As residents of Australia, we all understand on a molecular level the nature of this country: that everything in it, every last skerrick of flora and fauna, is filled to the brim with poisonous hatred for humanity. As well as actual poison. It’s the truth we all live with – every bloody thing here wants to kill you.
Kong: Skull Island, the latest in the Giant Monsters: Monkey Edition film franchise, was shot in large part in Queensland, in the scrub and forests of Mt Tambourine, Tallebudgera Valley and the Paperbark Forest. While these tranquil, picturesque areas might seem tame to locals, apparently the film production company’s OH&S department were feeling a little twitchy at the thought of having so many famous and expensive actors waltzing around in the Australian kill-bush.
According to the Brisbane Times, all the actors were subject to extensive safety demonstrations and exhaustive folders of info on the many, many things that would probably try to maim or murder them during their stay in Queensland. Tom Hiddleston explained:
“The safety officer was incredibly detailed about the number of things in the jungle that could kill us – brown snakes, funnel web spiders, plants.There was one particular plant he showed us and said, ‘We call it a wait-a-while and we have given it that name because if you touch it with your bare skin it will make you wait-a-while and you will be sent to hospital and emergency treatment.”
To be fair, the dangers of wait-a-while may have been slightly overstated – while it does have hooks on it that will necessitate a disentangling session, you probably won’t have to go to the ER.
Gympie gympie on the other hand – I’ll let Brie Larson tell you about that:
“Pretty soon we learned about the gympie gympie. We were doing a lot of running in scenes and there are these plants that have crazy thorns on them and snag you quite easily and if they get on your skin it causes a rash and the only way to stop the itching is to wax. So all of the hair and makeup people had waxing kits.”
Gympie gympie is famous for causing months of astonishing pain as its venomous fibres worm their way through your skin, and is also known as the suicide plant, having anecdotally caused at least one death by suicide.
Queensland: beautiful one day, trying to murder celebrities with plants the next.
Source: Brisbane Times.
Image: Kong: Skull Island.
