Australia Facts

'Jedi' is an official religion, with over 70,000 followers, in Australia.

There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, and only some 20 million people.

In 2011, Mortal Kombat was banned in Australia.

Tasmania is said to have the cleanest air in the world.

An underground fire in Australia has been burning for approximately 6,000 years, making it the world's oldest known coal fire.

Each year, the number of births in India is comparable to the entire population of Australia.

In Australia, Burger King is called Hungry Jack's.

Koalas are the only non-primates with fingerprints, and their prints are so remarkably similar to human fingerprints that even careful analysis under a microscope cannot distinguish between them.

Australian truck driver Bill Morgan had a heart attack in 1999 and was clinically dead for 14 minutes. He woke from a 12-day coma with zero brain damage. To celebrate, he bought a scratch card and won a Toyota Corolla. A Melbourne TV crew asked him to re-enact the win on camera, so he bought a fresh card and scratched it live on air. He won $250,000. He used the money to marry the fiancée he had proposed to from the hospital bed.

Pancakes are commonly served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Australia.

Houdini was the first man to fly a plane solo in Australia.

In 2007, an unmanned yacht was discovered drifting off the coast of Australia. The engine and a laptop were running, the radio and GPS were working and a meal was set to eat, but the three-man crew were not on board.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef stretches over 1,400 miles, making it the largest living structure on Earth visible from space.

Koalas are not bears—they're marsupials more closely related to wombats and kangaroos.

According to news reports, a feral pig in Australia drank 18 cans of beer, brawled with a cow, and then passed out under a tree.

A kangaroo cannot jump if its tail is off the ground.

An Australian study found that homework provides little to no academic benefit for elementary school students, and only becomes useful in limited amounts during high school.

Male kangaroos flex their biceps to impress females.

Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards.

A koala sleeps up to 22 hours of every day.

Until 1976, taxi cabs in Australia were required to carry a bale of hay in the trunk.

Large kangaroos can cover more than 30 feet with each jump!

In Australia, there are spiders big enough to eat snakes.

In 1964, an Australian man successfully posted himself in a crate from London to Perth via air freight, which took a total of three days.