A West Australian country town is celebrating a unique milestone in its relationship with the unlikeliest of local mascots: the trapdoor spider.

The ambush predators, known for their unique, doored burrows from which they pounce on prey, are the stuff of nightmares for arachnophobes.

But in Tammin, 180 kilometres east of Perth in WA's Wheatbelt, a 50-year study spearheaded by a resident has seen the town forge a unique relationship with the creatures.

Professor Barbara York Main began to study trapdoor spiders after noticing holes in the ground made by the arachnids at her family homestead in North Bungulla, just outside of town.

She first flipped the lid and shone a torch into the burrow on the North Bungulla Nature Reserve in 1975.

The trapdoor spider (Gaius villosus) she found an

See Full Page