AUSSIE FACTS
AUSSIE FACTS
INTERESTING FACTS
+ Four out of five Australians live within 50 kms (31 mi) of the coast.
+ If you visited one new beach a day it would take 29 years to visit all of Australia’s 10,685.
+ Australia’s first police force was made of well-behaved convicts.
+ The bronze medals for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games were forged from the country's recently recalled 1 and 2 cent pieces.
+ Australia’s Alps (in the south-east) get more snow annually than Switzerland.
+ The Dingo Fence (built in the 1880s to keep dingos away from Queensland's sheep and south-east of Australia) is longer than the Great Wall of China.
+ Australia is the only continent without an active volcano.
+ Neither the kangaroo nor the emu can walk backwards, which is why they were both chosen for the Australian Coat of Arms - to reflect a forward-thinking culture.
+ The popular Aussie spread, Vegimite, is created from yeast left over from making beer.
ANIMAL FACTS
+ Koalas sleep for around 20 hours a day.
+ The wombat’s poos are cube shaped.
+ Kangaroos are only 2cm when born.
+ The Platypus and Echidna are the only two mammals that lay eggs.
+ Wallabies are known to break into crops of Opium, eat the plant, get high and then run around in circles.
+ The Box Jellyfish (found in the Great Barrier Reef) kills more people than sharks, snakes and saltwater crocs together.
+ Of the world’s 25 most poisonous snakes, 21 can be found in Australia.
+ The Inland Taipan or Fierce Snake (the world’s most poisonous snake), is endemic to Australia and the venom from one bite could kill 100 adult men.
AUSTRALIA HAS THE WORLD'S LARGEST...
NUMBER OF PUREBRED CAMELS
Australia even exports camels to Egypt, and at current count there are about one million camels roaming the Australian deserts.
WORKING CATTLE STATION
Established in 1863, Anna Creek Station is slightly larger than Israel measured at 23,677 sq kms (9,142 sq mi). You’ll find it in South Australia, near William Creek, although the closest town is Coober Pedy. Originally the station farmed sheep, but changed to cattle in order to cut down on the losses caused by dingo attacks.
SAND ISLAND
Fraser Island is off the south-eastern coast of Queensland, around 250 kms (160 mi) north of Brisbane. It’s about 123 kms (76 mi) long by 22 kms (14 mi) wide, and made up of rainforests, eucalyptus and mangrove forests, wallum and peat swamps, and coastal heaths - a lot more plant life than is usually expected on a sand island. Sand that is said to have been gathering for 750,000 years.
LIVING STRUCTURE AND LARGEST CORAL REEF SYSTEM
The Great Barrier Reef is over 2,300 km (1,400 mi) and covers around 344,400 sq km (133,000 sq mi) in size. Found in the Coral Sea off the Queensland coast, the reef is made up of 900 islands and and 2,900 individual reefs. Other interesting facts are that it’s the world’s biggest structure made by living organisms, can be seen from outer space and has it’s own mailbox.
AUSTRALIA HAS THE WORLD'S LONGEST...
STRAIGHT ROAD
Commonly known as the ’90 Mile Straight’, the road joins the first two stops of the Eyre Hwy and runs from the small, Western Australian roadhouse community of Balladonia to the next at Caiguna. The road measures 146.6 kms (91.1 mi) without turning, while the Eyre Hwy totals at 1,600 km (1,030 mi), and runs across the Nullabor Plain from Western Australia to South Australia.
GOLF COURSE
Nullabor Links, runs across the Nullabor Plain, from Kalgoorlie in WA to Ceduna in SA. The course itself is 1,365 kms (848.2 mi) in length.
Not bad, huh?
