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Blue Mountains National Park Warnings or Dangers

Paper Bark Tree - Great for starting bushfires! - Blue Mountains National Park
Paper Bark Tree - Great for starting bushfires!
by M0B1US
Blue Mountains National Park travel tips posted by real travelers and Blue Mountains National Park locals.
Local Time 10:00 pm Saturday, July 26, 2008
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Blue Mountains National Park Warnings or DangersTips 1 - 5 of 5  
Popular Warnings or Dangers | Miscellaneous Warnings or Dangers Tips | All Tips (5)
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Dangerous Australians: Spiders
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  • Updated By supercarys on May 13, 2007
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  • The Sydney Funnel Web spider is widely agreed to be the most deadly spider in the world. It is black, about 5cm long and highly aggressive. It's fangs are as long as some Australian snake's fangs and can pierce a fingernail. It will rear up on its hind legs to scare off any dangers.

    However, don't let this put you off! They are quite common but your chances of seeing one is rare. They can NOT jump (don't let anyone tell you they can - I even heard a tour guide say this once but it's just not true) and they will not chase you (not for more than a few centimetres anyway). There is an antivenom in use and no one has died since its introduction.

    TO AVOID BEING BITTEN: Empty your shoes before putting them on if you've left them outside in a funnel web area. Don't stick your hand in any holes (you'd be surprised). And if you see one at the bottom of a pool of water don't touch it, they can survive in water for days. Avoid any black spiders!

    INTERESTING FACTS: My sister left a coffee cup outside for a few days and found a funnel web trapped in there. People will come and collect your funnel web (should you happen to find one in your house) and take it to a lab to be 'milked' to make the antivenom.

    Check out this photo of a funnel web!
    I'd love to know how the guy got this photo...
    PS, don't worry folks, they're not life sized!

  • Website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharkjames/78346758/in/photostream/ http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/funnelweb.htm

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    Dangerous Australians: Snakes
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  • Updated By supercarys on April 7, 2006
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  • There are many extremely poisonous snakes in Australia. You will probably not see them as they tend to stay away from people but it is a good idea to wear hiking boots or thick shoes when bushwalking. The snakes in Australia have fixed fangs (ie. they don't spring out from lying flat in the snake's mouth) that average about 1cm long and will not penetrate most good shoes. All snakes will try to flee rather than attack and will usually hear you coming.

    INTERESTING FACTS: The Fierce Snake has the deadliest venom in the world but it was only recently discovered (in the 1970s) because it lives in deep cracks on the dried surface of the earth and had not been seen until then!
    I have only ever seen 2 snakes in the wild; a Red Bellied Black Snake on a path out in the country when I was 4 and a Brown Snake in a puddle next to our house when I was 11 (I almost stepped on that one)

    The website I've included shows pictures of the different Australian snakes.

  • Website: http://www.usyd.edu.au/anaes/venom/snakebite.html#red

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    Unfenced Cliffs
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  • Updated By supercarys on April 9, 2006
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  • They're not kidding - Blue Mountains National Park
    They're not kidding
    by supercarys
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    When you are walking in the Blue Mountains the paths may be very close to the edge of a cliff. Take care while you are walking and don't run if it is rocky or leafy if you are near the edge. Most are not sheer drops straight down but you can still seriously injure yourself.

    If you want to look over the edge of a cliff, take a wide stance with one leg well back from the other and place your hand on top of your thigh above the knee that is closest to the cliff edge. This will prevent you from being toppled over if someone bumps you or if there is a stiff breeze. (Please note, this is not a failsafe option and won't save you if someone really tries to push you over or in gale force winds.)

    Another option is to lie down on your stomach and inch forwards.

    If you drop something over the other side of a fenced off cliff, unless you can reach it with a stick, consider it gone for good. A tourist was almost killed last year trying to retrieve his shoe that somehow fell over the other side of the fence.


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    Deafening Insect - cicada
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  • Updated By supercarys on November 10, 2007
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  • This guy is a
    This guy is a "Green Grocer"
    by supercarys
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    The cicada (pronounced sick - ah - da) is one of the loudest sound-producing insects in existence. The Green Grocer, Yellow Monday and the Double Drummer produce noise intensity in excess of 120 decibels at close range which is approaching the pain threshold of the human ear. 120 decibels is the equivalent of standing next to a cannon going off, or a speeding train.

    If you're near one, your best option is to move away from it - they're extremely difficult to find even when they're making noise. If you do manage to find one that is being painfully noisy, a flick of the finger will shut it up (but not for very long). They are completely harmless to humans. They drink tree sap and are eaten by birds.

    You will find cicadas around in mid spring (if it's hot) and all through summer Australia - wide. There are 200 species of cicada in Australia. They shed their skin and leave shells hanging on trees and walls

    INTERESTING FACTS: The photo I took is of one of the more common ones in the Greater Sydney area, the Green Grocer. This particular one had been caught in a spider web and was a little woozy.

    I took some cicada shells to kindergarten for show and tell once and my teacher screamed and told me to put them away!

  • Website: http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/cicada.htm

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    One Gigantic Fire Hazard!
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  • By M0B1US on February 24, 2003
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  • Paper Bark Tree - Great for starting bushfires! - Blue Mountains National Park
    Paper Bark Tree - Great for
    starting bushfires!
    by M0B1US
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    I'm sure you've heard of the regular bushfires in Australia that burn literally millions of hectares of forest each year - the torching of an entire Canberra suburb must have made headline news even in Outer Mongolia!!!

    Australia is currently gripped in the worst drought in living memory, 100% of NSW is now officially a drought zone and during the scorching summer the temperatures regularly reach in excess of 40c, so it's little wonder that there are so many bushfires...

    Practically every piece of vegetation in this country is designed to burn - it's part of the lifecycle, and something that the Aborigines realised when they practised the art of 'backburning' because they knew that the fire would regenerate the land, and that they would then be able to control when a fire started when they wanted it to...

    As with so many things, western culture has upset the natural balance by no longer using preventative backburning methods, thus allowing a slowly ticking timebomb to slowly build in threat until a discarded cigarette or arsonist's match causes entire regions to erupt in a hellish conflagration destroying everything in its path - animal life, property, human lives!

    Australia's landscape is dominated by hundreds of species of Eucalyptus, a tree that is designed to burn as it is highly flammable. The Blue Mountains get there name of the blue haze of eucalyptus oils hovering over the trees in the air, this is almost like suspending particles of petrol in the air as fires have been known to spread just through this highly flammable haze!

    Many eucalypts shed their bark in paper like strips, which again is like setting fire to tissue paper as we found when we were camping in the Budawangs...

    Fires start here at the drop of a hat and only in January one came within a hair's breadth of destroying the historic Hydro Majestic at Medlow Bath!

    These fires can travel faster than a person can run, destroying all life in their paths...

    Whatever you do, please observe all fire directives when you visit!

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