The Big Funnel Web Spider

The species choice is bold to the point of provocation. The Sydney funnel-web is among the most venomous spiders in the world, with a bite that was reliably lethal before an antivenom was developed in 1981, and it lives in exactly this part of New South Wales. Building the world's largest sculpture of it, and inviting people to be swallowed by it for entertainment, is a considerably more confident piece of theming than a giant koala.

It also connects neatly to the Australian Reptile Park up the coast, whose funnel-web milking programme supplies the venom that antivenom is made from – the same tradition of turning the country's most alarming wildlife into an attraction.

One practical point. This is inside a paid, seasonal water park, not a free roadside stop, and the park operates on published open dates through the warmer months. Seeing the spider means buying a ticket and going in.

It is also a reminder of how differently Australia treats its dangerous wildlife from most countries. Elsewhere the deadliest local animal is downplayed; here it becomes the theme of a water slide, and the queue forms anyway.