Interesting you mention that... the news here yesterday showed some local guy who got bitten by a brown snake in his back yard. Now this guy doesn't live in the sticks, he's in the burbs in a major capital city. If his wife hadn't been there, and if a snake handler hadn't caught & ID'd the snake (to get the right antivenin) he'd have been dead as a dodo in 1/2 an hour.
In this part of the world you don't get the option of leaving snakes and spiders alone - you have to keep your eyes open and not step on them.
