I don't have a phobia of spiders, but I'm not keen on them either. I was in northern Queensland a couple of years ago and woke up early one morning to find a huge (about 7 inches across, including legs) black spider on the ceiling above the bed. I had to get a saucepan, prod the spider into it with a magazine and take it outside. There's no way I could have gone back to sleep with that thing there.
We have some pretty large spiders here in the UK, the biggest of which can get to 5 inches across (including the legs). This is probably small fry to Aussies, but plenty big enough for me!
