Two instances come right to mind:

I was doing a backpackers tour out of Alice Springs in the Australian outback, and had my feet firmly propped against the dashboard as our 4WD bus traversed red dirt trails. On my last morning out there, my leg was starting to swell up, and I assumed I had just been bit by something and the swelling would eventually go down. I caught a flight to Cairns, and headed south to Mission Beach. The leg got worse, and was starting to look like a watermelon, and I was in pain even having to walk. Fortunately, I arrived in Mission Beach about an hour before a medical office closed up, and they got me in right away ($A30 for an office visit..about $US15). I had burst a blood vessel in my leg, probably when I had my legs firmly in place on the dashboard as we were going down those dirt tracks at a quick pace. I was warned not to walk on the leg for a few days (hard to do when you're on a backpacker tour that involves going up and down trails at various points), and that the swelling would eventually go down. The doctor was immediately able to recognize where the blood vessel was, and that I was not bit. He even told me if it had been any deeper on my leg I could have died. Fortunately, it was not deep. I'm alive to keep on flying and backpacking

My second story involves arriving on my first Australia trip, about 10 years ago. I flew into Ayers Rock without any reservations. This was a mistake. As the tourist office said, "people just don't fly all the way out here without reservations". There was an American woman in line with me, and a woman from London, and none of us had reservations. There's only about 4-5 hotels out there, one backpackers place, and a caravan (trailer) park that rents out trailers, but everything was completely booked. The office staff at the caravan park gave two of us pillows and blankets and sent us off to a picnic ground. The American woman was in tears at the tourist office and a couple let her sleep in part of their hotel suite (living room area I gather) for the night. I hardly slept, as a dingo circled around the picnic bench I was sleeping on all night long, probably looking for food. Now I know not to show up out there without reservations. The office staff refused to accept one cent for allowing us to camp out for the night there, one of my first experiences with wonderful Australian hospitality.