- Australia’s 50,000 kilometre coastline is linked by over 10,000 beaches – more than any other country in the world.
- In 2007, 4 of the 5 most watched programmes were sport – the 5th was the election between John Howard and Kevin Rudd.
- Western Australian is 11 times bigger than the UK, but home to only 2 million people.
- Believe it or not, Australians are not heavy drinkers! The average Australian drinks 7% less alcohol than the average Briton, 25% less alcohol than the average German and 35% less alcohol than the average Irish.
- Australia’s highest temperature, 51 degrees C (123 degrees F), was recorded at Oodnadatta, South Australia in 1960. The lowest temperature was minus 23 degrees C (minus 9 degrees F) measured high in the mountains at Charlotte Pass, New South Wales.
- Australian mines, which account for 15% of Australia’s Gross Domestic Produce, cover only 0.02% of our land mass. More land is occupied by pubs.
- No point in Australia is more than 1000km from the ocean and a beach.
- Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.
- The Great Barrier Reef has a mailbox. You can ferry out there and send a postcard, stamped with the only Great Barrier Reef stamp.
- Melbourne has the second largest Greek population in the world, after Athens.
- In the Australian Outback, under ideal viewing conditions, the naked eye can detect about 5,780 stars.
- Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island.
- Australia is the only continent without an active volcano.
- Australia is home to six of the top ten deadliest snakes in the world.
- Australians are the world’s largest purchasers of 4WDs.
- There are 16 rabbits in Australia to every human.
- Uluru (Ayers Rock) is over 8 kilometres in circumference.
- Great Australian inventions include the half-car-half-truck utility vehicle, the bionic ear, the black box flight recorder, the notepad and the wine cask.
- Australians eat 260 million pies a year: that’s around 13 per person.
- Tasmania’s Huon Pine is one of the slowest-growing and longest-living trees on the planet. Individuals can take 2000 years to reach 30m in height and live to be 3000 years old.
- The Australian Alps, or Snowy Mountains as they are also known, receive more snow than Switzerland.
- Melbourne has the second largest Greek population in the world, after Athens.
- There are 1500 hundred species of Australian spiders. The average person swallows three a year.
- If the fully welded rails of the Ghan train track weren’t restrained properly, on a hot outback desert day they would expand and at the Darwin end they would stick out 1.1 km into the ocean.
- The Sydney Opera House roof weighs more than 161,000 tons.
- Australia’s largest desert, the ‘Great Victoria Desert’, one and a half times the size of the UK (as is not actually in Victoria).
- The Salt Water Crocodile is the world’s largest reptile, and can be found in the northern coastal regions of Australia.
- For 26 years, until 1927, Melbourne was the capital of Australia.
- Lake Eyre is below sea level.
- Wombat poop is square. Actually cubicle would be a better description. Wombats use their poop to mark their territory and because of the shape it does not easily roll away. Dried wombat poop can be used as a dice.
- Canberra is the foggiest capital city, with on average 47 days of fog each year.
- The world’s most venomous spider lives in Sydney.
- Australia has almost 112,600 Surf Life Savers, who collectively spend some 1.4 million hours patrolling Australian beaches, where they rescue approximately 10,000 people per year.
- A platypus is an odd-looking creature that appears to be a cross between a duck and a beaver. They live primarily in water and only exist to confuse biologists.
- Australia has the world’s largest population of wild camels with one hump.
- The world’s fastest growing tree is the Australian Eucalyptus. It can grow up to 10 metres in one year.
- There are actually four types of Boomerang – the “hook”, the “hunter”, “the club”, “the V”. All were used for hunting and warfare. Only one of the four will return when thrown – The Hunter.
- Australian slang was originally used to hide what the convicts were saying from their guards.
- Australia is the only country that began as a prison.
- Tasmania is one of the worlds largest suppliers of legally produced opium based products.
- The Kangaroo and Emu depicted on Australia’s national coat of arms were chosen because neither can walk backwards.
- The “dingo fence” in outback Austrlalia (which keeps dingoes away from livestock) is the longest man made fence in the world. It is twice as long as the great wall of China.
- The worlds largest cattle station (ranch) is in Australia. It is about the same size as Belgium.
- ‘Waltzing Matilda’, the title of Australia’s most famous song, is German for ‘carrying a backpack’.
- The name Australia comes from the Latin Terra Australis Incognito which means the Unknown Southern Land.
- The name for the Australian marsupial Kangaroo came about when some of the first white settlers saw this strange animal hopping along and they asked the Aborigines what it was called. They replied with ‘Kanguru’, which in the native language meant ‘I don’t know’.
- The mining town of Coober Pedy in Australia got it’s name from the local Aboriginals. It means something like “White fella down a hole”.
- When driving around Australia, make sure that you circum-navigate the continent anti-clockwise, as it’s about 900 metres shorter going this way than clockwise.
- The original fifty cent piece in Australian decimal currency had around $2.00 worth of silver in it before it was replaced with a less expensive twelve sided coin.
- The world’s first feature film was “Soldiers of the Cross”, made and shown in Australia in 1900. The next one was “The Story of the Kelly Gang”, in 1906.
- For 64 years, starting in 1838, it was illegal to swim at a beach in the day.
- Sydney Harbor Bridge is the world’s largest steel arch bridge and the Sydney Tower Center is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere.
- Australia claims to have the highest rate of literacy in the world. This could be the reason, why the per capita newspaper reading is more than any other country in the world.
- In Queensland, it is still constitutional law that all pubs must have a railing outside for patrons to tie up their horse.
- In Melbourne, it is an offence to drive a dog or goat harnessed or attached to a vehicle in a public place (Summary Offences Act 1966).
- It is also an offence to sing an obscene song, tune or ballad within earshot of someone (Summary Offences Act 1966).
- Melbourne has the largest remaining tram public transport system in the world.
Facts About Australia
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