Australia's Most Deadly Back to Image Columns List I lie in my swag just kilometres from Ayers Rock (or Uluru, to give it it’s Aboriginal name) staring up at the desert night sky, thinking how beautiful, black and star-studded it is. This is the life. It’s so peaceful here with just the sound of water trickling in the distance. Water? Running water?  I sit up in alarm. “Estuarine crocodiles clamp their jaws onto the victim, then roll them under water, drowning them. Other than sharks, they are the only Australian predators that regard adult humans as normal prey.” Oh my God – surely we couldn’t have been so stupid as to settle for the night next to some water’s edge. Some crocodile-infested water’s edge. We’d have noticed, wouldn’t we? I hold my breath and listen. But not a sound. All is quiet. And then, there comes the sound of a wooden door being swung open, then gentle humming and flashes of a torch as someone makes their way back from the toilet to a nearby tent. I lie back down again. If I’m not going to relax and enjoy the experience of sleeping in my swag out here then I too might as well have stayed in one of the tents.  But isn’t this so much nicer?  Lying here by the embers of a dying fire. Dying fire? Oh my God! I bolt upright again. How the hell did we let it get so low? What else have we to protect ourselves against whatever lurks out there in the dark? “There are many instances of people receiving serious injuries from attacks by kangaroos and there is at least one reliable account of someone being killed by a kangaroo in the wild.” We should have been busy stoking it up, piling on the logs and keeping it ablaze to ward off all those deadly animals – those kangaroos, those dingoes, those feral pigs, those camels – all sneaking about out there, all watching, all waiting until we drop off to sleep.  Maybe, it would be wise to go and get some more wood from the woodpile. That woodpile, way, way over on the other side of the scrub.  “The death adder snake stays where it is and relies on camouflage to keep it concealed thereby making it easier to tread on.”  Come on – get a grip, I tell myself. Really, what are the chances of me stumbling upon a poisonous snake? “Australia is unique in being the only major region in which venomous snake species outnumber non-venomous species.”  I lie back down again. Does it matter if the fire dies? What protection could it really offer? And besides, who knows what it might even attract? “The likelihood of a marsupial meat-eating ‘cat’ as big as a panther surviving, unknown to science, in some remote desert areas is very small but it is possible.” The best thing to do is to snuggle right down inside the swag. That’s where I’ll be safest. Nothing can get me there. Unless it’s small. Very small. “The tiny redback, a relative of the notorious black widow, is usually found in dark, dry locations. It’s bite can be fatal. In all, there are over 1400 species of spider in Australia and 100’s more waiting to be discovered.” Maybe I should go back into the tent. But I can’t. I’d lose face. Just snuggle down and close my eyes and pray for morning.   ‘So how did you sleep, Anne Marie?’ ‘Beautifully.’ ‘I don’t know how you dared stay out there all night! You weren’t worried about snakes and spiders and the like?’ ‘Worried? Course not. What’s there to worry about?’ ‘Well, mice for one. Even our tent was overrun with them so I can imagine what sleeping out in a swag in the open must have been like. So tell me, what's the book you're reading? ‘“Australia’s most deadly”.’   Back to Image Columns List