Archive for the ‘Fair Dinkum Facts’ Category

The Australians have always been an inventive lot, not only did the Aboriginals invent some amazing things, in more recent history we have created some much needed things to make life easier and more comfortable. There are more to come so keep an eye on the blog.

1838 – Pre-paid postage
Colonial Postmaster-General of New South Wales, James Raymond introduced the world’s first pre-paid postal system.

1856 – Refrigerator
James Harrison, commissioned by a brewery to build a machine that cooled beer, produced the world’s first practical refrigerator. He used the principal of vapour compression.

1858 – Football
Tom Will and Henry Harrison wrote the first ten rules of Australian Football, thus becoming the first in the world to codify a kicking-ball game. These rules predate those of Rugby, Soccer and Gridiron. Australian Football may have been inspired by the Aboriginal jumping/kicking game of Marn Grook.

1879 – Refrigeration
After being credited with the manufacture of the first artificial ice, Eugene Nicolle and Thomas Sutcliffe Mort developed shipboard refrigeration that allowed the export of meat from Australia to Great Britain.

1889 – Electric Drill
Arthur James Arnot patented the world’s first electric drill on 20 August 1889. He was an employee of the Union Electric Company in Melbourne. Its design was primarily for drilling rock and digging coal.

1897 – Differential gears
David Shearer, South Australia built a steam car with a differential inside left rear wheel hub.

1900s – The ‘Australian Crawl’
For most of human history, humans didn’t know how to swim effectively. In the 1900s, Australians invented the Australian Crawl, since becoming known as the ‘overarm’ or ‘freestyle’ swimming stroke.

1902 – Notepad
For 500 years, paper had been supplied in loose sheets. J A Birchall decided to cut the sheets into half, back them with cardboard and glue them together at the top.

• Australia was first called that by a local explorer, Matthew Flinders, who decided to promote the name “Terra Australis”, or “South Land”. It was not officially recognised until the then governor of the country, Lachlan Macquarie named it as such in a dispatch to London in 1817.
• Australia has the largest sand island on earth, Fraser Island, which is off the Queensland coast, 200km north of Brisbane.
• The world’s largest structure created by living creatures is the Great Barrier Reef, of the Queensland coast. It’s over 2000km long, and covers an area of nearly 260,0002km.
• Possibly the world’s biggest state, (of any country) is Western Australia. Covering over 2,252,0002km’s, (the western 1/3 of the Australian continent) it is bigger than all but a handful of countries by itself.
• The area of Australia that is covered by snow in winter is larger than the area of Switzerland.
• Australia is the richest source of mineral sands in the world.
• The famous Aussie Akubra hat is named that, from the Aboriginal word, which means ‘head covering’. They are made from rabbit fur.
• The first life-saving club in the world was founded in Australia, Bronte, Sydney, in 1903. It has since saved the lives of many surfers.
• The first official world surfing championships were held at Manly, Sydney, in 1964 and won by an Australian, Bernard ‘Midget’ Farrelly.
• Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Game.
• Australians are the world’s biggest buyers of 4WD vehicles.
• In the mid 70′s, Australians were the 3rd biggest beer drinker in the world.  (behind Germany and Belgium) In the late 90′s, we don’t even get into the top ten! (fortunately)
• 70% of the world’s wool comes from Australia. We have over 126,000,000 sheep, which use fully half the continent for grazing.
• Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of beef and veal.
• Australia is one of the safest places in the world, with a murder rate of 2 per 100,000 people. The US is up around 8 per 100,000.
• The most dangerous ants in the world are the Australian Bulldog Ant, (which is up to 4 centimetres long!) and is responsible for at least three deaths.

The current design of the Australian Flag was chosen in 1901 following our Federation though the exact specifications were changed at different times. The current specifications were published in 1934 and in 1954 it became legally recognised as the Australian National Flag.

It is comprised of the Union Flag in the upper hoist corner and a large white seven pointed star in the lower hoist quarter, this is known as the Commonwealth Star.

The other stars on the Australian Flag represent the Souther Cross constellation.

We carry a number of products at Australian Native T-Shirts that have the Australian Flag on them from t-shirts, to stubby holders, caps, towels and a host of other things. Make sure you check them out and show how proud you are to be an Australian.

Australian States & Territories – A snapshot

Total Population at 31 December 2007 – 21,180,632

Australian Capital Territory Land area (km²) – 2,358 Population (2006) 340,818

New South Wales Land area (km²) – 800,642, Population (13 December 2007) 6,926,990

Northern Territory Land area (km²) – 1,349,129, Population (13 December 2007)  217,559

Queensland Land area (km²) – 1,730,648, Population (13 December 2007)  4,228,290

South Australia Land area (km²) – 983,482, Population (13 December 2007)  1,591,930

Tasmania Land area (km²) – 68,401, Population (13 December 2007)  495,772

Victoria Land area (km²) – 227,416, Population (13 December 2007)  5,246,079

Western Australia Land area (km²) – 2,529,875, Population (13 December 2007)  2,130,797

Other Territories as listed below – Population (13 December 2007) 2,397

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
Australian Antarctic Territory
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Coral Sea Islands Territory
Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Jervis Bay Territory
Norfolk Island

From the Australian Bureau of Statistics