In today’s post we are going to introduce you to some fascinating facts about the land Down Under. Read on and be amazed.
1 It takes 4 days to travel on a train from east to west
Australia is huge. It is the 6th largest country in the world and the only country that occupies the whole continent.The road distance between Perth and Sydney, two cities located on opposite sides of the country, is just over 4,000 km. It’s like driving from Madrid to Moscow.
One way to appreciate Australia’s vastness and beauty is getting on board one of its iconic experiential tourist trains like the Indian Pacific, the Ghan or the Great Southern. The Indian-Pacific offers a unique experience of crossing the country east to west or vice versa in an epic 4-day, 3-night journey. One thing is for sure. You’re in for one long, scenic and unforgettable ride.
https://www.journeybeyondrail.com.au/journeys/the-ghan
https://www.journeybeyondrail.com.au/journeys/indian-pacific
2 Australia is an absolute mekka for beach-lovers
With over 10,000 beaches to choose from, spanning across an area of 15,000 kilometres, you will be spoilt for choice. If you visited one beach a day, it would take you 27 years to see them all.
Whether you’re a water sports enthusiast, a marine life lover or a tanning freak, you are bound to find a beach that will tick all the boxes for you.The vast majority of beaches found Down Under are sandy and one organisation even went to the trouble of comparing and rating the whiteness of the sand from various parts of Oz. We are as proud as punch to reveal that the first and second place went to two Western Australian beaches found in Cape Le Grand National Park.
3 Australia’s most dangerous creature isn’t what you think
Many people associate the land Down Under with an abundance of deadly creatures such as venomous snakes, ferocious crocodiles, poisonous spiders and man-eating sharks. And surely there is no shortage of these majestic species here. However, Australia’s most venomous animal is actually the box jellyfish. While not every species of box jellyfish is dangerous, there are several highly venomous varieties found off the coast of tropical Australia. Box jellyfish have venom in their tentacles that can sting and kill a person in under five minutes. Just another thing to add to your ‘best be avoided’ list.
4 30% of Australia’s population were born overseas
Out of the 27 mln people living in Australia, a staggering 30% were born overseas. Today’s Australians identify with more than 300 ancestries, speak around 490 languages and observe a wide variety of customs and traditions making the country a true melting pot.
You can find more information about Australia’s demographics here:
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/
5 Aboriginal culture is the oldest continuous culture in the world
A new genomic study has confirmed that Aboriginal Australians are the oldest known civilization on Earth, with ancestries stretching back roughly 75,000 years. Aboriginal culture, though originally dismissed as primitive when first viewed through a Eurocentric lens, holds deep wisdom in its stories and practices. Aboriginal mythology also known as the Dreamtime teaches valuable lessons on the importance of sharing with and caring for people in the community, nurturing the land and recognizing the role every creature plays in the ecosystem. Evidence of 30,000-year-old grindstones suggests Aboriginal people were the world’s first bakers. Traditional practices such as fire burning are now being recognized for their ecological benefits, showcasing the enduring value of indigenous knowledge.
The symbols in Aboriginal dot paintings are a coded language that convey a variety of meanings including food, journeys, social values, meeting places, animals and more.
6 80% of Australian animals are unique to Oz
Yep, the Aussie fauna is truly special with 80% of species found only Down Under. This is due to Australia’s early history. Around 180 million years ago the supercontinent Gondwana split leading to the formation of Australia and Antarctica. By 30 million years ago, Australia had fully separated and moved northward. This isolation, along with changes in land and climate, resulted in Australia’s unique flora and fauna. Today, over 80% of its plants, mammals, reptiles, and frogs are found nowhere else in the world.
Some of our Australian animals are very well known like kangaroos and koalas. Others like wallabies and wombats perhaps less so. Here are some other species you might not have heard of:
7 The platypus was once believed to be a hoax
Still on the topic of animals, one species in particular deserves a mention for a rather peculiar reason. The platypus is a truly stunning creature. Not only does it have that iconic duckbill, it also lays eggs like a bird or reptile but feeds milk to its young like a mammal. Males also have a pair of venomous spurs on their hind feet, but they don’t use them for traditional attack or defence.
When a skin and an illustration of the animal were first sent to the British Museum from the newly colonised and largely unexplored Australia back in the 1790s, the British scientists suspected it to be an elaborate hoax- perhaps a taxidermy construction of a duck’s bill attached to the body of a mole!
Eventually, after years of study and intense debate, the platypus was classified as a type of primitive mammal known as a monotreme and can be found in its natural habitat along the east coast of mainland Australia.
You can find more info about this fascinating creature here:
https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/platypus/
8 Australia’s coat of arms has a message embedded in it
There is one thing that kangaroos and emus have in common and it is their inability to walk backwards. It is exactly the reason why the two iconic species were chosen to feature in the Australian coat of arms to symbolise that the only way for Australia is to move forward.
9 Australia could have been a Dutch-speaking country
When thinking about the early European discovery and settlement in Australia, most people think of Captain James Cook and his arrival on the east coast in the 1770s after which Australia became a British penal colony. But Cook wasn’t the first European explorer to set foot Down Under. In fact it was the Dutch who first navigated and charted the northern, western and southern coasts of Australia at the start of the 17th century. They named the newly-found land New Holland but deemed it unsuitable for colonisation due to lack of water and fertile soil.
Fun fact, Western Australia’s most iconic island Rottnest Island translates as ‘rat nest’ after the Dutch mistook the endemic quokkas for giant rats. To be honest, I would also not be hanging around a place I believed was infested with rats the size of a new-born baby.
10 Australia has 20 UNESCO world heritage sites
The sites range from natural wonders to culturally significant places. Included in the list is the Great Barrier Reef- the largest coral system in the world. Some other sites on the list are Sydney Opera House, Australian Convict Sites, Australian Fossil Mammal Sites, Kakadu National Park and theTasmanian Wilderness.
You can view the full list here:
https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/au
11 Canberra was chosen to be the capital as a compromise between two larger cities
The two biggest cities Down Under are Sydney and Melbourne, each inhabited by over 5 million residents. When, at the start of the 20th century, the question arose as to which of them should become the capital and no agreement could be reached, it was decided that a new city was going to be planned and built somewhere in the middle. This is how Canberra was born.
12 In Coober Pedy – the opal capital of the world – around 50% of its inhabitants live underground
Coober Pedy, a town and a mining field in South Australia is famous for two things- opal mining and the underground living quarters known as ‘dugouts’. Since the town is located in the desert with temperatures often exceeding 40ºC , many residents prefer to live in dwellings bored into the hillsides which maintain a comfortable temperature between 19ºC and 25ºC throughout the year. Coober Pedy even has an underground motel and an underground church!
Follow the link to read some more about this fascinating place:
https://www.cooberpedy.com/
Last but not least. If you’d like to use this material to teach your students about Australia, help yourself to the presentation below that is just perfect for projecting in your classroom. It contains all of the information above plus lots of communicative practice, a quiz and an idea for a group project. 28 colourful slides in total. Dig in! It’s free.
The image “Gday Australia” courtesy of La La Land and the artist: Murilo Manzini
