15 Australia Facts That Prove It"s The Nopest Country On Earth

The Land Down Under is a gorgeous nation with countless beaches, long sunny days, and some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. The plane trip to get there is as tedious and patience-testing as they come, but when you finally arrive and get to breathe Australian air and see Australian scenery, it’s all worth it. You just want to be careful around the wildlife…

We kid because we love, Australia. Seriously though, what’s up with all the snakes? And how are we supposed to enjoy all those beaches when we’re worrying about sharks and jellyfish? How are we supposed to sleep comfortably with all the deadly spiders? Why do you have to be so dangerous?

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1. There’s a golf course in Australia with sharks in the water hazards.

In fact, Carbrook Golf Club in Queensland uses it in their marketing, saying, “Our hazards are deadly!”

2. The character of Crocodile Dundee was based on a real man, Rod Ansell, who survived 56 days in the crocodile-infested Outback — but his story didn’t have a happy ending.

In 1999, high on speed and raving about Freemasons kidnapping his kids, Rod shot and wounded two of his neighbors, then turned his gun on the police, killing one and wounding another before being brought down by a hail of bullets.

3. The first non-government sanctioned nuclear blast might have occurred in the Australian Outback.

Because the Outback is so big and empty, nobody knows for sure. But the cult Aum Shinrikyo — the ones responsible for sarin gas attacks in Tokyo in 1995 — owned 500,000 acres of Outback in an area where, in 1993, truck drivers and gold prospectors reported massive rumblings and flashes in the sky. Seismologists recorded the blast and noted it was 170 times more powerful than the largest recorded mining explosion in all of Australia, packing the force of about 2,000 tons of high explosives. It has never been determined, however, whether the blast came from a nuke or a meteor — but no impact crater was ever found, either. And after a raid on the site, authorities found the same chemicals used in the gas attacks as well as evidence that the cult had been mining uranium.

4. In addition to all the spiders, snakes, and jellyfish, Australia is home to a horribly painful stinging plant.

The gympie gympie tree is one of the world’s most venomous plants, known to kill dogs, horses, and even some humans. Every part of the gympie gympie tree, aside from the roots, is covered in fine hairs that deliver the plant’s toxin when you touch it. The pain of a gympie gympie sting starts with a slow burn and builds into achy joints, swelling in your armpits, and a sensation of “being burnt with acid and electrocuted at the same time.” That pain can come back years later, and even a dried bit of the tree can cause a sting a hundred years after it’s been picked.