Australia Day January 26th

Happy Auatralia Day for all my Aussie rellies and Friends...

Here are some fun facts about the Land Down-unda....

On the 26th of January, 1788, The First Fleet of 11 ships with 1500 aboard, half of them convicts from Britain, arrived at the south eastern shores of Australia. The town of Sydney grew from that first small, British penal settlement. Australia day commemorates this.

 Officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.



On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia.

The flag of Australia is a defaced Blue Ensign: a blue field with the Union Flag in the canton (upper hoist quarter), and a large white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Star in the lower hoist quarter. The fly contains a representation of the Southern Cross constellation, made up of five white stars – one small five-pointed star and four, larger, seven-pointed stars.

Waltzing Matilda" by Banjo Paterson is Australia's most widely known bush ballad. A country folk song, the song has been referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia".

The title is Australian slang for travelling by foot with one's goods in a "Matilda" (bag) slung over one's back. The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or "swagman", making a drink of tea at a bush camp and capturing a sheep to eat. When the sheep's owner arrives with three police officers to arrest the worker for the theft, the worker commits suicide by drowning himself in the nearby watering hole and then goes on to haunt the site.

 Australia produces 95 per cent of the world's precious opals and 99 per cent of its black opals. The world’s opal capital is the quirky underground town of Coober Pedy in South Australia. The world’s largest opal, weighing 5.27 kilograms, was found here in 1990.

Kalgoorlie in Western Australia is Australia's largest producer of gold. It also embraces the world's largest political electorate, covering a mammoth 2.2 million square kilometres.

 
Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef is home to the world’s largest oyster, weighing up to 3 kilograms, while the world’s longest earthworm, stretching up to 4 metres, is found in Gippsland in Victoria. The heaviest crab, weighing up to 14 kilograms, is found in Bass Strait near Tasmania. Australia’s tallest mountain is Mt Kosciuszko, which is 2,228 metres above sea level.

The world’s longest piece of straight railway track stretches 478 kilometres across South Australia’s vast, treeless Nullarbor Plain. Australia’s longest stretch of straight road - 148 kilometres – is on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia. It’s just a tiny portion of the 2,700 kilometre sealed road that takes travellers from Perth to Adelaide. The world's longest continuous fence – the dingo fence – was built to keep sheep safe from Australia's native dog and runs for 5,531 kilometres through central Queensland and South Australia.

Australians invented notepads (1902), the surf lifesaving reel (1906), aspirin (1915), the pacemaker (1926), penicillin (1940) the Hills Hoist clothesline (1946), the plastic disposable syringe (1949), the wine cask (1965), the bionic ear (1978), dual-flush toilet flush (1980) anti-counterfeiting technology for banknotes (1992) and long-wearing contact lenses (1999).

The kangaroo is unique to Australia and appears on our coat of arms. It is a mammal and a macropod, a family of marsupials that includes wallabies and pademelons. Kangaroos are the only large animals to travel by hopping and breeding adult males often fight by boxing with their front paws and kicking their back legs. There are 55 kangaroo species spread across Australia.

Platypuses are small, dark-brown, furry, egg-laying mammals with webbed paws and a duck-like beak. Platypuses live in burrows which they dig into the banks of rivers. They are diving animals, and can stay under water for up to fifteen minutes. Unlike a duck's beak, the platypus' beak is rubbery and flexible. It has hundreds of electroreceptor cells inside it, which can detect the electrical currents that are caused by its prey swimming through the water. Platypuses can be found along Australia’s eastern coastal areas in small streams and quiet rivers.

The Australian Coat Of Arms has on it a kangaroo and an emu. The reason for this is that the kangaroo and the emu cannot go backwards but can only walk forwards.