Trivia Tuesday

G'day mate! Today's Trivia Tuesday (hey, that's three alliterative T's!) is happy to announce that it is Australia Day! In honor of Australia, I thought I would share some fun and unusual facts about our sister country down-under.

Did you know:

• In 1838 it was declared illegal to swim at public beaches during the day! This law was enforced until 1902;
• In 1954, Bob Hawke was immortalized by the Guinness Book of Records for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds. Bob later became the Prime Minister of Australia;
• Australia was the 3rd country, after the US and Russia, to launch a satellite into orbit. It was for the British, using a 'Blue Streak' rocket;
• Australia's first police force was a band of 12 of the most well behaved Convicts;
• Australia was founded by Convicts. Its homicide rate is 1.8 per 100,000 population. The United States was founded by religious zealots. Its homicide rate is 6.3 per 100,000. Almost 400% greater than Australia;
• In 2007, it was estimated that 22 per cent of living Australians had a convict ancestor;
• Australia is the smallest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent in the world. It is the only country which is also a whole continent;
• With less than 1 percent of the world's population, Australia has more than 20 percent of its poker machines;
• Australians refer to lazy people as 'bludgers'. The word is derived from 'bludgeoner' which is a prostitute's standover man;
• The name Australia comes from the Latin Terra Australis Incognito which means the Unknown Southern Land;
• The name for the Australian marsupial Kangaroo came about when some of the first white settlers saw this strange animal hopping along and they asked the Aborigines what it was called. They replied with 'Kanguru', which in the native language meant 'I don't know';
• Dropbears are an evil species of koala that fall from trees and attack humans. The evil strain of koala don't actually exist. The story was created to fool Americans;

Source: http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/facts.htm

A lot of those interesting facts I did not know... nor could have guessed! If you have some time at work/home/school today, feel free to take this Humorous Australia Quiz to test your knowledge of Australian Stereotypes. 

And throw another shrimp on the barbie, mate!