Edited sentence: At the same time you learn a lot about the problems Australia suffers and its dark history about the way early Australian colonisers mistreated Aborigines.Austrailia is humourously depicted by Bryson as a happy, prosperous place that does not deserve the lack of attention it receives.Bryson is approaching Australia via aircraft and is confessing to the reader how little he knows about the land he is about to arrive in.Bryson is at pains to point out that there is a good reason for this: in terms of the world's attention, Australia is practically ignored.However, Bryson helpfully explains that there are much smaller snakes (about the size and width of a shoelace) that exist who have an equal amount of venom.In one particular year in a major American newspaper there were more column inches written about ICE CREAM than all of Australia's politics, sport, gossip and entertainment put together.It never escapes your attention that Australia is home to the most dangerous animals on the planet, including the infamous Box Jellyfish.The first chapter alone is extremely funny and thought provoking.The most charming aspects of the book usually centre around Bryson's constant struggle to comprehend Australia's ginormous size and the astonishing temperatures that occur in the outback.These are the snakes to really fear as their small size means they usually remain unseen until they have bitten.This is just the sort of bizarre fact that Bryson uses to grab your attention and seize your interest.When it comes to snakes, most people worry about the enormous snakes that can kill with a single bite