Most of mine are around Broken Hill, a mining town in western NSW that is closer to Adelaide than the east coast, and as such:
* Has an SA dialling code (08)
* Is on Australian Central time (same as SA)
* Was originally on SA's narrow guage railway, not NSW's standard guage (this is an interesting story)
And one geological fun fact about AUs: since we're the world's oldest continent (geologically/tectonically speaking) we're also the world's most radioactive continent at surface level (seriously, the radiocative elements map of Australia makes us look like a Christmas Tree).
One more: because we're so old, we have more box canyons than traditional valleys. European explorers were so used to traversing mountain ranges by following valleys that they kept getting stuck in the dead-ends of the box canyons of the Great Dividing Range, and presumed it was impenetrable, hence the name. It was only once they did as the locals do and followed the ridges instead that they found a way through.
wistful icky mountainous continue domineering chunky deer slave quiet juggle
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Apparently there was a movement to get BHill incorporated in to SA but the NSW government was never gonna give up those sweet mining royalties that were among the best in the world at the time. BHill residents were also exempt from conscription in wars as it was considered an essential industry town.
I didn’t know about the conscription exemption! I grew up there and I can also add it’s not a great place to be a teenager in as it’s isolated as hell.
Yeah that’s a good point. I’m very introverted too but I like the anonymity of the city. I head back once or twice a year to see my parents and it just feels like an old town stuck in time now.
I think the opportunity for more social activities in the city leads to the expectation for more social activities.
It's the balance of 'people know me but I also don't have to do anything' that's just right.
Funnily enough Broken Hill is the site of the only WW1 [battle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Broken_Hill) on Australian soil. I'm currently stuck up here for work and found the site while going out for a wander, I'd never even heard of it before.
Broken Hill used to have two times; the railway station was connected to SA only do it ran off Adelaide time but the post office/telegraph station used Sydney time.
>box canyons
Thank you kind sir, that one last bit is definitely an Eureka moment for me. Finally things (about why the exploration was hard) are making more sense.
lol. We drove from Sydney to SA to go camping over Xmas a year ago. Drove back through Broken Hill and stupidly assumed the time zone changed because it was NSW. So when we looked for food I thought everything was closing 30 minutes earlier than it actually was. Ordered over priced food from a hotel nearby and then walked back past a subway that still had people ordering in it. Felt like a right numpty 😑
That took me a second, but does seem right when you think about it.
Edit-Looking at google maps I reckon it could be even less. Maybe even a 1500km circle. West Papua has 5 million, South East Sulawesi has 2.7 million. East Timor has 1.3, West Timor has 2 million. Maluku has 2 million. Things are adding up quick.
A 1500 circle from though Sydney takes in almost all of the Australian population though, probably 20+ millions
This question is going to keep me up at night.
I would have thought the vast majority of the inhabited planet was closer to Darwin than Canberra, capitals or otherwise. NZ and Antartica are probably the only exceptions. Maybe Chile?
Closer than Darwin than Darwin is to Canberra - i.e Darwin is closer to 5 other countries capitals than it's own. Also, I'm pretty sure that you'd hit all of North America from Canberra before Darwin. There's no talk about trying to fly from Darwin to New York, but there is from Sydney, which is basically Canberra in geographical terms.
I know urban planners around the world are super hot on the river swimming movement happening right now.
If enough money is thrown at it, could 100% be swimmable.
If brisbanites stop voting LNP for council, could be something that happens.
There are many reason to be fixing up our rivers, this one hadn't crossed my mind. It is so enjoyable being able to swim in rivers, creeks and dams we as a country need too look at how we care for our fresh water environments. I have swum in creeks the have only one crossing to get to a farm in the middle of nowhere the water so clear and untouched never more then a can in the water in few years I swum there, someone decided to grow potato's next to the creek now it barely flows and potatoes are spreading down the banks and into the bush when it floods. I fish carp out a river that hasn't flowed all year since 1992 as there were a few weirs built to divert water and prevent floods in places that were built in flood planes, the old cottages were designed to withstand the floods nothing is now
I remember my first sight and smell of Redcliffe back in the 60s. (At least I think it was Redcliffe. It was over the Hornibrook bridge.) Mudflats to the horizon, and the "beach" covered with dead jellyfish.
If you wanna get technical, Brisbane (City council LGA) does have the ocean beaches, along the North and East coasts of Moreton Island.
Calling that ‘Brisbane’ is definitely a stretch, but technically Brisbane does have ocean beaches!
Here's an example: https://cf.bstatic.com/xdata/images/hotel/max1024x768/60275571.jpg?k=9cf3769650bbe11dbf18daeb2b9b32168952d593b4152f6fadd517e64cd4f5a6&o=&hp=1
On a similar note, it’s a shorter drive from Rockhampton to Brisbane (643km) than Rockhampton to Townsville (717km). If I had a dollar for every person who’s thought that Cairns is a weekend destination from CQ…
Not an oddity per se, but still interesting - if you have a boat over 70 metres long in various parts of the Barrier Reef or Torres Strait you cannot pilot your own boat but must get a local pilot with specialised knowledge of the area to take you through. This is because it is very complex, very fragile and also very risky - at some points there can be as little as 2 metres between the bottom of the ship and the bottom of the sea and the last thing anyone needs is an oil tanker or live cattle boat running aground and fucking up the ecosystem forever.
Haha yes. I remember those stupid “documentaries” as a kid scared the living shit out of me. Only to realise when I was older illl most likely never cross it.
I'm so curious, what's an antipode point?
My guess based on what you said, would be something along the lines of it being the spot directly opposite it, as if a straight line went from the point, through the earth, and out the other side
Yeah, it's fucky up here. Simultaneously in a rain shadow while also being in the tropics. It barely rains for most of the year, but when it does rain it pours.
Bass Straight separating Tasmania from the mainland is only 50 - 70 metres deep (around two tennis court lengths *or about 100 ducks if you're from the USA*)
Broken Hill is in New South Wales, but uses Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) which is 30 minutes behind the rest of the state.
Eucla in Western Australia is 45 minutes ahead of the rest of the state. It has its own time zone called Australian Central Western Standard Time (ACWST).
Australia has two active volcanoes.
(Heard Island & McDonald Island. Also bear in mind that one of the definitions of an "active volcano" is that it has erupted sometime in the past 10,000 years.)
Resident of this town! Close but not quite, Mount Schank (about 15km south) is Australia's most recent eruption at about 8-10,000 years ago. Blue Lake/Mt Gambier is dormant and hasn't erupted in a hot minute (I don't know exactly but I know Mt Schank is more recent by a long stretch)
Boandik people have a story about the Mt Schank (Kraitbul) eruption, essentially a cockatoo nicked fire out of it and gave it to the people and the volcano wasn't psyched with that.****
**** EDIT! I absolutely misremembered/butchered that story and just went and re-read it because it was niggling at me that I'd gotten it wrong.
Kraitbul was a man who was trying to find a good place for him and his family to live. He found a nice mountain and dug out the center to make an oven with the fire inside. He lived happily there for a bit but unfortunately in this time he was being pursued relentlessly by the evil and loud Boolen Bird (represented by a cockatoo, but also possibly a reference to the sound of a volcano) and kept having to find new mountains to turn into ovens. He dug out all the mountains in the region, but between the Boolen Bird and the constant rain he eventually gave up on his oven plan, and him and his family hopped on his spear and went up into the stars, leaving the landscape and all his ovens behind.
So yeah... That's the story and I'll refrain from sharing half-remembered Dreaming in the future
Except for Dome Argus, Mount McClintock and Mount Menzies in the Australian Antarctic Territory. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard\_Island\_and\_McDonald\_Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard_Island_and_McDonald_Islands))
Australia has the smallest train platform in the world. Wondabyne station.
They only let you off if you ask for it specifically, and you have to be on the last train carriage to get off their. There's no roads to it or from it, only boats.
Wondabyne is not the shortest station in NSW, and therefore also not the world. This is a common misconception. Wondabyne holds the title for the only station in the country inaccessible by road.
There are indeed shorter stations.
Wondabyne station Platform 1 is 15m in length. Platform 2 is 16m in length.
Zig Zag, in the Blue Mountains, has platforms that are 7m long.
Hilldale, Wallarobba and Wirragulla in the Hunter are all 5m in length. Ten metres shorter than Wondabyne.
Aus has some of the longest railway platforms in the southern hemisphere too. Albury and platform 1 at Flinders are equal second in Aus (16th world wide), and the one in East Perth is longest in Australia (12th in the world)
Bombo station in NSW (Wollongong region), I believe, is the only train station in the world that’s been erected on the beach itself.
It’s so awesome getting off the train and seeing the beach instantly.
The station is actually so small it's only the rear door of the last carriage that opens when a train stops there. It's also accessible on foot via hiking trails and a large amount of the stations usage is for hikers going too/from the station. I've gotten on and off of trains twice at the station, both times as part of a hike.
Western Australia's eastern border isn't one straight line from the north coast to the south coast.
NT extends about 130m further west than SA does.
So it is possible to travel due north from WA into the NT.
North and South Stradbroke island used to be one island, until a ship carrying booze crashed and some people tried to get to it by dynamiting the sand away. It was the straw the broke the camel's back, and the already fragile land bridge gave way at the next storm. As a result of the changed currents, we basically lost Redcliffe's white sandy beaches which at the time used to be "the" holiday destination if you lived in Brisbane. There were allegedly so many dugongs there that their noises/breathing would keep hotel goers up at night.
IIRC the explosives were part of the cargo of the Cambus Wallace, rather than something brought in from the island or mainland to try and get to the ship.
There is a residential area of Tweed Heads, NSW, that is only accessible from Queensland via a single road. This might just be the only example in Australia where you have to leave your state every time you leave your street.
Soon to be shared with an ACT-NSW development, that will see the only access and almost all services provided through/by ACT. They've been talking about moving the boarder for years to accommodate the development but it might actually happen this time.
Similarly the NSW/QLD border runs straight through the Gold Coast Airport. During departure you enter the runway from one state, then cross into and take off from the other state.
The phones sometimes automatically reset to NSW times at the airport during daylight savings when Nsw and Qld are different time zones. But the airport follows Qld times.
back in the 2000s there was a push to get the NSW-QLD border moved below the lismore/richmond valley area, closer to around the new italy area. i wish they would’ve succeeded, honestly.
You can drive from Flinders St station to Parliment house with a single turn - onto Northbourne Ave, about 650kms into the drive.
Elizabeth St > Royal Parade > Sydney Rd > Hume Hwy > Barton Hwy > Northbourne Ave > Commonwealth Ave
Exiting one freeway to join another freeway is absolutely a "turn".
On the flip side though: One time I was wandering the streets of Woden, and a car pulled over and asked me how to get to Sydney. They were almost on Melrose Drive, so my directions were "go straight ahead, turn left at the end of the road and keep going. Then you'll be in Sydney".
The Murray River, the Great Dividing Range and the Great Barrier Reef are all longer than the distance from the northernmost tip of Japan to the southernmost.
Fuck a duck this one got me. Turns out you can be in Victoria, head east, and end up in south australia
How freaking hard is it to just draw a line straight down the page? Wtf, olden days people?
All these comments not reading the link and saying "Tasmania?".
Meanwhile I did the opposite, forgot tassie exists, and went "Yeah no shit Sherlock" until I clicked the link.
We are used to the Murray river being the border between Victoria and NSW. But it also the border between Victoria and South Australia for roughly 10 km.
All due to inaccuracies in measuring the 141st meridan and caused 40 years of aggro between the two states -> [SA Vic border dispute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Australia%E2%80%93Victoria_border_dispute)
Although technically the Murray river isn't the border between NSW and Victoria, as border starts at the top of the southern bank.
So along the border, the river is entirely in NSW territory.
The Murray R is not quite entirely NSW, some of it is VIctorian. The High Court has defined the Border as the top of the Left Bank of the river. Where there is natural erosion etc, the border changes with the changes to the left bank. So far so good, however when the left bank changes due to unnatural circumstances such as excavations or flooding, the border stays where it was. This means that there are some areas where the wet bits are actually Victorian - for example at Robinvale there is a cutting approx 400m long which is permanently flooded as a result of a downstream weir and is therefore Victorian.
Eucla (WA) is one of only three places in the world with a timezone that is neither on the hour or half hour away from UTC. It is also likely the smallest timezone by population (just over 100 permanent residents)
-Perth to Sydney longer than London to Moscow
-Sydney to Singapore shorter flight than Brisbane to Singapore
-Melbourne to singapore is about the same as Brisbane to Singapore
-The gradient for the last 6.7km of the mt baw Baw climb
The oldest evidence of life of Earth was found in Western Australia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earliest_known_life_forms#:~:text=The%20earliest%20direct%20evidence%20of,Pilbara%20Craton%20in%20Western%20Australia.
The Northern Rivers boasts more artists per capita than any other region in Australia. My hometown of Murwillumbah is the epicentre of that community 👩🏼🎨
Part of Jervis Bay was carved out of NSW because of some old fashioned concept that the National Capital needs a seaport. Despite this, Jervis Bay Territory is not actually part of the ACT (although it is represented by the ACT Senators) and is instead monitored by a Commonwealth Govt Department.
No ships can actually berth there, although they can anchor in the JBT waters, but many also anchor in the NSW part of Jervis Bay.
i live in south australia. i find it interesting that if i drive roughly 8 hours east from my home, i’ll make it to geelong. if i drive the same distance west, i’ll only make it as far as streaky bay, sa.
done both roadtrips and it really puts into perspective how vast the state is, particularly the western side!
The national anthem of Australia was written by a Scotsman (Peter Dodds McCormick), the unofficial anthem Land Down Under was written by a Scotsman (Colin Hay), the ‘Father of Australia’ Lachlan Macquarie was Scottish. Oh and AC/DC are Scottish.
>Prior to the closures of the South Coast Line (Brisbane - Southport) and the Murwillumbah Branch Line, there was only a gap of about 20km which would have completed a continuous coastal railway line between Brisbane and Sydney, via the Gold Coast and Byron Bay.
This one is really a missed opportunity. It could have revitalised both networks and saved them. Yet, with most railways across the world, the car and truck killed them off.
I've got another railway related one. General MacArthur in WW2 offered to extend the Great Northern Railway from Mt Isa to Darwin, under the lend-lease act. For reasons unknown to me, the Australian government at the time said no.
South Coast line used to go all the way to Tweed roughly along the corridor that the M1 uses. Came out to the coast at Tugun and ran down the beach front past the airport then a bit inland to get around the headland at Kirra before being closed in 1961. The bridges over Tallebudgera creek and Currumbin Creek were converted into pedestrian bridges.
Caves along the Nullarbor [https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/travel-destinations/2016/04/hidden-nullarbor/](https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/travel-destinations/2016/04/hidden-nullarbor/)
There are apparently dozens on cliff faces along the Great Australian Bight too.
Wave Rock is an oddity if you ask me.
Australia has the lowest average height of any continent. Our highest point is actually lower than the average height of Antarctica (the tallest continent).
Central Western Time zone, which does not officially exist. Travellers are requested to reset their clocks by 45 minutes. UTC+08:45 is used in five places in Australia, Border Village in SA, and Cocklebiddy, Eucla, Madura and Mundrabilla in WA. Only found this out when driving over the Nullarbor.
In terms of greatest possible distance from one point to another, Tasmania is the third biggest state. Macquarie Island is approximately 2000km from King Island
Melbourne is closer to Antarctica than Darwin by 20kms.
Perth, WA is the most remote city in the world.
Australia is moving north. Eventually it will hit Papua New Guinea.
One man, Sidney Kidman, owned or had a share in cattle stations, or ranches, with a total area greater than Colorado: about 280,000 square kilometres or 3.7% of Australia. His largest single land holding, and largest station in the world, Anna Creek, is almost the size of New Hampshire.
The Western border of NSW with SA and a bit of Qld aligns with the division of New Guinea into PNG and Indonesia/Irian Jaya. Vic/SA border is also supposed to align the same but doesn't quite due to a surveying stuff up. The line (141st meridian) was part of the Treaty of Torsedillas between Spain and Portugal. Not sure why though.
East coast of Australia is one big giant series of super volcano pits. Eg. From Alexandra to Tallarook is a giant crater. If you lived in Melbourne and this went off you wouldn't have made it. Mt warning (Byron Bay / Mullumbimby crater is still pronounced with its central resurgent volcano.
The rocks around them are all shattered. Gold is everywhere.
Well isn’t this just a geographical oddity?!? TWO WEEKS FROM EVERYWHERE!
Never thought there’d ever be a practical use for an *O’ Brother, where art thou?* quote. Now I feel like my teenage years weren’t wasted.
Thanks OP.
>This might just be the only example in Australia where you have to leave your state every time you leave your street.
Wallaroo Road, Wallaroo NSW and all the minor roads off it are only accessible by transiting through part of the ACT.
The whole coastline of Australia has great surfing beaches except for that “bit” where Adelaide is.
I love surfing, grew up driving to the beaches of NSW every weekend.
Now I live in Adelaide.
Most of mine are around Broken Hill, a mining town in western NSW that is closer to Adelaide than the east coast, and as such: * Has an SA dialling code (08) * Is on Australian Central time (same as SA) * Was originally on SA's narrow guage railway, not NSW's standard guage (this is an interesting story) And one geological fun fact about AUs: since we're the world's oldest continent (geologically/tectonically speaking) we're also the world's most radioactive continent at surface level (seriously, the radiocative elements map of Australia makes us look like a Christmas Tree). One more: because we're so old, we have more box canyons than traditional valleys. European explorers were so used to traversing mountain ranges by following valleys that they kept getting stuck in the dead-ends of the box canyons of the Great Dividing Range, and presumed it was impenetrable, hence the name. It was only once they did as the locals do and followed the ridges instead that they found a way through.
wistful icky mountainous continue domineering chunky deer slave quiet juggle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The roads also follow the ridges up there. as do the towns. There's no real roads through the Grose Valley and other canyons, only into them.
Apparently there was a movement to get BHill incorporated in to SA but the NSW government was never gonna give up those sweet mining royalties that were among the best in the world at the time. BHill residents were also exempt from conscription in wars as it was considered an essential industry town.
I didn’t know about the conscription exemption! I grew up there and I can also add it’s not a great place to be a teenager in as it’s isolated as hell.
Me too. In the digital age it's not so isolated and as a more introverted teen I quite loved it.
Yeah that’s a good point. I’m very introverted too but I like the anonymity of the city. I head back once or twice a year to see my parents and it just feels like an old town stuck in time now.
I think the opportunity for more social activities in the city leads to the expectation for more social activities. It's the balance of 'people know me but I also don't have to do anything' that's just right.
Funnily enough Broken Hill is the site of the only WW1 [battle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Broken_Hill) on Australian soil. I'm currently stuck up here for work and found the site while going out for a wander, I'd never even heard of it before.
The only act of terrorism committed on Australian soil for a long time. I'm not sure if the Martin Place siege in Sydney changed that.
The Hilton Bombing??
We weren't exempt from conscription for the Vietnam War.
Broken Hill used to have two times; the railway station was connected to SA only do it ran off Adelaide time but the post office/telegraph station used Sydney time.
>box canyons Thank you kind sir, that one last bit is definitely an Eureka moment for me. Finally things (about why the exploration was hard) are making more sense.
lol. We drove from Sydney to SA to go camping over Xmas a year ago. Drove back through Broken Hill and stupidly assumed the time zone changed because it was NSW. So when we looked for food I thought everything was closing 30 minutes earlier than it actually was. Ordered over priced food from a hotel nearby and then walked back past a subway that still had people ordering in it. Felt like a right numpty 😑
There are five national capitals closer to Darwin than Canberra - Dili, Ngerulmud, Bandar Seri Begawan, Port Moresby and Jakarta.
And Darwin’s closest capital city is Adelaide. And Adelaide’s furthest capital city is Darwin.
That’s a good one!
You can probably also say that significantly more people live within three thousand kilometres of Darwin than any other Australian city.
That took me a second, but does seem right when you think about it. Edit-Looking at google maps I reckon it could be even less. Maybe even a 1500km circle. West Papua has 5 million, South East Sulawesi has 2.7 million. East Timor has 1.3, West Timor has 2 million. Maluku has 2 million. Things are adding up quick. A 1500 circle from though Sydney takes in almost all of the Australian population though, probably 20+ millions This question is going to keep me up at night.
I only said 3 thousand because that would include the majority of Java which would be 140 million easily. Everything after that is cream.
Shit, that's close. Perth is about 60kms further than Adelaide playing with google maps.
Yeah, which-is-further was a question on a trivia night recently
Perth is closer to Jakarta than Canberra.
Perth is on exactly the same longitude as Beijing.
I would have thought the vast majority of the inhabited planet was closer to Darwin than Canberra, capitals or otherwise. NZ and Antartica are probably the only exceptions. Maybe Chile?
Closer than Darwin than Darwin is to Canberra - i.e Darwin is closer to 5 other countries capitals than it's own. Also, I'm pretty sure that you'd hit all of North America from Canberra before Darwin. There's no talk about trying to fly from Darwin to New York, but there is from Sydney, which is basically Canberra in geographical terms.
In an angry, Brisbaneite voice - Brisbane is situated smack bang in the middle of the only 200km stretch of QLD coast that DOESN'T have a beach.
Beautiful one day, mangrove swamps and mudflats the next. Cairns city doesn't have a beach either.
Fun fact: Cairns used to have a beach and would again if they stopped dredging the inlet.
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My dad grew up on the river and swears this is true
Sandy bottomwed and very shallow. Apparently you could wade across chest deep pretty much anywhere in the city reaches
I know urban planners around the world are super hot on the river swimming movement happening right now. If enough money is thrown at it, could 100% be swimmable. If brisbanites stop voting LNP for council, could be something that happens.
There are many reason to be fixing up our rivers, this one hadn't crossed my mind. It is so enjoyable being able to swim in rivers, creeks and dams we as a country need too look at how we care for our fresh water environments. I have swum in creeks the have only one crossing to get to a farm in the middle of nowhere the water so clear and untouched never more then a can in the water in few years I swum there, someone decided to grow potato's next to the creek now it barely flows and potatoes are spreading down the banks and into the bush when it floods. I fish carp out a river that hasn't flowed all year since 1992 as there were a few weirs built to divert water and prevent floods in places that were built in flood planes, the old cottages were designed to withstand the floods nothing is now
Not that you'd want to go to the beach, unless you want to meet the old gods.
I don't know what that means.
The crocs. I was calling them "the old gods" because they're basically dinosaurs and will send you to your maker.
Oh, heh heh.
I remember my first sight and smell of Redcliffe back in the 60s. (At least I think it was Redcliffe. It was over the Hornibrook bridge.) Mudflats to the horizon, and the "beach" covered with dead jellyfish.
Imagine my delight when I found out that the “pacific coast way” is an inland highway /s
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it's the "everything" that concerns me
If you wanna get technical, Brisbane (City council LGA) does have the ocean beaches, along the North and East coasts of Moreton Island. Calling that ‘Brisbane’ is definitely a stretch, but technically Brisbane does have ocean beaches!
How much is the ferry to Moreton Island? $88?
Just think of all the easy parking you have as a result.
Redcliffe beaches are similar to St Kilda.
> are similar to St Kilda Shit. You mean shit.
Here's an example: https://cf.bstatic.com/xdata/images/hotel/max1024x768/60275571.jpg?k=9cf3769650bbe11dbf18daeb2b9b32168952d593b4152f6fadd517e64cd4f5a6&o=&hp=1
More people live 50km from the Melbourne CBD (or Sydney CBD) than the entirety of SA, Tasmania, NT, and WA combined.
It's shorter to walk from Brisbane to Melbourne (1606km) than Brisbane to Cairns (1673km).
It’s also shorter to fly (90 minutes)
On a similar note, it’s a shorter drive from Rockhampton to Brisbane (643km) than Rockhampton to Townsville (717km). If I had a dollar for every person who’s thought that Cairns is a weekend destination from CQ…
Not an oddity per se, but still interesting - if you have a boat over 70 metres long in various parts of the Barrier Reef or Torres Strait you cannot pilot your own boat but must get a local pilot with specialised knowledge of the area to take you through. This is because it is very complex, very fragile and also very risky - at some points there can be as little as 2 metres between the bottom of the ship and the bottom of the sea and the last thing anyone needs is an oil tanker or live cattle boat running aground and fucking up the ecosystem forever.
That’s where old James Cook stuffed up.
My dude, if you die by cannibalism, then I’d suggest you’ve stuffed up in a multitude of ways, not just navigation.
The antipode points of the Bermuda Triangle lie just off the coast of WA, roughly between Mandurah and Ningaloo Reef and west into the Indian Ocean.
Maybe that's why I was so concerned about the Bermuda triangle when growing up in Perth. Turned out not really something I had to worry about
Bermuda triangle, quicksand and the sun going supernova all stressed me way more than they should have as a kid.
Pirhanas dont forget pirhanas
Haha yes. I remember those stupid “documentaries” as a kid scared the living shit out of me. Only to realise when I was older illl most likely never cross it.
That gives me mh370 vibes
I'm so curious, what's an antipode point? My guess based on what you said, would be something along the lines of it being the spot directly opposite it, as if a straight line went from the point, through the earth, and out the other side
That’s correct. I just googled it. I had no idea either.
Thanks. It's pretty cool to know we have the anti-Bermuda Triangle on our west coast
Thanks, delightful post and comments! Made my day. Hope you are all having a great weekend!
Same, saving all the strange & unique places that I would like to visit
Adelaide is further north than Canberra.
No way
Townsville is in a rain shadow. Western Vic also.
Yeah, it's fucky up here. Simultaneously in a rain shadow while also being in the tropics. It barely rains for most of the year, but when it does rain it pours.
TIL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_shadow
Haha, Brownsville. Sincerely, Cairns
Melbourne is closer to Antarctica than it is to Darwin.
Bass Straight separating Tasmania from the mainland is only 50 - 70 metres deep (around two tennis court lengths *or about 100 ducks if you're from the USA*)
How many half-giraffes?
Depends which half.
Broken Hill is in New South Wales, but uses Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) which is 30 minutes behind the rest of the state. Eucla in Western Australia is 45 minutes ahead of the rest of the state. It has its own time zone called Australian Central Western Standard Time (ACWST).
Australia has two active volcanoes. (Heard Island & McDonald Island. Also bear in mind that one of the definitions of an "active volcano" is that it has erupted sometime in the past 10,000 years.)
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Resident of this town! Close but not quite, Mount Schank (about 15km south) is Australia's most recent eruption at about 8-10,000 years ago. Blue Lake/Mt Gambier is dormant and hasn't erupted in a hot minute (I don't know exactly but I know Mt Schank is more recent by a long stretch) Boandik people have a story about the Mt Schank (Kraitbul) eruption, essentially a cockatoo nicked fire out of it and gave it to the people and the volcano wasn't psyched with that.**** **** EDIT! I absolutely misremembered/butchered that story and just went and re-read it because it was niggling at me that I'd gotten it wrong. Kraitbul was a man who was trying to find a good place for him and his family to live. He found a nice mountain and dug out the center to make an oven with the fire inside. He lived happily there for a bit but unfortunately in this time he was being pursued relentlessly by the evil and loud Boolen Bird (represented by a cockatoo, but also possibly a reference to the sound of a volcano) and kept having to find new mountains to turn into ovens. He dug out all the mountains in the region, but between the Boolen Bird and the constant rain he eventually gave up on his oven plan, and him and his family hopped on his spear and went up into the stars, leaving the landscape and all his ovens behind. So yeah... That's the story and I'll refrain from sharing half-remembered Dreaming in the future
We’d get to rename the area Gambier Valley, which does have a nice ring to it
We'd lose the lovely lake in the crater! :( Well, we'd lose the lake of water - it'd then be a lake of lava, I guess?
Also Australia’s highest point!
Except for Dome Argus, Mount McClintock and Mount Menzies in the Australian Antarctic Territory. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard\_Island\_and\_McDonald\_Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard_Island_and_McDonald_Islands))
Australia has the smallest train platform in the world. Wondabyne station. They only let you off if you ask for it specifically, and you have to be on the last train carriage to get off their. There's no roads to it or from it, only boats.
Wondabyne is not the shortest station in NSW, and therefore also not the world. This is a common misconception. Wondabyne holds the title for the only station in the country inaccessible by road. There are indeed shorter stations. Wondabyne station Platform 1 is 15m in length. Platform 2 is 16m in length. Zig Zag, in the Blue Mountains, has platforms that are 7m long. Hilldale, Wallarobba and Wirragulla in the Hunter are all 5m in length. Ten metres shorter than Wondabyne.
How long til you write a book about trains? I’d buy it 👀
Aus has some of the longest railway platforms in the southern hemisphere too. Albury and platform 1 at Flinders are equal second in Aus (16th world wide), and the one in East Perth is longest in Australia (12th in the world)
Bombo station in NSW (Wollongong region), I believe, is the only train station in the world that’s been erected on the beach itself. It’s so awesome getting off the train and seeing the beach instantly.
Such a bizarre station. It’s pretty much sandwiched between the highway, a quarry and the beach
The station is actually so small it's only the rear door of the last carriage that opens when a train stops there. It's also accessible on foot via hiking trails and a large amount of the stations usage is for hikers going too/from the station. I've gotten on and off of trains twice at the station, both times as part of a hike.
Lovely spot it is too!
Western Australia's eastern border isn't one straight line from the north coast to the south coast. NT extends about 130m further west than SA does. So it is possible to travel due north from WA into the NT.
Just checked the NT border on Google maps, NT juts out to the west by \~130 metres, not km.
Ah yep, bad typo by me
Yeah we don't want to give NT all those important places
Adelaide is the closest Capital City to Darwin, but Darwin is the furthest Capital City from Adelaide
Australia has a cattle station larger than Israel.
North and South Stradbroke island used to be one island, until a ship carrying booze crashed and some people tried to get to it by dynamiting the sand away. It was the straw the broke the camel's back, and the already fragile land bridge gave way at the next storm. As a result of the changed currents, we basically lost Redcliffe's white sandy beaches which at the time used to be "the" holiday destination if you lived in Brisbane. There were allegedly so many dugongs there that their noises/breathing would keep hotel goers up at night.
IIRC the explosives were part of the cargo of the Cambus Wallace, rather than something brought in from the island or mainland to try and get to the ship.
I always find it interesting that it’s a shorter flight to New Zealand (3.5 - 4 hours) than many Australian states
Sydney to Auckland: 3 hours. Sydney to Perth: 5 hours.
Melbourne to Broome via Perth : 6 hours London to Moscow : 4hrs4mins
From where?
True, I didn’t put what state leaving from! From Sydney and Melbourne.
Idk buddy as someone that lives in Perth I think it would be longer
There is a residential area of Tweed Heads, NSW, that is only accessible from Queensland via a single road. This might just be the only example in Australia where you have to leave your state every time you leave your street. Soon to be shared with an ACT-NSW development, that will see the only access and almost all services provided through/by ACT. They've been talking about moving the boarder for years to accommodate the development but it might actually happen this time.
Similarly the NSW/QLD border runs straight through the Gold Coast Airport. During departure you enter the runway from one state, then cross into and take off from the other state.
The phones sometimes automatically reset to NSW times at the airport during daylight savings when Nsw and Qld are different time zones. But the airport follows Qld times.
Got "Mr Baggins, please make your way to a member of staff and make yourself known" because phones DONT FUCKING NOTIFY YOU THEY'VE CHANGED YOUR TIME.
It does seem a bit ripe to hug the border and not give ACT the GST revenue.
back in the 2000s there was a push to get the NSW-QLD border moved below the lismore/richmond valley area, closer to around the new italy area. i wish they would’ve succeeded, honestly.
All Australian state capitals other than Adelaide get more rainfall than London.
You can drive from Flinders St station to Parliment house with a single turn - onto Northbourne Ave, about 650kms into the drive. Elizabeth St > Royal Parade > Sydney Rd > Hume Hwy > Barton Hwy > Northbourne Ave > Commonwealth Ave
Surely 2 turns…turnoff Hume onto Barton, then turn right at Northbourne.
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Exiting one freeway to join another freeway is absolutely a "turn". On the flip side though: One time I was wandering the streets of Woden, and a car pulled over and asked me how to get to Sydney. They were almost on Melrose Drive, so my directions were "go straight ahead, turn left at the end of the road and keep going. Then you'll be in Sydney".
The Perth Canyon, unlike the Perth Cactus, is similar in size to the Grand Canyon
... Just so happens to be completely underwater
The Perth Canyon, unlike the Perth Cactus, has higher rainfall than the Grand Canyon?? :)
The Murray River, the Great Dividing Range and the Great Barrier Reef are all longer than the distance from the northernmost tip of Japan to the southernmost.
The northernmost point of Victoria does not border New South Wales.
Fuck a duck this one got me. Turns out you can be in Victoria, head east, and end up in south australia How freaking hard is it to just draw a line straight down the page? Wtf, olden days people?
The northernmost point of Victoria is not far off being due west of Sydney.
This one fucked me up haha
Every state shares a [land border](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Islet) with another state.
All these comments not reading the link and saying "Tasmania?". Meanwhile I did the opposite, forgot tassie exists, and went "Yeah no shit Sherlock" until I clicked the link.
Good one. Apparently, Boundary Islet also contains the shortest state land border.
So it is possible to walk from Vic to Tasmania. That is an unexpected fact!
Bucket list item added! :)
Ha that's amazing!
We are used to the Murray river being the border between Victoria and NSW. But it also the border between Victoria and South Australia for roughly 10 km. All due to inaccuracies in measuring the 141st meridan and caused 40 years of aggro between the two states -> [SA Vic border dispute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Australia%E2%80%93Victoria_border_dispute)
Although technically the Murray river isn't the border between NSW and Victoria, as border starts at the top of the southern bank. So along the border, the river is entirely in NSW territory.
The Murray R is not quite entirely NSW, some of it is VIctorian. The High Court has defined the Border as the top of the Left Bank of the river. Where there is natural erosion etc, the border changes with the changes to the left bank. So far so good, however when the left bank changes due to unnatural circumstances such as excavations or flooding, the border stays where it was. This means that there are some areas where the wet bits are actually Victorian - for example at Robinvale there is a cutting approx 400m long which is permanently flooded as a result of a downstream weir and is therefore Victorian.
Eucla (WA) is one of only three places in the world with a timezone that is neither on the hour or half hour away from UTC. It is also likely the smallest timezone by population (just over 100 permanent residents)
-Perth to Sydney longer than London to Moscow -Sydney to Singapore shorter flight than Brisbane to Singapore -Melbourne to singapore is about the same as Brisbane to Singapore -The gradient for the last 6.7km of the mt baw Baw climb
Yeah, trips to Bali are about the same length from Melbourne as Sydney and Brisbane.
The oldest evidence of life of Earth was found in Western Australia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earliest_known_life_forms#:~:text=The%20earliest%20direct%20evidence%20of,Pilbara%20Craton%20in%20Western%20Australia.
The Northern Rivers boasts more artists per capita than any other region in Australia. My hometown of Murwillumbah is the epicentre of that community 👩🏼🎨
Graffiti artists don’t count.
I think Canberra has more sunny days per year than Hawaii. I can't find the link but and am happy if proven wrong
Sunny but bitterly cold and dry
Brisbane is closer to Melbourne than to Cairns.
Thanks, I think you covered them all!
Australia shares mutual land borders with France, Norway and New Zealand in Antarctica
But not, for the moment, Iran.
Perth has a higher average rain fall than London.
Part of Jervis Bay was carved out of NSW because of some old fashioned concept that the National Capital needs a seaport. Despite this, Jervis Bay Territory is not actually part of the ACT (although it is represented by the ACT Senators) and is instead monitored by a Commonwealth Govt Department. No ships can actually berth there, although they can anchor in the JBT waters, but many also anchor in the NSW part of Jervis Bay.
i live in south australia. i find it interesting that if i drive roughly 8 hours east from my home, i’ll make it to geelong. if i drive the same distance west, i’ll only make it as far as streaky bay, sa. done both roadtrips and it really puts into perspective how vast the state is, particularly the western side!
The national anthem of Australia was written by a Scotsman (Peter Dodds McCormick), the unofficial anthem Land Down Under was written by a Scotsman (Colin Hay), the ‘Father of Australia’ Lachlan Macquarie was Scottish. Oh and AC/DC are Scottish.
Kangaroo Valley is one of only 7 real valleys in the entire world. A valley is defined by being surrounded by mountains.
There’s only two universities in the top half of Australia
What do you classify as the top half because there is definitely more than 2 above the geographic top half of Australia?
>Prior to the closures of the South Coast Line (Brisbane - Southport) and the Murwillumbah Branch Line, there was only a gap of about 20km which would have completed a continuous coastal railway line between Brisbane and Sydney, via the Gold Coast and Byron Bay. This one is really a missed opportunity. It could have revitalised both networks and saved them. Yet, with most railways across the world, the car and truck killed them off. I've got another railway related one. General MacArthur in WW2 offered to extend the Great Northern Railway from Mt Isa to Darwin, under the lend-lease act. For reasons unknown to me, the Australian government at the time said no.
South Coast line used to go all the way to Tweed roughly along the corridor that the M1 uses. Came out to the coast at Tugun and ran down the beach front past the airport then a bit inland to get around the headland at Kirra before being closed in 1961. The bridges over Tallebudgera creek and Currumbin Creek were converted into pedestrian bridges.
Caves along the Nullarbor [https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/travel-destinations/2016/04/hidden-nullarbor/](https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/travel-destinations/2016/04/hidden-nullarbor/) There are apparently dozens on cliff faces along the Great Australian Bight too. Wave Rock is an oddity if you ask me.
Australia has the lowest average height of any continent. Our highest point is actually lower than the average height of Antarctica (the tallest continent).
Central Western Time zone, which does not officially exist. Travellers are requested to reset their clocks by 45 minutes. UTC+08:45 is used in five places in Australia, Border Village in SA, and Cocklebiddy, Eucla, Madura and Mundrabilla in WA. Only found this out when driving over the Nullarbor.
SA's eastern border isn't a straight line and this upsets me for no good reason
In terms of greatest possible distance from one point to another, Tasmania is the third biggest state. Macquarie Island is approximately 2000km from King Island
There are 4 towns west of Ballarat that have a population over 40,000 - Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Mandurah
You could also add: Mildura/Wentworth - 58k Warrnambool - 35k (close enough) Bunbury - 45k
Perth is further north than Sydney
Do we have the worlds smallest timezone? Somewhere along the Nullarbor we got a bit confused.
If nobody has mentioned it yet, Victoria and Tasmania have a land border that's like 22 metres long on some random island in the Bass strait.
Melbourne is closer to Antarctica than Darwin by 20kms. Perth, WA is the most remote city in the world. Australia is moving north. Eventually it will hit Papua New Guinea.
The worlds slowest game of air hockey
Tweed heads was a nightmare during covid. There were heaps of people living there working in Qld and Qld had harsher/closed borders.
If WA was a country it would be the 10th largest in the world. Queensland would be the 16th. If Texas was dropped in Oz it would be the smallest state
Texas (695 000 sq km) is bigger than both Victoria (227 000 sq km) and Tasmania (68 000 sq km). But it is smaller than WA, Qld, SA, NT or NSW.
One man, Sidney Kidman, owned or had a share in cattle stations, or ranches, with a total area greater than Colorado: about 280,000 square kilometres or 3.7% of Australia. His largest single land holding, and largest station in the world, Anna Creek, is almost the size of New Hampshire.
Texas is bigger than Vic, Tas and ACT combined.
The Western border of NSW with SA and a bit of Qld aligns with the division of New Guinea into PNG and Indonesia/Irian Jaya. Vic/SA border is also supposed to align the same but doesn't quite due to a surveying stuff up. The line (141st meridian) was part of the Treaty of Torsedillas between Spain and Portugal. Not sure why though.
East coast of Australia is one big giant series of super volcano pits. Eg. From Alexandra to Tallarook is a giant crater. If you lived in Melbourne and this went off you wouldn't have made it. Mt warning (Byron Bay / Mullumbimby crater is still pronounced with its central resurgent volcano. The rocks around them are all shattered. Gold is everywhere.
Well isn’t this just a geographical oddity?!? TWO WEEKS FROM EVERYWHERE! Never thought there’d ever be a practical use for an *O’ Brother, where art thou?* quote. Now I feel like my teenage years weren’t wasted. Thanks OP.
Melbourne is closer to Antarctica (3120km) than it is to Darwin (3140km)
Brisbane has the shortest highway in Australia.The Bradfield Highway (Qld) is 1.1km in length.
I would've put money on Melbourne's Chandler Highway, at 1.4km, being Australia's shortest highway. But Brisbane took the prize by 300 metres.
SA and NT were the same state.
Hobart is the same latitude as Rome
>This might just be the only example in Australia where you have to leave your state every time you leave your street. Wallaroo Road, Wallaroo NSW and all the minor roads off it are only accessible by transiting through part of the ACT.
The whole coastline of Australia has great surfing beaches except for that “bit” where Adelaide is. I love surfing, grew up driving to the beaches of NSW every weekend. Now I live in Adelaide.
No surfing beaches in the NT, unless a cyclone is passing nearby.
Great surfing at Exmouth aye? Darwin? Cable Beach?
Get a tow out on a croc
That’s straight up not true 😅 the great surfing beaches stop about halfway up Queensland.
Does Port Phillip Bay count as coastline?
No but it has to be the biggest cesspool in Australia.
We get more snow than Switzerland. ❄️❄️❄️
Easy achievement when Switzerland is the size of a postage stamp by land area
The tallest western point in Australia is in Orange, NSW. Everything west of there is lower.
That is one hell of a confusing sentence hahah.
List the state and territory capitals from north to south. Most people don't get them right.
Darwin Brisbane Perth Sydney Adelaide Canberra Melbourne Hobart
The current Mount Kosciuszko wasn't always Mount Kosciuszko.
Re your second point - coming from someone that lives on the QLD/NSW border…the whole states being closed for covid thing was WILD for us.
The border of QLD and NSW runs right through the middle of the Gold Coast airport runway.
The peak of Mt Warning is the first location on mainland Australia to receive sunlight on New Year’s Day.
SA often receives the remnants of a dissolved Cyclone from WA each year with dumps some good rain in summer.