Biggest, longest, largest… find out more about quirky Australian icons.
1. There are approximately 150 "big things" located on tourist routes in Australia
Some of the Australia's best known "big things" are the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour; the Big Merino at Goulburn; the Big Crocodile at Wyndham; the Big Golden Gumboot in Tully (symbolising this tiny town has a high rainfall); and the big Golden Guitar at Tamworth home to the annual Country Music Festival.
2. If you were to take away the pylons on the Sydney Harbour Bridge it would not fall down
The pylons serve no structural purpose. They were added only to make the bridge look more stable.
3. The ute was invented by a Victorian man in 1932. Henry Ford nicknamed it ‘the kangaroo chaser’.
The small country town of Deniliquin (otherwise known as Ute-topia) holds the world record for the most utes ever assembled. In 2008 they reached 7,242 utes.
4. Coober Pedy in South Australia is known as the opal capital of the world
Its population is made up of more than 40 nationalities and, with year-round extremes in temperature, more than 50 per cent of the population live in below-ground ‘dugouts’.
5. The Esky was invented in Australia in the 1950s
It was invented because there was a strong desire for a portable beer cooler.
6. The Royal Flying Doctor Service is the world’s largest medical practice
The service provides a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week aero-medical emergency service, together with health care services for people who live, work or travel in Australia’s remote Outback.
7. Australia has the world’s longest, straight stretch of railway track
The stretch is 478 kilometres long and is part of the Indian Pacific great train journey which covers 4,325 kilometres from Sydney to Perth.
8. Melbourne's famous tramway system is the largest outside the European continent
It spiders out across the city and is more than 240 kilometres long.