It’s an Australian tradition to eat sausages at polling places on election day called Democracy Sausages. For many communities, this is the biggest fundraising event of the year.
100 Mind-Blowing Australian Facts
The world’s oldest dog lived to 29.5 years old. While the median age a dog reaches tends to be about 10-15 years, one Australian cattle dog, ‘Bluey’, survived to the ripe old age of 29.5.
The lyrebird can make chainsaw sounds. The Australian lyrebird can mimic not only animals, but it can imitate sounds from other inanimate objects such as cars, cameras, and chainsaws.
New Zealand was once auctioned on eBay. In 2006, an Australian man auctioned the country on the e-commerce platform with a starting bid of $0.01. The bidding prices were raised to $3,000 before officials of the website shut it down.
An Australian engineer once sued his ex-boss for farting on him. In March 2017, David Hingst sued his ex-boss for repeatedly farting on him in his former job. He sought 1.8 million Australian dollars ($1.28 million) worth of damages. His boss would fart on him 5 to 6 times a day, but his former supervisor insists he only ever did it once or twice.
In 2005, Australia banned the word “mate.” Due to complaints, the Australian Parliament once banned the use of “mate” at work. However, it didn’t last too long, and the ruling was withdrawn in 24 hours.
An episode of Peppa Pig was banned from Australian television. Their offense? The episode taught children not to fear spiders. Given how many venomous spiders live in Australia, it’s only natural to ban them for the safety of the kids watching.
Grass flip-flops are an actual product you can buy. The Australian company KUSA makes artificial grass flip-flops that simulate the feeling of walking on fresh grass. See for yourself if these grass flip-flops are as comfy as they say so.
The Australian $5 to $100 notes are made of plastic.
The world’s oldest dog lived to be 29.5 years old. The Australian cattle dog named Bluey lived to be 29.5 years old when the average age for dogs is from 10-15 years. This weird animal fact should resonate with dog lovers around the world.
The fastest insect on Earth is the Australian tiger beetle, Cicindela hudsoni. Clocking in at 5.6 mph, this incredible insect runs so fast, it has to slow down to see anything.
Throughout history, different cultures around the world have experienced time in different ways. In the Western world, we tend to think of time as linear and flowing from left to right. But this isn’t the case for everyone. Language affects how people conceptualize time, particularly the spatial metaphors they use to describe and map it. Those who read languages that flow from right to left, such as Arabic and Hebrew, generally view time as flowing in the same direction. The Aymara, who live in the Andes Mountains in South America, consider the future to be behind them, while the past is ahead. In their view, because the future is unknown, it’s behind you, where you can’t see it. Some Indigenous Australian cultures, which rely heavily on direction terms like north, south, east, and west in their languages, visualise the passage of time as moving from east to west. If they’re facing north, for example, the past would be to their right, or east, whereas the future would be to their left, which would be west.