- The Australian Alps, or Snowy Mountains as they are also known, receive more snow than Switzerland.
- No part of Australia is more than 1000 km from the ocean and a beach.
- Australia has the world’s largest cattle station (ranch). At 30,028 km2 it is almost the same size as Belgium.
- Population density in Australia is usually calculated in km2 per person, not people per km2.
- Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.
- The Australian Alps, or Snowy Mountains as they are also known, receive more snow than Switzerland.
- The Great Barrier Reef is the largest organic construction on earth.
- The world’s longest piece of straight railway track stretches 478 kilometres across South Australia’s vast, treeless Nullarbor Plain.
- Australia was the second country to give women the vote
- Per capita, Australians read more newspapers than any other nation.
- The day of the Melbourne Cup (a horse race!) is a public holiday in Melbourne.
- Queensland is home to lung fish, a living fossil from the Triassic period 350 million years ago.
- Ten Nobel Prizes have been awarded to Australians .Of the 10 prizes, nine were for science or medicine and one was for literature.
BIG COUNTRY, BIG INVENTIONS
- Notepads 1902
- The surf lifesaving reel 1906
- Aspirin 1915
- The pacemaker 1926
- Penicilin 1940
- The Plastic disposable syringe 1949
- The wine cask 1965
- The bionic ear 1978
- Dual-flush toilet flush 1980
- Anti-counterfeiting technology for banknotes 1992
- Long-wearing contact lenses 1999
- Black Box flight recorder 1958