Facts About Australia
Australia is the only continent covered by a single country with truly unique landscapes, natural wonders and extraordinary experiences for travellers.
Here are a list of facts that you may not know about Australian animals, culture, people and iconic landmarks in preparation for your visit to Australia.
Australian Wildlife
- There are three times as many sheep than people living in Australia
- The Australian Emu – a large, flightless bird – can run as fast as 45km/h (28mph)
- Platypus are highly poisonous, and have enough poison to kill a dog or make a human seriously ill
- Wombat poo is shaped like a cube!
- The Box Jellyfish – which is found in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef – is responsible for more deaths than snakes, sharks and saltwater crocodiles combined
- The record jump recorded by a kangaroo is a whopping 9 metres (30 feet) in a single leap!
- Two native Australian animals, Platypus and Echidnas, are the only two mammals in the world that lay eggs to give birth
- Koalas sleep for about 20 hours per day
- Tasmanian Devils have the strongest bite per body size of any mammal
- There are 4 different species of kangaroo in Australia, with the Red Kangaroo being the largest. The largest Big Red ever seen was 2.1m tall (6ft 9in) and weighed 91kgs (200lbs)!
- The Australian Thorny Devil is one of the longest-lived lizards of its size in the world, with a lifespan of up to 20 years
- The Kangaroo and Emu were chosen to be the two animals on the Australian Coat of Arms because they can't walk backwards, reflecting a forward-thinking culture
- 17 of the world's most poisonous snakes can be found in Australia
- Australia is home to around 1,500 types of spiders, 4,000 types of ants and 350 types of termites
- While Kangaroos are considered a national icon, with over 40 million estimated throughout the country, they can also be considered a pest in some locations and are sometimes culled
- Australia has a larger population of camels than Egypt
Australian Laws
- Voting in elections in Australia is compulsory (you don't have a choice) for everyone 18 years of age and over, with an initial fine of $72 issued for non-voters. Despite this, only around 81% of eligible Aussie voters cast their vote
- Australia was the second country in the world to grant women the right to vote; this occurred in 1894
- In 2005, the government issued a ban on saying the word 'mate' at Parliament House. The ban lasted 24 hours before it was overturned
- Swimming at public beaches in Australia during the day was made illegal for 64 years
- The legal drinking age in Australia is 18 years old
- Australia officially became a federation in 1901
- Australia's first police force was made up of 12 convicts who were judged to be the best behaved
Australian People
- 49% of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was born overseas and moved to Australia
- Someone from Sydney is typically referred to as a Sydney-sider
- A person from Melbourne is called a Melbournian
- Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke once held the Guiness World Record for the fastest beer sculling, downing 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds (he recreated the legendary feat at the SCG in January 2017)
- Despite being a massive continent, 90% of Australia's population live on the coast due to the majority of the interior being a vast desert
- Australia's Aboriginal people are estimated to have lived here for roughly 50,000 years, yet they now make up only 1.5% of the total population
- The average Australian will eat the equivalent of 18 full cows and 90 full sheep in his or her lifetime
- After Athens, Melbourne has the world's largest Greek population
- Australia has one of the world's lowest population densities – it's size is only a bit smaller than the USA, yet the population is only around 23 million, as opposed to 313 million in the United States.
- The average Australian drinks 83 litres of beer per year
- In Aboriginal culture, women are not permitted to play the didgeridoo
Australian Cities & Natural Attractions
- Australia is the driest of any continent on earth other than Antarctica
- The Great Barrier Reef is regarded as the world's largest living organism, and is often listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World
- Australia is the only continent covered by a single country
- The highest mountain in Australia is Mt Kosciuszko, which stands 2228m high. Australia as a whole is a fairly flat country, with relatively few mountain ranges given its size.
- The Daintree Rainforest, found in tropical north Queensland, is the country's largest and covers around 1,200 square kilometres
- The Aussie state of Tasmania has the world's cleanest air
- While mining is one of Australia's biggest industries, more land is covered by pubs than mines
- Uluru (Ayers Rock) is known as the largest monolith in the world and is over 8km wide at its widest point
- Australia is home to the world's largest cattle ranch – which is bigger than the entire country of Belgium
- Australia is the 6th largest country in the world in terms of land area
- Australia's dingo fence is longer than the Great Wall of China
- The Nullarbor Plain is home to the longest straight road in the world, at 146km long
- Australia is the only continent in the world without an active volcano
- The termite mounds that can be found in Australia are the tallest animal-made structures on Earth
- Melbourne has the largest public tram system in the world
- The Gold Coast has the world's largest canal system, which is larger than those of both Venice and Amsterdam combined
- Canberra was built specifically to be Australia's capital city as both Sydney and Melbourne had reasons for being denied