How much do you really know about Australia? Test yourself!
QUESTIONS
1 The Arunta believe kangaroo spirits are expelled by human blood from what objects?
2 Which SA amateur astronomer discovered 18 new comets?
3 Which Aussie invented the black box flight recorder in 1953?
4 Near which major city is Lake Alexandrina?
5 Which is Australia’s largest native forest west of the Great Dividing Range, covering more than 4500sq.km?
6 What term for a baby platypus is borrowed from baby echidnas?
7 What is the name of the acacia-wooded grassland between Queensland’s tropical coastal rainforest and semi-arid interior?
8 What is the Australian name given to an oxbow lake that can form along a meandering river’s course?
9 Where do the Palawa, or Pallawah, people live?
10 Approximately what percentage of the Australian continent does the outback cover?
11 Which state or territory has the Gregory, Georgina, Katherine and Todd rivers?
12 What is Australia’s tallest permanent waterfall, with a plunge of nearly 270m?
13 What is Australia’s fourth most populous city?
14 A fertile ant is a queen, but what is the male called?
15 What are the more than 50 islands at the eastern end of Bass Strait called?
16 What is the name for a very large flock of budgerigars, originally applied only to starlings?
17 What was the armed protest by miners on the Victorian goldfields in 1854?
18 What are the names of the Catholic and Anglican cathedrals in Melbourne?
19 What late 1800s art movement became known as Australian impressionism?
20 Which feral animal snorts, whinnies and neighs?
21 What is a depauperate ecosystem?
22 In what year was the city of Adelaide founded?
23 What bird can be called black, yellow or cinnamon?
24 On what annual date is Anzac Day observed?
25 What body of water lies between Melbourne and Tasmania?
26 What state was once known as Van Diemen’s Land?
27 Which remote valley is a forested region of south-eastern Australia and the traditional land of the Bidawal people?
28Was last year’s estimate of Australia’s population more or less than 25 million?
29 Who wrote the 1908 poem from which these two appellations for Australia come: a sunburnt country and the wide brown land?
30 Who is the current governor-general of the Commonwealth of Australia?
31 Near which major city is Mundaring State Forest?
32 In which year did “Advance Australia Fair” become the national anthem?
33 Is a quokka pregnancy more or less than a month?
34 In which Australian city is there a statue to Bon Scott, former AC/DC front man?
35 In 1962, which flower became the NSW official floral emblem?
36 Which critically endangered quail-like bird is found mostly in the NSW Riverina?
37 Which Queensland town is unofficially known as Australia’s wettest?
38 At 1986m, what is the Victoria’s highest point?
39 What national park and World Heritage area is about 150km south-east of Darwin?
40 Which opera singer travelled to Europe in 1886 to begin an international career?
41 For what profession were Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts known?
42 The Coorong is located at the end of which river?
43 What colour does the Westgate Park saltwater lake in Victoria turn in summer?
44 Pademelons and dorcopsises are respectively scrub-dwelling and forest-dwelling kinds of which animal?
45 Which Australian prime minister disappeared during an ocean swim in Victoria?
46 Who were Australia’s two prime ministers during WWI?
47 Which constellation is featured on the Australian flag?
48 In which state or territory is White Mountains NP?
49 Who was the first Australian to summit K2, Mt Everest, Annapurna II and Chongtar in the Himalaya?
50 Where is the oldest surviving mosque in Australia?
(Submitted by Anne Kirk, Colonel Light Gardens, SA.)
AUSQUIZ ANSWERS
1)Certain rocks 2) William ‘Bill’ Bradfield 3) David Warren 4) Adelaide 5) The Pilliga, NSW 6) Puggle 7) The Brigalow Belt 8) Billabong 9) Tasmania 10)Approximately 81% 11) Northern Territory 12) Wallaman Falls, QLD 13) Perth 14) A drone 15) Furneaux Group 16) A murmuration 17) The Eureka Stockade 18) St Patrick’s and St Paul’s 19) Heidelberg School 20) A brumby 21) One lacking in numbers or variety of species 22)1836 23) A bittern 24) 25 April 25) Bass Strait 26) Tasmania 27) Goolengook valley 28) More (25,694,393) 29) Dorothea Mackellar 30) His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd) 31) Perth 32) 1984 33) Less (27 days) 34) Fremantle 35) The waratah (Telopea speciosissima) 36) The plains-wanderer 37) Tully 38) Mt Bogong 39) Kakadu 40) Nellie Melba 41) Artist 42) Murray 43) Pink 44) Wallaby 45) Harold Holt 46) Andrew Fisher and Billy Hughes 47) The Southern Cross 48) Queensland 49) Greg Mortimer 50) Little Gilbert Street, Adelaide, built 1888–89
Adam Jacot de Boinod, who compiled the quiz, was a researcher for the BBC series QI and is the author of three books, including The Meaning of Tingo.
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