:1 scale model?
Of course, shipping'd be a beyotch.

"4. Licensed attorneys authorized to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.


Perhaps in T2K, the Lawyer company can be ordered to charge a machine gun nest armed with subpoenas... :-)"

Hence the term "boilerplate"....:cool:

We'll need to get it on tape. Survivors of the war will want some entertainment.