The hazards of layout building in Australia

[Platypus]

As an Aussie we should be proud of our killer wildlife, whilst North America has bears and Africa lions and hippos ( who are actually fearless killers ) we have a wide range of animals to choose from ! Seriously though if you take reasonable and sensible precautions you will be safe. Do NOT ignore signs like "crocodiles use these waters" , those taken by crocodiles in Northern Australia ignored common sense, like sailing in a tinny that is smaller than a crocodile in crocodile infested waters, or paddling in a river at dusk when the crocs go hunting is really stupid. 

[luckymucklebackit]

Australia does not have one of the most ferocious beasts known to man

 

The Scottish Midge!!  Singularly of no consequence, but there are billions of them and they all know how to bite!!!

 

Jim

[DavidB-AU]

Seriously though if you take reasonable and sensible precautions you will be safe. Do NOT ignore signs like "crocodiles use these waters" , those taken by crocodiles in Northern Australia ignored common sense, like sailing in a tinny that is smaller than a crocodile in crocodile infested waters, or paddling in a river at dusk when the crocs go hunting is really stupid.

I once visited a crocodile farm in the Northern Territory. The guide explained that crocodile meat tastes like whatever it has been fed. If they feed them on chickens the meat tastes like chicken, if they feed them on fish the meat tastes like fish. He then added "that's why wild crocodile tastes like American tourist".

 

Cheers

David

[jamie92208]

I once visited a crocodile farm in the Northern Territory. The guide explained that crocodile meat tastes like whatever it has been fed. If they feed them on chickens the meat tastes like chicken, if they feed them on fish the meat tastes like fish. He then added "that's why wild crocodile tastes like American tourist".

 

Cheers

David

 

A friend of mine on a tour party was told that a salty had eaten a German tourist.  He tried to start a collection for the croc.

 

Jamie

[monkeysarefun]

Today I went down to my shed to cut some wood, bent down to plug the saw in to find a tiger snake curled up just below the powerpoint. My fault, I should have mounted the powerpoint halfway up the wall.

 

It does make you question your manliness though when you call up WIRES (thats our local wildlife rescue organisation) and a young lady in shorts turns up and captures it.

 

I wish I'd thought to get a photo. (of the snake - not the young lady in shorts..)

Edited February 14, 2017 by monkeysarefun

[TheQ]

Today I went down to my shed to cut some wood, bent down to plug the saw in to find a tiger snake curled up just below the powerpoint. My fault, I should have mounted the powerpoint halfway up the wall.

 

It does make you question your manliness though when you call up WIRES (thats our local wildlife rescue organisation) and a young lady in shorts turns up and captures it.

 

I wish I'd thought to get a photo. (of the snake - not the young lady in shorts..)

Much more dangerous in my tool shed,

I bent down to unplug the plug mounted transformer that keeps the electric screwdriver charged and found....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a mouse curled up on top keeping warm

[monkeysarefun]

Tiger snakes in my shed, 

 

a red belly black snake living in the drain outside  my parrot aviary,

 

 huntsmen spiders popping up in my  house.. (and car)  regularly'..

 

 

 

What is this 'mouse' that you speak of? I've never seen one! 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 14, 2017 by monkeysarefun

[Gwiwer]

 

 

What is this 'mouse' that you speak of?

Isn't this country famed for its giant hopping mouse?  

 

I did once discover Mus musculus concealed on the layout.  Having checked the tracks were clear of leaves, spiders and possum poop (all of which are regular embuggerances) I switched on, powered up and the train ran nicely until it entered the tunnel.  I heard a dull thump, the train jerked stop-start fashion but continued.  I thought little of it for the next two seconds until a sleepy mouse emerged from the tunnel portal closely pursued by a train!!!

[jamie92208]

The layout hasn't yet got to it's French home but when we had some electrical work done in the summer the electrician took the switchboard off the wall to reveal three very surprised gerni's fast asleep amongst the rockwool and the wiring.

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

video mice Australia (if I've got the link right).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWVw-j8eYSk

Edited February 14, 2017 by TheQ

[monkeysarefun]

The layout hasn't yet got to it's French home but when we had some electrical work done in the summer the electrician took the switchboard off the wall to reveal three very surprised gerni's fast asleep amongst the rockwool and the wiring.

 

Jamie

G'day Jamie,

 

I have not been able to find where you are writing from, so obviously  regional differences are causing my issues but I sure am wondering what  your definition of a gerni is, because here in NSW  a  Gerni is  a high pressure water blaster, and so, to  find 3 of them sound asleep in  my wall would be like some weird psychedelic drug thing from the 60's that I've only read about, like the yellow submarine etc . (I was under 10 in the 60's so I have actually only read about it!)

[monkeysarefun]

video mice Australia (if I've go the link right).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWVw-j8eYSk

Wow - but just need more snakes to fix.

 

I had a mate who lived in a dairy near here at Cobbitty, SW of Sydney. He'd kill mice and rats that infested the hay shed, skin them , glue the hides to bits of badly cut ply with a keyring attached and give them to his friends -  including me  - as presents.

 

Very entrepreneurial, but they got stinky after about a week so we'd have to throw them out.

[PhilJ W]

G'day Jamie,

 

I have not been able to find where you are writing from, so obviously  regional differences are causing my issues but I sure am wondering what  your definition of a gerni is, because here in NSW  a  Gerni is  a high pressure water blaster, and so, to  find 3 of them sound asleep in  my wall would be like some weird psychedelic drug thing from the 60's that I've only read about, like the yellow submarine etc . (I was under 10 in the 60's so I have actually only read about it!)

Predictive text strikes again, I think he meant gerbils.

[Junctionmad]

Jeepers , nothing natural where I live can kill me , thank goodness the only poisonous animal that stings here , has to stand for election from time to time

[monkeysarefun]

Predictive text strikes again, I think he meant gerbils.

 

 

Thanks Phil,the more I googled gerni, the more confused I became..

 

Jamie - I apologise for thinking that you were in some 60's psychadelic band, obviously  its presumably all due to autocorrect/predictive text. Where will it end...?

Edited February 14, 2017 by monkeysarefun

[jamie92208]

G'day Jamie,

 

I have not been able to find where you are writing from, so obviously  regional differences are causing my issues but I sure am wondering what  your definition of a gerni is, because here in NSW  a  Gerni is  a high pressure water blaster, and so, to  find 3 of them sound asleep in  my wall would be like some weird psychedelic drug thing from the 60's that I've only read about, like the yellow submarine etc . (I was under 10 in the 60's so I have actually only read about it!)

 

My typo, it should have read Gerbil.  However no predictive text on this laptop, just fat finger syndrome.

 

Jamie

Edited February 14, 2017 by jamie92208

[TheQ]

Thanks Phil,the more I googled gerni, the more confused I became..

 

Jamie - I apologise for thinking that you were in some 60's psychadelic band, obviously  its presumably all due to autocorrect/predictive text. Where will it end...?

Ask the text! it makes predictions

[Wolseley]

 

 huntsmen spiders popping up in my  house.. (and car)  regularly'..

 

 

Huntsman spiders are not really that dangerous though, they just look scary.  We used to get quite a few of them coming inside the house at our old place.  I would catch them on the end of a feather duster, take them outside and flick them over the back fence.

 

We hardly see any where we are now for some reason  - I think I've seen three of them in the last four years.

Edited October 24, 2017 by Wolseley

[NinOz]

https://static.rcgroups.net/forums/attachments/6/9/4/0/6/a10475151-176-324932.jpg

[faulcon1]

Oddly enough we Aussies are some of the longest lived people with many of us living into our 80's and 90's. So if our wildlife's objective is to kill as many of us as possible, well they're doing a rather lousy job of it. Many American created YT videos harp on and on about all the dangerous wildlife in Australia but in my sixty years I've only seen three snakes in person. One red bellied black snake in my place, one king brown snake and that was in Cowra railway yard close to death having been run over by a big 4x4, and a diamond python in the Dorrigo National Park Rainforest Walk which was only about one foot away from me and paid no attention to me whatsoever as it slowly climbed into a tree. Amazing watching it's body slowly from the tail come into a long zig zag shape with all it's muscles taut so as to be able to rise vertically up the side of a tree to reach the first branch and then the whole body is slowly brought up to that branch and bunched up again to reach the next branch up and so on.   

Yes I've had red back spiders in my garden shed but another lizard lives in there now so no spiders. It's not as big as the pink tongue or as small as a Skink. It's in between and there's actually three of them, one in the garden shed, one in the garage and one under the house. They seem contented to hang around and there must be food for them otherwise they'd leave. In nature everything feeds off everything else and with us humans at the top of the food chain we only get eaten by other things in the food chain if we're stupid or unlucky.        

[PhilJ W]

 

[DavidB-AU]

18 hours ago, faulcon1 said:

Oddly enough we Aussies are some of the longest lived people with many of us living into our 80's and 90's. So if our wildlife's objective is to kill as many of us as possible, well they're doing a rather lousy job of it. Many American created YT videos harp on and on about all the dangerous wildlife in Australia        

 

The wildlife is dangerous to them, not us.

 

Many years ago I visited a crocodile farm in the Northern Territory. The guide said that crocodile meat tastes like whatever they feed them. If they are fed on chicken, the meat tastes like chicken. If they are fed on fish, it tastes like fish. He then said, completely deadpan, "so the wild salties out there taste like American tourist".

 

EDIT: I should clarify for those outside Australia that saltwater crocodiles ("salties") are considerably more aggressive than freshwater crocodiles ("freshies"). 

Edited November 21, 2022 by DavidB-AU

[monkeysarefun]

10 hours ago, DavidB-AU said:

the wild salties out there taste like American tourist".

Also available in "Young scandinavian backpacker  girls" flavour, that's a baited croc trap they are dancing on.

Edited November 21, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[faulcon1]

On 21/11/2022 at 20:30, monkeysarefun said:

Also available in "Young scandinavian backpacker  girls" flavour, that's a baited croc trap they are dancing on.

So if you order Crocodile meat and the piece of meat you get has recently had an American tourist for lunch does that mean you've ordered meat with extra FAT.

[faulcon1]

On 20/11/2022 at 22:55, PhilJ W said:

 

Perhaps the brown tree snake on the model railway was hoping for a 009 layout where the track "snakes" its way around. If the doors to the model railway are just standard Aussie garage roller doors then they need to fit proper house type closing  doors and keep them closed so the local wildlife can't get in. Access should be from a side door only fitted with a draft excluder so snakes can't get in under the door.  A King Brown is not something to be messed with and you certainly don't get heroic and try and catch it yourself. Good on the mother for acting so quickly as her daughter would be unlikely to survive a bite. This is because of all the rain we've had so they're very active and it's highly likely that rodents are nearby and the snake can smell them. Just because the yard looks clean and tidy doesn't mean that rodents aren't around.