Actually, those photos date back about 40 years... those are during construction of that road, which was progressively opened from about 1964/5 onwards.
As for the spiders, yeah, you could get paranoid. But I've never consciously looked for them anywhere in my home wherever I've lived, though I do take care checking for Redbacks when going through tin cans and rubbish, piles of car parts and the like. Not that much care, but just look out for them.
Anything more than that is just a load of codswallop. Not true at all.
