FUN FACTS ABOUT AUSTRALIA

Here are 10 of the most interesting and funny fun facts about Australia!

1. As of 2012, over 25% of Australia’s residents were born overseas, and it’s expected to rise rapidly.
2. Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke once held the Guiness World Record for the fastest beer sculling!
3. Australia is the driest of any continent on earth other than Antarctica.
4. Australia’s dingo fence is longer than the Great Wall of China.
5. Australia’s alps receive more snowfall annually than the alps in Switzerland!
6. 80 percent of Australians believe Australia has a strong culture and identity characterised by being down to earth, honesty, sports & mate-ship, and multiculturalism based on research organised by the Australia Day Council in 2008.
7. Canberra was selected as the capital because Sydney and Melbourne couldn’t stop arguing which city should be the capital of Australia.
8. Australians refer to English people as POME, which is actually the acronym for “Prisoners of Mother England”.
9. Over 200 different languages and dialects are spoken in Australia, including 45 Indigenous languages. The most common non-English spoken languages are Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Vietnamese and Mandarin.
10. In 2005, the government issued a ban on saying the word ‘mate’ at Parliament House, which lasted 24 hours before it was overturned.