Australia day: Celebrate the world down under with these top 10 facts

1. The British set up penal colonies in Australia because the American colonies were lost in 1783.

2. Budgerigars have lived in Australia for five million years. They were only brought to Europe in the 19th century.

3. Australia’s highest mountain (Mount Kosciuszko) and largest city (Sydney) are both named after men who never visited Australia.

4. Australia has more wild camels than any other country. They even export camels to Saudi Arabia.

5. The dingo fence in Australia, built in the 1880s to protect sheep from dingoes, is 3,488 miles long.

6. There are three times as many sheep as people in Australia.

7. Australia and New Guinea have the world’s only egg-laying mammals: the platypus and echidna.

8. The Kangaroo and Emu were chosen for the Australian Coat of Arms because they cannot walk backwards, thus exemplifying forward-thinking.

9. Voting is compulsory in Australian elections. Despite this only 91 per cent voted in the last Federal Election in 2016.

10. About 164,000 convicts were transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868 from the UK.