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About Australia: Extremes
Australia is a country, and continent, surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans. Its major cities Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide are coastal, but its capital, Canberra, is inland and nicknamed the “Bush Capital.” The country is known for its Sydney Opera House, Great Barrier Reef, the vast Outback (interior desert wilderness) and unique animal species including kangaroos and duck-billed platypuses.
Firsts
The first radio station in Australia was built near Pennant Hills, Sydney, in 1912.























A young Canadian named Bob Lapointe started the fast food revolution in Australia in 1968 when he opened the first KFC (formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken) restaurant at Guildford in Sydney’s western suburbs. The first KFC restaurant was built on this site and opened on 27th April 1968, with a staff of 25. KFC now has more than 600 stores in Australia and New Zealand, which are company owned or franchised.









Cape Keerweer
The first Europeans known to have died and been buried on Australian soil were six Dutch sailors, they died near Cape Keerweer on the Gulf of Carpentaria in March 1606 at the hands of local Aborigines. Their names were not recorded. The story of this landing by crew of the Duyfken is documented from both written and Aboriginal oral history sources in The Mapoon Books, ed. Janine (Jan) Roberts 1975. The Aborigines recall that the Dutch built at Cape Keerweer a number of huts and put in a well, with Aboriginal help, prior to a conflict. This was, as far as is known, the first European settlement in Australia. The Aborigines recall that their ancestors then set fire to the boats on the beach and have recorded six Dutch graves. Captain Willem Janszoon decided to turn back afer losing the six men.




The grave of Claude-Francois Joseph Louis Receveur at La Perouse
The first Catholic Mass in Australia was held on the point of the La Perouse peninsula on Botany Bay, NSW, on 17th February 1788. It was attended by the crew of the french ships La Boussole and L’Astrolabe. Commanded by Jean Francois Galaup, Comte de la Perouse, the ships had sailed from Brest in 1785 on a four-year voyage of discovery at the direction of King Louis XIV. The ceremony was officiated by Abbe Jean-Andre Monges on the occasion of the death and burial of a Franciscan monk, Claude-Francois Joseph Louis Receveur, who sailed with the expedition as a naturalist, and died while at Botany Bay. After la Perouse and his ships left the bay a few weeks later, they were never seen again.








Australia’s first bank, the Bank of NSW (later Westpac), was opened by Governor Macquarie at premises rented from Mary Reiby in Macquarie Place, Sydney, on 8th April 1817.






Duke Kahanamoku
Australia’s first surfboard was made in a Sydney timber yard from sugarpine in 1915. Visiting Hawaiian swimming champion Duke Kahanamoku had told some Australian swimmers about riding the waves on a wooden plank and drew a sketch of the board. When the shape was cut to size the Duke finished it by hand and then demonstrated his skills on the board at Freshwater beach, NSW. The board is on display at Freshwater Surf Lifesaving Club.










P.S. Sophie Jane – from a painting by Dickson Gregory, image No.; 2805501, courtesy State Library of Victoria
Sophie Jane was the first steamship to operate in Australian waters. The paddle wheeler arrived in Sydney on the 14th May 1831 under sail and commenced work in the coastal trade from Sydney-Newcastle.










Bruni d’Entrecasteaux
It is often stated that British navigator Matthew Flinders was the first person to circumnavigate Australia, but this is not so. The first to achieve that exploratory milestone was Frenchman Bruni d’Entrecasteaux, when he visited Australia’s shores in 1792 and 1793, some three years before Flinders made his visit. It must be said, however, that d’Entrecasteaux took the “long way round”, and did not follow the northern Australian coast via the Gulf of Carpentaria, but passed north of New Guinea.
Though circumnavigating Australia was one of the tasks given to Flinders in 1796, he never achieved it. Flinders’ commission was in fact completed by Phillip Parker King, sailing aboard HMS Mermaid in 1817-1822, who did circumnavigate Australia, mapping the coast as he went.
Most Distant

Macquarie Island is Australia’s most distant possession. Located in the Southern Ocean at a Latitude of 54°30′ South, longitude 158°57′ East, Macquarie Island is actually 200km closer to the Antarctic continent than its parent state of Tasmania, which lies 1500 kilometres north-west. Measuring an area of 128 square kilometers, Macquarie Island is 34 kilometers long by just 5 kilometers at its widest point.
Longest
Between the towns of Ooldia and Nurina in Western Australia is the world’s longest straight stretch of railway. It extends for 478.4 kilometres.







On the banks of the Tarwin River near the town of Tarwin, Vic, is what is believed to be the longest barbeque table in Australia. It seats 120 people. The longest single-span chairlift in the world is across Launceston’s Cataract Gorge, Tas.



Murray River at Paringa, SA
Australia’s Longest Rivers
The Murray River is the longest river in Australia at 2520km, combining with the Darling and Upper Darling Rivers to form the Murray-Darling basin. The Murray Darling extends over 15% of the continent, and serving 4 States and the ACT with water. The Murray also supports about 1/3 of Australia’s agricultural production, supports 50% of Australia’s sheep and croplands, and 25% of beef and dairy herds, contains about 62% of the country’s irrigated land and supplies 50% of South Australia’s water. Lengths shown are approximate.
River Murray (NSW/SA): 2,375 km
Murrumbidgee River (NSW/ACT): 1,485 km
Darling River (from River Murray to Culgoa River) (NSW): 1,472 km
Lachlan River (NSW): 1,339 km
Coopers Creek (Qld/SA): 1,113 km
Flinders River (Qld): 1,004 km
Diamantina River (Qld/SA): 941 km
Longest Rivers: by state/territory
Although the River Murray forms much of the border separating New South Wales and Victoria, it is not Victoria’s longest river because the New South Wales border is delineated by the river’s southern bank rather than by the middle of the river. The only section of the river considered within Victoria is a stretch of approximately 11 kilometres where it separates Victoria and South Australia. At this point, the middle of the river forms the border. Lengths shown are approximate and show the length of that river in that particular state or territory.
NSW: River Murray, 1,721 km
Qld: Flinders River, 1,004 km
WA: Gascoyne River, 834 km
SA: River Murray: 683 km
Vic: Goulburn River 683 km
NT: Victoria River: 510 km
Tas: South Esk River: 245 km
ACT: Murrumbidgee River, 59 km
Highest
The highest recorded temperature of 53.1 C was at Cloncurry, Qld, on 16 January 1889.

The highest 24-hour rainfall for the other states is:
NSW – Dorrign, 809 mm, 21st February 1954
WA – Broome (Kilto), 635 mm, 5th December 1970
NT – Roper Valley Station, 545 mm, 15th April 1963
Tas – Germantown, 508 mm, 22nd March 1974
Vic – Tanybryn, 375 mm, 22nd March 1983
SA – Motpena Station, 273 mm, 14th March 1989
ACT – Cotter River, 181 mm, 27th May 1925






NSW: Mt. Kosciuszko 2228 metres
VIC: Mt. Bogong 1986 metres
ACT: Bimberi Peak 1912 metres
QLD: Bartle Frere (S. Peak) 1622 metres
TAS: Mt. Ossa 1617 metres
NT: Mt. Zeil 1531 metres
SA: Mt. Woodroffe 1435 metres
WA: Mt. Meharry 1253 metres


Ben Lomond railway station on the former Great Northern Railway, NSW, was the highest point on the line and the highest point attained by any Australian railway. The railway station, currently not in use, is 1,363 metres above sea level.
Lowest
The lowest temperature ever recorded in Australia was minus 23 degrees celsius at Charlotte Pass, NSW, on 18th June 1994.

Largest
Australia is the world’s largest inhabited island.










Australia’s largest water body is Lake Eyre, SA. Though rarely full, this salt lake has an area of 9,500 square kilometres.



Shortest
The shortest street in Australia is Atherden Street in The Rocks, Sydney, NSW. Just 28 metres long, it extends from Playfair Street into what was once the face of a quarry. It is also among one of Australia’s oldest streets.Smallest
Australia is the world’s smallest continent. With an area of 7.8 million km2, it is just smaller than Brazil.









A tiny triangle of beach on Lavender Bay in Sydney, NSW, is the smallest registered beach in the whole of Australia. The beach once extend the full length of the bay’s foreshore, but industry and then the development of wharves, boat moorings and seawalls has seen it shrink to its present miniscule size.



The town of Shackleton in the Western Australian Wheatbelt claims to have Australia’s smallest bank. Measuring only 3 metres by 4 metres it is only open on Fridays from 3.00 pm – 4.30 pm.

Last
The last tram ran in Sydney on 26th February 1961.


Fastest
Ken Warby’s hydroplane, Spirit of Australia, is the fastest boat in the world. Spirit of Australia set the World Water Speed Record in 1978; remarkably the boat still holds that record. It is on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum.
Narrowest

At 2.4 metres from kerb to kerb, Sydney’s narrowest street is Argyle Lane in Millers Point (right). High Lane, which runs parallel to Argyle Lane, is just 8 cm wider but is on a higher elevation in its middle section. The two streets appear to be dual carriageways of the same street but they are not.


The narrowest house in Sydney and possibly the whole of Australia is a tiny, two storied Victorian house at 43a Edgeware Road, Enmore. It is just 3 metres wide. In spite of its size, it was subdivided at one stage into 4 flats. Steep stairs in a blue and white pattern lead to the front door. The tiny verandah is heavily decorated with cast-iron lace.
Wettest

Tully, Qld, is the wettest town in Australia with an average annual rainfall of 355.6 centimetres (11 ft, 10 inches). It is appropriate that the town’s symbol is a giant gumboot.
Tallest
The Ferguson Tree, near Healesville, Watts River Catchment, Victoria, was not only the tallest tree ever measured in Australia but ever measured in the world. Surveyor Ferguson measured it in 1872 at over 500 ft (154m+), with a girth of 56.5ft (17.5m). The fallen tree was measured at 435 feet however the top had broken off in the fall. The broken top section was measured at 66 feet. Giant Swamp Gums in the Styx Valley Tall Tree reserve in Tasmania’s Mt Field National Park are up to 87 metres tall and are believed to be the tallest hardwood trees on earth.

The world’s tallest rubbish bin is at Kalgoorlie, WA. It is rarely used as few people are tall enough to use it!




The tallest structure in Australia and in fact the southern hemisphere is the mast of the Woodside Omega Transmitter (station G, now Woodside VLF transmitter) near Woodside, Victoria. It uses an umbrella antenna carried by a 432 metre high grounded lattice steel guyed mast. After the shutdown of OMEGA it was used until 2004 as transmitter for orders to submarines on 13 kHz. Today it works on 18.6 kHz.
At 387 metres, the second tallest is Tower Zero at the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station at Exmouth in WA. The station provides very low frequency (VLF) radio transmission to United States Navy and Royal Australian Navy ships and submarines in the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean. With a transmission power of 1000 kilowatts, it is the most powerful transmission station in the Southern hemisphere. Tower zero is surrounded by 12 lesser towers. Six of the lesser towers stand 364 metres high, making them the equal third tallest made made structures in Australia.
Most
The most densely populated area in Australia is the Sydney suburb of Elizabeth Bay.

The most valuable street in Australia in terms of its real estate value has been calculated as being Wolseley Road in the Sydney suburb of Point Piper. An evaluation in 2002 calculated the total value of waterfront properties in this 1 km long blue-ribbon street as being $720 million. In April 2008, the median property price was $7,092,000.
Least
Lake Eyre, SA, has the least recorded average rainfall of any locality in Australia. It receives an average of 125 mm per year.Oldest
The oldest daily newspaper in the southern hemisphere is the Sydney Morning Herald (1831).



The Gawler Ranges landscape is believed to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest landscapes on Earth. They consist of rock formed from ash spewed out by massive volcanic eruptions almost 1600 million years ago.






Old Government House in Parramatta, NSW, is Australia’s oldest public building. The original was built for Arthur Phillip in 1790. Much of Phillip’s building had collapsed in 1799 when Governor Hunter replaced it with the Georgian structure present today.



Richmond Bridge, over the Cole River, Tas, is the oldest bridge in Australia. It was built by convicts in 1823.











Bradleys Head on Sydney Harbour is Australia’s oldest defence site. Sections of a sandstone firing wall at the location date from 1802.




Australia’s oldest European artifact is the Hartog plate, a pewter dinner plate which Dutch navigator Dirk Hartog had engraved and mounted on a post at Shark Bay, WA, to record his visit there in 1616. It remained there for a remarkable 81 years until it was replaced with a similar one by fellow Dutchan Willam de Vlamingh. Hartog’s plate is now in the possession of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.





Research work on timbers from the Dutch ship Batavia show that it was built from the same oak on which famous Flemish artists such as Rembrandt and Rubens painted their 17th century masterpieces. Tree-ring dating shows that Australia’s oldest ship timbers date back to seedlings growing in a Polish oak forest south of Danzig after 1324. In 1628, they were used to build the Batavia, which sank off Geraldton WA, in 1629 on its maiden voyage to Indonesia. By the time the ship was built in 1628, the wood beams sourced from the forests growing along Poland’s longest river was already 300 years old – making the ship’s timbers some of the oldest splinters in maritime history.





Australia’s oldest operating tram depot is in Bendigo, Vic. Situated in Violet Street, it is home to Bendigo Tramways and its 32 vintage trams from Melbourne and Bendigo.






Geographical Extemities
Most Northerly Point: The tip of Cape York Peninsula in far-north Queensland.

Cape Byron
Most Easterly Point: Cape Byron, two kilometres east of Byron Bay, in northern New South Wales
Most Southerly Point (mainland): South Point at the tip of Wilson’s Promontory, Victoria.
Most Southerly Point (incl. Tasmania): South East Cape, Tasmania.
Most Westerly Point: Steep Point, a short distance from Shark Bay, between Dirk Hartog Island and Useless Loop in Western Australia.
Lowest Point (surface): Lake Eyre, which is 16 metres below sea level.
Lowest Point (underground): Australia’s deepest cave is Anne-A-Kananda of Mt Anne, Tas. It goes 373 metres below surface level.

Mt Kosciuszko
Highest Point (mainland): Mt Kosciuszko, 2,228 metres above sea level.
Highest Point: Mawsons Peak, which is 2,745 metres above sea level. Located on Heard Island, Australian Antarctic Territory.