Since "69 Fun Facts About Germany" generated so much excitement (although I speculate it is mainly because of that ab-licious photo of Michael Ballack) I've decided to create a similar post about Australia, which is one of my favourite countries. Having read and loved Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country (Also known as Down Under to Brits and Aussies, and Frühstück mit Kängurus to the Germans) I decided to base these fun facts from what Mr. Bryson shares with us in his delightful novel. While I did not entirely enjoy Bryson's earlier work Neither Here Nor There, I found him to be highly entertaining in this memoir, as he shares many exciting facts about the land Down Under. I highly recommend this book as it definitely does an amazing job of capturing the spirit of this sunny nation. Here are some of my favourite facts from this book:- As many of you already know, the Brits sent their convicts to Australia in the late eighteenth century. While the voyage took 252 days they were lucky - upon landing, the Brits spotted two French ships in the horizon. Meaning, had they taken a day longer to arrive, Australia would have been a French colony (49).
- The Opera House was designed by the Danish architect, Joern Utzon. Utzon, surprisingly , never ended up seeing his prized creation, after leaving the project due to disputes about its rising costs, and returned to Denmark (55).
- Sir Eugene Goossens, the man who came up with the idea to build the Opera House, never saw the final creation either - while passing customs in Sydney, he was discovered carrying a large collection of porn and was asked to leave the country (55).
- Lachlan Macquarie, the Scottish governor of the colony in the beginning of the nineteenth century, was nearly successful at attempting to name every object in the continent after himself. As a result, there is the Macquarie Harbour, Macquarie Island, Macquarie Marsh, Macquarie River, Macquarie Fields, Macquarie Pass, Macquarie's Chair, Macquarie's Point and a Macquarie town. Macquarie is also a bank, university, the national dictionary, a shopping centre, an ice rink, and countless roads, streets and avenues. And that doesn't even include all the places named after his first name Lachlan... (66).
- A suggested name for the nation's capital Canberra was "Sydmeladperbrisho" (using the first syllables of the state capitals) (86).
