For this, the penultimate installment of our month of Australian-themed blogs, we've rounded up a few interesting facts that you might not know about the great land of Australia. From the world's largest living organism to a record-breaking Prime Minister, there's a whole lot more to this amazing country than just kangaroos, koalas and Kylie!
1. Uluru Peak (Ayers Rock) rises 348m above ground, and extends a whopping 2.5km below it.
2. In 2005 security guards at the Canberra parliament were banned from calling people ‘mate’. The ban lasted for 24 hours.
3. When you brush flies away from your face, you’re doing the 'Aussie salute'.
4. The Australian Alps, or Snowy Mountains as they are also known, receive more snow annually than all of Switzerland.
5. The largest cattle station in the world is Anna Creek Station in South Australia. At over 34,000 square kilometres, it occupies an area larger than Belgium.
6. The Great Barrier Reef stretches for 2600km, and is the world’s largest living organism. It even has its own postbox!
7. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawkes was able to drink 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds, an achievement that got him in the Guinness Book of World Records.
8. Over 200 different languages and dialects are spoken in Australia including 45 Indigenous languages. The most common non-English spoken languages are Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Vietnamese and Mandarin.
9. The notepad was invented in Australia in 1902. In the same year, Australia became the second country in the world to give women the right to vote.
10. The ‘dingo fence’ in Australia is the longest fence in the world, and at 3488 miles long is about twice the length of the Great Wall of China.