There was a spider at the front of our house. Suspended between two trees I only started noticing her because she was big, and growing more enormous every day. Unlike other spiders, she was granted a protection order (ie. Andy, my partner, was under strict instructions not to knock her down) as I thought she looked kinda sweet . Unfortunately, two weeks ago when Andy was gardening a branch fell and knocked down her web, so I took this photo of her in case she was too old to rebuild.
Now this photo doesn’t really do her justice. She was FREAKING HUGE. I’d have put a matchbox or something near her to give an idea of size, but as cute as she is I was genuinely worried for my digits. But trust me when I say, she was just slightly smaller than my whole hand.
Despite her formidable scariness (yes, yes I know; she’s more afraid of me), I was really sad when she didn’t repair her web. Weeks passed and we figured we’d lead to her demise :(
Well, how pleased was I today! She’s moved to another place in the garden and in fact looks much happier and in a nice sheltered spot. In fact I’m pretty sure she was smiling. But it may have been a grin; “no really, come closer with that camera”.
I’ve googled her and she’s a Golden Orb Weaver. With the description;
The golden orb weavers are one of the largest spiders found in Australia.
Their webs with diameters of over 1 meter can be found hanging off sign posts, in or between trees. The web is extremely strong. So strong that even small birds stick in the net.
So imagine this – you’re walking through the bush and walk through a really, really strong spider web. You think gee, I hope there’s not a spider. Except there is… and it’s a big as your head.
