Stories: Australia

Stories connected to Australia.

• Soldiers. Machine guns. And emus.Crop damage in Western Australia prompted a military operation against emus. Armed soldiers struggled to cont…
• That smell when rain meets dry ground.Petrichor names the earthy smell associated with rain on dry soil or rock. Australian researchers introduced…
• Wombat droppings have corners.Wombats produce cube-like faeces. Researchers have studied how differences in intestinal properties help form…
• The crocodile in Crocodile Dundee was real.Burt, a saltwater crocodile captured in the wild, appeared in the 1986 film. He later lived at a Darwin sanct…
• This crab sometimes eats other crabs.The paddle crab hunts molluscs and crustaceans at night around New Zealand and nearby waters. It is also nota…
• This barnacle feeds when the current is strong.The rose barnacle catches plankton with feathery limbs. It extends them to feed only when the current is stro…
• An ant stores food in its swollen abdomen.Some workers of Australia's Camponotus inflatus become living stores of sweet liquid. They stay deep in the n…
• One dolphin learned to tail-walk. Wild neighbours copied her.Billie saw captive dolphins tail-walking while recovering from a rescue near Australia's Port River. Back in…
• A flower is nicknamed jam tarts. It faces down toward the ground.Australia's Melichrus procumbens gets its common name from the shape and abundant nectar of its flowers. They…
• This leech lives on land. It can endure months of drought.Australia's Chtonobdella limbata burrows into soil and enters a nearly inactive state during dry conditions.…
• Episode 8055: all women on screen, and behind it too.For International Women's Day in 2019, Australian soap Neighbours aired an episode with an all-female cast. W…
• Did a duck say 'you bloody fool'? The recording survived for decades.Recordings of an Australian musk duck named Ripper, made in 1987, capture a door-slamming imitation and a voi…
• The suggestion to try American football came from a burger-shop owner.Samoan-born, Australian-raised Laki Tasi grew up playing rugby. A family friend who owned a burger shop sugge…
• An ancient, slender fossil may belong to an early molting-animal lineage.Fossils about 560 to 550 million years old from Australia and Newfoundland were described as Uncus dzaugisi i…
• One official took several opposing roles in the same case.Working in colonial Papua New Guinea, Horace Niall helped arrest five murder suspects and served as magistrat…
• The route takes shape only after passengers book a ride.Victoria, Australia's FlexiRide buses operate within designated service areas rather than along fixed routes.…
• Australia had a superhero whose mission was encouraging condom use.Condoman was created in 1987 for an HIV-prevention campaign aimed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Au…
• Those waving leaves are not its engineThe leafy seadragon lives off southern and western Australia. Its leaf-like body extensions provide camouflag…
• A fish that floats with a jelly-like bodyPsychrolutes marcidus lives in deep water under intense pressure. Much of its body is gelatinous tissue sligh…
• Four leaders fell, and the trailing skater took goldIn the men’s 1,000-metre short-track final at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Steven Bradbury was behind the other…
• He won his Olympic heat with nobody beside himAt Sydney 2000, Equatorial Guinea’s Eric Moussambani swam his 100-metre freestyle heat alone after the other…
• Melbourne’s equestrian events took place in StockholmThe 1956 Summer Olympics were hosted by Melbourne, but the equestrian competitions took place months earlier…
• Polo and lacrosse meet in one team sportPolocrosse combines elements of polo and lacrosse. Riders carry and pass a ball with a net-headed stick and s…
• A spider raises its colorful abdomen to court a mateMale peacock spiders in the Australian genus Maratus can raise a colorful abdomen and move their legs in cour…
• Vegemite tried a punning name against its rivalVegemite was temporarily renamed Parwill to compete with Marmite. The campaign played on Ma might and Pa will…
• Growth in a sealed bottle suggested a shipping caseNathaniel Ward noticed ferns and grass growing in soil inside a sealed bottle used for insects. He developed…
• Flummery also became a word for hollow complimentsFlummery names a soft dessert originating in Britain. The word later acquired meanings such as empty complime…
• The posture completes the camouflageAustralia’s tawny frogmouth angles its head upward while perching, combining posture and patterned plumage to…
• Sydney’s recurring chalk inscription had an authorArthur Stace repeatedly chalked Eternity on Sydney footpaths in the early morning. His activity began in 1932…
• Some seed cases open after the heatSome Australian Banksias retain seeds in woody follicles that open after fire. Seeds can start a new generati…
• The obituary appeared while he was in AustraliaBritish politician John Stonehouse disappeared from a Miami beach in November 1974, leaving clothes behind. H…
• Trying to carry it away moves the flowerWestern Australia’s hammer orchids attract male wasps with a flower part resembling a female wasp in form and…
• In this hot town, homes go below groundCoober Pedy in South Australia is known for opal mining and underground homes called dugouts. Excavated into…
• The spiders were known as fossils firstPelican spiders have elongated jaws and neck-like structures and prey on other spiders. European amber fossil…
• The explorer also wrote about his catTrim was born aboard ship in 1799 and accompanied Matthew Flinders on voyages mapping Australia’s coast in 18…
• The claimant could not speak the heir’s childhood languageIn 1866, an Australian butcher claimed to be Roger Tichborne, a missing British heir. Roger’s mother accepted…
• The octopus hides six arms to resemble a sea snakeThe mimic octopus alters shape and behaviour as well as colour. To resemble a sea snake, it hides six arms an…
• A supposedly extinct stick insect survived on an offshore rockThe Lord Howe Island stick insect was thought extinct by around 1920. In 2001, living insects were found on n…
• Eyes and teeth—or a caterpillar pattern?Mature Phyllodes imperialis caterpillars have large eyespots and white markings between and below them that r…
• A turtle without a shell? It is a frogWestern Australia’s turtle frog has a small head, short limbs and a rounded body. Its name comes from its res…
• A marsupial without a nursery pouchAustralia’s numbat is a marsupial that eats mainly termites. Females have no pouch: newborns attach to the te…
• Road signs and drinks crates became artNew Zealand-born Australian artist Rosalie Gascoigne worked with found materials, including old road signs an…