148 Fun Facts About Australia

What is the capital city of Australia?

Canberra was chosen in 1908 as a compromise site between rival Sydney and Melbourne; the planned city in the Australian Capital Territory became the seat of Parliament in 1927.

Which of these animals is a marsupial native to Australia?

Koalas are marsupials: the tiny newborn joey crawls into its mother's pouch and stays inside for about six months before it starts on eucalyptus leaves.

Which explorer made the first recorded European navigation of the strait between Australia and New Guinea?

Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through the strait in 1606, but Spain kept the discovery secret for more than 150 years; the passage now carries his name.

Which giant sandstone formation in Australia's Northern Territory is sacred to the Anangu people?

Uluru rises 348 metres above the surrounding plain in the Northern Territory; the Anangu are its traditional owners, and its red colour comes from iron oxide in the arkose sandstone.

What is the upper house of Australia's federal parliament called?

The Senate gives every state the same number of seats whatever its population, a design meant to protect the less populous states.

The crown-of-thorns, which eats coral on the Great Barrier Reef, is what kind of animal?

Starfish of this spiny species strip living coral from the reef, so divers cull them one at a time by injecting vinegar or bile salts.

Sydney Opera House architect Jorn Utzon came from which country?

Denmark's Jørn Utzon won the 1957 design competition but resigned in 1966 amid rows over rising costs, seven years before the building opened.

Which arid Australian region carries the world's longest dead-straight stretch of railway?

The Nullarbor, its name from the Latin for 'no tree', is so flat that the transcontinental railway runs hundreds of kilometres across it without a bend.

What is the highest mountain on the Australian mainland, rising to 2,228 metres?

Mount Kosciuszko in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales is the mainland's highest peak at 2,228 metres; Paweł Strzelecki named it in 1840 after Polish patriot Tadeusz Kościuszko.

Which island lies across Bass Strait from the Australian mainland?

Tasmania lies about 240 kilometres south of Victoria across Bass Strait, a drowned land bridge: before seas rose after the last ice age, people could walk there from the mainland.

Which name did 17th-century Dutch charts give the Australian continent?

New Holland (Nova Hollandia) was the name Dutch charts gave the continent from the 1640s; the Dutch mapped its northern and western coasts but never settled.

Which navigator popularised the name 'Australia' after sailing right around the continent in 1803?

Matthew Flinders completed the first close circumnavigation of the continent in 1803 and championed the name Australia; his 1814 account was nonetheless titled A Voyage to Terra Australis.

Which governor of New South Wales formally recommended adopting the name 'Australia' in December 1817?

Lachlan Macquarie urged London to adopt the name Australia in a December 1817 dispatch; the Admiralty agreed in 1824 that the continent should officially carry it.

On 26 January 1788 the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove under which commander?

Arthur Phillip reached Botany Bay first, judged it unfit for a settlement within days and moved the fleet north to Sydney Cove, where he raised the flag on 26 January 1788.

Which neighbour sent delegates to the 1890 Australian federation conference but never joined?

New Zealand's own commission of inquiry advised unanimously against joining in 1901, yet Australia's constitution act still names it as a possible state.

How many states make up Australia's federation?

Six states grew out of six British colonies; the Northern Territory could have become the seventh, but its voters narrowly rejected statehood in a 1998 referendum.

Roughly how long ago did the first people reach Australia?

About 60,000 years ago fits most estimates, which run from 50,000 to 65,000 years; seas were much lower then, so far less open water lay between Asia and Australia.

Whose 1770 voyage brought the word 'kangaroo' into English?

James Cook's expedition wrote down gangurru, the Guugu Yimithirr name for one kind of kangaroo, in 1770 while the ship lay beached for repairs after striking the Great Barrier Reef.

Which egg-laying Australian mammal has venomous spurs on the male's hind legs?

The platypus has a duck-like bill, lays eggs, and the male carries venom in ankle spurs; when a specimen reached London in 1799, naturalist George Shaw suspected a hoax.

Which large rainforest bird of north Queensland has a horn-like casque and a dagger-like claw?

The southern cassowary is the rainforest's gardener: it swallows fallen fruit whole and spreads the seeds of dozens of trees whose fruit is too big for other animals.

What shape are the droppings a wombat leaves to mark its territory?

Cubes take shape in the last stretch of the wombat's gut, where stiffer and stretchier sections of the intestine wall squeeze the drying droppings into flat-sided blocks.

Which island off Western Australia is famous for its quokkas?

Rottnest Island's quokkas were mistaken for large rats by Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh, who named it 'rat's nest' (Rottnest) in 1696.

The last thylacine died on 7 September 1936; since 1996 that date has been marked as what?

National Threatened Species Day marks the death of the last known thylacine in a Hobart zoo in 1936, barely two months after the species was finally given legal protection.

In 1932 the army was sent into the Western Australian wheatbelt to cull rampaging emus with which weapon?

Major G.P.W. Meredith's soldiers used Lewis machine guns in the 1932 'Emu War'; the emus scattered into small groups and the cull was abandoned as an embarrassment.

The Dingo Fence finishes on cliffs above which body of water?

The Great Australian Bight's clifftops are where the fence ends, thousands of kilometres from its start at Jimbour in Queensland; it was built to keep dingoes out of south-eastern grazing country.

In which South Australian mining town do many residents live in underground homes called dugouts?

Coober Pedy, about 850 kilometres north of Adelaide, calls itself the opal capital of the world; summer heat drove residents to cut homes and even churches into the rock.

What nickname does the Sydney Harbour Bridge owe to its arch?

The Coathanger's steel arch was built out from both shores at once by creeping cranes; the two halves met in August 1930, and the bridge opened in 1932.

Which New York crossing was roughly copied for Sydney's harbour arch?

Hell Gate Bridge was the model for Sydney's general design; builder Dorman Long also put up Newcastle's look-alike Tyne Bridge, which opened four years before Sydney's.

On which day of the year is the Melbourne Cup run?

The Melbourne Cup is run at Flemington Racecourse on the first Tuesday of November; first held in 1861, it is a 3,200-metre handicap and Cup Day is a Melbourne public holiday.

What did the winner of the very first Melbourne Cup receive in 1861?

A gold pocket watch, hand-beaten, went to the winner along with 710 gold sovereigns; the first proper trophy, a silver bowl made in England, did not appear until 1865.

What was Don Bradman's career Test batting average?

Don Bradman retired in 1948 with a Test batting average of 99.94; a duck in his final innings at The Oval left him four runs short of averaging 100.

In Australian rules football, what is a one-point kick between a central and outer post called?

A behind scores one point and the goal umpire signals it with a single flag; a goal, kicked between the two middle posts, is worth six and gets two flags.

Which club published the first written laws of Australian rules football, in May 1859?

Melbourne Football Club's rules were drafted in May 1859 by four members including cricketer Tom Wills, who wanted a winter game to keep cricketers fit in the off-season.

Which poet wrote the words of 'Waltzing Matilda' in 1895?

Banjo Paterson wrote the words at Dagworth Station in Queensland to a march tune that Christina Macpherson played for him from memory; the ballad became an unofficial anthem.

In the bush ballad Waltzing Matilda, what is the 'jumbuck' the swagman stuffs into his tucker bag?

A sheep: the swagman grabs the stray jumbuck to eat, and when its owner arrives with three troopers he drowns himself in the billabong rather than be taken.

Which song became Australia's national anthem in 1984?

Advance Australia Fair beat 'Waltzing Matilda' in a 1977 national poll and was proclaimed in 1984 with its first line changed from 'Australia's sons' to 'Australians all'.

Which constellation appears on Australia's flag?

The Southern Cross is shown as five stars; the design came from a 1901 public competition in which five near-identical entries shared the £200 prize, one from a 14-year-old schoolboy.

Vegemite was created in 1922 from a leftover of which industry?

Beer brewing leaves spent yeast, which chemist Cyril Callister turned into Vegemite for Fred Walker's company after the First World War disrupted imports of British Marmite.

Vegemite went back into Australian ownership in 2017 when it was bought by which company?

Bega Group bought Vegemite with other Mondelez grocery brands in 2017; the spread had been American-owned since Kraft took over its maker, Fred Walker's company, in the 1930s.

Which sweet treat shares its name with a Queensland governor of the 1890s?

The lamington, a sponge square coated in chocolate and coconut, is usually linked to Lord Lamington, governor from 1896 to 1901; in one story the first was made when sponge fell into chocolate by accident.

Which chocolate biscuit did Arnott's name after the winner of the 1958 Kentucky Derby?

Tim Tam the horse won the 1958 Kentucky Derby with Ross Arnott in the crowd; he liked the name enough to put it on the biscuit his company launched in 1964.

What is 'damper', the staple carried by drovers and swagmen?

Flour bread baked in campfire coals, damper needed no oven: stockmen and swagmen on the track carried flour and salt and cooked the dough in the ashes.

What nickname has the barbecue stall run outside a polling place on election day earned?

The democracy sausage is the sausage in bread sold by school and community fundraisers at polling places; volunteers now run websites that map which booths have a stall.

Which mountain system runs for more than 3,500 kilometres down Australia's eastern side?

The Great Dividing Range is the watershed of eastern Australia, hence the name: rivers on one side run to the Pacific coast and those on the other drain inland.

In which town did miners launch the 1854 Eureka Rebellion against gold licence fees?

Ballarat's Eureka Stockade was stormed by troops on 3 December 1854; juries then refused to convict the rebels tried for treason, and Victoria's men soon won the vote.

Which High Court case ruled that Australia was not terra nullius when Europeans settled it?

Mabo v Queensland (No 2) rejected terra nullius and recognised native title on 3 June 1992; Eddie Mabo, who had fought the case for ten years, died five months before the ruling.

Which prime minister was dismissed by the governor-general in the 1975 constitutional crisis?

Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed Gough Whitlam on 11 November 1975 after the opposition blocked the budget in the upper house, and installed Malcolm Fraser as caretaker prime minister.

After the 1967 referendum, Aboriginal Australians were fully included in what for the first time?

The census counted Aboriginal Australians in the official population once the 1967 referendum, carried by 90.77%, repealed section 127; it did not give them the vote, as is often said.

What is the longest river in Australia, at 2,508 km?

The Murray is Australia's longest single river at 2,508 kilometres; the Darling, which flows into it, would rank first only if its headwater tributaries were counted too.

Who was the first woman to become prime minister of Australia?

Julia Gillard, prime minister from 2010 to 2013, was born in Wales; her family emigrated in 1966 after doctors advised a warmer climate for her chest.

Which 400 m runner lit the cauldron at the 2000 Sydney Olympics?

Cathy Freeman lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony, then won the 400 metres in the same stadium and ran her lap of honour carrying both the Australian and Aboriginal flags.

Which animal became the world's largest carnivorous marsupial in 1936?

The Tasmanian devil inherited the title when the last known thylacine died in 1936; it is only about the size of a small dog.

Which species is the largest living marsupial?

The red kangaroo is the largest living marsupial; a female can hold an embryo in suspended development until her older joey has left the pouch.

Which northern Australian animal is the largest living reptile?

The saltwater crocodile is the largest living reptile; hunted for its skin until the 1970s, it has made a strong comeback across northern Australia since being protected.

Lake Hillier on Middle Island off the south coast is famous for water of which colour?

Pink is the colour that made Lake Hillier famous, thought to come from salt-loving microbes; heavy rain in 2022 diluted the salt and washed the pink out, though scientists expect it to return.

Who starred as Mick Dundee in the 1986 hit Crocodile Dundee?

Paul Hogan, once a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, played Mick Dundee and co-wrote the film, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Which pair of brothers founded AC/DC in 1973?

Brothers Angus and Malcolm Young formed AC/DC in Sydney in November 1973 with singer Dave Evans; Bon Scott replaced Evans the following year.

Steve Irwin died in 2006 after being struck by which animal?

A stingray barb pierced Steve Irwin's chest on 4 September 2006 while he filmed Ocean's Deadliest at Batt Reef off Port Douglas, Queensland.

Who delivered the 2008 National Apology to the Stolen Generations?

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the apology in Parliament on 13 February 2008, eleven years after the 1997 Bringing Them Home report recommended a formal apology.

Who is Australia's longest-serving prime minister, with more than 18 years in office?

Robert Menzies resigned in 1941 after losing his own party's support, then helped found the Liberal Party and returned in 1949 for an unbroken run of more than 16 years.

Which grain is the key ingredient of an Anzac biscuit?

Rolled oats give the Anzac biscuit its chew; the traditional recipe is eggless, bound with golden syrup, and the earliest versions left out the coconut most bakers now add.

The soap Neighbours is set on Ramsay Street in which fictional suburb?

Erinsborough's Ramsay Street was filmed from 1985 in Pin Oak Court, a real cul-de-sac in Melbourne's Vermont South that became a tourist stop, with tours running all year.

Which Australian prime minister vanished while swimming at Cheviot Beach in 1967?

Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in heavy surf at Cheviot Beach, Victoria, on 17 December 1967; his body was never found, and Melbourne's Harold Holt Swim Centre bears his name.

The carriers that bombed Darwin in 1942 had earlier struck which base?

Pearl Harbor's strike leader, Mitsuo Fuchida, also led the raid on Darwin: four of the carriers from the Hawaii attack launched 188 aircraft at the town on 19 February 1942.

Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin in 1974 during which holiday?

Tracy struck Darwin in the small hours of Christmas Day 1974 and destroyed more than 70% of its buildings; over 30,000 of the 47,000 residents were evacuated, and many never returned.

Which Australian snake is rated the most venomous in the world?

The inland taipan, found in the channel country of western Queensland and South Australia, has the most toxic venom of any land snake by LD50 tests; it is shy and recorded bites are rare.

Which name did Australia's government first announce for its decimal currency in 1963?

The royal was announced in June 1963 and met such widespread public disapproval that three months later the name became the dollar; pounds gave way to dollars on 14 February 1966.

Since 1988 the Australian Open tennis has been played at which venue?

Melbourne Park took over in 1988 because the Open had outgrown Kooyong's grass courts; the move also switched the tournament to hard courts.

Which Chicago architect designed Australia's capital city?

Walter Burley Griffin, who had worked in Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park studio, won the 1912 design contest but left the project in 1920 after disputes with the government.

Which outback train's name is said to recall the cameleers who once carried freight across Australia's interior?

The Ghan is short for 'The Afghan Express', a nickname the old Adelaide to Alice Springs train is reputed to have gained in 1923; the outback's cameleers were known as Afghans.

K'gari, formerly Fraser Island, is the world's largest island made of what?

K'gari is the world's largest sand island, with tall rainforest growing straight out of the dunes; Queensland dropped the name Fraser Island in 2023 in favour of the traditional one.

Which plant was formally adopted as Australia's national floral emblem in 1988?

Golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha) was proclaimed the national floral emblem on 1 September 1988 after decades as the informal emblem; wattle even appeared on Queen Elizabeth II's 1953 coronation gown.

Who became Australia's first prime minister in 1901?

Edmund Barton became the first prime minister on 1 January 1901; nicknamed Toby, he left politics in September 1903 to become one of the first three justices of the High Court.

Which nut, native to Australia's eastern rainforests, first became a large commercial crop in Hawaii?

Macadamia trees come from the rainforests of eastern Australia; seeds taken to Hawaii in 1882 were grown as ornamentals for years before a nut industry took off there.

Why were the kangaroo and emu reportedly chosen for Australia's coat of arms?

They cannot easily walk backwards, so the popular explanation goes, making the pair symbols of a nation moving forward; neither has ever been declared an official animal emblem.

The Twelve Apostles limestone stacks stand just offshore beside which famous tourist route?

The Twelve Apostles stand off Victoria's Great Ocean Road, which returned soldiers built between 1919 and 1932 as a memorial to those killed in the First World War.

Francis de Groot upstaged the 1932 Harbour Bridge opening by cutting the ribbon with what?

Francis de Groot, a member of the right-wing New Guard, rode up on horseback and slashed the ribbon with his sword before Premier Jack Lang could cut it on 19 March 1932.

The Ashes name comes from an 1882 mock obituary in which British paper?

The Sporting Times ran Reginald Brooks's mock obituary of English cricket days after Australia's 1882 win at The Oval; the urn later given to Ivo Bligh reputedly holds a burnt bail's ashes.

In which outback Queensland town was Qantas founded in November 1920?

Winton saw Qantas founded on 16 November 1920, but the airline moved its headquarters to Longreach the following year.

Which airliner device did Melbourne scientist David Warren conceive in the 1950s?

The black box recorder was David Warren's answer to the mysterious crash of a Comet jet airliner; his report drew little interest, so he built a working prototype to prove the idea.

Which convict settlement was sealed off by a line of chained guard dogs across the narrow Eaglehawk Neck?

Port Arthur stood on a peninsula reached only by a neck of land under 30 metres wide, so soldiers and a line of chained dogs could block every escape by land.

On the Aboriginal flag designed by Harold Thomas, what does the yellow circle represent?

The sun, 'the giver of life', sits between black for the people and red for the earth; Thomas kept the flag's copyright until 2022, when he transferred it to the Commonwealth.

Who became the first Australian-born governor-general, in 1931?

Sir Isaac Isaacs, a former chief justice, was sworn in as governor-general on 22 January 1931 after King George V reluctantly accepted Scullin's nominee; he was also the first Jewish holder of the post.

A sliver claimed by which country splits Australia's Antarctic territory in two?

France's Adélie Land, named by explorer Dumont d'Urville after his wife Adèle in 1840, cuts in two an Australian claim covering about 42% of Antarctica.

Shark Bay's Hamelin Pool is renowned for living examples of which structures?

Hamelin Pool's stromatolites are layered mounds built by microbial mats; its water, about twice as salty as the sea, keeps away the animals that would graze them.

Which animals did grazier Thomas Austin release on his Victorian estate in 1859 for sport, with disastrous results?

Rabbits from Thomas Austin's 1859 release spread faster than any mammal on record; within ten years two million a year could be shot without denting their numbers.

Ned Kelly's gang made their armour from what?

The Kelly gang beat their armour from plough mouldboards, each suit weighing about 44 kilograms; it protected the torso but not the legs, where police shot Ned at Glenrowan in June 1880.

Who became Australia's first female governor-general in 2008?

Quentin Bryce was sworn in on 5 September 2008; when her son-in-law Bill Shorten became opposition leader in 2013 she offered to resign, but the prime minister asked her to stay.

Which Melbourne tradesmen downed tools in April 1856 and won an eight-hour working day?

Stonemasons building Melbourne University downed tools on 21 April 1856 and marched on Parliament House; Sydney's masons had made the same demand a year earlier, and Victoria's Labour Day recalls the win.

Which city did Captain James Stirling found in 1829 as capital of the Swan River Colony?

Perth was founded on 12 August 1829, when Helen Dance, a ship captain's wife, felled a tree to mark the occasion; it is now one of the most isolated major cities on Earth.

Which prime minister launched the first Holden car, the 48-215, in 1948?

Ben Chifley unveiled the Holden at its Melbourne factory; the first three prototypes of 'Australia's own car' had been hand-built in Detroit, Michigan.

Which instrument do the Yolŋu people of Arnhem Land call the yidaki?

Didgeridoo players hold its drone without a pause by circular breathing; yidaki is the north-east Arnhem Land name, and further west the instrument is a mako.

Which Australian island allows only 400 tourists at a time?

Lord Howe Island caps visitors to protect its World Heritage environment; its giant stick insect, wiped out there by ship rats around 1920, turned up alive on a nearby sea stack in 2001.

Which outback organisation did the Reverend John Flynn found in 1928 to spread a 'mantle of safety' over remote Australia?

The Flying Doctor Service began in 1928 as a one-year experiment at Cloncurry in Queensland, flying a single aircraft supplied by Qantas.

Darwin's harbour was named in 1839 during a survey by which ship?

HMS Beagle's officers named the harbour for their former shipmate Charles Darwin, who was not aboard on that voyage; the town itself was called Palmerston until 1911.

What gave Australia II its edge in the 1983 America's Cup?

A winged keel, credited to designer Ben Lexcen, drew a legality challenge from the cup's American holders; the boat was cleared to race and ended their 132-year grip on the trophy.

Which racehorse died mysteriously in California in 1932, soon after winning a rich race in Mexico?

Phar Lap may have died of arsenic poisoning; his hide went to Melbourne Museum, his skeleton to a museum in Wellington and his heart to the National Museum of Australia.

Which space station scattered debris near Esperance, Western Australia, on re-entry in 1979?

Skylab broke up over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia on 11 July 1979, scattering debris around Esperance; the local shire famously fined NASA A$400 for littering.

Which country does Australia's 1900 constitution act still list among its possible states?

New Zealand sent delegates to the first federation talks in 1890 and 1891 and is still named in the act, although it chose not to join.

Perth's Barry Marshall drank a broth of bacteria in 1984 to show that germs cause which ailment?

Stomach ulcers had been blamed on stress, spicy food and acid until Marshall and Robin Warren traced them to Helicobacter pylori. The pair won the 2005 Nobel Prize in medicine.

The Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales relayed live TV pictures of which 1969 event?

The Apollo 11 Moon landing coverage switched to the Parkes signal about nine minutes in, once the Moon had risen high enough for its 64-metre dish. The tale became the 2000 film The Dish.

What did Ford Australia design after a farmer's wife asked for a car to carry pigs to market?

The ute, short for coupe utility, went on sale in 1934. The 1932 letter had asked for a vehicle to go to church in on Sunday and carry the pigs to market on Monday.

Which pest was brought to Australia from Hawaii in 1935 to eat beetles on farms?

The cane toad never dented the beetle numbers. From 102 animals imported in 1935 it had multiplied to an estimated 200 million or more by 2011, poisoning native predators that try to eat it.

Which Australian bird's laugh has been dubbed into Hollywood jungle scenes since the Tarzan films?

The kookaburra is the largest of the kingfishers, and it hunts snakes, lizards and mice from a perch. Its cackle even turns up in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

From 1988, Australia replaced all its paper banknotes with notes made of which material?

Plastic polymer notes last far longer than paper and are harder to counterfeit. A $10 note for the bicentenary came first, and by 1996 every denomination had switched.

Which sandstone region west of Sydney is famed for the Three Sisters rock formation near Katoomba?

The Blue Mountains are named for the blue haze that hangs over them, thought to come from oil droplets released by their vast eucalyptus forests.

Which gemstone, with a black variety mined at Lightning Ridge, is Australia's national gem?

Opal from Australia has been credited with about 95 per cent of the world's precious supply, most of it dug in South Australia.

What name is given to a baby kangaroo, born about the size of a lima bean and raised in a pouch?

A joey spends about nine months in the pouch, and its mother can pause the growth of a second embryo until the pouch is free again.

Which bird, long a European byword for the impossible, did a Dutch crew find near modern Perth in 1697?

The black swan gave its name to the Swan River, which Willem de Vlamingh named for the flocks his crew saw there. It later became the emblem of Western Australia.

Which Sydney beach has a surf lifesaving club, founded in 1907, that claims to be the world's first?

Bondi lifesavers hauled more than 250 people from the water on Black Sunday in 1938, after freak waves swept bathers off a sandbank.

In which ship did James Cook chart Australia's east coast, dumping her guns to escape a reef?

HMS Endeavour began life as the coal ship Earl of Pembroke, which the Navy bought in 1768 for a scientific voyage to the Pacific.

Anzac Day, 25 April, marks the 1915 landing of Australian troops on which peninsula?

Gallipoli was the Anzacs' first campaign of the First World War, and dawn services are timed to the hour the troops went ashore.

Which ocean, the warmest on Earth, washes Perth and the whole west coast of Australia?

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceans and covers roughly a fifth of the planet's water surface.

Which line of latitude crosses Australia just south of the city of Rockhampton?

The Tropic of Capricorn marks the most southerly latitude at which the sun can stand directly overhead, which happens at the December solstice.

At which inlet beside what is now Sydney Airport did James Cook first land in Australia in 1770?

Botany Bay owes its name to the mass of new plants that Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected on its shores.

Which long-eared marsupial is sold in chocolate form as Australia's answer to the Easter Bunny?

The bilby was promoted as an Easter mascot by the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia, and sales of the chocolates help pay for its conservation.

Which Australian region is crossed by an 18-hole golf course that stretches for 1,365 km?

The Nullarbor Links, said to be the world's longest golf course, has holes at towns and roadhouses between Kalgoorlie and Ceduna, on average 66 km apart.

Quarantine rules sent the equestrian events of Melbourne's 1956 Olympics to which city?

Stockholm staged the riding events in June 1956, months before the Melbourne opening ceremony, because Australia would not waive its long quarantine for horses.

Which national colours did an Australian cricket team first wear on its 1899 tour of England?

Green and gold were formally proclaimed the national colours in 1984, after decades in which sports teams had worn them unofficially.

Which egg-laying Australian mammal carries its hatchling, known as a puggle, in a pouch?

The echidna lays a single leathery egg straight into her pouch, and the puggle stays there until its spines start to grow.

John Flynn's outback medical service, begun at Cloncurry in 1928, reaches patients by what means?

Doctors travelling by aeroplane became the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first comprehensive civilian aeromedical service.

Which Australian songbird on the 10-cent coin can mimic chainsaws, car alarms and camera shutters?

A lyrebird filmed for David Attenborough's The Life of Birds copied about twenty other species as well as the machines. The male sings during an elaborate tail display.

Which swimmer with size-17 feet won three golds at the Sydney 2000 Olympics while still a teenager?

Ian Thorpe, nicknamed the Thorpedo, was the most successful athlete of those Games and went on to win eleven World Championship golds.

Adelaide-born Howard Florey shared a 1945 Nobel Prize for developing which life-saving drug?

Penicillin had been discovered by Alexander Fleming, but Florey's team turned it into a usable medicine credited with saving more than 80 million lives.

Which Australian spinner bowled Mike Gatting in 1993 with the so-called 'Ball of the Century'?

Shane Warne produced it with his first ball of the series at Old Trafford, and he finished his career with 708 Test wickets.

Which Sydney spider, known to have killed people, was tamed by an antivenom introduced in 1981?

The funnel-web antivenom was developed in Melbourne by a team under Struan Sutherland, and no deaths were recorded in the decades after it arrived.

Which Australian left-hander won all four tennis majors in a single year twice, in 1962 and 1969?

Rod Laver gave his name to the centre court of the Australian Open, which was renamed in his honour in 2000.

Which salt pan contains the lowest natural point in Australia, about 15 metres below sea level?

Lake Eyre is usually dry, but on the rare occasions it fills completely it becomes the largest lake in Australia.

The name Australia comes from the word 'australis', meaning southern, in which language?

Latin gave mapmakers the phrase Terra Australis, a vast southern continent they drew on the theory that it must balance the lands of the north.

Australia's Senate gives every state an equal number of seats, a design borrowed from which country?

The United States Senate was the model for equal state representation, meant to give the less populous states real influence in Parliament.

Which explorers died at Cooper Creek in 1861 after missing their departing support party by hours?

Burke and Wills had trekked from Melbourne almost to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Of the men who made that crossing, only John King returned alive.

Which Australian hydro project of 1949–1974 employed over 100,000 people from over 30 countries?

The Snowy Scheme is the largest engineering project undertaken in Australia, and about two-thirds of its builders were migrants.

Which Australian soprano, namesake of a peach dessert, took her stage name from her home city?

Nellie Melba, born Helen Porter Mitchell, shortened Melbourne to make her name, which lives on in Peach Melba and Melba toast.

Which governor of New South Wales was arrested by his own soldiers in the 1808 Rum Rebellion?

William Bligh had already been overthrown once, in the mutiny on the Bounty. The coup takes its name from the rum trade that the New South Wales Corps had monopolised.

Which device did Melbourne surgeon Graeme Clark help develop and first fit to a patient in 1978?

The cochlear implant in Clark's multi-channel form, often called the bionic ear, let profoundly deaf adults hear speech and was later sold by Cochlear Limited.

Which Pacific outpost of Australia was settled in 1856 by descendants of the Bounty mutineers?

Norfolk Island took in the Pitcairn Islanders, Fletcher Christian's descendants among them, once their old home had become too small for them.

Anna Creek in South Australia, at almost 24,000 square km, is the world's largest example of what?

A cattle station of that size dwarfs its rivals: Anna Creek is some 8,000 square km larger than the next biggest, Alexandria Station.

Which Australian agency's radio astronomers developed key technology for fast Wi-Fi in the 1990s?

CSIRO scientists led by John O'Sullivan were trying to make wireless networks as fast as wired ones inside buildings. The agency also invented the insect repellent Aerogard.

On which trail over the Owen Stanley Range did Australians halt a Japanese advance on Port Moresby?

The Kokoda Track campaign saw the Japanese come within sight of Port Moresby before they withdrew, with Papuan infantry fighting beside the Australians.

Which headland, named by James Cook for a fellow sailor, is mainland Australia's easternmost point?

Cape Byron honours John Byron, who had sailed around the world in HMS Dolphin and whose grandson was the poet Lord Byron.

Which Australian geologist trekked alone for a month in Antarctica after both companions died?

Douglas Mawson was the sole survivor of the three-man Far Eastern Party of 1912–13, and two glaciers are named after the companions he lost.

Which 'living fossil' tree did David Noble discover in a New South Wales wilderness in 1994?

The Wollemi pine belongs to a family with only two other living genera, and its species name, nobilis, honours its finder.

In which Victorian town did Ned Kelly make his armoured last stand against police in 1880?

Glenrowan was where the Kelly gang tried to derail a police train and then held dozens of hostages in a hotel. Kelly was captured there and later hanged in Melbourne.

Who became the first woman elected to any Australian parliament, winning a seat in Perth in 1921?

Edith Cowan stood because she felt domestic and social issues were being ignored, and a Perth university took her name in 1991.

Which gold nugget, the largest alluvial one ever found, was dug up at Moliagul in Victoria in 1869?

The Welcome Stranger was too big for any scales on the goldfield, so a blacksmith broke it into three pieces on an anvil.

Which Dutch ship's 1629 wreck on the Houtman Abrolhos was followed by a massacre of its survivors?

The Batavia mutineers under Jeronimus Cornelisz murdered about 125 people while the commander sailed an open boat to Java to fetch help.

Which extinct Australian relative of the wombat was the largest marsupial known to have lived?

Diprotodon was a plant-eater that weighed more than two tonnes, and it vanished along with Australia's other giant animals during the last ice age.

Which geological period, ratified in 2004, takes its name from fossil-rich hills in South Australia?

The Ediacaran was the first new geological period declared in 120 years, honouring traces of early complex life found by Reg Sprigg in 1946.