During the 1970s there was a slew of deaths in Australia, usually attributed to the Australian Funnel-Web Spider. In 1980 an anti-venom was released. But between the years 1974-1979 8 people were killed by the funnel-web spider in North Queensland, while the number seems small, it is exceptionally high for such a small time frame, especially talking about spiderbites which result in deaths. A strange thing about the deaths is that 3 to 5 spiders were found in the victims room each time, and from time to time, the screen covering the window was ripped or removed.

Police never investigated further.