Garden Orb Weaver

Description:

This example is a female and is about the size of a mouse

Habitat:

They hide among the branches and sleep all day. At night they throw out a long thread of sticky web and build a huge, rounded web. They are well-known for catching in the hair and over the faces of hikers who walk in the early morning or dusk. Many a hiker runs screaming through the Australian bush with one of these trapped across their face or in their hair. Fortunately they are loathe to bite

Notes:

The web for this creature was as large as 1.5m or 5ft (I think) This spider was able to survive in our yard because at that time the yard was the centre of a network of open yards with huge trees and rare lawn mowing. Later when the houses were rented out and fenced with steel fencing this species became locally extinct