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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Australian Facts - explains a lot


    1.
    Australia is as wide as the distance between London to Moscow.



    2. The biggest property in Australia is bigger than Belgium.

    3. More than 85% of Australians live within 50km of the coast.

    4. In 1880, Melbourne was the richest city in the world.

    5. Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, earns $1 million every half hour, or $598 every second.

    6. In 1892, a group of 200 Australians unhappy with the government tried to start an offshoot colony in Paraguay to be called 'New Australia'.

    7. The first photos from the 1969 moon landing were beamed to the rest of the world from Honeysuckle Tracking Station, near Canberra.



    8. Australia was the second country in the world to allow women to vote (New Zealand was first).

    9. Each week, 70 tourists overstay their visas.

    10. In 1856, stonemasons took action to ensure a standard of 8-hour working days, which then became recognised worldwide.

    11. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke set a world record for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds. Hawke later suggested that this was the reason for his great political success.



    12. The world's oldest fossil, which is about 3.4 billion years old, was found in Australia.

    13. Australia is very sparsely populated: The UK has 248.25 persons per square kilometre, while Australia has only 2.66 persons per square kilometre.

    14. Australia's first police force was made up of the most well-behaved convicts.

    15. Australia has the highest electricity prices in the world.

    16. There were over one million feral camels in outback Australia, until the government launched the $19m Feral Camel Management Program, which aims to keep the pest problem under control.



    17. Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia (mostly for meat production).

    18. Qantas once powered an interstate flight with cooking oil.

    19. Per capita, Australians spend more money on gambling than any other nation.

    20. In 1832, 300 female convicts mooned the governor of Tasmania. It was said that in a "rare moment of collusion with the Convict women, the ladies in the Governor's party could not control their laughter."

    21. Australia is home to the longest fence in the world. It is 5,614 km long, and was originally built to keep dingoes away from fertile land. But Rabbits proved a bigger problem.



    22. Australia was one of the founding members of the United Nations.

    23. Melbourne is considered the sporting capital of the world, as it has more top level sport available for its citizens than anywhere else. Narrabri, NSW is Australia's sportiest town.

    24. Before the arrival of humans, Australia was home to megafauna: three metre tall kangaroos, seven metre long goannas, horse-sized ducks, and a marsupial lion the size of a leopard. It is theorised that it was also covered in rainforest before humans applied a burning style of hunting.



    25. Kangaroos and emus cannot walk backward, one of the reasons that they're on the Australian coat of arms.

    26. Speaking of, Australia is one of the only countries where we eat the animals on our coat of arms.

    27. If you visited one new beach in Australia every day, it would take over 27 years to see them all.



    28. Melbourne has the world's largest Greek population outside of Athens.

    29. The Great Barrier Reef is the planet's largest living structure.

    30. And it has it's own postbox!

    31. The male platypus has strong enough venom to kill a small dog.

    32. And when the platypus was first sent to England, it was believed the Australians had played a joke by sewing the bill of a duck onto a rat.



    33. Before 1902, it was illegal to swim at the beach during the day.

    34. A retired cavalry officer, Francis De Grootstole the show when the Sydney Harbour Bridge officially opened. Just as the Premier was about to cut the ribbon, De Groot charged forward on his horse and cut it himself, with his sword. The ribbon had to be re-tied, and De Groot was carted off to a mental hospital. He was later charged for the cost of one ribbon.

    35. Australia has 3.3x more sheep than people.

    36. Prime Minister Harold Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach, and was never seen again.

    37. Australia's national anthem was 'God Save The King/Queen' until 1984.

    38. Wombat poop is cube shaped! This helps it mark its territory.



    39. European settlers in Australia drank more alcohol per capita than any other society in history.

    40. The Australian Alps receive more snowfall than Switzerland.

    41. A kangaroo is only one centimetre long when it is born.

    42. Sir John Robertson, a five-time premier of NSW in the 1800s, began every morning with half a pint of rum. He said: "None of the men who in this country have left footprints behind them have been cold water men."



    43. The Box jellyfish has killed more people in Australia than stonefish, sharks and crocodiles combined.

    44. Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.

    45. The average Aussie drinks 96 litres of beer per year.

    46. 63% of Australians are overweight.

    47. Australia is ranked second on the Human Development Index (based on life expectancy, income and education).

    48. In 2005, security guards at Canberra's Parliament House were banned from calling people 'mate'. It lasted one day.

    49. In Australia, it is illegal to walk on the right-hand side of a footpath.

    50. Australia is the only continent in the world without an active volcano.

    51. Aussie Rules footy was originally designed to help cricketers to keep fit in the off-season.



    52. The name 'Kylie' came from an Aboriginal hunting stick, similar to the boomerang.

    53. 91% of the country is covered by native vegetation.

    54. The largest-ever victory in an international football match was when Australia beat American Samoa 31-0 in 2001.

    55. There are 60 designated wine regions in Australia.

    56. Melbourne has been ranked the world's most liveable city for the past three years.

    57. If all the sails of the Opera House roof were combined, they would create a perfect sphere. The architect was inspired while eating an orange.



    58. Australia is home to 20% of the world's poker machines.

    59. Half of these are found in New South Wales.

    60. Moomba, Australia's largest free festival, held in Melbourne, means 'up your bum' in many Aboriginal languages.

    61. No native Australian animals have hooves.

    62. The performance by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the 2000 Olympics opening ceremony was actually a pre recording- of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

    63. The wine cask (goon sack) is an Australian invention



    64. So is the selfie.

    65. Durack, Australia's biggest electorate, is larger in size than Mongolia.

    66. The world's first compulsory seat belt law was put into place in Victoria in 1970.

    67. Each year, Brisbane hosts the world championships of cockroach racing.

    68. In 1932, the Australian military waged war on the emu population of Western Australia. Embarrassingly, they lost.

    69. Canberra was created in 1908 as a compromise when Sydney and Melbourne both wanted to be the capital city.

    70. ...............

    71. In 1992, an Australian gambling syndicate bought almost all the number combinations in a Virginia lottery, and won. They turned a $5m purchase into a $27m win.

    72. Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable, meaning gum trees may explode if ignited, or in bushfires.

    73. In 1975, Australia had a government shutdown, which ended with the Queen firing everyone and the government starting again.

    74. A bearded Australian was removed from a darts match in the UK, after the audience started chanting 'Jesus!' at him, distracting the players.

    75. There have been instances of wallabies getting high after breaking into opium crops, then running around and making what look like crop circles.

    76. An Australian man once tried to sell New Zealand on eBay.

    77. In 1940, two aircraft collided in midair, in NSW. Instead of crashing, the two planes became stuck together and made a safe landing.

    78. The male lyrebird, which is native to Australia, can mimic the calls of over 20 other birds. If that's not impressive enough, he can also perfectly imitate the sound of a camera, chainsaw and car alarm.


    79. Some shopping centres and restaurants play classical music in their car park to deter teenagers from loitering at night.

    80. Despite sharing the same verbal language, Australian, British and American sign language are all completely different languages.

    81. In 1979, debris from NASA's space station 'Skylab' crashed in Esperance, WA. The town then fined NASA $400 for littering.

    82. There have been no deaths in Australia from a spider bite since 1979.

    83. There currently a chlamydia outbreak among koala species, which has led to a 15% drop in koala populations.

    84. In NSW, there is a coal fire beneath the ground which has been burning for 5,500 years.

    85. An Australian election TV debate was rescheduled so it didn't conflict with the finale of reality cooking show Masterchef.

    86. Chinese explorers travelled to Australia long before Europeans arrived. As early as the 1400s, sailors and fisherman came to Australia for sea-cucumbers and to trade with Indigenous peoples.

    87. The first European to visit Australia was Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon, in 1606. More Dutch explorers visited the country over the next hundred years, plotting maps and naming it 'New Holland'.

    88. Captain James Cook first landed on Australia's east coast in 1770. In 1788, the British returned with eleven ships to establish a penal colony. Within days of The First Fleet's arrival and the raising of the British flag, two French ships arrived, just too late to claim Australia for France.



    This is probably why Australia is known as the lucky country!
    Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago ...


  2. #2
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    jimbobs's Avatar
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    Enjoyed that , very good thanks

  3. #3
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    great post dave i'd give you a green if they'd let me

  4. #4
    Member John Lennon's Avatar
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    Excellent thread (I am a fellow Aussie).

  5. #5
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    Also most likely has the highest price for smokes,grog and traffic fines.

  6. #6
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    There are a few questionable ones in there. For example 91% of Australia is not covered in vegetation.
    Gum trees don't explode.
    It's not illegal to walk on the right hand side of the road and I'm dubious about the 2 aircraft colliding, becoming entangled and asking a safe landing.
    Last edited by Cujo; 23-02-2017 at 12:03 PM.
    “If we stop testing right now we’d have very few cases, if any.” Donald J Trump.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Thanks ... the Facts were sent to me by email from an Uncle

    I just searched round the net for a few photos/vids to make it a bit more interesting to read.

    Did take a while to find the better stuff.


    ... and I didn't know that Wombats pooed cubes ... the things you learn.
    lyrebirds are amazing ... they could probably even speak Thai

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow
    great post dave i'd give you a green if they'd let me
    Give it to me and I'll pass it on.

  9. #9
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by David48atTD
    45. The average Aussie drinks 96 litres of beer per year.

    46. 63% of Australians are overweight.
    Cause and effect.

  10. #10
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    Australia has never had a civil war.
    My idea anyway, I said it first.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo
    questionable .... For example 91% of Australia is not covered in vegetation.
    Maybe its fake news. Or,

    Our natural environment | australia.gov.au

    Nearly seven million square kilometres, or 91 per cent of Australia, is covered by native vegetation. Although this figure may seem high, many of Australia's desert landscapes are covered by native plants such as saltbush, albeit sparsely.

  12. #12
    RIP
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    Spent two years there, loved every minute.
    In hindsight should have stayed, was going through the settlement process...that's life.
    Carn't say a wrong word about the country or people.

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat Slick's Avatar
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    Too bad you guys have still have the queen on your money and your flag. Should have fucked that off way back

  14. #14
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    Australia will never be a republic they love their Pommie heritage

  15. #15
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    You know, we had a referendum to go republic or stay with the queen. And at the time Bill Clinton was somewhere in the middle of insisting he never had sexual relations with that woman. I thought at the time, "people are going to vote against having our own president because of what is happening in the US".

    But mostly the referendum failed because the weasily little prime minister we had at the time was a forelock tugging royalist, and he as good as rigged the process (he got to frame the question we voted on), and he campaigned for the 'no' vote.

    Another fun fact - our current prime minister was head of the republican movement at the time of the referendum. And he has recently ruled out another referendum. I think George W Bush and Donald Trump have put paid to any thoughts of getting our own head of state for a good while. There is something to be said for the non-political nature of having the queen as head of state.

    The flag now - oh how I would love the Brit flag to be gone from our flag. I'm dying for Scotland to leave the UK to force that issue on to the agenda. The change will come, probably not long after NZ embarrasses us by doing it first.

  16. #16
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    There are more things that can kill you in Australia than anywhere else in the world.

    Bill Bryson

  17. #17
    last farang standing
    Hugh Cow's Avatar
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    I don't care if we keep or change the flag but if it is to change I am a minimalist. Just remove the union flag and leave the stars. Otherwise the Eureka flag it has history behind it.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by David48atTD View Post

    1.
    Australia is as wide as the distance between London to Moscow.



    2. The biggest property in Australia is bigger than Belgium.

    3. More than 85% of Australians live within 50km of the coast.

    4. In 1880, Melbourne was the richest city in the world.

    5. Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, earns $1 million every half hour, or $598 every second.

    6. In 1892, a group of 200 Australians unhappy with the government tried to start an offshoot colony in Paraguay to be called 'New Australia'.

    7. The first photos from the 1969 moon landing were beamed to the rest of the world from Honeysuckle Tracking Station, near Canberra.



    8. Australia was the second country in the world to allow women to vote (New Zealand was first).

    9. Each week, 70 tourists overstay their visas.

    10. In 1856, stonemasons took action to ensure a standard of 8-hour working days, which then became recognised worldwide.

    11. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke set a world record for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds. Hawke later suggested that this was the reason for his great political success.



    12. The world's oldest fossil, which is about 3.4 billion years old, was found in Australia.

    13. Australia is very sparsely populated: The UK has 248.25 persons per square kilometre, while Australia has only 2.66 persons per square kilometre.

    14. Australia's first police force was made up of the most well-behaved convicts.

    15. Australia has the highest electricity prices in the world.

    16. There were over one million feral camels in outback Australia, until the government launched the $19m Feral Camel Management Program, which aims to keep the pest problem under control.



    17. Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia (mostly for meat production).

    18. Qantas once powered an interstate flight with cooking oil.

    19. Per capita, Australians spend more money on gambling than any other nation.

    20. In 1832, 300 female convicts mooned the governor of Tasmania. It was said that in a "rare moment of collusion with the Convict women, the ladies in the Governor's party could not control their laughter."

    21. Australia is home to the longest fence in the world. It is 5,614 km long, and was originally built to keep dingoes away from fertile land. But Rabbits proved a bigger problem.



    22. Australia was one of the founding members of the United Nations.

    23. Melbourne is considered the sporting capital of the world, as it has more top level sport available for its citizens than anywhere else. Narrabri, NSW is Australia's sportiest town.

    24. Before the arrival of humans, Australia was home to megafauna: three metre tall kangaroos, seven metre long goannas, horse-sized ducks, and a marsupial lion the size of a leopard. It is theorised that it was also covered in rainforest before humans applied a burning style of hunting.



    25. Kangaroos and emus cannot walk backward, one of the reasons that they're on the Australian coat of arms.

    26. Speaking of, Australia is one of the only countries where we eat the animals on our coat of arms.

    27. If you visited one new beach in Australia every day, it would take over 27 years to see them all.



    28. Melbourne has the world's largest Greek population outside of Athens.

    29. The Great Barrier Reef is the planet's largest living structure.

    30. And it has it's own postbox!

    31. The male platypus has strong enough venom to kill a small dog.

    32. And when the platypus was first sent to England, it was believed the Australians had played a joke by sewing the bill of a duck onto a rat.



    33. Before 1902, it was illegal to swim at the beach during the day.

    34. A retired cavalry officer, Francis De Grootstole the show when the Sydney Harbour Bridge officially opened. Just as the Premier was about to cut the ribbon, De Groot charged forward on his horse and cut it himself, with his sword. The ribbon had to be re-tied, and De Groot was carted off to a mental hospital. He was later charged for the cost of one ribbon.

    35. Australia has 3.3x more sheep than people.

    36. Prime Minister Harold Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach, and was never seen again.

    37. Australia's national anthem was 'God Save The King/Queen' until 1984.

    38. Wombat poop is cube shaped! This helps it mark its territory.



    39. European settlers in Australia drank more alcohol per capita than any other society in history.

    40. The Australian Alps receive more snowfall than Switzerland.

    41. A kangaroo is only one centimetre long when it is born.

    42. Sir John Robertson, a five-time premier of NSW in the 1800s, began every morning with half a pint of rum. He said: "None of the men who in this country have left footprints behind them have been cold water men."



    43. The Box jellyfish has killed more people in Australia than stonefish, sharks and crocodiles combined.

    44. Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.

    45. The average Aussie drinks 96 litres of beer per year.

    46. 63% of Australians are overweight.

    47. Australia is ranked second on the Human Development Index (based on life expectancy, income and education).

    48. In 2005, security guards at Canberra's Parliament House were banned from calling people 'mate'. It lasted one day.

    49. In Australia, it is illegal to walk on the right-hand side of a footpath.

    50. Australia is the only continent in the world without an active volcano.

    51. Aussie Rules footy was originally designed to help cricketers to keep fit in the off-season.



    52. The name 'Kylie' came from an Aboriginal hunting stick, similar to the boomerang.

    53. 91% of the country is covered by native vegetation.

    54. The largest-ever victory in an international football match was when Australia beat American Samoa 31-0 in 2001.

    55. There are 60 designated wine regions in Australia.

    56. Melbourne has been ranked the world's most liveable city for the past three years.

    57. If all the sails of the Opera House roof were combined, they would create a perfect sphere. The architect was inspired while eating an orange.



    58. Australia is home to 20% of the world's poker machines.

    59. Half of these are found in New South Wales.

    60. Moomba, Australia's largest free festival, held in Melbourne, means 'up your bum' in many Aboriginal languages.

    61. No native Australian animals have hooves.

    62. The performance by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the 2000 Olympics opening ceremony was actually a pre recording- of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

    63. The wine cask (goon sack) is an Australian invention



    64. So is the selfie.

    65. Durack, Australia's biggest electorate, is larger in size than Mongolia.

    66. The world's first compulsory seat belt law was put into place in Victoria in 1970.

    67. Each year, Brisbane hosts the world championships of cockroach racing.

    68. In 1932, the Australian military waged war on the emu population of Western Australia. Embarrassingly, they lost.

    69. Canberra was created in 1908 as a compromise when Sydney and Melbourne both wanted to be the capital city.

    70. ...............

    71. In 1992, an Australian gambling syndicate bought almost all the number combinations in a Virginia lottery, and won. They turned a $5m purchase into a $27m win.

    72. Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable, meaning gum trees may explode if ignited, or in bushfires.

    73. In 1975, Australia had a government shutdown, which ended with the Queen firing everyone and the government starting again.

    74. A bearded Australian was removed from a darts match in the UK, after the audience started chanting 'Jesus!' at him, distracting the players.

    75. There have been instances of wallabies getting high after breaking into opium crops, then running around and making what look like crop circles.

    76. An Australian man once tried to sell New Zealand on eBay.

    77. In 1940, two aircraft collided in midair, in NSW. Instead of crashing, the two planes became stuck together and made a safe landing.

    78. The male lyrebird, which is native to Australia, can mimic the calls of over 20 other birds. If that's not impressive enough, he can also perfectly imitate the sound of a camera, chainsaw and car alarm.


    79. Some shopping centres and restaurants play classical music in their car park to deter teenagers from loitering at night.

    80. Despite sharing the same verbal language, Australian, British and American sign language are all completely different languages.

    81. In 1979, debris from NASA's space station 'Skylab' crashed in Esperance, WA. The town then fined NASA $400 for littering.

    82. There have been no deaths in Australia from a spider bite since 1979.

    83. There currently a chlamydia outbreak among koala species, which has led to a 15% drop in koala populations.

    84. In NSW, there is a coal fire beneath the ground which has been burning for 5,500 years.

    85. An Australian election TV debate was rescheduled so it didn't conflict with the finale of reality cooking show Masterchef.

    86. Chinese explorers travelled to Australia long before Europeans arrived. As early as the 1400s, sailors and fisherman came to Australia for sea-cucumbers and to trade with Indigenous peoples.

    87. The first European to visit Australia was Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon, in 1606. More Dutch explorers visited the country over the next hundred years, plotting maps and naming it 'New Holland'.

    88. Captain James Cook first landed on Australia's east coast in 1770. In 1788, the British returned with eleven ships to establish a penal colony. Within days of The First Fleet's arrival and the raising of the British flag, two French ships arrived, just too late to claim Australia for France.



    This is probably why Australia is known as the lucky country!
    Maybe 9 out of ten for that......Skylab landed in Esperance......nooooooooo

  19. #19
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    #23 BS as well, unless you reprhase it as "Melbourne is considered the sporting capital of the world by attention-starved Melburnians...".

    Not exactly overflowing with world sport, just their "fumble ball" thing that is played mostly in, well, the suburbs of Melbourne.

    You know why they call Aussie rules "wanking" don't you? They have no international competition, they have to play with themselves.

  20. #20
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mudcrab
    Maybe 9 out of ten for that..
    did you have to quote the entire thing for a one line post ?


    Quote Originally Posted by bindog
    They have no international competition,
    I thought they sent a team each year to ireland and they play gaelic football with them

    the most frightening thing about aussie rules is fisting through a behind - this is why they wear such tight shorts , they are required after you have had your behind fisted a few times
    If you torture data for enough time , you can get it to say what you want.

  21. #21
    Thailand Expat AntRobertson's Avatar
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    An Australian man once tried to sell New Zealand on eBay.

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