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Matt Broadstock

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Crikey! The Croc Hunter killed by a stingray

Just saw this post... I spent 9 months down in Oz and it has to be one of the deadliest placest on the planet. You'd hear stories all the time of people getting killed by saltwater crocs, sharks, jellyfish, etc. On the land, not much safer. I may have it backwards but apparently they have the 10 deadliest spiders and 9 out of the 10 deadlist land snakes--or vice-versa. Heck, even the extremely strange platypus has poisonous barbs. And the friendly koala bear's favorite food--eucalyptus--is poisonous to humans.

I was actually lucky. There were two times I should have been killed while there. Once, (before I knew how incredibly poisonous everything was) I was tormenting a couple of snakes who were fighting and standing over the top of them taking pictures. Turns out they were taipans--only the world's deadliest land snake. I'm from Kansas, we grew up out in the country playing with snakes. Apparently, not such a good idea in Oz.

The other near-death experience was on beautiful Fraser Island. Long-story short. I was being followed down the beach at around midnight (still hiking, looking for a place to camp) by about 10 dingoes. Eventaully, I waded through a waist-deep washout from an inland stream and they decided to stop following me after a quite frightful 10 minutes of being stalked. Me vs. 10 dingoes...hmmm...not much of a chance there.

Steve Irwin was a bit of a nutter but he'll be missed. As crazy as some of the things he did were, he was an extremely intelligent guy who did things as safely as humanly possible.

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Published Sep 04 2006, 02:41 AM by Matt Broadstock
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Wayne Grixti said:

Well Matt I live in Brisbane about 45min drive from where Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo is situated.

I can honestly say everyone here has been in shock all day.

As you said he was a "nutter" but he was a huge personality locally and internationally.

He will be sorely missed.

Wayne
September 4, 2006 7:30 AM
 

Matt Broadstock said:

I really wanted to check out his zoo while I was there but he was out of the country at the time. I'm sure it is cool on its own but I really just wanted to see him in action.

Ahh...Brisbane. Good times there. Spent some quality time hanging out at a couple of festivals at South Bank. Managed to sqeeze some nice cultural stuff in as well. Took the gal I was travelling with to the see her first ballet (Romeo and Juliet) at the Arts Center the last night they were doing the show. I was probably the worst dressed person there with my crummy travel clothes but I managed to sweet talk my way into half-price tickets! :)

And I think my favorite hostel was just up the road outside of Noosa (gajadu?) Something like that. Met some cool people, tried to play a didgeridoo (sp?), and spent the days swimming and canoing.
September 4, 2006 8:35 AM