Tag Archives: Australia facts

I was perusing my stats for the year and I discovered that despite ranking 119th in population by country, Norway was visiting my blog more often than #Australia, which ranks 53rd. I do love my friends from the wonderful snowy country of Norway as I’ve written about them before but the grass is always greener on the other side, right? On the other side of the world from Norway is Australia, a completely odd country in it’s own right and I want more of those weirdos visiting my blog so I decided I’d try to provoke a reaction by writing about them. Here are ten possibly true “facts” about Australia.

10. Some people in Australia raise their children in kangaroo-like pouches: A new strap on prosthetic pouch is often worn by mother’s, and sometimes fathers, to simulate the physical closeness, warmth and bonding seen among kangaroos and their offspring.

9. Australia is full of a lot of weird wildlife, including camels: Camels? In Australia? Aren’t they from the Middle East? Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia.

8. The water swirling in a toilet in Australia goes counter-clockwise: That’s the opposite of all the toilets in the northern hemisphere.

7. Despite inventing the boomerang, Australians only finished 3rd in it at the most recent Olympics.

6. The band Men at Work was so popular that two of the members have been knighted and one is currently the acting Prime Minister.

5. The city of Melbourne was originally called Batmania.

4. Australia is the largest peninsula in the world.

3. Kangaroos can’t jump or walk backwards: Because of this they are easy to sneak up on and Australians frequently startle kangaroos and run away.

2. Although English is spoken predominantly, there is a native Australian language, kukuku, that most Australians speak at home.

1. Australia once declared war on England: Australia was originally an English colony and in 1871 they declared war on England to gain their independence as a sovereign nation. England calculated the time an effort to actually go to Australia to fight the war and they just said, “Feck it, you can go.” That was the actual newspaper headline.

Some of these facts are true, some are partially true and some are completely made up. Can you tell the difference? If any of you reading this are from the land down under, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great Tuesday, or Wednesday if you’re in Australia. ~Phil