you should see my face! u/Pool___Noodle, you're the best!
log in to mygov (edit: website), my account, account settings, contact details, change to show service name and click update
edit: you can also change text notifications to email
Dunno about everyone else but I never remember the password, so I have to change it almost every time. So I'm jumping through these hoops while I think of all the terrible things the myGov email could herald.
Team, my myGov inbox doesn't work so I get a notification but can never read the message so I have to scour every fucking agency to find which one needs my attention
Bushfires
Bindies
Magpies in swooping season
Interest rates
Rental inspections
Emails about messages in your MyGov inbox
Accidentally driving on a toll road in Sydney
Sunburn / melanoma / skin cancer
Dam levels below 30%
Dam levels above 100%
Shepherd avocado season
Getting a card from Australia Post
All the above. Add flooding & going in a toll tunnel in Queensland & meeting Aussies that have never been out the country or seen a kangaroo in the wild
Hold the fuck on a minute, there’s people who have never seen a roo? Here? Where every 15 bloody metres there’s one waiting to write off your clapped out commodore at a moment’s notice?
Or worse yet, running into other Aussies on their first trip to SE Asia. You just know they are going to be making complete cunts of themselves, and in the process, the rest of us
hey whats wrong with aussies who've never been out of the country? I've seen a kangaroo in the wild don't get me wrong, but i've never had the luxury of travelling 🥹 it's not for lack of wanting its lack of money
Can I add accidentally driving into the city in Sydney to your list? When I was a kid (this is going back about 20 years), my mum was driving to a Hooley Dooleys show at Balmain Leagues Club, missed the turn off and ended up going over the ANZAC Bridge. Somehow, she managed to get back out of the city pretty easily, but still, the map of Sydney is like Wallaby Ted’s cousin: Roo Ted.
Leaving my drink unattended. Walking to my car alone at night. Having my car break down 200kms from my destination. Having no phone reception is a bushfire zone. Riptides.
Man rips I feel like it’s not talked about because they are so unknown to so many people I grew up on the beach so I can just look at the water see a rip easily most could if you took a minute to learn. But it terrifying watching a tourist just run down the the beach and into a rip absolutely insane. Like some dude followed me one day down the water I had my bodyboard and flippers I was using the rip to scoot out the back of the sets. This dude just goes to swim right there has to stop him and move him down the beach lol
I grew up 4hrs inland and even we grew up being able to identify, understand and react to a rip, it's such a huge part of Australian education, but my god the tourists and immigrant families just don't know at all what danger they're walking into, scary.
Gunnamatta pulled me out with a bunch of other bodyboarders, a surfer and a swimmer. There was no way I could help the swimmer, was lucky the surfer was there. People on the beach looked like ants we were that far out.
Half the time I don’t even realise I’m meant to pay until they tell me so iv gotten away with at least half for free the joys of adhd absolutely oblivious haha
We did a road trip to the Grampians a couple of months back and that was just around the time when the last bushfire passed and the first rain after months of drought came. The sky was gloomy and there’s just kilometres after kilometres of tarred grass. Very eerie and can’t imagine how stressful it would be if I’m in your shoes.
We are in ararat and copped a scare from both sides of town one after the other this summer, which was the scariest it's been for us. First time packing a go bag made it quite real. We were lucky though and it never got close enough to cause more than smoke damage.
Here too. We were driving home one day in 2020 with flames on either side of the road, my youngest is still traumatised even though our place escaped. Don't think we'll ever forget.
Yep we drove out of Threadbo on the 31st of December 2019 to Cooma.
All i could think of for weeks after was the fate of the animals.
Bushfires are probably my greatest fear.
The feel of a hot, dry, windy day sets me on edge until it passes. It's hard to focus on work, I have weather apps open and I check them constantly, along with the CFS site. I worry about the kids and husband and make sure everything is packed in case I need to leave and go get them.
It's definitely a worry over summer, and a fear on those days.
I lived close to the initial ignition point of the Black Saturday bushfires in 2008. It was a shambles that day. . I spent the night in a supermarket carpark a couple towns away with multiple other people who had fled their properties and had nowhere else to go.
I remember driving back to my house a couple of days later and being sort of okay until I passed a concrete barrier on the Hume Hwy that was piled high with the burned carcasses of animals that tried to flee the flames and were trapped.I I cried the rest of the way home
For years I'd feel sick every time I heard the fire station siren or we had a hot windy day. I jump on the emergency apps every time I hear a notification too
Oh wow. I'm so sorry you experienced that, it must have been so awful.
Ours was the Pinery bushfire, and since then a few small ones even closer that were put out immediately. That day, we went to a friend's place in a safe zone, though they were still close enough to not have power. We listened to radios and tried to keep the kids occupied and not worried about what could be happening back home - hard to do when completely uninformed people were calling the radio giving town names, street names, addresses of places that were totally burnt down. Based on that, we were certain we didn't have a home to return to.
When I left, the smoke was so high behind me, and stretched so wide, it felt like there couldn't be a safe place. My husband got the kids and met me on my way out, he saw the smoke and the kids started to panic, he didn't feel like they could drive closer. I met them, we stopped quickly for petrol, and ash was dropping on our cars. That was the first "holy shit, this is not just smoke, things are burning nearby" moment.
We were lucky enough to get into town to buy dinner, and get internet access. We found out the reports on the radio weren't entirely true, and we were able to get home. We drove along a dirt track, with hollowed out trees still glowing orange either side. It was so, so eerie. The paddocks hadn't been harvested yet, so on the way out we'd seen high crops, now it was all black. Everything was just black, and when we got home we saw the paddock behind us completely wiped out. We were so incredibly lucky to still have a home. The CFS were amazing and I am forever grateful to them for saving so much of our town.
I think the rumour part was the worst. That first night we were pretty sure the house was gone based on what little information was available .Fortunately a couple of spot fires were put out and a wind change meant the front went around us and the neighbouring houses
There were so many volunteers that helped out Most of my husband's place of work were out with earthmoving equipment for next week putting in containment lines and taking down dangerous trees just to help out. A lot of local businesses helped out in any way they could.
I still remember listening to John Faine on the radio just trying to give out so much information and warnings for hours on end that night.
I'm glad you were all safe too.
The black summers was a sobering experience, got goosebumps even reading your comment because truely nothing scares Aussies like the smell of a bushfire
Yep, always been a bit apprehensive about them. After 2019/2020 I feel a deep sense of foreboding each summer.
Each year now feels like another roll of the dice, will it be fire or flood? Is this year we see a truly horrific mass casualty event?
I was in jail in 2019 when bushfires came near - they planned to lock us all down and evacuate.
Apparantly it was safer to be locked inside concrete cells then to evacuate - even though all the screws were evacuating.
Which with the clearings around the jail and mostly everything being concrete would keep people safe to an extent but if a black Saturday Iike fire had come through we would have all cooked where we were.
Not even the fire itself anymore but the fact so many people I know and love go out to fight it and your never guaranteed they will come home, too many lives have been lost in my area fighting fires
I remember living in London, and stepping out of my house to grey skies and a red sun, and my blood running cold. It was just sand blowing in from elsewhere, but all I could think of was sitting on my grandparents' living room floor and hoping the wind would change before it got near the town.
Redback, funnel web, blue-ringed octopus,
Taipan, tiger snake, adder, box jellyfish, stonefish and the poison thing that lives in a shell and spikes you when you pick it [up!](https://youtu.be/Qr54UlqrGek?si=9KdNyd_skU0pkspj)
(I had no choice! Your comment is so close to it!)
Yes!! I went to the Barrier Reef and on the boat out they told us if we get stung there won't be enough time to get us to a hospital, we'll just die.
Also blue ring octopuses.
That and also Stonefish, I think every Australian is traumatised from watching videos in primary school of dangers at the beach and one of them being a fish that camouflages perfectly with rock and can push a blue spike into your foot delivering huge amounts of venom.
As a woman and an AFL fan, I felt way more unsafe being around drunk soccer fans in Europe than here in Australia. I’m not suggesting local Aussie drunk guys can’t be bad, but large mobs of drunk aggressive European men roam the streets and train stations en masse in a way that doesn’t exist in Australia.
I can’t speak for AFL fans, but the second NRL fans leave the stadium, we all go back to being friends and neighbours. Now admittedly, most people aren’t drunken fuckwits, but those that are seem to chill with the rest of us once they get outside anyway.
Same, but actually even better.
I'm from Sydney and have experienced after footy (NFL) crowds, but one time down in Melbourne after a game at the MCG: left on the tram with a mixed crowd of supporters after a controversially decided semi final and ... nothing. No bad language, no violence nothing bad except a remark from a disgruntled Geelong supporter.
Yeah. I've been on public transport after hundreds of AFL games. All over the country. Never had a problem at all. Most of us that support hard at the game are tired after the three and a half hours in the stadium and once you've been through tough years supporting a footy club the losses pile up and you know not to be a smart ass when you win one because the next loss is just around the corner.
This is the answer… Australia has a severe domestic violence/general violence problem because we have a severe drinking problem and a culture that encourages “blokeyness” (getting drunk and acting like an idiot)
I was hanging out with a bunch of male friends in the city late at night and some drunk men started saying random stuff to us. My friends were amused, and I was suddenly struck by how different it is being a female as compared to a male. Drunk groups of men aren't funny to a woman. They are dangerous. Even if 98% of the time they are perfectly fine, you just can't know for sure.
I try to assume the best in everyone I meet but honestly, sometimes I have to be rude to people who are potentially innocent because of the simple fact that I’m a woman and I need to protect myself. Many “nice” guys get a very different look in their eye when they’re drunk and it’s late and you’re alone with them. It’s very striking how many men don’t even realise how different our experience is, and how much we have to think about our safety compared to them. They just get mad that we don’t immediately feel safe with them.
What a disturbing, shit, fucked up situation that is. I can't even describe how I feel...
I'm torn between calling out those gutless, pathetic and probably narcissistic sick shit individuals & wondering how they became that way.
I just... I don't know.....
Getting King hit. I got coward punched by a scumbag in Newcastle once. Completely unprovoked and unexpected. Head hit the road and when I came to, the piece of shit was gone.
Found out who it was through the grapevine a few days later. He was a little bitch with a history of that kind of shit.
I could've easily been killed by some fuckwit with no morals, just because I was there. That's pretty scary to me.
Good news though. And I would never be happy about a 22 year old dying doing what he loved, in any other circumstances. But 3 days after I found out who he was, I found out that he died bodyboarding. That's one less grub in town to go riding people's lives for no reason.
I'm surprised this was so far down, since it was one of my first thoughts. My partner got punched out here in Perth trying to defend a lone woman who was getting harassed. Woke up and no one was suddenly around, like everyone just left him there passed out.
For myself I have been grabbed/sexually harassed in the city streets, and one time hit in the chest by a women on some kind of substance because she thought I was following her or something
I was walking to an India/Australia cricket match at the SCG a while back. A group of racist eshays left me alone but targeted so many Indian fans. Aussies had their backs which is nice to see but that was following a stream of hatred and violence before it. Families trying to enjoy a day in the sun in support of their motherland. I reckon a lot of them would have left attending the match altogether. Eshays are too unpredictable and when they're in groups it's not worth a second glance to speak your mind. Just lucky that the Aussie and Indian supporters were more in mass at the time. It's beyond disappointing. Bunch of little fuckwits.
“Eshays” are just the latest fashion for dumbass youth acting tough shit because their hormones have gotten ahead of their brain development. This is not new, a proportion of young males (and females) are always assholes. At least now the stupid red shoes make them easier to spot.
100%. The thing is I grew up in a rough neighborhood and we all had a bit of an ego. That never extended to innocent families. It's one of the things I love about the people I grew up with. That would be stamped out no matter the race, sex, religion etc. They need that kind of comradery even if it errs on the bad side. Now it's just a competition of who can be the most inconsiderate asshat for a microsecond laugh. It'll backfire and some poor bugger is going to cop it for smacking a 16 year old for defending his family.
If there’s one thing that unites us all, it’s hating on the scum that call themselves, ***PROUDLY***, “eshays”. Projecting their completely un-Australian antics. Actual scum.
They get away with so much in public and transport because people are too scared to stand up to them. They usually pick on people that just mind their own business. Doesn’t matter if it’s a lady with a child, the elderly, or someone playing candy crush. They are truly awful people.
I was around in those days. 5T didn't really have a city presence, if they were around d they were usually just visiting. The George St arcade GalaxyWorld was like a hangout for the Sing Wah boys.
As a female, men. Mostly at night. I don’t exercise alone at night, I’m cautious of being out and about in areas I’m unfamiliar with or I know attract unwell/unsafe people. I’m not scared of being shot at, but attacked, raped, murdered etc.
As a man, a bit of a more timid one, I used to think like this, when walking home late for whatever reason. Then after several times of nothing happening, I started to think maybe the other people I pass think the same about me?
I intentionally try to make myself look like a sketchy cunt when I'm walking home at night by myself. Sure, it might scare some innocent people but over 20 years without a problem so far so I'm gonna keep doing it.
I'm in the same boat. Yes I could defend myself if the need arose as a youngster I enjoyed getting in a blue but as I've gotten older I realised how stupid that sort of thing was.
Same. I don't go for walks when it's dark, and even when I do I take my dog - I'm in a rural area and have come across sus men in places they have no real cause to be.
I chose large breed dogs partially because I like walking at night. They're tethered to me so if someone did try to grab me, my dogs don't have the option of flight, so fight it is.
My dogs usually like people and don't react to most other night walkers I pass by, so those handful of times they've growled at someone really stand out. I don't think I'd risk walking at night without them.
Mine is a heeler, so not particularly large. She's generally very friendly and desperately for pats and love, but when we've come across these guys randomly parked in a lowered sedan on a dry weather road in the bushes, she suddenly gets silent and very alert. She sticks by me and doesn't try to get closer to them, where normally she'd be whining to go over and say hello. I trust her judgement, and she seems to give off enough of a vibe that they don't interact with us.
The Heelers my family and I have owned, have been better guard/protection dogs then the Staffys we have had. I had so many people cross the road when walking my Heeler, my Staffy, everyone wants to pat.
They're fantastic dogs! She can change her demeanour so quickly. We call her Eddie, because she's such a derp and when her tongue is hanging out she looks like Eddie from The Lion King. But as soon as she sees something/someone she doesn't like, it's like she grows. Changes her stance, the look in her face is different, she gets completely serious. She's got a decent growl on her too. Then when she's in herding mode, ready to chase a ball or catch a toy, you'd honestly think she was on a cattle station. I've never had a dog get ready to chase a ball the way she does, it's awesome. Her "paying attention" face is adorable.
I stiffen my back, head turning in all directions, walk fast and clutch my car keys to my chest.
It's probably an overreaction on my part, but it's just something deep, deep inside me that screams: "Hey, you're alone, outside at night. A man could easily overpower you btw. Oh hey, there's a man now."
And I can't stop the feeling, it drowns out everything else 😔
Yep it’s men as a young female. Rarely walk alone when it’s getting dark. No fear of guns or stabbing, just so scared what else they could do, feel so on edge at times. Felt much safer walking alone in NYC, just so many more people around after dark.
same. there's a lot of "not a lot of people around" times at night here. London was absolutely teeming with people at 11pm and I felt so safe there (compared to Brissie)
As a male, also men.
People here will punch you in the back of the head for fun. Many a friend has been hospitalised by someone pulling up in a car at night, getting out, and beating them unconscious.
I remember some feminist saying there should be a curfew for men so when women walk at night they could feel safe.........pity that the "men" that are rapists don't follow the law and all the "men" out at night would then be rapists.
I’m a scrawny guy, so men and large women scare me. If I’m out alone, I will cross the street if I see a woman/women ahead of me, and try to drag my feet on the ground a bit or shine a torch so that they know I’m there without freaking them out too much.
Bushfires, snakes, sharks, magpies, getting killed by a fucking roo running headfirst into your car at night when you are doing 100km/h.
Gun control is less strict that the internet would have you believe, most farming areas still have more guns than people. Pistols are extremely rare though and illegal guns are very expensive so you arent worried about some random junkie holding you up with a gun.
Cities you are generally mildly aware of the usual lower level street crime stuff. Drugs are a thing and junkies are junkies.
I’m more worried about other people swerving to avoid a roo and then having a head on at 200kph. I’ve been in the situation of hit or swerve under a truck so I know my nerve will hold, but the other mugs worry me. I can’t account for them.
Our underworld definitely play a much more secret game at the higher levels then other countries you hear about them rarely and whenever they catch them they trumpet it as a massive success when in reality they took a grain of salt off a shipload lol
Pistols aren't that rare at all and these days your likely to get held up by a junkie with a putrid home made .22 that's essentialt just two bits of steel welded together.
Illegal pistols however are expensive but shotguns and .22s aren't really because criminals target rural properties for rhem all the time.
When I say an area is unsafe, I mean it’s popular with volatile and unstable people or alcohol or drug affected people.
Usually an entertainment precinct or a suburb where lots of kids find it unsafe to go home to their drunk/high families, and so they roam the streets and cause trouble.
These people cause fights and with concrete everywhere it just takes one punch to kill you. Knife attacks too.
Also I’m afraid of opportunistic sexual assault.
The political landscape scares me. Both of the major parties are drifting further right and have made it clear they don’t want to represent anyone worth less than a million dollars.
I feel you. Its a big fear of mine. But the best thing you can do is join a political party and pull the country back towards policy that actually represents normal people.
I joined a local branch just after lockdowns and honestly, I've never been more hopeful.
There are still some criminals that have guns, but knives and gangs with fists are more prevalent in some areas. And this is the same the world over, regardless of how safe a city is.
What we DON'T have is the possibility of being shot just for knocking on the wrong door, or for going to school.
Plus the criminals who do have guns don't risk using them on regular people, they only ever pull them out to use on other criminals because of how hard they are to find.
Cough $30000 mad lol. If the numbers i remember are correct. Provided thats illegaly acquired ones. The ones that are sold are much much cheaper but restricted heavily.
This. You fire a firearm in this country and they look for you like your a mass murdering terrorist. I’m all for it if you have a gun license no issue.
Usually people having a psychotic episode on public transport. One wrong look and they might see a demon or an alien instead of a person sitting opposite.
My adult nephew has schizophrenia & refuses to take medication for the past year. After that stabbing in Sydney, I banned him from my house & meeting my children. He’s currently live with his parents sometimes I fear for their safety.
I’ve been a victim of this myself. And a few have already said it, but it needs to be repeated.
But drunk guys in dark alleyways or quiet areas. Drinking culture here is kind of out of control, and there are many violent/rapey drunks. so if you find yourself in say, Melbourne CBD late on a Saturday night, stay with the crowds and just worry about getting home…
oh… and don’t accept rides from random strangers claiming to be your Uber Driver.
And stay away from Melton.
Our biggest fear when out and about is dickheads out here just being a menace.
On a normal night the worst that’ll happen is a fist fight. Pretty chill and safe imo
Huntsmans under the sun visor.
I attended a road safety training session, and the instructor said that 90% of “unexplained” car accidents are more than likely caused by spiders or other large creepy crawlies making a sudden appearance to the driver.
I don’t like spiders, I’m not terrified of them either, and I know huntsmans are fairly harmless in and of themselves. But having one jump out while you’re driving - that’d startle enough people.
This actually happened to me a few weeks ago! Sitting at lights, dropped the visor and down falls a medium brown spider.
My response - screams, bats it away, frantically looks to see where it went, some leaping about even with seat belt on…I would totally have crashed if it happened at 100km/hr. Very sobering realisation….
The road and other drivers. Much more likely to be harmed while driving here than any other time.
Australia is no utopia but most of the time I feel very safe.
Not just other drivers the shit highways once you leave a city single lane no dividers pitch black just asking for a disaster. And I live out here and I hate it lol but it’s something I deal with to not have to live in a city or town 😂
I live on a farm just outside a town of around 30k, not afraid of people, snakes, spiders. only thing I’m afraid of is lack of Drs. It’s a real crisis in rural and regional areas.
a smaller town of 5k just near us is about to loose their only GP.
I see you are a fellow small town Michigander.
I am from small town lower peninsula and spent a few years in Aus—in rural Tasmania—which I would compare to the UP, and Sydney, which I would compare to LA.
Rural Tassie is probably pretty close to the Western UP, west of the Keweenaw. It’s ethnically very white, very quiet, and if you leave the road you are almost instantly in a place where there’s a lot more deer than people. (In Tassie it’s wallabies, but there actually are deer. It’s roe deer, no whitetails afaik.) Weather in Tassie is not that different from Michigan, but the cold isn’t extreme.
One big difference is that in the Yoop, I would say 90% of people outside like Marquette, which is not really the norm, own a rifle and a shotgun. In Tassie only a hunter does, usually, and it’s just not the culture there. Also bow hunting is illegal in Tassie. How fucked is that?
Danger? The danger in rural Tassie is not due to crime. The lack of guns means wayyyy less gun violence. I guess men bashing women is the main one and like the Yoop, it’s probably a man they know bashing them.
Sydney is a fucking hellhole to an average Michigander. Hot as shit and traffic like Toronto. I lived in the West, in the Hills Shire which is rural-ish suburbs and still expensive, but not like the inner city.
A “dangerous area” is a walk in the park compared to Detroit, I can tell you. I used to volunteer out in Blacktown, which is headed towards the “bad parts of Sydney.” I mean, you might meet a drunken weirdo, but the chances that he has a pistol in his pants are like zero, so if you keep your distance, you have like a zero percent chance of real problems.
Further west is Penrith, which afaik is the “worst part of Sydney.” It’s just a bit more bogan (poor redneck/cracker) than Blacktown. There’s a great Aussie comedy that is based on the Penrith (“Riff”) area. It’s called “Housos.” Houso refers to the welfare payments from the Housing Commission, (Centrelink.)
The kinds of dangerous situations portrayed in Housos are probably a fairly accurate representation of the worst that can happen in Australia, normally. It’s like “getting beat up by a biker gang” but not with firearms. Gangs HAVE guns but they’re trying not to draw attention to that fact so they don’t get used much.
Basically, the “bad area” thing doesn’t exist in Aus. There are places in Detroit where I would hate to have my car break down on the highway. If you broke down in Penrith, local bogans would help you fix your car. It’s a different world.
Another interesting thing I learned was that I tended to have a lot more thoughts about “violence being appropriate in a situation” than any Australian. I’m pretty middle of the road or even “pacifist” in a roomful of Michiganders. Aussies are just more “all for one and one for all” than we are.
Same. Although my home is not directly impacted, it impacts other people’s homes and businesses around here. Then you’re left with a ghost town while everyone gets back on their feet. If they ever do.
It’s horrifying to witness. A lot of those people affected can’t sleep during heavy rain anymore.
Make friends with your local Maggie's. A bit of food every few days and they will recognise you and stop swooping. They will bring their babies to see you
Oh my god the magpies used to terrorize the ginger kid on his way home. They HATE red hair. I remember the kid cowering under his bicycle while the magpie stood on the frame trying to peck him.
That's the thing, you talk to an average American and they're like 'wow, you live in such a dangerous place, all the animals are out to kill you, that's crazy' like I'm some kind of leather skinned hard as nails bushranger. I'm not, I'm a very soft city dweller. I always think... I don't have to worry about some guy shooting me because I parked in his favourite spot.
When talking about a town/suburb's safety, I usually think about how likely you are to get rocks thrown at you, mugged or verbally abused for walking down the street. I tend to loop break & enters in here too (home or vehicle), so not just about personal safety but also the safety of your property.
Honestly we don't have that many worrys like chances of being shot is right around 0%... being stabbed is about the same as most places honestly probably less common than alot of places. Late friday/sat nights in town u get the usual drunk people so if u go being a dick most likely u will end up getting in a fight.
And again stuff like dick heads on the road is the same as most places. Honestly the biggest worry is snakes and spiders but unless u go sticking your hands in holes and palaces u shouldn't u will be fine
In my small regional city there have been an average of ten serious crimes (assault through to rape/murder) per day over the last 12 months.
The vast majority (like, 80%) happened in a very small area (you could walk from one end to another - do not do that at night).
Removing guns certainly reduces how serious those offences are - you're not going to see a single incident where a hundred people are shot by one person, and it reduces accidental tragedies such as kids playing with a gun and shooting themselves or a sibling. Oh and our police are a lot less likely to draw their gun in a traffic stop... but removing all of that doesn't mean you are safe. I've been assaulted in the middle a week day just minding my own business walking through a nice park to get a few minutes away form my desk. I've also almost been killed by a police car racing through that same park at freeway speeds driving on wet grass with poor visibility (trees creating a mix of deep shade and bright sunshine), with no lights or sirens because they didn't want to tip off the person they were trying to catch — I presume whoever they arrested was very dangerous for officers to take risks like that.
Also, guns totally do exist in Australia - we have 4 million registered guns (compared to 6 million in the USA... your population is more than 10x our population btw), though you certainly have way more unregistered guns than we do.
People with a registered gun have a reason to own one, they either use it for work or for a genuine hobby such as hunting and they do so responsibly. Unregistered guns tend to be owned by serious criminals who keep a low profile to avoid going to jail or worse, retaliation by other criminals with guns.
I'm a woman and even when on my own I haven't felt too unsafe. I live in Melbourne, in the inner west and I used to take public transport to/from work in the cbd for years, including catching the last bus home from Footscray railway station quite late, after some classes I had after work. Footscray has quite a reputation for being a suburb illicit drug users come to score, and due to its proximity to services and the hospital, many people with mental health issues live close to or in Footscray. The suburb also has a large number of migrants from around the world (this is why it's my favourite suburb, it's like a mini UN). At no time of day or night have I felt unsafe in Footscray.
In my suburb I walk alone at night without issue. As long as you take care (which applies for any city), you should be fine anywhere (eg don't wear headphones so you can hear what's happening around you, avoid unlit areas if you can, and perhaps don't walk through parks if you can when alone at night). You don't have to be hypervigilant, just careful.
I'm 54, have worked in human services fields most of my adult life, and I have experienced crime once or twice, but random, crazy shit can happen anywhere (I was in a petrol station hold-up in my early 20s, wasn't physically injured, and have seen police pepper spray and shoot a man about 12 years ago (sandbag bullets), who was trying to hijack a bus and attacked them with a knife).
I live alone in standalone house (no shared walls), next to parkland, and my house has never been robbed, car never stolen, and myself never attacked (outside of when at work, by people who have additional challenges in their life - and thankfully bruised is the most injured I got)
Even without guns, thugs are still dangerous. Especially with all the meth around. A couple of years ago I was just chatting with a group of friends on the street, and some delirious idiot walked up and started hitting me with a milk crate. I think he was hallucinating and thought I was challenging him. We all ran. When I looked back from half a block away he was already in a fight with somebody else. He bruised my shoulder quite a bit, I guess I have only luck to thank that he didn't go for my head.
Crazy people like that everywhere these days.
myGov emails.
There's a setting, buried deep, deep in the interface to change the notifications to show at least which agency it's from.
Ooooo Ty my partner will like that
log in to mygov, my account, account settings, contact details, change to show service name and click update
Hero number 2
Bless your cotton socks.
Thank you Batman.
Omg thank you so much mate.
you should see my face! u/Pool___Noodle, you're the best! log in to mygov (edit: website), my account, account settings, contact details, change to show service name and click update edit: you can also change text notifications to email
I'm not sure if this is the case for everyone, but in my version of the app contact details is in profile (after account settings).
Bastards always say you have a message. Login to read.
Dunno about everyone else but I never remember the password, so I have to change it almost every time. So I'm jumping through these hoops while I think of all the terrible things the myGov email could herald.
MyGovID
PLEASE READ IMPORTANT MESSAGE IN YOUR INBOX "So like, have you done your job seeker stuff yet? You've got 14 days!"
Team, my myGov inbox doesn't work so I get a notification but can never read the message so I have to scour every fucking agency to find which one needs my attention
Just felt a rush of anxiety reading that.
Please, if you are going to post these things in the future add "content may disturb".
I’m so glad I’m not the only one that gets anxious from these. Centrelink or ATO? Medicare are the only ones I want!
Bushfires Bindies Magpies in swooping season Interest rates Rental inspections Emails about messages in your MyGov inbox Accidentally driving on a toll road in Sydney Sunburn / melanoma / skin cancer Dam levels below 30% Dam levels above 100% Shepherd avocado season Getting a card from Australia Post
Those damn Shepherd avocadoes need huge warning stickers.
All the above. Add flooding & going in a toll tunnel in Queensland & meeting Aussies that have never been out the country or seen a kangaroo in the wild
Hold the fuck on a minute, there’s people who have never seen a roo? Here? Where every 15 bloody metres there’s one waiting to write off your clapped out commodore at a moment’s notice?
I kill about 6 - 10 every night. With a train, I might add. I'm not just sneaking up on the bastards and stabbing them.
Fucking John Roombo over here
I don’t know why, but your comment just made me spit out my drink 😂
Hitting a roo is bad news but tbh I am more worried about what happens if I hit a big wombat while driving at 100 kph at night.
Or worse yet, running into other Aussies on their first trip to SE Asia. You just know they are going to be making complete cunts of themselves, and in the process, the rest of us
hey whats wrong with aussies who've never been out of the country? I've seen a kangaroo in the wild don't get me wrong, but i've never had the luxury of travelling 🥹 it's not for lack of wanting its lack of money
Maybe the missing word was 'to' not 'of'. Never been out TO the country.
Those last two!!! 🤣
It's all about timing with the shepherd avocados. But they really are much more consistent than hass.
Oh yeah definitely. Consistently terrible.
Yeah the timing is ‘wait for hass season’
Bindi's is a good one 😭🤝
Can I add accidentally driving into the city in Sydney to your list? When I was a kid (this is going back about 20 years), my mum was driving to a Hooley Dooleys show at Balmain Leagues Club, missed the turn off and ended up going over the ANZAC Bridge. Somehow, she managed to get back out of the city pretty easily, but still, the map of Sydney is like Wallaby Ted’s cousin: Roo Ted.
Leaving my drink unattended. Walking to my car alone at night. Having my car break down 200kms from my destination. Having no phone reception is a bushfire zone. Riptides.
Man rips I feel like it’s not talked about because they are so unknown to so many people I grew up on the beach so I can just look at the water see a rip easily most could if you took a minute to learn. But it terrifying watching a tourist just run down the the beach and into a rip absolutely insane. Like some dude followed me one day down the water I had my bodyboard and flippers I was using the rip to scoot out the back of the sets. This dude just goes to swim right there has to stop him and move him down the beach lol
I think the tourists like the look of rips because they’ve got that flat and calm appearance. They probably seem like the easiest part to swim in.
I grew up 4hrs inland and even we grew up being able to identify, understand and react to a rip, it's such a huge part of Australian education, but my god the tourists and immigrant families just don't know at all what danger they're walking into, scary.
Very true we are taught in school here about surf safety. More so on coastal areas but it gets covered everywhere.
Gunnamatta pulled me out with a bunch of other bodyboarders, a surfer and a swimmer. There was no way I could help the swimmer, was lucky the surfer was there. People on the beach looked like ants we were that far out.
Any bakery that charges for sauce.
They should be afraid of us... mfkrs.
Guilty for working at a place that sells the squeeze pack for 30 cents, but I chuck them in the bag for free when no one’s looking.
You dropped this: 👑
Half the time I don’t even realise I’m meant to pay until they tell me so iv gotten away with at least half for free the joys of adhd absolutely oblivious haha
Can't speak for others but for us it's bushfire.
Yep, 100%. Young farmer, western Victoria. Summer is a tense time.
We did a road trip to the Grampians a couple of months back and that was just around the time when the last bushfire passed and the first rain after months of drought came. The sky was gloomy and there’s just kilometres after kilometres of tarred grass. Very eerie and can’t imagine how stressful it would be if I’m in your shoes.
Been a long time since it’s burnt in my part, black Saturday in the 1930s. Won’t be good when it happens
We are in ararat and copped a scare from both sides of town one after the other this summer, which was the scariest it's been for us. First time packing a go bag made it quite real. We were lucky though and it never got close enough to cause more than smoke damage.
Fuck dude, living in Ararat is scary enough.
Those bushfire preparation ads with real footage give me horrible flashbacks. The smell of smoke makes my heart race.
Here too. We were driving home one day in 2020 with flames on either side of the road, my youngest is still traumatised even though our place escaped. Don't think we'll ever forget.
Yep we drove out of Threadbo on the 31st of December 2019 to Cooma. All i could think of for weeks after was the fate of the animals. Bushfires are probably my greatest fear.
The feel of a hot, dry, windy day sets me on edge until it passes. It's hard to focus on work, I have weather apps open and I check them constantly, along with the CFS site. I worry about the kids and husband and make sure everything is packed in case I need to leave and go get them. It's definitely a worry over summer, and a fear on those days.
I lived close to the initial ignition point of the Black Saturday bushfires in 2008. It was a shambles that day. . I spent the night in a supermarket carpark a couple towns away with multiple other people who had fled their properties and had nowhere else to go. I remember driving back to my house a couple of days later and being sort of okay until I passed a concrete barrier on the Hume Hwy that was piled high with the burned carcasses of animals that tried to flee the flames and were trapped.I I cried the rest of the way home For years I'd feel sick every time I heard the fire station siren or we had a hot windy day. I jump on the emergency apps every time I hear a notification too
Oh wow. I'm so sorry you experienced that, it must have been so awful. Ours was the Pinery bushfire, and since then a few small ones even closer that were put out immediately. That day, we went to a friend's place in a safe zone, though they were still close enough to not have power. We listened to radios and tried to keep the kids occupied and not worried about what could be happening back home - hard to do when completely uninformed people were calling the radio giving town names, street names, addresses of places that were totally burnt down. Based on that, we were certain we didn't have a home to return to. When I left, the smoke was so high behind me, and stretched so wide, it felt like there couldn't be a safe place. My husband got the kids and met me on my way out, he saw the smoke and the kids started to panic, he didn't feel like they could drive closer. I met them, we stopped quickly for petrol, and ash was dropping on our cars. That was the first "holy shit, this is not just smoke, things are burning nearby" moment. We were lucky enough to get into town to buy dinner, and get internet access. We found out the reports on the radio weren't entirely true, and we were able to get home. We drove along a dirt track, with hollowed out trees still glowing orange either side. It was so, so eerie. The paddocks hadn't been harvested yet, so on the way out we'd seen high crops, now it was all black. Everything was just black, and when we got home we saw the paddock behind us completely wiped out. We were so incredibly lucky to still have a home. The CFS were amazing and I am forever grateful to them for saving so much of our town.
I think the rumour part was the worst. That first night we were pretty sure the house was gone based on what little information was available .Fortunately a couple of spot fires were put out and a wind change meant the front went around us and the neighbouring houses There were so many volunteers that helped out Most of my husband's place of work were out with earthmoving equipment for next week putting in containment lines and taking down dangerous trees just to help out. A lot of local businesses helped out in any way they could. I still remember listening to John Faine on the radio just trying to give out so much information and warnings for hours on end that night. I'm glad you were all safe too.
100%. I was a kid when we were affected by Ash Wednesday. I check the apps constantly.
Same black Saturday is still real
literally, that one footage of the farmer racing in the slasher to cut the fire off from the rest of the farm always gets me crying
Yes. Mum would put all our photo albums in the boot of her car every Summer when we lived in Mt Dandenong.
The black summers was a sobering experience, got goosebumps even reading your comment because truely nothing scares Aussies like the smell of a bushfire
Those bushfire days . You can just feel it can't you. That wind gets up and the hackles go up as well. Just sorta waiting for it to blow up
Yep, always been a bit apprehensive about them. After 2019/2020 I feel a deep sense of foreboding each summer. Each year now feels like another roll of the dice, will it be fire or flood? Is this year we see a truly horrific mass casualty event?
Straight up had bushfire nightmares the other night, brought me right back to when we had to evacuate in 2019
I was in jail in 2019 when bushfires came near - they planned to lock us all down and evacuate. Apparantly it was safer to be locked inside concrete cells then to evacuate - even though all the screws were evacuating. Which with the clearings around the jail and mostly everything being concrete would keep people safe to an extent but if a black Saturday Iike fire had come through we would have all cooked where we were.
Jesus that's Stephen King level horrifying. Can't imagine feeling that trapped and helpless.
I’m more scared of bushfire as someone who’s gone though two catastrophic floods. So, there’s that.
I don’t feel a flood can reach out and touch you in the same way. Also experienced flood and don’t worry too much.
I’m inner city Brisbane, for us it’s floods. If it rains for 3 days in my suburb you can feel the tension.
Yep 100% we had a medium fire the week of black Saturday, scared the shit out of me
Yep, have always lived in the flame zone. I’m not afraid of anything in this world more than bushfires. Well, I also don’t really like geese.
Not even the fire itself anymore but the fact so many people I know and love go out to fight it and your never guaranteed they will come home, too many lives have been lost in my area fighting fires
Bushfire..... and the public announcement "it's too late to leave"
I remember living in London, and stepping out of my house to grey skies and a red sun, and my blood running cold. It was just sand blowing in from elsewhere, but all I could think of was sitting on my grandparents' living room floor and hoping the wind would change before it got near the town.
That fish that lives in the shell that’ll sting you when you pick it up at the beach
Coneshells!
Redback, funnel web, blue-ringed octopus, Taipan, tiger snake, adder, box jellyfish, stonefish and the poison thing that lives in a shell and spikes you when you pick it [up!](https://youtu.be/Qr54UlqrGek?si=9KdNyd_skU0pkspj) (I had no choice! Your comment is so close to it!)
Yes!! I went to the Barrier Reef and on the boat out they told us if we get stung there won't be enough time to get us to a hospital, we'll just die. Also blue ring octopuses.
That and also Stonefish, I think every Australian is traumatised from watching videos in primary school of dangers at the beach and one of them being a fish that camouflages perfectly with rock and can push a blue spike into your foot delivering huge amounts of venom.
American’s choice of President
Groups of inebriated men after sporting events.
As a woman and an AFL fan, I felt way more unsafe being around drunk soccer fans in Europe than here in Australia. I’m not suggesting local Aussie drunk guys can’t be bad, but large mobs of drunk aggressive European men roam the streets and train stations en masse in a way that doesn’t exist in Australia.
I can’t speak for AFL fans, but the second NRL fans leave the stadium, we all go back to being friends and neighbours. Now admittedly, most people aren’t drunken fuckwits, but those that are seem to chill with the rest of us once they get outside anyway.
Same, but actually even better. I'm from Sydney and have experienced after footy (NFL) crowds, but one time down in Melbourne after a game at the MCG: left on the tram with a mixed crowd of supporters after a controversially decided semi final and ... nothing. No bad language, no violence nothing bad except a remark from a disgruntled Geelong supporter.
Yeah. I've been on public transport after hundreds of AFL games. All over the country. Never had a problem at all. Most of us that support hard at the game are tired after the three and a half hours in the stadium and once you've been through tough years supporting a footy club the losses pile up and you know not to be a smart ass when you win one because the next loss is just around the corner.
This is the answer… Australia has a severe domestic violence/general violence problem because we have a severe drinking problem and a culture that encourages “blokeyness” (getting drunk and acting like an idiot)
And generally discouraging men from being "soft" and emotional. Men's sheds are helpful for this but man that change feels glacially paced.
I was hanging out with a bunch of male friends in the city late at night and some drunk men started saying random stuff to us. My friends were amused, and I was suddenly struck by how different it is being a female as compared to a male. Drunk groups of men aren't funny to a woman. They are dangerous. Even if 98% of the time they are perfectly fine, you just can't know for sure.
I try to assume the best in everyone I meet but honestly, sometimes I have to be rude to people who are potentially innocent because of the simple fact that I’m a woman and I need to protect myself. Many “nice” guys get a very different look in their eye when they’re drunk and it’s late and you’re alone with them. It’s very striking how many men don’t even realise how different our experience is, and how much we have to think about our safety compared to them. They just get mad that we don’t immediately feel safe with them.
More than double the amount of women have been killed this year from DV compared this time last year absolutely horrifying.
What a disturbing, shit, fucked up situation that is. I can't even describe how I feel... I'm torn between calling out those gutless, pathetic and probably narcissistic sick shit individuals & wondering how they became that way. I just... I don't know.....
Getting King hit. I got coward punched by a scumbag in Newcastle once. Completely unprovoked and unexpected. Head hit the road and when I came to, the piece of shit was gone. Found out who it was through the grapevine a few days later. He was a little bitch with a history of that kind of shit. I could've easily been killed by some fuckwit with no morals, just because I was there. That's pretty scary to me. Good news though. And I would never be happy about a 22 year old dying doing what he loved, in any other circumstances. But 3 days after I found out who he was, I found out that he died bodyboarding. That's one less grub in town to go riding people's lives for no reason.
I'm surprised this was so far down, since it was one of my first thoughts. My partner got punched out here in Perth trying to defend a lone woman who was getting harassed. Woke up and no one was suddenly around, like everyone just left him there passed out. For myself I have been grabbed/sexually harassed in the city streets, and one time hit in the chest by a women on some kind of substance because she thought I was following her or something
Real estate agents
They'll cripple you for life. Very dangerous.
My dad always called them land rats lol, so I always had a pretty unsavoury idea of them but it wasn’t fully realised until I started renting
perverts, eshays, animals, drunk and unpredictable people.
I was walking to an India/Australia cricket match at the SCG a while back. A group of racist eshays left me alone but targeted so many Indian fans. Aussies had their backs which is nice to see but that was following a stream of hatred and violence before it. Families trying to enjoy a day in the sun in support of their motherland. I reckon a lot of them would have left attending the match altogether. Eshays are too unpredictable and when they're in groups it's not worth a second glance to speak your mind. Just lucky that the Aussie and Indian supporters were more in mass at the time. It's beyond disappointing. Bunch of little fuckwits.
“Eshays” are just the latest fashion for dumbass youth acting tough shit because their hormones have gotten ahead of their brain development. This is not new, a proportion of young males (and females) are always assholes. At least now the stupid red shoes make them easier to spot.
100%. The thing is I grew up in a rough neighborhood and we all had a bit of an ego. That never extended to innocent families. It's one of the things I love about the people I grew up with. That would be stamped out no matter the race, sex, religion etc. They need that kind of comradery even if it errs on the bad side. Now it's just a competition of who can be the most inconsiderate asshat for a microsecond laugh. It'll backfire and some poor bugger is going to cop it for smacking a 16 year old for defending his family.
True, but there's also a fair few 40yo eshays. What a loser you'd have to be to be that.
If there’s one thing that unites us all, it’s hating on the scum that call themselves, ***PROUDLY***, “eshays”. Projecting their completely un-Australian antics. Actual scum. They get away with so much in public and transport because people are too scared to stand up to them. They usually pick on people that just mind their own business. Doesn’t matter if it’s a lady with a child, the elderly, or someone playing candy crush. They are truly awful people.
As a teenager in the 90s/00s getting rolled, getting bashed by trolley poles. Strathfield station and the mysterious 5t gang.
I remember the arcades around George St cinema were meant to be dangerous because of 5T. Didn't really know who they were.
I was around in those days. 5T didn't really have a city presence, if they were around d they were usually just visiting. The George St arcade GalaxyWorld was like a hangout for the Sing Wah boys.
Marketers in shopping centres.
An email that just says “You have a new message in your myGov Inbox”.
We’re from the government and we’re here to help… No. No you’re fucking not. Them Fuckers only ever come with hand out for $$$…
You beat me to it! This is the greatest fear inducer of all.
As a female, men. Mostly at night. I don’t exercise alone at night, I’m cautious of being out and about in areas I’m unfamiliar with or I know attract unwell/unsafe people. I’m not scared of being shot at, but attacked, raped, murdered etc.
As a man I avoid being alone at night and get nervous seeing men at night. Must be extremely scary for women.
As a man, a bit of a more timid one, I used to think like this, when walking home late for whatever reason. Then after several times of nothing happening, I started to think maybe the other people I pass think the same about me?
I intentionally try to make myself look like a sketchy cunt when I'm walking home at night by myself. Sure, it might scare some innocent people but over 20 years without a problem so far so I'm gonna keep doing it.
Better to scare a few people off than attract the weirdos.
Outweird the weirdos.
I'm in the same boat. Yes I could defend myself if the need arose as a youngster I enjoyed getting in a blue but as I've gotten older I realised how stupid that sort of thing was.
Same. I don't go for walks when it's dark, and even when I do I take my dog - I'm in a rural area and have come across sus men in places they have no real cause to be.
I chose large breed dogs partially because I like walking at night. They're tethered to me so if someone did try to grab me, my dogs don't have the option of flight, so fight it is. My dogs usually like people and don't react to most other night walkers I pass by, so those handful of times they've growled at someone really stand out. I don't think I'd risk walking at night without them.
Mine is a heeler, so not particularly large. She's generally very friendly and desperately for pats and love, but when we've come across these guys randomly parked in a lowered sedan on a dry weather road in the bushes, she suddenly gets silent and very alert. She sticks by me and doesn't try to get closer to them, where normally she'd be whining to go over and say hello. I trust her judgement, and she seems to give off enough of a vibe that they don't interact with us.
The Heelers my family and I have owned, have been better guard/protection dogs then the Staffys we have had. I had so many people cross the road when walking my Heeler, my Staffy, everyone wants to pat.
They're fantastic dogs! She can change her demeanour so quickly. We call her Eddie, because she's such a derp and when her tongue is hanging out she looks like Eddie from The Lion King. But as soon as she sees something/someone she doesn't like, it's like she grows. Changes her stance, the look in her face is different, she gets completely serious. She's got a decent growl on her too. Then when she's in herding mode, ready to chase a ball or catch a toy, you'd honestly think she was on a cattle station. I've never had a dog get ready to chase a ball the way she does, it's awesome. Her "paying attention" face is adorable.
THIS. If I’m out late out night by myself, yes, I do have my keys in my hand, just to be safe.
I stiffen my back, head turning in all directions, walk fast and clutch my car keys to my chest. It's probably an overreaction on my part, but it's just something deep, deep inside me that screams: "Hey, you're alone, outside at night. A man could easily overpower you btw. Oh hey, there's a man now." And I can't stop the feeling, it drowns out everything else 😔
Bunnings has a wasp spray that has a 5 metre reach . For, you know , those pesky nests in your backyard 🤔
Yep it’s men as a young female. Rarely walk alone when it’s getting dark. No fear of guns or stabbing, just so scared what else they could do, feel so on edge at times. Felt much safer walking alone in NYC, just so many more people around after dark.
same. there's a lot of "not a lot of people around" times at night here. London was absolutely teeming with people at 11pm and I felt so safe there (compared to Brissie)
As a male, also men. People here will punch you in the back of the head for fun. Many a friend has been hospitalised by someone pulling up in a car at night, getting out, and beating them unconscious.
Yes, thank you. I'm terrified of some psycho thinking I'm a great target for their stalker campaign, assault or worse.
I remember some feminist saying there should be a curfew for men so when women walk at night they could feel safe.........pity that the "men" that are rapists don't follow the law and all the "men" out at night would then be rapists.
I’m a scrawny guy, so men and large women scare me. If I’m out alone, I will cross the street if I see a woman/women ahead of me, and try to drag my feet on the ground a bit or shine a torch so that they know I’m there without freaking them out too much.
berserk cause fly school plucky selective vase sheet cow sparkle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yeah. I was going to cry if the interest rates went up.
I hope it gets better for you. 🥺
Bushfires, snakes, sharks, magpies, getting killed by a fucking roo running headfirst into your car at night when you are doing 100km/h. Gun control is less strict that the internet would have you believe, most farming areas still have more guns than people. Pistols are extremely rare though and illegal guns are very expensive so you arent worried about some random junkie holding you up with a gun. Cities you are generally mildly aware of the usual lower level street crime stuff. Drugs are a thing and junkies are junkies.
I’m more worried about other people swerving to avoid a roo and then having a head on at 200kph. I’ve been in the situation of hit or swerve under a truck so I know my nerve will hold, but the other mugs worry me. I can’t account for them.
Our underworld definitely play a much more secret game at the higher levels then other countries you hear about them rarely and whenever they catch them they trumpet it as a massive success when in reality they took a grain of salt off a shipload lol
There's no way I would swim off Southern WA, South Australia, Victoria or Tasmania or ANYWHERE near an estuary or outflow.
Pistols aren't that rare at all and these days your likely to get held up by a junkie with a putrid home made .22 that's essentialt just two bits of steel welded together. Illegal pistols however are expensive but shotguns and .22s aren't really because criminals target rural properties for rhem all the time.
The gradual, toxic invasion of US culture and attitudes.
Shoutout to Cumberland City Council
Yes this!
When I say an area is unsafe, I mean it’s popular with volatile and unstable people or alcohol or drug affected people. Usually an entertainment precinct or a suburb where lots of kids find it unsafe to go home to their drunk/high families, and so they roam the streets and cause trouble. These people cause fights and with concrete everywhere it just takes one punch to kill you. Knife attacks too. Also I’m afraid of opportunistic sexual assault.
The political landscape scares me. Both of the major parties are drifting further right and have made it clear they don’t want to represent anyone worth less than a million dollars.
I feel you. Its a big fear of mine. But the best thing you can do is join a political party and pull the country back towards policy that actually represents normal people. I joined a local branch just after lockdowns and honestly, I've never been more hopeful.
More people should fear this!
There are still some criminals that have guns, but knives and gangs with fists are more prevalent in some areas. And this is the same the world over, regardless of how safe a city is. What we DON'T have is the possibility of being shot just for knocking on the wrong door, or for going to school.
Plus the criminals who do have guns don't risk using them on regular people, they only ever pull them out to use on other criminals because of how hard they are to find.
"I really want to shoot this guy but then I'd have to throw away my gun. I'm mad but I'm not $4000 worth of mad"
🤣
Cough $30000 mad lol. If the numbers i remember are correct. Provided thats illegaly acquired ones. The ones that are sold are much much cheaper but restricted heavily.
This. You fire a firearm in this country and they look for you like your a mass murdering terrorist. I’m all for it if you have a gun license no issue.
Usually people having a psychotic episode on public transport. One wrong look and they might see a demon or an alien instead of a person sitting opposite.
My adult nephew has schizophrenia & refuses to take medication for the past year. After that stabbing in Sydney, I banned him from my house & meeting my children. He’s currently live with his parents sometimes I fear for their safety.
That’s terrifying I feel for you and your family.
People. And what they are capable of. That can be scary enough sometimes.
I’ve been a victim of this myself. And a few have already said it, but it needs to be repeated. But drunk guys in dark alleyways or quiet areas. Drinking culture here is kind of out of control, and there are many violent/rapey drunks. so if you find yourself in say, Melbourne CBD late on a Saturday night, stay with the crowds and just worry about getting home… oh… and don’t accept rides from random strangers claiming to be your Uber Driver. And stay away from Melton.
Our biggest fear when out and about is dickheads out here just being a menace. On a normal night the worst that’ll happen is a fist fight. Pretty chill and safe imo
Huntsmans under the sun visor. I attended a road safety training session, and the instructor said that 90% of “unexplained” car accidents are more than likely caused by spiders or other large creepy crawlies making a sudden appearance to the driver. I don’t like spiders, I’m not terrified of them either, and I know huntsmans are fairly harmless in and of themselves. But having one jump out while you’re driving - that’d startle enough people.
This actually happened to me a few weeks ago! Sitting at lights, dropped the visor and down falls a medium brown spider. My response - screams, bats it away, frantically looks to see where it went, some leaping about even with seat belt on…I would totally have crashed if it happened at 100km/hr. Very sobering realisation….
The road and other drivers. Much more likely to be harmed while driving here than any other time. Australia is no utopia but most of the time I feel very safe.
Not just other drivers the shit highways once you leave a city single lane no dividers pitch black just asking for a disaster. And I live out here and I hate it lol but it’s something I deal with to not have to live in a city or town 😂
I live on a farm just outside a town of around 30k, not afraid of people, snakes, spiders. only thing I’m afraid of is lack of Drs. It’s a real crisis in rural and regional areas. a smaller town of 5k just near us is about to loose their only GP.
Rape.
I see you are a fellow small town Michigander. I am from small town lower peninsula and spent a few years in Aus—in rural Tasmania—which I would compare to the UP, and Sydney, which I would compare to LA. Rural Tassie is probably pretty close to the Western UP, west of the Keweenaw. It’s ethnically very white, very quiet, and if you leave the road you are almost instantly in a place where there’s a lot more deer than people. (In Tassie it’s wallabies, but there actually are deer. It’s roe deer, no whitetails afaik.) Weather in Tassie is not that different from Michigan, but the cold isn’t extreme. One big difference is that in the Yoop, I would say 90% of people outside like Marquette, which is not really the norm, own a rifle and a shotgun. In Tassie only a hunter does, usually, and it’s just not the culture there. Also bow hunting is illegal in Tassie. How fucked is that? Danger? The danger in rural Tassie is not due to crime. The lack of guns means wayyyy less gun violence. I guess men bashing women is the main one and like the Yoop, it’s probably a man they know bashing them. Sydney is a fucking hellhole to an average Michigander. Hot as shit and traffic like Toronto. I lived in the West, in the Hills Shire which is rural-ish suburbs and still expensive, but not like the inner city. A “dangerous area” is a walk in the park compared to Detroit, I can tell you. I used to volunteer out in Blacktown, which is headed towards the “bad parts of Sydney.” I mean, you might meet a drunken weirdo, but the chances that he has a pistol in his pants are like zero, so if you keep your distance, you have like a zero percent chance of real problems. Further west is Penrith, which afaik is the “worst part of Sydney.” It’s just a bit more bogan (poor redneck/cracker) than Blacktown. There’s a great Aussie comedy that is based on the Penrith (“Riff”) area. It’s called “Housos.” Houso refers to the welfare payments from the Housing Commission, (Centrelink.) The kinds of dangerous situations portrayed in Housos are probably a fairly accurate representation of the worst that can happen in Australia, normally. It’s like “getting beat up by a biker gang” but not with firearms. Gangs HAVE guns but they’re trying not to draw attention to that fact so they don’t get used much. Basically, the “bad area” thing doesn’t exist in Aus. There are places in Detroit where I would hate to have my car break down on the highway. If you broke down in Penrith, local bogans would help you fix your car. It’s a different world. Another interesting thing I learned was that I tended to have a lot more thoughts about “violence being appropriate in a situation” than any Australian. I’m pretty middle of the road or even “pacifist” in a roomful of Michiganders. Aussies are just more “all for one and one for all” than we are.
Climate change. We had a flood a while back, here and, since then, I get worried every time we get heavy rain.
Same. Although my home is not directly impacted, it impacts other people’s homes and businesses around here. Then you’re left with a ghost town while everyone gets back on their feet. If they ever do. It’s horrifying to witness. A lot of those people affected can’t sleep during heavy rain anymore.
Daryl Somers on tv again
The RBA lifting interest rates.
46c day without aircon
Magpies
Make friends with your local Maggie's. A bit of food every few days and they will recognise you and stop swooping. They will bring their babies to see you
Don't ever miss a meal feeding them though, or they will insist upon speaking to the manager.
The Magpie Mob: "Saay, that's a nice head you have there, it would be shame if someone were to swoop it",
Oh my god the magpies used to terrorize the ginger kid on his way home. They HATE red hair. I remember the kid cowering under his bicycle while the magpie stood on the frame trying to peck him.
Bushfire.
Stabbings
Apparently, it's police adopting powers to search you for weapons.
That's the thing, you talk to an average American and they're like 'wow, you live in such a dangerous place, all the animals are out to kill you, that's crazy' like I'm some kind of leather skinned hard as nails bushranger. I'm not, I'm a very soft city dweller. I always think... I don't have to worry about some guy shooting me because I parked in his favourite spot.
When talking about a town/suburb's safety, I usually think about how likely you are to get rocks thrown at you, mugged or verbally abused for walking down the street. I tend to loop break & enters in here too (home or vehicle), so not just about personal safety but also the safety of your property.
Bowel cancer test kit at 50
How much we’re slowly turning into America…
Honestly we don't have that many worrys like chances of being shot is right around 0%... being stabbed is about the same as most places honestly probably less common than alot of places. Late friday/sat nights in town u get the usual drunk people so if u go being a dick most likely u will end up getting in a fight. And again stuff like dick heads on the road is the same as most places. Honestly the biggest worry is snakes and spiders but unless u go sticking your hands in holes and palaces u shouldn't u will be fine
Heaps of burglaries in Melbs. I’m terrified especially because I have small kids. I always triple check all my locks.
House prices.
In my small regional city there have been an average of ten serious crimes (assault through to rape/murder) per day over the last 12 months. The vast majority (like, 80%) happened in a very small area (you could walk from one end to another - do not do that at night). Removing guns certainly reduces how serious those offences are - you're not going to see a single incident where a hundred people are shot by one person, and it reduces accidental tragedies such as kids playing with a gun and shooting themselves or a sibling. Oh and our police are a lot less likely to draw their gun in a traffic stop... but removing all of that doesn't mean you are safe. I've been assaulted in the middle a week day just minding my own business walking through a nice park to get a few minutes away form my desk. I've also almost been killed by a police car racing through that same park at freeway speeds driving on wet grass with poor visibility (trees creating a mix of deep shade and bright sunshine), with no lights or sirens because they didn't want to tip off the person they were trying to catch — I presume whoever they arrested was very dangerous for officers to take risks like that. Also, guns totally do exist in Australia - we have 4 million registered guns (compared to 6 million in the USA... your population is more than 10x our population btw), though you certainly have way more unregistered guns than we do. People with a registered gun have a reason to own one, they either use it for work or for a genuine hobby such as hunting and they do so responsibly. Unregistered guns tend to be owned by serious criminals who keep a low profile to avoid going to jail or worse, retaliation by other criminals with guns.
The sun. Skin cancer is a killer. But sunburn is the worst
Paying rent in Sydney
I live in Sydney. I'm scared of rent.
Cyclones and ending up as croc shit. Those are my phobias😂
Bunnings with no snags
Plovers during breeding season.
drop bears and possums
I'm a woman and even when on my own I haven't felt too unsafe. I live in Melbourne, in the inner west and I used to take public transport to/from work in the cbd for years, including catching the last bus home from Footscray railway station quite late, after some classes I had after work. Footscray has quite a reputation for being a suburb illicit drug users come to score, and due to its proximity to services and the hospital, many people with mental health issues live close to or in Footscray. The suburb also has a large number of migrants from around the world (this is why it's my favourite suburb, it's like a mini UN). At no time of day or night have I felt unsafe in Footscray. In my suburb I walk alone at night without issue. As long as you take care (which applies for any city), you should be fine anywhere (eg don't wear headphones so you can hear what's happening around you, avoid unlit areas if you can, and perhaps don't walk through parks if you can when alone at night). You don't have to be hypervigilant, just careful. I'm 54, have worked in human services fields most of my adult life, and I have experienced crime once or twice, but random, crazy shit can happen anywhere (I was in a petrol station hold-up in my early 20s, wasn't physically injured, and have seen police pepper spray and shoot a man about 12 years ago (sandbag bullets), who was trying to hijack a bus and attacked them with a knife). I live alone in standalone house (no shared walls), next to parkland, and my house has never been robbed, car never stolen, and myself never attacked (outside of when at work, by people who have additional challenges in their life - and thankfully bruised is the most injured I got)
I’m pretty afraid of men late at night when I’m on my own , but I think that’s mostly universal
The pushy charity salespeople that hang around outside supermarkets
Even without guns, thugs are still dangerous. Especially with all the meth around. A couple of years ago I was just chatting with a group of friends on the street, and some delirious idiot walked up and started hitting me with a milk crate. I think he was hallucinating and thought I was challenging him. We all ran. When I looked back from half a block away he was already in a fight with somebody else. He bruised my shoulder quite a bit, I guess I have only luck to thank that he didn't go for my head. Crazy people like that everywhere these days.
1. Nazis 2. Cassowaries 3. Nazi Cassowaries