My Garage is my work shop at this new house I moved too.
Either end has a roller door on it.
Behind my house is all bush and I get all kinds of creatures in my yard. Everything from owls to snakes.
Well today I'm in the garage paint stripping and its very hot so the doors are open on either end of the Garage.
Well I'm on my knees working away in a day deam and this massive 5 foot Goanna appears next to me ! Pokes his black tongue out at me and walks straight through the garage like he owns the place!.
Bloodly thing made me jump!
Harmless but still makes you jump in the shed.
Pete

I've just spent about twenty minutes with the chainsaw cutting up a gum tree branch that fell into the carpark behind my place. No goannas but sometimes we get a couple of bush turkeys hang around. We also have ring tail and brush tail possums and the very occasional black snake but the snakes don't come near the flats.

Maybe the goanna was getting a "high" from the chemical fumes.

I'd have jumped, too, and probably spilled stripper everywhere into the bargain.

cutting up a gum tree branch that fell into the carpark

Eucalypts like to drop branches and twigs, and shed bark, on the hottest days.

Wildlife can be entertaining. Had one Monitor a while back that decided that there was food in a Rabbit burrow & proceeded like a great excavator to dig its way in. If you need a pet Possum I have one that is very homely & sleeps in its own box in the old chaff shed. It will knock on the kitchen door or dance around the workshop roof, for food if its scarce, as will a round 5 species of free loading birds. Fairy Wrens, frogs & Lizards will pop into the house, or workshop if you leave the door open. The normal perils of a century old outside dunny apply if you dare use it.

Living rural its amazing what fauna is out there: Rainbow Bee eaters are nesting, really wonderful to see the increased numbers of them this year & providing that we manage to eliminate foxes & there a not too many snakes, we may have lots more next year.

I have just modified the swampy air con, it had a pipe fault within that restricted water to the pads, but frogs were getting into the sump & two have ended up sticking out of the front grille.... oops. They were I believe getting in via the overflow pipe (50mm): Sorted that caper. They cannot get in via the pads as I screened them to stop it sucking in bits of the flora. Obviously designed by a city person.

I got hit with a squall 19th Dec. Big mess over 12 trees damaged severely. 500m of fencing with trees on them. Took 3 days just clearing one fence & getting it back into service. Timber still to be cleaned up there. Moved 5 6x4 trailer loads of just tops out of the house area.

I did post some photos on Facebook.

Your on the northside too.
Im at Cromer near dee why.
I get bush turkey's too and the other day their was a baby bush turkey in the yard. Ive never seen a baby one before.
I get snakes and all kinds of wild life here .but to be honest the only thing I get here I hate is the funnel wed spides , I dont like spides, I'm fine with snakes but not spides!
You would be stupid if you went out side at night bare foot or just wearing thongs ,because I see them regularly.
Ohhh give me a house in Newtown !!
Pete

It would have been a Perentie lizard I suspect. Relatively common around our part of the Northern Beaches, they can grow to 2 metres, Guaranteed to give you a fright but as you say, harmless. Being cold blooded they get more active in hot weather.

The road my street runs off is called Perentie Rd. I wonder why??

Have a look at David A meeting one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=614hIg2lNM8

I'm no fan of brush turkeys. They make a huge mess of the gardens up and down the street. We never had them until an intensive fox baiting program in the nearby bush. I vary rarely saw a fox, but we are inundated with turkeys. These days not many people have dogs, so the turkeys roam free.

My partner's dog, a great big sooky labradoodle, completely ignores the bush turkeys around here. He could easily catch one if he wanted to.
I saw one yesterday calmly walking across the street.

Hello G,
Yes thats a good point, If I had a dog many of these creatures would not come in.
Night time here is Amazing here the yard becomes a zoo.
But I do worry about Pearl my daughter ,she is only 3 and wants to Pet everything so snakes and the spiders are a concern, Red bellies are welcome, but I get big browns here and many others.
Funny though ,last summer there were none.
Pete

What Pete saw may have been a Lace Monitor, which is a type of goanna that climbs trees. They are plentiful in the bush around Hornsby. I've seen one climb the brick wall of a mate's factory unit to sun itself on the roof. Dunno if they get as far as Cromer.

Hmm not sure, I get lots of Goannas in the yard , but this one was at least 5 foot long ,black with white spots and a black tongue.
But I dont want them in my shed !!

Here's a Lace Monitor. They can grow to two metres:

http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/~/media/B360A20D5E404CA3BD61F66DD2FFF969.ashx

Every kid should grow up with a dog. One of my kids has a gorgeous Golden Retriever they brought back from a couple of years stay in Canada,

Then the two kids arrived. This dog would risk his life to protect those kids.

Hi Ian ,
Yep I agree, we always had dogs when I was a kid. We had a dog up until 3 years ago when he died at the the the age of 17. Schultz was
His name and he was a sheppard x kelpie one very smart and wonderful dog.
Best mate I ever had!
Pete