Tesla coils

Definitely cool looking but you'd have to have it guarded/fenced. Even on a small scale those arcs have enough energy to knock an individual off their feet, in some cases likely permanently. There would also be the problem of Australia's version of the FCC beating on your door due to the radio and TV interference.
 
Made a very small one of these about 25 years ago for my high school project. Loads of fun, but as Terry says, enough to give you a nasty bite.
My one was two rods, spaced about a centimetre apart at the bottom to around 3cm at the top, with a total wire length of about 20cm, all driven by a car ignition coil and a wave generator circuit.

I got bitten once during testing, the spark jumped through the air, into my insulated screwdriver (rated to 1,000V, but this thing was running about 20,000V), and then from the screwdriver shaft, through the insulation again and into my hand.
Needless to say it scared the s*** out of me, i switched it off immediately and walked away for the rest of day.
 
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