Trivia Bits 26 January

 

Celebrating Australia Day

 

Introduced on 14 February 1966, the original fifty cent piece (pictured) in Australian decimal currency had around $2.00 worth of silver in it before it was replaced with a less expensive twelve sided coin.

Every airliner in the world, and most planes, uses a piece of navigation equipment called DME, or Distance Measuring Equipment which was invented in Australia in the 1950's.

The common refrigerator's system of cooling was invented in Australia, in  the 1850's, by James Harrison which by 1857 was making up to 3 tonnes of ice a day,

Australia was first called that by a local explorer, Matthew Flinders, who decided to promote the name "Terra Australis", or "South Land" but was not officially recognised until the then governor of the country, Lachlan Macquarie named it as such in a dispatch to London in 1817.

The first life-saving club in the world was founded in Australia, Bronte, Sydney, in 1903.

The world's first feature film was Soldiers of the Cross, made and shown in Australia in 1900 followed by The Story of the Kelly Gang in 1906.

There are only two egg-laying mammals in the world, both of which come from Australia - The echidna, or spiny anteater, and the platypus.

Howard Florey, an Australian, co-discovered penicillin and shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for developing the world's first anti-biotic.

The longest fence in the world is in Australia, and it runs for over 5,530 kms and is designed to keep dingoes away from the sheep.

On the 7th of March, 1856, workers in Sydney belonging to the Stonemason's Society were the first workers in the world to gain an eight hour working day, reduced from ten hours, being celebrated in Australia by the holiday, "Labour Day".