Australian Spiders -- Huntsman Spiders

This page contains details and photos of Huntsman spiders that live in our backyard at Lake Macquarie, New South Wales.

Click on thumbnail image to see a larger, higher resolution photo.

I found this large huntsman spider sitting on a piece of wall-board in my back shed. It appeared to be as interested in me as I was in it.

Fortunately I had my camera with me so I quickly took this photo, thinking the spider would soon run away.

I could hardly believe the spider is letting me get so close. I was ready to jump back in case it decided to jump at me.

I didn't realize I could see all of the spider's eight eyes until later that day when looking at the full-size photo.

To my surprise, the spider remained motionless. Even when I put the camera on the end of the same piece of wall board.

I didn't dare try to look through the viewfinder, so used the swing-out LCD screen and adjusted it to line up this shot.

The photo shoot ended abruptly when the spider decided to crawl towards the camera, possibly looking at its reflection in the lens.

I backed away until the spider decided to go hunting elsewhere. I don't think I ever want to get that close to a huntsman again.