# Fun facts about Australia **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 6, 2011, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252 "2011-12-06T09:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/21 "2011-12-06T21:50:03Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Because implicit in being African American is being a US citizen – just as you must be a US citizen to be Italian American, Chinese American, etc. Where are you from? Being African American is not about U.S. citizenship to me, and I would assume to most black people. I will be “American” no matter where I live because it’s my culture I grew up in. > [@Giles](#): > > Because implicit in being African American is being a US citizen – just as you must be a US citizen to be Italian American, Chinese American, etc. This sounds like right wing rubbish to me. Are Mexicans who lived and grew up in LA and don’t know a thing about living in Mexico NOT Mexican American if they find out later in life they were born in Mexico and brought over as a baby? That’s ridiculous. If you grow up in American culture you are culturally American. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/22 "2011-12-06T21:54:03Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > I saw on this board once someone suggesting that Charlize Theron is an African-American. No. She’s _African_. There’s no _American_ in there. And, indeed, Nelson Mandela. Someone got really upset with me about that, claiming I was being racist because I didn’t consider the president of South Africa to be American or something. I didn’t quite figure it out, but they got _really_ upset with me. That aside, the OP is hilarious. Nice work! ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/23 "2011-12-06T21:57:24Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > Where are you from? Being African American is not about U.S. citizenship to me, and I would assume to most black people. I don’t know the stats, but I’d guess that “most black people” have nothing to do with America. Africa, as just one example, has a population of over a billion and has a pretty high percentage of black people. That’s not counting those in the other 200-or-so countries which aren’t America. So, no, I wouldn’t agree with you that being African American has nothing to do with US citizenship to most black people. Most black people, I assume (and I admit it’s an assumption) probably think “African American” means “An American citizen of African descent”. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/24 "2011-12-06T21:59:20Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > :smack: > > Because, while anyone with African descent might always be African-something… once a person becomes a naturalized citizen of another country, they can no longer be African-_American_. If the person was born in Australia but has African heritage, you _do_ understand why you can’t describe that person as an African-American, right? That person is African-_Australian_. > > I saw on this board once someone suggesting that Charlize Theron is an African-American. No. She’s _African_. There’s no _American_ in there. She’s been a US citizen for four years. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/25 "2011-12-06T22:01:50Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > I don’t know the stats, but I’d guess that “most black people” have nothing to do with America. Africa, as just one example, has a population of over a billion and has a pretty high percentage of black people. That’s not counting those in the other 200-or-so countries which aren’t America. > > So, no, I wouldn’t agree with you that being African American has nothing to do with US citizenship to most black people. Most black people, I assume (and I admit it’s an assumption) probably think “African American” means “An American citizen of African descent”. In the context I was talking about it was pretty obvious I meant African Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/26 "2011-12-06T22:22:24Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > In the context I was talking about it was pretty obvious I meant African Americans. Of course it was obvious to you - you know what you meant when you wrote it! It - honestly - wasn’t obvious to me. I’m not in the US. The word “black” doesn’t equate in that way to “African Americans” in my head, and never has. I’m not trying to snarky. That sentence, to me, did not read the way it might do to you. The fact that you used\* both\* terms in your sentence made it seem even more to me that you were making a distinction; as you have explained, you were not distinguishing between “black people” and “African Americans”, and were using the two terms interchangeably (which would really offend some of my black British friends, but I guess that’s another thread entirely; and they’re not reading this) and your post makes more sense now. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/27 "2011-12-06T23:04:12Z")
In 2010, the Australian parliament passed a resolution that requires the governments to transport Australian hipsters to Fiji. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/28 "2011-12-06T23:12:28Z")
Well the Aussie Dept. of Hipster Reduction done f’ed up because from what I can tell they’re all showing up in Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/29 "2011-12-06T23:14:23Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > So at fast-food restaurants and cafeterias are they allowed to put out plastic knives because they aren’t really selling them or do you have to get by with a spork? As far as I understand it, the crime is selling knives to minors, not giving knives to minors, or setting the table with knives for the use of minors, or leaving knives out where minors can help themselves to them. Still, when the law is nonsensical, it’s hard to be sure you can figure out the nuances by applying logic. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/30 "2011-12-06T23:26:11Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > Where are you from? Being African American is not about U.S. citizenship to me, and I would assume to most black people. I will be “American” no matter where I live because it’s my culture I grew up in. Culturally you might remain an American, but if you give up your US citizenship you are no longer legally an American – though you might be an American Australian if you gave up your US citizenship in order to run for the Australian Parliament. > [@rogerbox](#): > > This sounds like right wing rubbish to me. Are Mexicans who lived and grew up in LA and don’t know a thing about living in Mexico NOT Mexican American if they find out later in life they were born in Mexico and brought over as a baby? That’s ridiculous. If you grow up in American culture you are culturally American. A Mexican American could be a person born in the U.S. to a family with Mexican heritage, or it could be a person born in Mexico who migrated to the U.S. and became a US citizen. The essentials are: (1) Mexican heritage and (2) US citizenship. How is that “right wing rubbish”? ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/31 "2011-12-06T23:28:15Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > A Mexican American could be a person born in the U.S. to a family with Mexican heritage, or it could be a person born in Mexico who migrated to the U.S. and became a US citizen. The essentials are: (1) Mexican heritage and (2) US citizenship. How is that “right wing rubbish”? It’s right wing rubbish because it justifies deporting someone who knows nothing else but the U.S. back to a country they have never even been to and might not even speak the language of because they were born before their parents crossed a border. Reasonable people would call someone who doesn’t even have a memory of any country but this one “American”. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/32 "2011-12-06T23:29:48Z")
There are over a million wild camels in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/33 "2011-12-06T23:40:55Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > It’s right wing rubbish because it justifies deporting someone who knows nothing else but the U.S. back to a country they have never even been to because they were born before their parents crossed a border. Well, some people might argue that way, but I said nothing about deporting people who have lived most of their life in a country but aren’t citizens. That’s a separate issue, which should be debated without racism. You’d have the same question about a person born in Ireland, brought to the US by his/her parents as a baby, and brought up there by the illegal immigrant parents – or even an American brought as a baby by illegal immigrant parents to Australia. Should that American be deported back to the U.S. even though all he knows about the country is what he learned from watching The Simpsons and South Park? ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/34 "2011-12-06T23:47:13Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > > [@GovernmentMan](#): > > > > Australia was the first country to elect an African-American president. > > (1) Australia doesn’t have a president. > (2) If it did have one, an African American – or indeed any American – would not be eligible to be elected. > (3) I don’t think there have been any prominent politicians in Australia of African descent. Perhaps it’s some sort of pedantic reference to votes cast in Australia in the 2008 US presidential election, which would have been ‘first’ due to the timezone? Even so, what about votes cast in New Zealand? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/35 "2011-12-06T23:57:45Z")
If the entire population of Australia were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/36 "2011-12-07T00:07:58Z")
All Australians drink excessively, even on work nights, and are hilarious to watch and listen to, especially when Australia is playing New Zeland in cricket. At least the ones I met when I was there did/were. Australian cockatoos don’t say “Hello.” They say, “G’day.” I swear! I heard 'em. Australian spider webs are large enough to capture a Volkswagen, and contain 12,538 humongous spiders. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/37 "2011-12-07T00:24:29Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > – or even an American brought as a baby by illegal immigrant parents to Australia. Should that American be deported back to the U.S. even though all he knows about the country is what he learned from watching The Simpsons and South Park? Is this supposed to be some kind of gotcha? The answer is no. Obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/38 "2011-12-07T00:32:13Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > Is this supposed to be some kind of gotcha? The answer is no. Obviously. No, it’s not a gotcha: it’s trying to look at the same kind of question from a different perspective. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/39 "2011-12-07T01:48:38Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > If an average life is 80 years, that 40,000 eggs per year, or 100 eggs per day. That’s not credible. And, since I eat no eggs, some poor bastard has to eat 200 eggs per day. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252/40 "2011-12-07T01:57:24Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > There are over a million wild camels in Australia. You know, I saw a few camels when I was driving around from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon and The Rock. I didn’t see a single carcass on the road though, which means they must be smarter than kangaroos. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-facts-about-australia/605252.md?page=3)