Yet More Unusual Australia Facts.

Welcome to another of our pages with more unusual Australia facts.

No pages on unusual facts about Australia would be complete without some mention of the many mysteries that abound.

• On August 17, 1980, Lindy Chamberlain, the wife of a Church minister, told authorities that a dingo took her baby Azaria from their campsite near Uluru. Curiously, the Australian public was more inclined to place faith in the character of a wild dog rather than in a minister's wife and as a consequence, Lindy was convicted of murder. Some years later her conviction was quashed yet still some Australians are adamant that the dingo was innocent.

• Like the Nth American big foot, the yowie emits a vile odour and screams offensively. Numerous sightings of Yowies have turned out to be escaped mental patients or hermits in jungle attire.

• In 1967, Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia went for a swim at the beach and was never seen again. Theories about his disappearance include kidnapping by a Russian submarine, eaten by a shark or being carried away by the tide.

• Bunyips haunt rivers, swamps, creeks and billabongs. Their main goal in life is to cause nocturnal terror by eating people or animals in their vicinity. They are renowned for their terrifying bellowing cries in the night and have been known to frighten Aborigines to the point where they would not approach any water source where a Bunyip might be waiting to devour them. Some scientists believe the Bunyip was a real animal, the diprotodon, extinct for some 20,000 years.

• 20-30 thousand years ago, Australia was home to Megafauna; giant species of marsupials including a wombat the size of a rhino, meat eating kangaroos, kangaroos three meat tall and lizards 7 meters long. It is not known exactly what happened to them. One theory is that were hunted to extinction by Aborigines or that the Aborigines use of fire destroyed their habitat. Another theory is their habitat was destroyed by the progressive drying of Australia.

• The Australian Kimberley is home to a mysterious form of rock art known as the Bradshaws. The art is dispersed in around 100 000 sites spread over 50 000 sq. km. Although the art's pigment can't be dated, a fossilised wasp nest covering one of the paintings has been dated at 17,000 + years old. This makes the art at least four times older than the pyramids.

• The Bradshaws depict people with straight hair and pony tails. One painting even depicts a boat, with a rudder, and 29 people on board. Unlike other Aboriginal art, it is not known what purpose the Bradshaw paintings served. Graham Walsh, the foremost expert on them, has suggested that they might be a form of iconography(picture writing) painted by a now extinct Asiastic race.

• In 1998, a huge engraving of a Aboriginal warrior appeared in the Australian outback. It was 4km long, held a throwing stick, was bearded and had a penis which was estimated to be 200m in length. The markings appeared to have been made by a tractor pulling some sort of plough which created furrows 10m wide in the difficult terrain. To this day, the artist is a mystery.

• Phar Lap was Australia's greatest race horse winning 37 of his 51 starts. After handicappers saddled him with enough weight to stop a train, his owner took him overseas to race in America. He easily won his first race but then died in mysterious circumstances.

• In 1974, scientists discovered the Mungo man, a primate who was ritually buried 40-60,000 years ago with his hands covering his penis. The Australian National University’s John Curtin School of Medical Research found that the skeleton's genetic material contained a small section of mitochondrial DNA. It was analysed and compared to the genetic material from nearly 3,500 people; including Neanderthals, Asians, ancient Aborigines, and present-day Aborigines. It was found that Mungo Man's DNA lacked a gene that was common to all the other samples. Consequently, unlike every other known person on the planet, or unearthed skeleton, Mungo man can not be traced to humans that left Africa any time in the last 200,000 years. Mungo Man's unique DNA has been used to challenge the 'out of Africa' theory of human evolution.

Together with the mysteries we must include some unusual facts about our Australian eccentrics.

•Rosaleen Norton was born in 1917. She lived outside the realm of respectable society; flouting all moral and social conventions. Her published book of illustrations was declared obscene by the censors and banned in 1952. Popularly known as the Kings Cross Witch, she was hounded by the media who seized on her alleged satanic rituals, sex orgies and drug-taking. When asked whether she ever considered leading an ordinary life, she exclaimed: "Oh God no, I couldn't stand it! I'd go mad or sane. I don't know which."

•William James Chidley was born in 1860 and came to prominence due to his unconventional theories on sex, diet and clothing. Donned in a Spartan tunic, he preached living a 'natural' life of nudity and a diet comprising only fruit and nuts. He suffered constant persecution by the authorities, was committed to various asylums and jailed. Ironically, he was regarded as a pervert for mentioning sex when he was something of a puritan in his teachings and lifestyle. However the public became fond of him and subsequently petitioned parliamentarians and the media to get him released.

•Billy Blue was a Convict of African decent. He was quite a character due to his respectable attire of top hat and discarded military uniform. So colourful was his personality that his frequent law infringements were looked upon with a 'benevolent ' air by police.

•Tim the Yowie man began his career as a mild mannered economist but during a bushwalking expedition, his life changed after coming face to face with a Yowie (Australian bigfoot). Tim realized his calling and gave up the figures to investigate those mysterious occurrences that others were too afraid to openly discuss. Tim named his genre "crypto naturalism" and to this day, he remains the genre's only occupant.

Last but not least, some unusual facts about the Australian economy and lifestyle.

•Australia was founded by Convicts. Its homicide rate is 1.8 per 100,000 population. The United States was founded by religious zealots. It's homicide rate is 6.3 per 100,000. Almost 400% greater than Australia.

•10 percent of Australians satisfy the definition of an 'ocker' . This 10 percent of the population consume 80 percent of the beer drunk in Australia.

•On average, American soldiers fired seven times as many bullets as Australian soldiers during the Vietnam war.

•Per capita, Australians read more newspapers than any other nation.

•Australia is one of the world's most urbanised countries, with about 70 per cent of the population living in the 10 largest cities.

•Australia's expenditure on arts products ranks among the highest in developed countries.

•The average world population density is 117 people per square mile, that of the United States 76 and that of Macao is 69,000. Australia's is only 6.

•80% of Australians are employed in the service sector, 14% in manufacturing and 5% in rural industries.

•2.3 percent of Australia's GDP is derived from agriculture.

•15 percent of Australia's GDP is derived from mining.

•0.02 percent of the Australian land mass is used by mines. More land is occupied by pubs.

•For each person in Australia there are two sheep and over 16 rabbits, the latter introduced in 1859 by one enterprising man who brought 24 wild rabbits from England in an effort to remind him of home.

•At the highpoint of the Bicentenary in 1988, 51% of Australians couldn't see any good reason for celebrating.

•In 1999, 46,000 Australians were arrested for possession or use of Cannabis.

•It is estimated that 50% of Australians aged 14-19 are active users of Cannabis.

•The sale of illegal cannabis constitutes 1 percent of Australia's GDP and is twice the size of the Australian wine industry.

Don’t forget to visit our other ‘facts’ pages at:

More unusual facts about Australia.

Even more unusual facts about Australia.

If you would like to add any unusual facts about Australia that we’ve missed out please write to us through our ‘contact us’ page and we’ll do our best to include your contributions,

John.

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