Australia is often nicknamed as “the Lucky Country” due to its vast amount of natural resources, its inherited British democracy, high living standards and relaxed chilled lifestyle.
Despire its HUGE size, the whole country has a population of only 26 million people (less than half the population of Italy or France to give you an idea) spread across a landmass of 7.7 million square kilometers (which makes it the sixth-largest country on Earth!).
Geographically it sits at the far end of the world map, tucked between the Indian and Pacific Oceans like a massive island that somehow turned into a continent.
Ask most people what they know about Australia and you ll get the usual highlights: kangaroos, the Sydney Opera House, golden beaches, surfers, and young travelers on year-long working holidays.
That picture is pretty accurate if you ask me, but it also tells only a tiny fraction of the story!
Australia is enormous yet strangely empty, with more than 85 percent of its population living within 50 kilometers of the coast.
The interior is so vast and sparsely populated that whole European countries could disappear inside it without anyone noticing.
In many aspects, Australia is a nation where distances feel exaggerated and wildlife, as we will find out soon, too!
Today, we won’t present you another postcard-style celebration of Australia!
Instead, in this article, we will offer you seven specific, surprising and genuinely odd curiosities that reveal a very different side of the country! 😉
Let’s dive right in! 😀
7 Secrets about the Agafay Desert!
1) Australia Has Some of the Longest
Flights on Earth
(and they are loooong!)
Reaching Australia is for many, not just a trip, but true intercontinental marathon in the sky!
From Europe, the journey to Sydney or Melbourne typically means 22 to 24 hours in the air, not counting layovers.
Even with today’s ultra-modern aircraft, the country sits inconveniently far from almost everything else on the planet.
On some routes such as London-Perth direct flight, you can leave home on Monday morning and touch down two calendar days later, wondering where Tuesday disappeared xD
As sleep hours schedules collapse, few days of jet lag is often a very common problem for travelers flying to Australia from other continents.
All in all, coming to Australia is one of those trips where the logistics of arriving deserve almost as much planning as the trip itself: it is not only long, but it also generally expensive!
Said that, with some hunting for smart fares and direct flights, I found it possible to avoid most of jetlag backlash while not breaking the bank: little advantages like an Aunt Betty promo code can actually take the sting out of those painfully long tickets.
Once landed in the lucky country, it is finally time to explore! 🙂
2) In Australia,There Are (Way) More
Kangaroos Than People!
As we’ve seen in the introduction, Australia is home to about 26 million people.
A respectable number yes… until you compare it with the local competition!
Current estimates put the kangaroo population at around 40 to 50 million.
In simple terms, the national animal comfortably outnumbers the nation itself (there are almost 2 kangaroos for every person in Australia! xD).
While you won’t see kangaroos in the heart of cities like Sydney or Melbourne; outside the major cities this becomes obvious very quickly!
If you drive through rural Australia at dusk, you will surely see more kangaroos than houses, and more bouncing silhouettes than streetlights!
Kangaroos are the national animal in Australia, and they also appear on coins, coats of arms, t-shirts and road signs! Locals love them and travelers too! 🙂
In large parts of the country, humans feel less like owners and more like guests :))
3) Australia is Home to Some of the Deadliest Animals on the Planet
Australia has a worldwide reputation for being dangerous.
And honestly, it kind of deserves it! Eheh 🙂
The country is home to around 170 species of snakes, of which 21 rank among the 25 most venomous on Earth!
But that’s not only snakes…
Its oceans host the box jellyfish, responsible for more recorded deaths than sharks worldwide, and the tiny blue-ringed octopus, carrying enough venom to kill an adult in minutes!
On land, the funnel-web spider delivers one of the most toxic bites known to science, while saltwater crocodiles can reach 7 meters in length and weigh over 1,000 kilograms!
Even the cute-looking and curious platypus has venomous spurs too!
Add to that sharks, stonefish, redback spiders and aggressive cassowaries, and the cast list starts to feel slightly excessive: Australian animals are among the most dangerous on Earth!
Now that I’ve scared you enough, let’s look at the numbers though, which luckily tell a calmer story 😉
Despite all this potentially-lethal biodiversity, Australia averages only a handful of wildlife-related deaths per year 🙂
Statistically, you are far more likely to be injured by a horse or a ladder than by any iconic Australian creature…so breath! 😀
Strict safety rules, clear warning systems and a population raised to respect nature, keep real-life risks surprisingly low and daily life is far safer than the reputation of the country suggests:)
Extra fun fact: Still, it remains one of the few places on Earth where checking your shoes before putting them on is considered normal behavior 😉
4) The Shape of Australia Looks Like the Faces of a Cat and a Dog
Pull up a world map and look carefully at Australia. Then, use a little imagination like a little kid.
Did you see it?
Many people notice something hilarious when looking at Australia: the outline of the country seems to form two animal heads!
On the eastern side, the coastline looks uncannily like the profile of a cat.
On the western side, the shape resembles the face of a dog.
Once you see it, you can never unsee it! 😉
This is a classic example of “geographic pareidolia,” when our brains recognize familiar shapes in random outlines: also Tazmania island can be seen as “cat food”! 😉
5) The Dingo Fence Is Longer Than Entire Countries
6) Wombats Produce Cube-Shaped Poop
Cutie, little animals that shit bricks! This also exists in Australia! 😀
Wombats have one of the strangest talents in the animal kingdom.
Unlike almost every other creature on Earth, they produce cube-shaped droppings.
Not vaguely square. Not slightly angular. Actual little geometric blocks!
This bizarre feature is completely real and has fascinated biologists for years (well…there is people that can get fascinated by just anything I guess! xD).
Researchers discovered that the unusual shape comes from the way a wombat’s intestine squeezes material through sections with different levels of elasticity, naturally forming sharp edges.
The result though, is very practical rather than purely random.
Cube-shaped poop doesn’t roll away, which allows wombats to stack it on rocks, logs and trail markers to clearly define their territory: believe it or not, each animal can produce an impressive 80 to 100 of these tiny cubes every single night!
It’s the only known example in nature of an animal creating regularly shaped excrement 🙂
7) Australia Is the Only Continent Without an Active Volcano
Almost every continent on Earth has at least one active volcano.
Europe has Etna and Vesuvius.
Asia and the Americas have entire volcanic belts.
Africa has giants like Mount Kilimanjaro and Nyiragongo.
Australia, however, has exactly zero active volcanoes.
The entire mainland sits on the middle of a very stable tectonic plate, far from the fault lines and hot spots of the Pacific circle of fire (despite the country geographical position!).
As a matter of facts, there hasn’t been a volcanic eruption on the Australian continent for tens of thousands of years!
The most recent volcanic activity occurred around 5,000 years ago in South Australia, and even that is considered dormant rather than active.
This geological calm explains why Australia’s landscape feels so old and weathered when you look at the landscape: mountains are gentle, soils are ancient, and erosion has had millions of years to slowly reshape everything!
Cross the Tasman Sea to New Zealand and you’ll find bubbling geysers and smoking craters.
Cross back to Australia and nature suddenly looks like it decided to retire... but yeah, there are all those weird animals that keep it fun, so do not worry! 😉
Conclusions 🙂
And here we are at the end of this article 🙂
Today, we’ve discovered 7 secret fun facts about Australia: from the long flights to get there and the long dingo fence, from the huge kangaroo population to the weirdly-shaped wombat poop, passing through the faces of the cat and dog on the map, the absence of vulcanoes and all kinds of killer-animals! 😉
Before going, as always, I want to ask you:
- Have you ever been to Australia before?
- How was your experience?
- Do you have other tips you would like to leave for the other readers?
Let us know in the comments below! 😀
Hereafter, I will leave you a few articles that you might also be interested in checking out:
Thank you for reading, and see you in the next article! 🙂
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