And Die
2433 Visitors Met Their Deaths Down Under In Seven Years
Invisible rips off some of Australia's most beautiful beaches, car accidents, crocodiles, crazed koalas that can "carve up" the unsuspecting, serial killers, poisonous spiders, the unforgiving heat - there's plenty of ways backpackers and tourists can come to grief in Australia.
And thousands of them have. More than 2400 'visitors' have died in this land during the past seven years alone, including some 25 children, according to the Bureau of Statistics :
Between 2003 and 2005, 28 tourists drowned while 65 were killed in car crashes and another 276 died of natural causes.
Heat stroke claimed the lives of three tourists, seven died scuba diving or snorkelling, two died hiking, one died parachuting and another died after being bitten by an animal.
Men, apparently, are three times more likely to lose their lives while visiting Australia than women are.
Remember blow-ins, you're not the Crocodile Hunter, leave the animals alone. They've got a taste for the blood of foreigners, and they like it.
Of course, the stats on dead and injured visitors are actually quite small in comparison to the millions of tourists who visit Australia and suffer nothing worse than brain-melting hangovers and skin-peeling sun burn....The Australian Reptile Park's Craig Adams said tourists should admire native wildlife without touching. They should also know first aid, he said.
"Going bush here is a far cry from the urbane European lifestyle," he said.
"Crocodiles can be found in the most unlikely areas, a mud pool can hold a 4m or 5m crocodile.
"People don't realise a koala will give you a nasty bite or carve you up with its claws, a wombat can knock you over but that does not mean they are going to attack."
Or is that just what we want the rest of the world to think?
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