A “giant” funnel-web that was brought to the Australian Reptile Park on the New South Wales Central Coast, will play a role in the facility’s antivenom program to help save the lives of people bitten by the deadly spider. The oversized arachnid, dubbed “Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson”, after the beefed-up movie star, was captured near Newcastle and taken to the Australian Reptile Park to be milked for raw venom. Commenting on the hand-in, the park’s director Liz Gabriel said, “Having Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as part of the venom program is so amazing because he will save a lot of lives with the venom he will produce. He is unusually large and more spiders like him will only result in more lives being saved due to the huge amount of venom they can produce.” Wet weather, followed by intense heat experienced across the region provided ideal conditions for funnel web spiders to thrive, a statement from the park said. The Australian Reptile Park is the only facility in the country that milks funnel web spiders for their raw venom to be made into antivenom, the statement from the park said. The facility relies on public donations of funnel web spiders to keep venom supplies going. The bite from a funnel-web can be lethal when left untreated