Twenty facts about Australian history that everyone should know

Australia has a sandcastle culture, according to Jim Davidson, one-time editor of Meanjin. His point: we suffer from cultural amnesia. Every incoming tide wipes out the memories of what came before, both our achievements and failures.

Ahead of Australia Day, here are 20 of the weirdest facts about Australian history – a list of all those sandcastles that should not be forgotten.

1. In 1932, the Australian army fought a war against the emus. The emus won.

Emus were the real winners. Credit: Peter Lorimer

2. Nearly all wild rabbits in Australia are genetically related to the 24 imported in 1859 for the purposes of hunting by a single British idiot called Thomas Austin.

3. When US President Lyndon Johnson visited Australia in 1966, tensions between Melbourne and Sydney were so intense he had to spend an equal number of hours – four – in each city.

4. Australia invented Wi-Fi but failed to commercialise it.

5. Australia invented the solar panel but failed to commercialise it.

President Lyndon Johnson in Australia in 1966.Credit: Fairfax

6. Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution while in Australia. The Galapagos Islands were also important, but the first place he questioned the idea of a single creator was at present-day Wallerawang, near Lithgow. He examined animals that occupied similar ecological niches to those of the northern hemisphere and wondered why a single creator would make such different animals for the same purpose. Lithgow, in other words, should have a sign: Home to the World’s Most Consequential Scientific Advance.

To the rescue: Sir Frank Beaurepaire.Credit: The Age

7. The first brewery in Australia was established in Parramatta on September 16, 1804. The funds were provided by the colonial administration with the aim of reducing drunkenness. The idea was to wean people off “rum”, their name for all spirits. This breakthrough notion – providing alcohol to reduce drinking – did not prove a success.

8. Ditto the early planting of vineyards with the same lofty aim.

9. The first British monarch to eat Australian meat was Queen Victoria, who tucked into Queensland lamb in February 1880 – the result of the new science of refrigeration.

10. Australia’s first St Vincent de Paul was established in Newtown in 1922 by Reg Cahill, who – alongside his sister, Teresa – went on to create Cahill’s restaurants, those icons of ’60’s Sydney. Who made the greater contribution: Reg, kicking off Australia’s best charity store, or Teresa, with Cahill’s caramel sauce?

11. Frank Beaurepaire, Olympian and tyre retailer, was able to set up his business only because he jumped into the ocean at Coogee to save a man being attacked by a shark. How Australian is that? The money came from a cash reward given by the Royal Humane Society.

12. On the subject of swimming, Captain Cook couldn’t do it. It’s why he was unable to escape when set upon in shallow waters off Hawaii in 1779. Few sailors of the time could swim. An inability to do so was considered a positive. It lessened the chances of desertion.

Swimming at Manly was once confined to nocturnal hours. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

13. The 1967 film Journey Out of the Darkness was one of the first films since Jedda in 1955 to feature Indigenous protagonists. Alas, this time around, the filmmakers didn’t cast Indigenous actors, instead choosing Ed Devereaux of Skippy fame, wearing blackface, playing opposite his “Indigenous co-lead” – Malaysian-born singer Kamahl.

14. The night before he died, Harold Holt, then prime minister, attended the launch of the above-mentioned film. Was he picked up by Chinese submarines, as some have suggested, or was it just an attempt to escape further screenings of Journey Out of Darkness?

15. Lewis Bandt, the Australian who, in 1934, designed the world’s first ute, died in 1987 while driving a restored version of his original vehicle. He was on his way back from a television interview about the impact of his creation.

16. Jules Francois Archibald, editor of The Bulletin and founder of the Archibald Prize, was born into an Irish Catholic family in regional Victoria and baptised John Feltham. He adopted the “Jules Francois” later in life. Why? He loved all things French.

Canberra, AKA Shakespeare.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

17. In the run-up to decimalisation, Robert Menzies proposed that our new unit of currency should be called “a royal”, as in the phrase “Could you lend a couple of royals – I need to buy a beer?” The Reserve Bank produced designs, the proposal abandoned after months of ridicule.

18. Until November 1903, swimming at Manly was allowed only at night. Keith Dunstan, in his book Wowsers, says a large dinner bell was sounded at 7am to remind swimmers to leave the water. After 1903, you could swim in daylight but only clad in “neck-to-knees”.

19. While “Canberra” was eventually chosen as the nation’s capital, the minister in charge wanted it to be “Shakespeare”. Fine idea, but one which would have forced many Australians to utter the phrase: “Fancy a dirty weekend in Shakespeare?”

20. And, slight drum roll, after he developed the Hills Hoist, Lance Hill was in the market for cheap wire to produce them in bulk. His solution was to purchase the now-surplus metal mesh that had been stretched across Sydney Harbour to deter Japanese submarines during WW2. The British had a wartime song called We’re Going to Hang Out the Washing on the Siegfried Line, but it was the Australians who really did dry their laundry on defence infrastructure.

Happy Australia Day!