Geography was never my strong suit as a child. In fact, up until year ten, I must confess that I genuinely thought New Zealand and Tasmania were the same place. That little mix-up was swiftly corrected when I casually mentioned to my entire Australian Geography class that I strangely hadn’t met anyone in Tassie with a Kiwi accent… As Time Out Australia's Travel and News Editor, it’s safe to say I’ve come a long way since then.
These days, I’d actually consider myself a bit of an expert in our nation's geography, with more fun facts up my sleeve than Bunnings has snags sizzling on a Saturday morning. Here are some fascinating things I only recently discovered about Australia, which might come in handy at your next pub trivia night.
10 amazing Aussie facts you didn't learn at school
1. Australia has glow-in-the-dark beaches. It’s no secret that our country is home to many of the world’s greatest beaches, but a rare few, like Jervis Bay, glow blue at night due to bioluminescent plankton. (You can check out more of Australia’s mind-blowing natural phenomena here.)
2. Melbourne boasts the world’s largest tram network. With more than 250 kilometres of tracks, it transports almost 150 million passengers each year. Wowza!
3. The world’s largest rock is right here in Australia – but it’s not Uluru. That title goes to Mount Augustus in Western Australia, which is more than double the size of Uluru.
4. Tasmania has the cleanest air on Earth – especially Cape Grim, which has air so pure that it’s used as a global benchmark.
5. The Great Barrier Reef is the only living thing visible from space. Stretching more than 2,300 kilometres along Queensland’s coast, this colossal coral reef system has been captured by satellites high in the sky.
6. There are more kangaroos in Australia than humans. Kangaroos are our most common animal, with more than 35 million bouncing around the country.
7. Australia has its very own Stonehenge. It’s the only full-size replica of the original monument in England, weighing in at an impressive 2,500 tonnes.
8. Aussies invented Wi-Fi. Who are the real MVPs of the modern world? That’s right, Australian scientists at the CSIRO helped to develop the tech that defines the 21st century back in the 1990s.
9. Australia is home to a town where people live underground. In Coober Pedy, 60 per cent of residents live in 'dugouts' – below-ground dwellings – to escape the extreme Outback heat.
10. Australia once went to war with emus, and lost. In the Great Emu War of 1932, the Australian military attempted to address the issue of emus damaging large crops in Western Australia. Two months later, the campaign was declared a failure.
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