Fun Facts about Australia are difficult to hit on until we explore the continent. The only continent with its tectonic plate and a country with the least population density and number of beaches that could take you 29 years to return to the same beach. Wouldnโt you like to delve deep and find a place or nurture a dream around this continent covered by water on all four sides?
Whether planning a trip to Australia or would like to quench your knowledge thirst regarding fun facts about Australia, this article promises to benefit you with every scroll down.
In this article, I present exciting and fun facts about Australia.
1. Australia Facts: The Continent and the Country
Australia had long been an unidentified place, and its unearthing led to numerous interesting facts about Australia that would have been otherwise left unrevealed.
The sixth largest country in the world, synchronizing with the tag of the smallest continent in the Southern Hemisphere, is well kept up by the Australians.
1.1. Who Invented Australia and When?
British Captain Arthur Phillip guided a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to New South Wales and founded Australia on January 26, 1788.
Today January 26, is celebrated as Australia Day. One of Australiaโs facts worth pondering and still debated is why the day of invasion by the English is celebrated as the countryโs day.
In 1818, it even became an official national holiday. Isnโt it one of the hard-to-digest Australian facts?
1.2. Who Named Australia?
In 1803-04, The English explorer Mathew Flinders suggested the name โAustralia,โ which we use today. He was the first to go around the continent and proposed โAustraliaโ as opposed to his โTerra Australis Incognitoโ or โUnknown South Land.โ
British Admiral was adamant with ย โTerra Australisโ against โAustraliaโ proposed by Flinders, but the Governor of New South Wales respected Flindersโs preference and used โAustraliaโ in his dispatches to England.
1.3. Multiple Names of Australia
Here are some fun facts about Australiaโs different names:
- When Dutch explored the land, they christened it โNova Hollandicus,โ New Holland.
- โOceaniaโ is another popular name for Australia. Some believe that since the continent is covered by water from all four sides, it is right to call it โOceania,โ and Australia is just the largest landmass on the continent.
- Australia is often verbally called โThe Sunburnt Country,โ โThe Wide Brown Land,โ โ Oz,โย and โThe Lucky Country.โ The first two are from the poemโ My Countryโ by Dorothea Mackellar.
1.4. States and Territories of Australia
Australia comprises six states, each with its capital city and two internal territories.
1.4.1. The Six States of Australia are:
- New South Wales
- Victoria
- Queensland
- Western Australia
- South Australia
- Tasmania
1.4.2. The Two Internal Territories are:
- The Northern Territory
- The Australian Capital Territory
Australiaโs capital city Canberra is part of the Australian Capital Territory.
1.5. The Australian Flag
In 1901, the Australian National Flag was born after the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Australiaโs facts on its national flag are equally engaging. Read beneath some fun facts about Australia Flag:
- The Union Jack in the upper left corner underlines the British dominion.
- The Union Jack consists of three crosses, each reminding the principles of saints on whose ideals the nation was founded.
- Below it is the commonwealth star with seven points, the six points denoting the six states, and the seventh point representing all the territories collectively.
- On the right side, the five seven-point stars represent the constellation of the Southern Cross, depicting Australiaโs location in the Southern hemisphere.
- Another name of the Australian national flag is the flag of โSTARS AND CROSSES.โ
2. Australia: Area and Density
It will be an injustice if I donโt throw light upon Australiaโs total area and density. Following are the interesting facts about Australia and its density:
2.1. Land Area
- The area of the seventh largest continent is 7,617,930 kmห2.
- It is as large as the mainland USA.
2.2. Density
- The population of Australia is 25.9 million(2022).
- Its density is 3/kmห2 or 7 per square mile.
- Australiaโs population is growing at 1.18% due to immigration and natural increase.
- Most of Australiaโs population lives along the coastline. This could be one of Australiaโs facts as to why some areas like the northern territory have a density of 0.2 people per square kilometer.
3. Australian Major Cities and Towns
With eight capital cities and many important Australian cities, it is one of the Australian facts that Sydney (despite being the biggest and the most popular city among Australian cities) is not the capital city of Australia.
Do you Know? Canberra is the capital city of Australia.
Here are some interesting facts about cities where Australiaโs population lives:
3.1. Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital city of Victoria. John Batman, 1835 explored the area and purchased it from the Wurundjeri elders(aborigines).
- Melbourne was briefly called Batmania after its founder.
- One can visit batman park in Melbourne.
- It is a small park with open grassed space with Yarra River on one side.
- Visit Batman park to step into Enterprize Park, a part of the Batman Park earlier.
3.2. Alice Springs
It is geographically the center of Australia and the third largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia.
- Alice Springs also paves the way to Uluru.
- The area is arid but with beautiful mountain ranges.
- Home to aboriginal people, the town gives vibes to its culture.
- The beauty of the town mesmerizes one from the top of Anzac Hill.
3.3. Gold Coast
Gold Coast is Australiaโs sixth largest city and most favored tourist spot.
- It was the resting place for the warriors of WWII.
- Today, it holds tourists for its surfing beaches, theme parks, nightlife, and rainforest hinterland.
- It is significant television and film industry hub.
4. Fun Facts About Australia: People and Population
4.1. Australia and World War
World War I played an essential role in defining Australiaโs identity to the rest of the world.
- Australia being the dominion of British, the then Prime minister Andrew Fisher committed Australian support for Britain as โto the last man and the last shilling.โ
- In WWI, Australians fought with utmost courage and were one of the few countries that served with integrity in Europe on the Western Front and the Middle East.
- Many young men joined the armed forces as they saw this as a chance to travel and could see adventure unravel before them. Ironically 3,24,000 out of a total population of five million enrolled to serve the then mother nation Britain.
- WWII led to Greek immigration to Australia. Today Greeks are 1.72% of Australiaโs population.
- Melbourne and Victoria have the largest Greek population in Australia.
4.2. Population of Australia
Australiaโs population is just 0.33 percent of the world population of 7.7 billion.
Since most of the countryโs interior is desert and unfavorable for living conditions, it is one of Australiaโs facts of low population density.
5. Fun Facts About Australia Animals
Australia is a land of rich and diverse flora and fauna. There are between two million to three million animal species in Australia. Out of these many animal species, only one million have been described.
About 80% of the worldโs flora and fauna are unique to Australia, nowhere else to be found.
5.1. Snakes
- Twenty out of 25 worldโs venomous snakes are native to Australia.
- Moreover, Australia has around 140 species of land snakes and 32 species of sea snakes.
5.2. Marsupials
- One of the fascinating facts about Australia is that Australia has about 140 Marsupials, a species that carries young ones in its pouch.
- The number of kangaroos is more than people living in Australia. They are 50 million in number.
- Tasmanian Devils are marsupials that can carry up to 4 young ones for four good months.
5.3. Dingo Dogs
The naughty wild dogs, Dingoes, once posed the biggest threat to farmers and livestock rearers of Australia as they invaded the fields, destroyed the crops, and ate what came their way, be it produce or sheep.
The government then spent millions building the fence separating the southern regions from the wild blocs.
Gradually that success led to a dingo fence that is longest than Chinaโs Great Wall.
Today, the Dingo fence is an interesting Australian fact that tourists throng to.
5.4. Australian Camels
Yet other important fun facts about Australia are its camels.
- There are about 1 million camels in Australiaโs Deserts.
- These purebred camels are the most significant number in the world.
- They are also exported to the Middle east.
5.5. Termite Mounds
Termite Mounds found in Northern Australia are the tallest animal-made structures. It goes almost the same size as four Burj Khalifa.
5.6. Hop for Some Other Australian Animals Facts
Anna Creek Station is not only Australiaโs largest cattle station, but it is the largest cattle station in the world. It is more significant than Israel in land size.
The most venomous marine animal, the Box Jellyfish, is found in Australia. Tentacles are up to 3m/10 ft long. The long tentacles inject poison when touched.
6. Interesting Facts About Australia: Sports
6.1. The Golf
Nullarbor Links is the worldโs longest golf course, 1365 km along the Eyre highway. It stretches between Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, and Ceduna, South Australia.
- Australiaโs longest golf course is emphasized even more as the holes are made on roadhouses and roadside stops.
- The average distance between the worldโs longest golf course hole is 66 km, and the most significant gap is nearly 200 km.
- Interestingly, the golf course was made to comfort the boredom of Aussie truckers on the remote stretch of the highway.
6.2. Australian Rules Football
โAustralian Rules Football,โ a distinctive Australian sport, originated in the 1850s in Melbourne, Victoria.
- The purpose of the sport for the British coach was to indulge his men in sports which could keep them fit.
- It is the amalgamation of various football rules followed at English public schools.
- The sport, however, at first looks like rugby.
7. Fun Facts of Australia: Currency
- The Australian Dollar has been printed on polymer instead of paper to avoid counterfeiting and ensure durability since 1988.
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation invented polymer notes.
- These Polymer banknotes last longer and can be recycled at the end.
- Reserve Bank of Australia decided to add the tactile feature to the Australian dollar notes to help the visually challenged.
8. Australia Facts: Leaders and Politics
Australia has had the worldโs oldest democratic system since 1901.
Since then, Australians have followed a unique combination of British and North American traditions to govern the country.
8.1. Prime Minister Bob Hawke
Prime Minister Bob Hawke is the man behind modern Australia.
PM Hawke integrated the countryโs economy with the global community and curated environmental issues.
- The PM launched the Medicare health insurance system in 1984, which was affordable for all.
- He was the longest-serving PM despite being an ACTU leader earlier.
- Fun Facts of Australia amalgamates hearty politicians also. As the PM, Bob Hawke was always at the center of the news. His words and actions often made his moments the most famous Australian prime ministerial moments ever caught sight of.
9. Australia: Police Force and ASIS
Letโs have a look at fun facts about Australiaโs police force:
- The Australian Police force began as the first civilian police force in Australia and was known as โNight Watch.โ
- The men in the force were none but drawn from many best-behaved convicts. WOW, one of the best fun facts about Australia.
- Australia has its secret agency to protect the national interest, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. It works on the same lines as the US Central Intelligence Agency.
10. Australian Aboriginal
Aboriginal means the first or earliest known of its kind in that region. Aboriginal Australians originate from the Australian Mainland, such as Fraser Island, Tasmania, Hinchinbrook islands, and Tiwi islands.
10.1. Aboriginal Society
Aboriginal people are the first known people of Australia. They were there some 45,000 years ago. Aboriginal people lived in clans and had an egalitarian society. They were semi-nomadic and hunter-gatherers.
Here are some Australian facts highlighting indigenous Australians:
- Today they form 3% of the total Australian population.
- There are different aboriginal societies, each having its aboriginal languages.
- There are as many aboriginal languages as aboriginal societies.
- Aboriginals believed themselves to be part of the โDreaming Era.โ
- British Colonisation severely affected the aboriginal community.
- Aboriginal people refer to January 26 as โInvasion Dayโ; for urban dwellers, it is the โNational day.โ
- Aboriginal people are believed to develop varied techniques to exploit the various natural resources of Australia.
- Aboriginal people developed trade links with other locals.
- Today there is a higher concentration of aboriginals in the Northern Territory, New South Wales, and Queensland.
10.2. Aboriginal Culture
Aboriginals integrated because of the aboriginal culture they followed. The Aboriginal culture comprises five main elements.
- Land
- Family
- Law
- Ceremony
- Language
Aboriginals believed that โeverything is alive; thus, their spirituality is animistic.โ They even defined how relationships with others ought to be. Nature, humans, animals, and birds are all part of the same soul as aboriginals. Their culture is near to heart and land.
Today Aboriginals have their flag with a black rectangle sitting on the red rectangle and a yellow circle in the middle.
The flagโs black color represents locals, the red color on the flag means the land they walk on, and the yellow circle is the sun which gives life to all.
11. The Australian Land: Interesting Facts
Letโs have a look at the varied relief features of Australia:
11.1. Fraser Island
Here are some of the interesting facts about Australia for Fraser island:
- Fraser Island, about 123 km long and 22 km wide, is the worldโs largest sand island on the southeastern coast of Queensland, Australia.
- This worldโs largest sand island is UNESCOโs heritage site too.
- Only Fraser Island grows rainforests in the worldย from the sand.
- Fraser Island is made up of sand and is also known as KโGari.
- Butchulla aboriginal people still inhibit Fraser Island.
- Fraser Island is no short of a site for its tourists. Though it is not a beach island but the largest sand island, there are plenty of swimming spots like Eli Creek, Lake Wabby, and Lake McKenzie.
11.2. The Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef location: The Coral sea, Queensland, Australia.
- Australiaโs Great Barrier Reef is the worldโs biggest coral reef system.
- The Great Barrier Reef has over 2900 individual reefs and 900 coral islands spanning 2,300 km.
- It is the worldโs biggest single structure made by living organisms, coral polyps.
- The Great Barrier Reef holds cultural and spiritual importance for the aboriginal people, who for long inhibited the biggest coral reef system.
The Great Barrier Reef is astounding and full of fun facts about Australia and is worth seeing then believing. Enjoy the video until you visit there personally.
11.3. The Great Dividing Range
The Great Dividing Range Location: Eastern Australia
- Great Dividing ranges are a series of mountain ranges and plateaus parallel to the coastline.
- It covers three crucial states of Australia and stretches 3500km.
- It acts as a watershed for Eastern Australia.
- The great dividing range is known as Eastern Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands.
It holds importance due to agriculture activities, lumbering, and mining.
11.4. Wine Regions
Australia is home to the worldโs oldest wines. Although there are more than 60 wine regions in Australia, three major wine regions are South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales.
- Hunter Valley is a famous wine grape valley.
- One can tour this valley and taste the wine. Isnโt it one of the attractive fun facts about Australia?
11.5. Some Other Important Terrains of Australia Facts
- The Australian alps mounting New South Wales and Victoria get more snow than the Swiss Alps. More so, the Australian Alps is the Mecca for skiing passionates.
- Ayers Rock, or Uluru, is a giant sandstone rock standing in the heart of Northern territory. It is sacred for Indigenous Australians and is believed to date back 550 million years.
- Australia facts rest in Western Australia too. Mount Augustus, the worldโs largest rock house in the Golden Outback of Western Australia, is twice the size of Ayers rock.
- The semi-arid land and desert in Australia are known as the Australian Outback. The Australian Outback makes up the most considerable portion of the land. In the vast desert, the number of aboriginals living is too less, one of the never to miss fun facts about Australia.
12. Australiaโs Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House, an iconic building, is the performing arts studio known worldwide at Sydney Harbour Bridge. Some interesting facts about Australiaโs Sydney Opera House are:
- Fourteen shells make the Sydney Opera House.
- The beauty of Australiaโs Sydney Opera House banks on how out 0f 233 designs received for the Opera House international design competition, John Utzon from Denmark was the winner and received 5000 pounds for his creation.
- Sydney Opera House houses five theatres, two main halls, four restaurants, a rehearsal studio, six bars, and a souvenir shop.
- Seven A380s can accommodate wing to wing on this site that covers 1.8 hectares.
- Sydney Opera House is famous for lights shows and projections each night. You can best view it from The Rocks, Bradfield Park, and Darling Harbour.
13. Discrete Fun Facts About Australia
There are numerous facts about Australia that are further summed up as under:
13.1. Australia Facts About MasterChef Show
- Reality cooking Show MasterChef, produced in more than 40 countries and aired in around 200 territories, has completed 13 seasons in Australia and is in its 14th season.
- Reality cooking Show MasterChef Australia version won the most popular reality series in the world in 2020, recognized by the Global TV Demand Awards.
- For once, an Australian election TV debate was rescheduled so that the timings didnโt conflict with the reality cooking show MasterChef. Food won over the countryโs election debate, surely one of the fun facts about Australia.
13.2. Australian Exports
- The flourishing economy of Australia depends on the rising Australian exports of minerals and fuels.
- The top three minerals Australia exports are Iron ores & concentrates coal, and Natural gas.
- The largest Australian export market is China, which is 36.4% of Australiaโs overall exports.
13.3. Attractive Transport and Vehicle Fun Facts of Australia
- Australians were farsighted; they were first to introduce the seat belt law and made it compulsory as far back as 1969.
- The weekly Indian Pacific Train covers a 4352 km long distance between Sydney on the shore of the Pacific Ocean to Perth on the coast of the Indian Ocean in three days and runs on the east-west rail corridor.
- Australia offers excellent mountain biking sites for those who love to switch gears on the mountain. Donโt miss one of the enduring fun facts about Australia MTB. For the best MTB trails, click here.
14. Quick Summation of Interesting Australia Facts
- Due to continental drift, Australia has a particular species of snakes, and most of the species are highly venomous.
- The Commonwealth of Australia is divided into six states and two union territories. Each state and territory has emblems of bird, mammal, floral, fish color, or gem. Isnโt this one of the interesting facts about Australia?
- Australia boasts of language diversity too. There are 250 aboriginal languages and 800 dialects.
- The Indigenous people of Australia are among the first living civilization on earth, but like any other tribe, they also face discrimination in their country.
- There are as many as fifteen unique wild animals in Australia.
- 98% of Australians religiously follow the seat belt law, and the remaining two percent are mostly those who are either drunk or traveling less than a kilometer.
- 95% of Australians live less than 50 km from the coastline.
- Australia has approximately ten pink lakes. Yes, you are reading it right, pink lakes. Read on yet another from the list of fun facts about Australia. Do follow: The science behind pink lakes of Australia.ย
15. Conclusion
With 20 heritage sites inscribed in the World Heritage List consisting of more natural heritage sites than artificial ones, Australiaโs facts are worth revisiting.
I have tried my best to present a detailed study of the fun facts about Australia, which are innumerable. I hope this blog helps you take up the virtual tour of the countryโs continent, AUSTRALIA.
Last Updated on by Sathi