Interesting Facts about Australia
The interesting facts about Australia section covers some of the more unusual and interesting facts about Australia; maybe some you know maybe some you don't
The name Australia comes from the Latin Australis which means "of the South" Legends of "Terra Australis Incognita" an "unknown land of the south" date back to Roman times.
Australia is the biggest island and the smallest continent in the world.
Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth, the driest is Antarctica
With an average of 330 metres Australia is the lowest continent in the world.
The Australian Snowy Mountains receive more snowfall in a year than the Swiss Alps.
Australia is the only continent without an active volcano.
The only land locked state or territory in Australia is the Australian Capital Territory.
It is thought that Aboriginals have called Australia home for between 40,000 and 80,000 years.
It is estimated that at the time of British settlement there was about 300,000 Aboriginal people who spoke around 250 languages.
British settlers aboard the 11 ships of the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay in 1788 but moved north to Port Jackson (Sydney Cove) a few days later when they found the Botany Bay site unsuitable. They arrived at Port Jackson on the 26th January 1778 (now Australia Day).
Australia facts; unusual and interesting facts about Australia include Australia's only armed rebellion, the "Eureka Stockade" took place in the Ballarat Goldfields in 1854. The goldfield workers (known as 'diggers') were opposed to the government miners' licences.
Burke and Wills were the first white explorers to cross Australia from South to North. They left Melbourne in August 1860 and reached
the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland in February 1861. They both perished near Cooper's Creek on the return journey.
The Transportation of British
convicts to Australia ended in 1868.
Another one of the interesting facts about Australia is now there are about 115 people in gaol (jail) in Australia per 100,000 of population. In the USA it is about 715, Russia is about 585, New Zealand is about 160, Japan is about 54 and Canada is about the same as Australia at 116.
Women were given the right to vote in Australia in 1902.
The first female Member of Parliament in Australia was Edith Cowan who was elected to the West Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921.
Neville Bonner became Australia's first Aboriginal senator in 1971.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened in 1932 and is the widest steel arch bridge in the world.
One of the unusual and interesting facts about Australia is about the Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt. Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared while going for a swim at Cheviot Beach on the 17th December 1967. His disappearance has remained a mystery all these years.
Gough Whitlam is the only Australian Prime Minister to be dismissed from office. He was dismissed as Prime Minister by the then Governor General, Sir John Kerr in 1975.
The Honey Suckle Creek Tracking Station near Canberra broadcast the pictures of man's first steps on the moon to the rest of the world in 1969.
United States architect Walter Burley Griffin won the competition in 1912 to design Australia's capital city of Canberra.
Interesting facts about Australia include the longest straight stretches of road, railway track and the longest fence in the world.
The longest section of straight railway track in the world at 478 kilometres crosses The Nullarbor Plain (South Australia to Western Australia).
The longest straight section of road at 146 kilometres is also on the Nullarbor Plains.
The longest fence in the world is known as The Dingo Fence, Wild Dog Fence or Border Fence depending on which state you are in.
map from wikipedia under
GNU Free Documentaion License
The fence is approximately 5,400 kilometres long starting at Jimbour in Queensland and continuing on to the Great Australian Bight in South Australia.
My father was a Boundary Rider on the New South Wales/Queensland section of the fence at Camerons Corner when I was a kid.
The largest cattle station in the world is Anna Creek Station in South Australia at over 34,000 square kilometres.
Australia changed to the metric system of measurement from 1970 onwards. Before the changeover to the metric system Australia used imperial units of measurement that were inherited from the British. The imperial system was phased out over the years following 1970 up until about 1988.
In converting kilometres to miles the conversion goes approximately like this; 1 kilometre = 0.62 of a mile, 10 kilometres = 6.21 miles, 25 kilometres = 15.53, 50 kilometres = 31.07 miles, 100 kilometres = 62.14 miles and so on.
Another one of the interesting facts about Australia is Australia has one of the lowest population densities in the world with an average of three people per square kilometre. The world average on land only is about 45 per square kilometre.
image courtesy of wikipedia
The Melbourne Cup is a horse race that was first run in 1861 and is still held every year on the first Tuesday in November. It is dubbed "the race that stops a nation"
Australians spend the most money on gambling in comparison to any other country in the world. Australia has twenty percent of the poker machines in the world
Quite a few of the interesting facts about Australia has to do with our unique and sometimes deadly wildlife.
The Kangaroo and the Emu were chosen to feature on the Australian Coat of Arms because they are incapable of walking backwards and therefore symbolise a nation moving forward.
Australia is home to six of the top ten deadliest snakes in the world.
There are about 350 species of termites, 1,500 species of spider, 6,000 species of flies and 4,000 species of ants in Australia.
The Sydney Funnel-web spider is considered the deadliest spider in the world.
The stonefish is the most poisonous fish in the world and lives mainly above the tropic of Capricorn off the coast of Australia.
The Box Jellyfish is considered the world's most venomous marine creature and have killed more people in Australia than stonefish, sharks and crocodiles combined.
The largest number of wild dromedary (they have the one hump) camels in the world are found in Australia.
The Australian platypus and echidna are the only mammals (monotremes) to lay eggs.
The Purple-neck Rock Wallaby is found around the Mt Isa region of Northwest Queensland. They discharge a dye that changes their face and neck into colours that can range from light pink to bright purple.
image courtesy of wikipedia
The last Thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) died in 1936 at the zoo in the capital city of Hobart.
Go to next facts page: Fun Facts about Australia
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"The Legend of Bimi"
Introduction
There's a tale that begins in the sand hills
That I would like to tell,
Built from myth and many legends,
And my pen it does compel.
The desert's a hot, a hostile place,
Nothing's changed since time began,
There's a hazy unreality there
As if it, in the dreamtime was planned.
The noon of the day is so hot and still,
And over all an expectant hush,
Like a canvas that's waiting impatiently
For the touch of the artists brush.
The fire of the day can change swifly
To the night of startlingly cold,
Many legends are told of the people
Who live in this land so old.
To continue to read the introduction to this wonderful piece of poetry our Mother wrote called
"The Legend of Bimi" just go to our
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