Just based on Australia's reputation alone I don't think I would ever even think about venturing outside in anything short of a hazmat suit on top of a suit of plate mail :-)
Cheers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_funnel-web_spider,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrax
One of my staff had lots of Atrax robustus in his backyard and over a period he brought several to work and they became the Electronics Department's 'pet' (but we only kept one at a time).
We put him (with A. robustus the males are more deadly and agressive than the females) in a large empty coffee jar with rocks and dirt filling about a third the jar and with air holes in the lid which were just big enough to fit a pencil through. We kept him fed on slaters (woodlice) and crickets and he took pride of place on my office desk. Typically, they'd live for 18 months to two years.
They were talking points for visitors to my office (some were horried but most just curious). When I'd come in of a morning and switch the lights on he'd rear up on his hind legs with fangs thrust out. I'd occasionally respond by sticking one of those red 'Copperplate' pencils though an air hole and he'd attack it. The venom could be clearly seen running down the outside of the pencil. I kept that badly pocked-marked pencil as a souvenir for some years but unfortunately I've since lost it.
Also, I was 'lucky' enough to have the organization's union rep as one of my staff. Often, he'd come into my office for a discussion and he'd jokingly preface our convention to the effect 'We expect your cooperation in this matter or we'll let him loose when you're not looking.'
For some reason, that post horrified several UK readers.
:-)
The Emmagen Creek 'local' was someone who I already knew, he used to work for me in electronics but chucked it in to 'go bush' with his better half and ended up taking over a disused tin-mining lease under the pretext of prospecting for tin but in reality he did little other than to loll around eating papaya which grew everywhere around his dwelling.
Somehow or other he invited me and another colleague to visit him and we agreed although it was very inconvenient for me at the time. (I had university assignments to complete—so when not trekking about in the bush you can picture me doing formal logic assignments sitting on a stump in that wilderness. Getting the assignments back to the uni in a timely manner was a somewhat fickle hit-and-miss process—I had to pay the local hippies who lived on the beach some miles away rather handsomely to take them to Cairns to post whenever they went there to collect their dole payments.)
Australia isn't really that bad, not that many of us fall victim to or are gobbled up by the wildlife every year but it does happen. We locals are rather blasé about wandering in the 'bush' without much protection—hazmat suits would be deemed totally unnecessary. Though the Daintree Rainforest probably has more to be concerned about than many other areas, there are crocodiles in the larger rivers and you'd be advised not to swim in them, also the cassowarys can be quite aggressive, especially so when nesting (see heading 'Attacks'): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary.
I got a bit of a scare myself when at Cape Tribulation. Emmagen Creek is just that, a small permanently-flowing creek with a few good swimming holes about two minutes walk from where we were camping. As was my wont, first thing of a morning I'd go to the creek to wash up and bush my teeth at its bank. One morning I sensed the presence of something nearby and to my right less than 18" away was a yellow-bellied black snake of a type I wasn't familiar with (like those I know from down south). Like me, it was hanging from bank and drinking the water (it seemed totally obvious to my presence). No worries, one keeps perfectly still in those situations. When it finished drinking it just slid away.
Oh, that wasn't as nearly scary as when I accidentally stood on one of these critters close to where I lived as a kid (it was sunning itself on a bush path just around a bend that I couldn't see around): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_brown_snake.
This is one truly nasty bugger that one doesn't want to mess with. I felt this squish under my foot, fortunately it took of at great speed in one direction and I did the fastest back-flip of my life in the opposite direction.
See, there are hazards here, but one usually survives.
Something significantly lower down the brain stem kicks in and you react before your conscious brain even realises what's going on.
It's actually kinda fascinating to experience because you can tell our fear of snakes isn't something "learned"... It's baked into the hardware by evolution somewhere down in that pre-human part of the brain.
I don't think I've ever moved so fast in my life. I was 14 at the time so I was light, fit and agile. That said, my reaction time would likely have been slower than the snake if it had decided to strike. That was decades ago before decent antivenin and I was a reasonable distance from medical help and also I was by myself (trekking in the Blue Mountains by oneself at any age is stupid thing to do, so I was very lucky).
With my snake encounter at Emmagen Creek things were a little different, I was older about 30 and I'd learned the worst thing to do was to startle the snake so one should keep perfectly still—and I did although it was difficult.
I still wonder about that encounter, the snake definitely† wasn't there when I arrived at the Creek's bank so I was moving about and making noise. Most snakes I've encountered whilst bushwalking I've seen at a distance—2, 3 metres away—and they quickly scurry off but this one came awfully close whilst I was moving around and it showed no sign of aggression or seemingly any concern for my presence.
† My grandmother came from outback NSW and was bush and snake wise so I was taught from a very early age to always keep an eye out for them whilst wandering through the bush and I did so at Emmagen Creek as I do when bushwalking anywhere. The fact is the snake arrived after me and I find that strange.
I'm confident that, to this day, it's the most terror I've ever felt...
Like you said, I just froze... Slowly walked backwards to give it space... Then it just turned around and fucked off back outside.
Needless to say, I was very careful about keeping all doors to the house closed from that point forward.
I'm their victim—they having stung me on multiple occasions.