Spiders found in WA goldfields

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Australian wildlife is a fascinating study, my favourite is our feathered friends, however another interesting creature we often come across while prospecting is the - Goulds Perentie;

https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/goannas

In the earlier days when horses were used extensively it has been reported, startled Bungarra's were known to climb up on the horse and then sometimes to top of the rider if no trees were available.

Luckily a tree was nearby when we disturbed this one:

1565686615_bungarra5.jpg


Had this young one hanging around our camp so I invited him to breakfast, he readily accepted:

1565686697_bungarra4.jpg
 
Nightjar said:
Australian wildlife is a fascinating study, my favourite is our feathered friends, however another interesting creature we often come across while prospecting is the - Goulds Perentie;

https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/goannas

In the earlier days when horses were used extensively it has been reported, startled Bungarra's were known to climb up on the horse and then sometimes to top of the rider if no trees were available.

Luckily a tree was nearby when we disturbed this one:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1414/1565686615_bungarra5.jpg

Had this young one hanging around our camp so I invited him to breakfast, he readily accepted:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1414/1565686697_bungarra4.jpg

I love our fauna no doubt, but one of those two may have ended up on my menu for dinner! :eek:

Really like the table setting, did he stay to read the paper ?
:)
 
I had a buddy years ago. Hard as nails type of bloke. He'd go hunting, Shooting, Fishing, Camping alone, except he didn't like spiders either. But in all the years I knew him he never really let on that he was scared of them.

We used to go fishing at sunset after work, on a deep sharp bend in the Yarra river up in the mountains near Warburton in Victoria, where it mostly runs clear instead of the muddy color that most tourists see when in Melbourne. It was a terribly steep and high river bank, from where at the top you could just park your car on the edge of a dirt road. We'd find our way through trees, bushes and undergrowth, down to the narrowest little flat area at the bottom where two people could just sit at the rivers edge with just barely enough room for your rods and stuff and a lantern. It took a long time to get down to the river because if you took a wrong step you'd end up tumbling all the way down and it would be hard to stop yourself from falling in......

It was a great little spot where sometimes if you were patient & lucky and you sat still, you could watch a platypus weave in and out of the tangled tree roots by your feet near the edge of the bank, as it tried to catch its dinner. Because of this great habitat and difficulty getting to it, it was abundant with river Blackfish, Trout, and Eels.

We sat there one starlit night, crouched low just waiting to see the tip of the rods indicate a bite. The surface of the water was almost Millpond still, when all of a sudden this bloody creepy spider of some type, much larger than the permissible 20c coin size, came running across the surface of the water towards us like it was Jesus. I never knew before that, that some critters can actually walk on the surface tension of the water. And this bloody thing was making a bee-line for us and the lantern, and most probably all the midges and gnats it saw hovering around it like an all-you-can-eat spiders smorgasbord.

We both saw it at the same time, and without a word to each other screamed in disbelieving horror as we both tried to take off up the steep bank through the ridiculously thick undergrowth masking the skinniest of worn track, to get away from it. I swear we must have climbed over the top of each other at least once each before we suddenly realized that we wouldn't get any further in the darkness without the lantern. And, one of us had to go back for it.

We just stood there looking at each other with the adrenaline pumping, then all of a sudden we both burst out laughing as we realized at the same time we were both scared of the bloody things, and how ridiculous it all was. Once we'd stopped laughing and got our breath back we both gingerly walked back to the spot and had a good look around before we sat down and continued fishing. And, hardly a word was ever said about it again.......... :cool:

They Be Creeeeeeeeepy!!!!
 
Yes there are some great little spots up there. There are some good trout fishing locations around Millgrove & Wesburn too, but Suburbia is creeping ever closer like a lot of places, and I guess one day it will be all housing estates scattered around it. Do you mean Maroondah dam, or the Upper Yarra near Reefton?
 
Yep. nice spot. Used to hammer my motorbike through there as a young bloke. Stop at the Reefton Hotel, then cut across to Marysville and back home. Gods country :D
 
Nightjar said:
Reeks said:
Interesting nightjar, thanks for posting
I recall seeing hundreds of trapdoors with a certain pine needle looking leaf placed in a pattern around each door from the nearby scrub around Redcastle in W.A but I never saw the spiders, would you know what they were?

Most likely one of many species of "Trapdoor Spider." Most are nocturnal, would be interesting to dig one up and identify it.

https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/mites-spiders/common-neighbourhood-spiders?nopaging=1

If you take a walk at night with a bright headlamp in our bush it is not uncommon to see tiny sparkling lights on the ground. If you bend down and look closely you will most like see a tiny spider.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Ima...BAgCECQ&biw=1402&bih=879#imgrc=RUmQZp9nQ0UIDM:

Did that after mowing the back yard in Summer, later in the evening I would shine a big arse light up the yard and thousands of tiny little eyes would glow back at me, almost like looking at the sky at night, there were that many stars.
 
I used to work in a sausage factory when I was younger, the factory was situated right next to Garrigal National park, anyway we used to get funnel web spiders crawl into the coolrooms obviously attracted to the meat smell, anyway we'd hose out the coolrooms once a month and there would be funnelwebs everywhere, though they'd be in hibernation due to being in the coolrooms. We had this young Irish bloke fresh off the boat working there and he was fascinated by our wildlife.

After hosing out the coolrooms one day he walks up to me with a big grin on his face with his hand outstretched and says " oi loork aah da luttle spoider that ahh foond", no joke he had the biggest fattest funnelweb I'd ever seen sitting right in the palm of his hand. I said "Padraig, that is the worlds most deadly spider that you have there", he says "nooor weey" I said "yes mate and you're very lucky it's in it's winter sleepy mode". Anyway I put the spidey in a jar in the smoko room for him so he could see how it reacted the next day when he picked up the jar for a looksee. He was a bit surprised to see the spider the next day and how aggressive it was, was also shocked at the size of his fangs. "It's tryin too ******* eat me through da glass it is".

Needless to say, no one got hurt, him or the spider, and it was a good lesson for a young bloke visiting a foreign country. :lol:
 
I just remember waking thru the night with a Huntsman spider walking over my back. It felt like when you make your fingers play on a piano. Tap, tap tap,tippity tap,........
I just flung myself outa bed and it ran under. I nearly burnt the house down when i lit a lighter under the bed in search of the critter and the fabric beneath the bed lit up.
JOISUS i said, Lifting the bed onto its side to put out the fire and openning up the windows in the room to clear the smoke out.

I still haven't told my parents(they are gone now anyway) so they can't read this anyway. :( :fire:
 
Jaros said:
I just remember waking thru the night with a Huntsman spider walking over my back. It felt like when you make your fingers play on a piano. Tap, tap tap,tippity tap,........
I just flung myself outa bed and it ran under. I nearly burnt the house down when i lit a lighter under the bed in search of the critter and the fabric beneath the bed lit up.
JOISUS i said, Lifting the bed onto its side to put out the fire and openning up the windows in the room to clear the smoke out.

I still haven't told my parents(they are gone now anyway) so they can't read this anyway. :( :fire:

Well you were lucky coz they can and will bite because one of them tagged me on the middle Toe on my left foot,

I was walking down the stairs on the front of the house and walked across the concrete near the cars and I saw this thing move just as I was about to put my foot down and it stood up on it's haunches and flipped over bit me on the Pad of my middle Tow and then vanished somewhere and sure enough I had 2 puncture holes in the bottom of my Tow, I phoned the hospital to check whether I would be ok and they said come up anyway, and when they checked me out they said my blood pressure was a bit high but they was not sure if it was because of the bite or the booze I had earlier, but one thing for sure is they are really fast if they want to be.

Still glad it was not a red back or a funnel web, :( :eek:
 
Thorny Devil - Moloch Horridus: With a name like this you would think this little fella could be nasty. Couldn't be further from the truth. Rarely seen, this little fella was disguised in some leaf litter I was collecting to make a fire. Fortunately I had the camera handy and got these photos before he blended into the surroundings and couldn't locate him again. ***He definitely didn't end up in the fire. :D ***

1565916505_mountain_devil.jpg


1565916632_mountain_devil2.jpg
 
Echidna - Tachyglossus Aculeatus
Another interesting Australian, found right across the country, even in the snow regions.
Was bush bashing and this little fella was sauntering along the path I was driving on Wilson's Patch. Stopped and grabbed the camera and walked up to him. Immediately rolled up into a protective ball. I kid you not, sat there quietly for over an hour before he finally unraveled and went on his way.
Coincidence or not several weeks later, came across one in the middle of the Paynes Find/Sandstone road. He scurried under my ute and dug himself into the gravel in front of the utes back wheel. Had one hell of a job prising him free and dumping him in roadside bush. ***Hadn't seen an echida in the wild since I was a kid growing up on Dads farm, then see two in the space of a couple of weeks.****

1565917109_echidna2.jpg


1565917131_echidna.jpg
 
I haven't seen an echidna for a very long time. Great pics of the weird little dudes!

They still don't top the platypus for the weirdest Aussie dudes in my book though.

You've gotta Aussie critters' individuality! :)

Cheers,
Megsy
 
That's not a bat Manpa - that's an alien! I'm pretty sure I've seen them in some Star Trek episodes! :playful:
 

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