Australian Fun Facts

Fun Facts About Australia - Animals

• There are 1500 hundred species of Australian spiders.
• If you read about our spiders you might not like this: the average person swallows three spiders a year.
• We have over 6000 species of flies, about 4000 species of ants, and there are about 350 species of termites in Australia.
• The combined mass of all termites in the world is more than ten times the mass of all people.
• Termites are also called white ants, but they're not ants, in fact not even closely related to ants.
• Australia has the world's largest population of wild camels with one hump.
• The Tasmanian Devil does exist, and it has the jaw strength of a crocodile.
• Sharks are immune to all known diseases.
• There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, and only some 20 million people.

Fun Facts About Australia - Geography

• No part of Australia is more than 1000 km from the ocean and a beach. (The point in the world that's the furthest from any ocean would be in China.)
• Australia has the world's largest cattle station (ranch). At 30,028 km² it is almost the same size as Belgium.
• Population density in Australia is usually calculated in km² per person, not people per km².
• Australians have 380,000 m² per person available. Yet well over 90% are cramming into our coastal cities. (Don't ask me why, I sure prefer it here in the Outback.)
• We call Australian's from Queensland "banana benders", and people from Western Australia "sandgropers".
• Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.
• The Great Barrier Reef has a mailbox. You can ferry out there and send a postcard, stamped with the only Great Barrier Reef stamp.
• The Australian Alps, or Snowy Mountains as they are also known, receive more snow than Switzerland.
• Melbourne has the second largest Greek population in the world, after Athens.

Taken from: http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/fun-facts-about-australia.html#ixzz0WPPTDQBS