Sorry for the delay, overslept. Didn't realise it was Wednesday until I had my coffee.
SOURCE
8.
Australia’s outback hosts the world’s only known record of a dinosaur stampede!
Lark Quarry is located in Australia and is the site of the world’s only known record of a dinosaur stampede. The fossilized footprints look to depict a predator causing a chaotic stampede of around 150 two-legged dinosaurs. The traditional story is that a theropod, Tyrannosauropus, stalked and chased chicken-sized Coelurosaurs and emu-sized Wintonopus.
The theropod is thought to be 10 meters long with 50 centimeter feet. Soon after the stampede happened, water began to rise over the tracks and covered them with sandy sediments before the mud had dried. Buried beneath sand and mud, the footprints were preserved as the lakes rose and fell over the years.
The footprints were discovered in the 1960s by a station manager in the nearby Seymour Quarry. A roof was placed over the footprints to preserve them after being excavated, but weathering continued to damage them. So, in 2002 a building was constructed around the quarry to protect and preserve the finding.
7.
In Australia there are stingrays half the size of school buses!
As if having claim on the deadliest spiders, snakes, jellyfish, and octopuses in the world wasn’t enough, it turns out that Australia also contains an animal known as the “giant stingray.” Giant string rays have also been seen in the river systems of Borneo, New Guinea, and Thailand.
Very few sightings of this animal have been reported. It is thought that these fish are remnants from the ancient times; that they haven’t changed much in a million years. But why should they need too? While they don’t readily attack people, these animals can handle most threatening situations with the deadly barb on the base of their tales that can even penetrate human bones!
Now, the most scientists know about the giant string ray is that it’s giant (16.5 feet and 600 kilograms on average). They’re not sure how many are left, which habitats they prefer, or even where they commonly dwell. Think about that next time you decide to take a dip in the ocean.
6.
New Zealand could join the Australian confederation if it wants to!
Although plenty of people get New Zealand confused for Australia as it is. The two countries are divided by the Tasman Sea and therefore the relations between them are referred to as the Trans-Tasman relations. The culture of Australia differs from that New Zealand.
They often have different opinions about sports and commercial tensions caused by the long-standing Australian ban on New Zealand apple imports. While they may not be the same, the two countries are pretty close. Both share a British colonial heritage and are part of the Anglosphere. New Zealand soldiers fought alongside Australians during the Second World War. In 1901, New Zealand was involved in the early Federation talks with other Australian colonies. Without consulting New Zealand, its name was listed as a state in the Australian constitution. However, New Zealand didn’t ratify the constitution, and rejected membership into the Australian confederation. The Constitution was never amended, and the Australians’ offer stands to this day!
5.
Two Australian planes collided midair in 1940 and managed to land while still connected!
Two Avro Ansons from Forrest Hill air base in New South Wales, Australia were flying together for a training exercise. They were flying to Corowa, New South Wales piloted by Leonard Graham Fuller and Jack Inglis Hewson. They were flying at an altitude of 1,000 feet when they banked.
Fuller lost sight of Hewson’s Anson below him and the two planes collided one on top of the other. They stayed stuck together with the upper plane’s engines knocked out, but the lower plane’s engines still turning full speed. The navigators in both planes bailed along with Hewson, the lower plane’s pilot who hurt his back in the crash.
Fuller realized he still had control over the planes and managed to fly another five miles and make an emergency pancake landing in a large paddock by Brocklesby. The plane on top was fixed and put to flight again. All four crew men survived the bizarre ordeal.
4.
One of the biggest jail-breaks in history involved hundreds of Japanese POWs attempting to escape an Australian prisoner camp.
It’s one of the most bizarre, impressive jail breaks recorded. The background info is pretty simple. It was at the tail end of World War Two, and some 2,000 Japanese prisoners of war were imprisoned in Australia. On a night before the prisoners were to be moved, there was a sudden sound of a Japanese bugle.
Multiple mobs of prisoners charged the barbed wire keeping them imprisoned while shouting “Banzai!” They were using knives, baseball bats, clubs, and even wire stilettos. As the chaos grew, some of the prisoners escaped as others set the jail on fire. Hundreds managed to successfully escape, but many were soon rounded up. Many ended up hanging themselves before they could be caught.
234 of the POWs died and 108 were wounded. 31 of the deaths were suicides and 12 were from Japanese fires.
3.
Twenty-four rabbits set lose in Australia grew to a population of 10 billion in about 67 years.
In 1859, a man named Thomas Austin in Barwon Park, Australia released 24 rabbits. These European wild rabbits spread rapidly, about 130 km per year. By 1926, there were over 10 billion rabbits in the island.
Since the peak in population, disease has reduced the rabbit population down from billions to hundreds of millions. Rabbits reproduce at a ridiculously fast rate. Rabbits are mature enough to reproduce after only three or four months of life.
After that, they have a very short gestation period of only 28-30 days. A female rabbit creates a burrow to breed in. A female rabbit can birth 5-6 litters a year, with about 5 baby rabbits in each litter. That means a single female rabbit could give birth to as many as 30 new rabbits in a year.
These rabbits are very hazardous to the ecosystem of Australia. Rabbits feed on certain plants in particular, so those plants got eaten up by the high population of non-native rabbits.
The absence of those plants affected other native animals in the area. This changed the ecological landscape of Australia. Rabbits also hurt the economy by overgrazing in farm areas.
2.
Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos was cancelled mid air during the first episode!
I suppose the existence of a series called “Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos” is more of the “OMG fact” here than its cancellation. The show was a one-off special spinoff of “Australia’s Funniest Home Videos.”
Rather than showing babies falling of tricycles or dogs jumping off roofs, the show depicted videos of sexual situations like a little girl grabbing a kangeroo’s scrotum and two people caught having sex in the middle of a park.
Like the 1969 American TV show Turn-on, it was taken off the air part-way through the broadcast of its first and only episode. “Australia’s Funniest Home Videos” received many racy of risqué videos that could not be sent back to the viewers according to the show’s policy, and had to be kept by the station.
The producers decided to compile these videos into a one-off special aimed at an adult audience. The videos included animal genitalia, humans or animals engaging in sexual intercourse, people who accidently get disrobed, etc. When the network owner was informed about it, he saw it and called the studio operators to say; “Get that sh*t off the air.”
1.
The emu and red kangaroo are on the Australian coat of arms, because they are unable to move backwards and symbolize the nation moving forward constantly.
The red kangaroo and emu are commonly thought to not be able to move backwards easily. They are generally thought to be on the Australian crest to symbolize a nation moving forward. The coat of arms was granted by King George V in 1912.
It has a shield depicting the badges of the six Australian states, enclosed by an ermine border. The shield is a symbol for the federation of the states that happened in 1901. The coat of arms are generally seen with a scroll and wattle surrounding it, but they aren’t part of the Royal Warrant made for the coat of arms.
For a long time, the words “Advance Australia” appeared on unofficial coat of arms, even before the federation of the states. It was actually included in the 1908 coat of arms and made more popular by the song “Advance Australia Fair.” In 1984, a revised version of the song became the nation’s anthem.
I wonder if he's had any more business since the movie?