Queensland, Australia, March 2012: While on a recent holiday in Queensland I had a close call with one of these giant Golden Orb spiders. We’d stopped at the side of the road to stretch our legs when I nearly walked into one of their giant webs…
They have a very nasty bite- though not fatal to humans- and are known to consume small birds that are unfortunate enough to fly into their webs.
The females are massive compared with the males- the largest size difference between sexes of any spiders. This one was bigger than my hand…
ferguscunningham.com 
it seems from afar that you really have some better-to-avoid creatures in australia.
nice photo essay. 🙂
Thanks, yeah there’s some dangerous critters there- and then theres the locals 😉
lol 😀