A 22-year-old man has died after being bitten by a poisonous redback spider during a bushwalk on Australia's east coast in what is believed to be the country’s first fatality from a spider in almost 40 years.

Jayden Burleigh, from Sydney, was bitten by a native redback while walking on the north coast of New South Wales last week and was treated in hospital after he developed an abscess under his left arm which affected his glands.