26 odd things about Australia

CONVICTS as cops? Venomous platypus? Think you know everything about this great nation of ours? Try these 26 bizarre facts.

There are some bizarre things about this country, not least the wildlife.

IT’S Australia Day weekend and that means celebrating our history by having your mates round for a barbecue and beer. Think you know everything about this great nation of ours? Here’s 26 things you may not have been aware of.

1. CONVICT COPS

The first police force in Australia was made up of the best-behaved convicts when, in 1789, the Night Watch and the Row Boat Guard were appointed by Governor Arthur Phillip.

2. MOVING MOUNTAINS

Mt Kosciuszko, at 2228m, is Australia’s highest mountain. But the Mt Kosciuszko we know today is not the peak originally called Mt Kosciuszko. The Year Book Australia 1910 explains: “Various measurements of the peak originally called by that name showed it to be slightly lower than its neighbour, Mount Townsend, and the names were thereupon transposed by the New South Wales Lands Department, so that Mount Kosciusko still remains the highest peak of Australia”.

Are we on the right mountain?

3. BARE CHEEK

The world’s first “flash mob” occurred at a Tasmanian prison in 1832 when 300 women convicts stood as one and bared their buttocks at the visiting Governor during an assembly. The convicts at the Cascades Female Factory collectively spun around, lifted their skirts and slapped their bottoms at the Governor, Sir John Franklin, his wife and the reverend William Bedford “making a not very musical noise’’.

4. PAID IN BOOZE

Rum was the main currency in the early days of settlement, used to pay military officers in lieu of money and prisoners for menial labour. Trouble arose when the newly nicknamed Rum Corps tightened control of the booze and thus control over swathes of land, supplies, and labour.

5. PRIME DRINKER

Bob Hawke could well be the only world leader who earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for boozing when he drank a yard glass of ale in fewer than 12 seconds in 1954. He later parlayed this skill to become a man of the people and Australia’s most popular Prime Minister.

Bob Hawke shows how it’s done

6. TALL POPPIES

Australia — well, Tasmania — is the world’s largest producer of opium alkaloids for the pharmaceutical market. produces about half of the world’s concentrated poppy straw (CPS) for morphine and related opiates.

7. POISON PLATYPUS

The humble platypus has venom strong enough to kill a small dog. The poison is delivered via small spurs on their back legs. In one case report, a 57-year-old man who grabbed one of the small mammals while fishing said the pain was “so bad I started to become incoherent”.

Should carry a poison warning.

8. BLOKES PARADISE

In Australia there are almost 100,000 more women than men, with six out of our eight states and territories experiencing a man drought. But this is evening out. Currently there are almost 105 baby boys born for every 100 baby girls born in Australia.

9. SPACE CADETS

Australia was the third country, after the US and Russia, to launch a satellite into orbit from its own back yard - and the seventh nation overall. It was for the British, using a “Blue Streak’’ rocket in 1967.

A missed opportunity ...

10. GOTHAM CITY

Melbourne was originally called Batmania. In May and June 1835, the area which is now central and northern Melbourne was explored by John Batman. who negotiated a purchase of 2400 sq km with Wurundjeri elders. Two years later, the settlement was named Batmania after Batman. It didn’t last long. Later that year the settlement was renamed Melbourne after the British Prime Minister, William Lamb, Second Viscount Melbourne.

11. COOL LEADERS

One of the major factors that led to Canberra being chosen as the location for the nation’s capital was that all politicians agreed at the time that white people could only really thrive and lead by living in a cold climate. On top of that, the location had to be somewhere in NSW otherwise that state said it wouldn’t join the Federation.

It has a better climate, apparently.

12. HOT PINK PANTS

In Victoria, it is illegal to wear hot pink pants after midday Sundays, though Labor’s Martin Foley made a commitment during the 2014 election campaign to repeal the law.

13. PINK LAKE

Lake Hillier on Middle Island, the largest of the islands that make up the Recherche Archipelago off the coast of Esperance in WA, is pink. From above the lake appears a solid bubblegum pink. No-one fully knows why. Scientists speculate that the colour comes from a dye created by bacteria that lives in the salt crusts.

Lake Hillier really stands out. Getty Images

14. NASSSTY BITE

Of the world’s deadliest snakes, numbers 1 to 11 come from Australia, and 20 of the top 25. The inland taipan is the world’s deadliest snake at No. 1.

15. WOMBATS DO WHAT?!?

The wombat deposits square poos on logs, rocks and even upright sticks that it uses to mark its territory. And when wombats are courting, the female runs figures of eights until she’s exhausted and the bloke catches her for some wombat love.

Cute. But its poo sure is weird

16. GET US OUT OF HERE

Western Australia is the only state that has tried to secede from the rest of Australia. In 1933 sandgropers voted by a two to one majority for their independence, but their application to Britain to withdraw from the Commonwealth was rejected.

17. NOT ALLOWED ON THE BEACH? WTF?

In 1838 it was declared illegal to swim at public beaches in NSW during the day. Illicit bathers did their swimming after dark only. This law remained in force until 1902 when it was repealed after a vigorous campaign led by one William Gocher, who was even arrested and jailed for defying the ban.

This may be the only photo of Bondi Beach with no people on it. After 1902, swimming at beaches became legal and the place has been chockers every day since. Photo: State Library of NSW

18. OPENING CREDIT

The movie business began in Australia. The world’s first feature film* was made in Australia in 1899 by the Salvation Army. Soldiers of the Cross focused on the life and deaths of early Christian martyrs and ran for 2.5 hours. It was first screened in 1901. Contrary to popular belief David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz were NOT around to review it.

* There is some dispute as to whether Soldiers of the Cross was a movie per se. Never fear, The Story of the Kelly Gang in 1906 is recognised as the world’s first feature.

Ned Kelly movie hit screens in 1906.

Scene from world's first full-length film, Soldiers Of The Cross in 1901.

19. SI, PRIME MINISTER

Our youngest-ever Prime Minister was 37 when he took office. Chris Watson was our third PM. He was also the only Australian PM born in Chile.

20. LONGEST YARD

The dingo fence, which stretches from the Great Australian Bight in SA to central Queensdland, is the longest fence in the world (5530km). It is about twice as long as the Great Wall of China.

The Dingo Fence is 5350km long

21. DON’T LOOK BACK

The Emu and the Kangaroo are on our coat of arms because neither animal can walk backwards.

22. BACK TO FRONT

These places — Glenelg (in Adelaide), Tumut (in NSW) and Parap (in Darwin) — are all palindromes.

23. KIWI STATE

The Australian Constitution still includes provisions for New Zealand to join Australia as its seventh state. The Manuka area of Canberra (named after the New Zealand tee tree) was named by Walter Burley Griffin in 1912 when there was still some optimism that the Kiwis might change their mind and join the Federation.

24. HUMP DAY

An estimated 750,000 camels roam our deserts, the largest number of purebred camels in the world. We even export them to the Middle East. They were brought here in the 1800s to help open up the interior.

And these two are not alone

25. WE DON’T WANT BANANA MONEY

Paul Keating famously warned Australia could become a Banana Republic. Turns out Queensland is the only state to have issued its own banknotes. At the time of Federation, an Australian currency did not exist, although there was already debate about the introduction of a decimal system of currency. Coinage was minted by the British Government and notes were issued by individual banks, except in Queensland where Treasury notes were issued into circulation by the State Government. However, these bank notes, and Treasury notes, were “not legal in any state other than the state in which they were issued.”

26. SLOW LOAD

Australia has notoriously slow internet download speeds. According to NetIndex, in 2014 we were ranked 58th in the world, slower than Kazakhstan, Madagascar and Vanuatu.

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