Snakes, Spiders, Jellyfish - and US clients….

This may seem like an odd subject line but we are reaching out to ask our members to be aware of the impact that talking 'up' Australia's deadly creatures has on some of our Americans clients.

Recent Ausfilm inbound programme guests were told about thing such as funnel web spiders, snakes and jellyfish (in a truly Australian way where it was mentioned how deadly they all are) and we are now having to undo the concern they have by compiling lists of death statistics, background on the animals, seasons they are more dangerous and how we can ensure our friends are not killed if they film in Australia. 

Some US clients in particular are now spending considerable time worrying about their safety and that of the cast/crew if they are to shoot in Australia.

We realise it is probably other Australians rather than members that our guests meet along the way that enjoy talking up our dangerous animals but it would really help if you can communicate the realities if you hear any of these conversations to stop the fear in its tracks from getting to this point.

Here is an example of the statistics we have compiled to put the dangerous animals considerations into perspective:

• Spiders: Nobody in Australia has died from a spider bite since 1981 after the successful introduction of Antivenom for all native species.
• Sharks*: Accounted for 25 deaths between 2000 and (March) 2012 in Australia, about 2 a year.
• Crocodiles: Historically, crocodiles account for less than one death per year here in Australia,.
• Blue Ringed Octopus: Just 3 recorded deaths in the last century.
• Stonefish: One unconfirmed death by stonefish in 1915.
• Cone Snails: I could find no recorded deaths from cone snails in Australia whatsoever.
• Killer Jellyfish: Jellyfish account for (at time of writing) 70 deaths since records began in 1883. The box jellyfish was responsible for most of these deaths, and the Irukandji around 3. It sounds a lot, but still less than one death per year, more like just half a death per year and in 122 years.