Weird Facts About Australia

I’ve been in Australia for 17 days now, but I still have a lot to learn about my new home. Fortunately, today I have Richard Daniel as a guest writer, who has some fun facts to share about the Land of Oz. Hopefully you can learn as much as I have!

Australia is filled with natural beauty and wonders, but there are some things you might not know about this island nation. Below are some interesting and weird facts that you might not know about Australia.

(photo credit)

Did You Know?

Did you know these tidbits about Australia?

• Women voting – Australia was the second country in the world to give women the right to vote.

• West Australia – Back in 1933, the people in West Australia tried to secede from the Commonwealth of Australia.  They were not successful.

• Royalty – The national anthem of Australia was God Save the King (Queen) until 1984. This is a long time after they wrested control from England and became their own country.

• Space race – Working with the British, Australia was the third country to launch a satellite into outer space, after Russia and the United States. The Blue Streak rocket was a success.

• Convicts – In 1828, a survey was taken that found that over half of the people in Australia were convicts at one time. For the next few decades, the convicts and criminals would continue arriving on Australia’s shores.

• Early police – A dozen of the best behaved criminals were assigned to be the first police force in Australia. This differs wildly from modern Australia, where there’s a professional police force.

• Cattle ranch – One of the largest cattle ranches in the world resides in Australia. The land takes up about as much space as the country of Belgium – which is quite large by any standards.

Photo via Jon Hurd / Flickr

• Beaches – One good thing about Australia is that they have so many miles of coast land – and beaches. Thousands and thousands of beachfront property is available in Australia.

• Mungo man – In 1974 this skeleton was discovered with his hands over his genital region. After much research, it was found that the DNA didn’t match Neanderthal or any other DNA that came out of Africa in the last 200,000 years.

• Gold Rush – In the mid-19th century, after gold was discovered in Australia, people from all over the world traveled to make it big. People came from America, China, Canada, Germany, Italy, France and many other countries around the world.

If you begin to look at the history of Australia, you’re going to find a lot of odd and weird facts about the founding of the country and how they’ve developed over the years. Beyond politics and people, the landscape of Australia is also strange and unique in many different ways. Do you know any weird facts about this country? If so, leave a comment below and share what you know.

Richard Daniel  has been to Australia several times in his life. The last time he almost stayed there because of the booming economy. When he’s not traveling the world, he also does customized printing for group T-shirts.