When I was a kid out bush with my Dad, he told me if we ever saw a goanna that we should quickly lie down on the ground because if we were standing up, the goanna would think we were trees and try to climb up the tree and the claws would rip you to bits. The thought of getting ripped to bits had me concerned, so I was always on the lookout for goannas, and a few times was fooled by my Dad calling out "Goanna!", and having a chuckle as he picked me up and dusted me off. I did grow out of it though. When I was about thirty I think.
BTW. The biggest lace monitor I've ever seen was at Myall Lakes in NSW. It lying along a tree limb alongside the edge of the lake and would have been a good six to eight feet long. It was huge! Had a photo of it but the ex has got all of them (they're paper photographs).
Good thing the giant butcher lizards are extinct. Over 20 feet long and over 1000 lb. They could certainly ruin up a picnic in a hurry. A neighbor had a huge Iguana of some sort. I never saw but my nephew took a photo of her holding it to her shoulder with it wrapped around her and about three feet of tail dragging the ground. Another neighbor had one that got loose and pets began disappearing. Years later I found what might have been the remains of its skull.
I had a decent monitor on the door step at the Doctors the other week. I didn’t disturb its garden forage before entering. We get them on the roof occasionally chasing possums and boy they make a racket with their claws on the metal roof. Crabbing and fishing around box jellyfish season is a blast, nothing like pulling a crab pot up and getting a section of stinger on your arm. The biggest annoyance is by the time you feel the pain you know it’s not going to stop for a few hours
This guy wanted to join our BBQ in Perth , apparently he was waiting for his much larger dad before coming any closer.
An Australian home owner gets cranky because the media pack are standing on his just-seeded front lawn while the Prime Minister is running a press conference about supporting the home building industry thru COVID19. Fortunately it ended with a couple of friendly thumbs-up .
I was trying to work out how to contrast how Aussie this is with the way it may have played out in other countries yesterday. In one country the Secret Service may have sat on his head while the President called him a BAD GUY. Not in Australia. Our PM knows you don't mess with a man's lawn.
An Aussie confrontation worth making into a TV comedy sketch: man talks down to the PM while wearing trackie pants, and it's over his lawn, and the PM backs off (literally)! You'd think the PM's media minders would have 1st checked with the home owner whether it was OK to do it right in front of his house.
Not that Australian, in Darwin he would have had he’s shirt off, beer in his hand and the language would have been more colourful. “Hey dickheads, get off the fen lawn”
You’re being pretty tough on the poor bloke. It was probably 30 degrees colder than Darwin outside Canberra yesterday morning and he was so stressed about his lawn being trampled he went outside in bare feet in the middle of winter. I say hats off to the man prepared to defend the green moat around his castle.
I've never been to Darwin (one of these trips we'll make it up there) but despite that, when I read that sentence I can hear it being said perfectly in my head by any number of my wife's relatives...
You folks are not helping tourism. On a plus note I feel much less guilt over my lizard, crocodile watch bands. If I see any more clips of kangaroos kicking the stuffing out of someone, I might have to order a kangaroo hide strap. Watch pic. Today’s choice. Oh, for those guessing age 68. Me not the watch.
