Australia is an interesting country with many interesting, fun and unusual facts, here are a few of them.
The Great Barrier Reef is the longest reef in the world at over 2010 kilometres
The Great Barrier Reef is home to about 1500 species of fish, 400 types of coral, 4000 breeds of clams and other molluscs, 800 echinoderms, including sea cucumbers, 500 varieties of seaweed, 200 bird species, 1500 different sponges, and 6 types of turtle.
Australia’s first television station was Channel 9, which opened in Sydney in 1956.
Great Australian inventions include the half-car-half-truck utility vehicle, known as the FJ Holden Ute, the bionic ear, the black box flight recorder, and the notepad.
Kalgoorlie in Western Australia is the largest electorate spanning 2,225,278 square kilometres.
Uluru (Ayers Rock) is over 8 kilometres in circumference and takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to walk around. Climbing Uluru takes about 1 1/2 hours and about 1 hour to climb down.
The ‘dingo fence’ in Australia is the longest fence in the world, and is about twice as long as the Great Wall of China.
The highest point on the mainland, Mount Kosciuszko, is only 2228 metres. Apart from Antarctica, Australia is the driest continent.
Australian Football was invented by Sydney Tom Wills and Henry Harrison – both were both born in Sydney. Tom played the Aboriginal game of Mangrook as a child and it is believed the native game inspired the rules he initially proposed. The game then took hold in Victoria, and was largely rejected by Sydney.
Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra is one of the largest buildings in the southern hemisphere at over 300,000 cubic metres.
A 10kg Tasmanian Devil is able to exert the same biting pressure as a 40kg dog. It can also eat almost a third of its body weight in a single feeding.
Australia is the smallest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent in the world. It is the only country which is also a whole continent.
A baby kangaroo at the time of its birth measures 2 centimetres.
