Born in South Australia Trivia Quiz

Answer: Janine Haines

She led that party after the retirement of Don Chipp, who had founded the Australian Democrats Party in 1977. She died in 2004, aged only 59, and was given a State funeral in Adelaide.

Natasha Stott Despoja also led the Democrats, in 2001-02. She resigned from the position because of internal dissent from other senior party members. Kristina Keneally was the first female to be State Premier of New South Wales, but she was born in Las Vegas, USA. Julia Gillard was the first female Prime Minister of Australia, and therefore leader of the Australian Labor Party, from 2010-13. She was born in Wales, but her family moved to Australia when she was a child.

Answer: Frasier

He played Daphne's brother, Simon, for eight episodes. His Mancunian accent was a bit over-the-top, but suited the character perfectly. LaPaglia also starred as Jack Malone, in the cop drama, 'Without a Trace'. He has appeared in many movies and stage productions, on both sides of the Pacific. LaPaglia is of Dutch/Italian heritage, and was born in Adelaide in 1959.

Answer: Development of penicillin

Together with fellow scientist, Sir Ernst Chain, Florey developed penicillin into the wonder-drug of the future. Sir Alexander Fleming had isolated the penicillium mould several years beforehand, but had not developed it. In addition to his Nobel Prize, Florey had many other honours. He was appointed president of the prestigious Royal Society, a building at Oxford University is named after him, a Canberra suburb carries his name, and he was featured on the first Australian $50 note. He was born in 1898 and died in 1968.

Karl Landsteiner won the Nobel in 1901, for formulation the ABO classification system, but he was Austrian, not Australian. Skin transplantation (grafting) is a process that is over 2000 years old, and surprisingly the inventor of Vegemite, Cyril Callister, did not even get nominated! It was one of the greatest oversights of the century.

Answer: Think Big

James Bartholomew Cummings was born in Adelaide in 1927, the son of a horse trainer. He had stables in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney and won his first Melbourne Cup in 1965, with Light Fingers. His last win was 43 years later, when Viewed snuck home by a nose in 2008. He passed away in 2015.

Overall, Cummings won the Cup twelve times. By contrast, the second place on the list is Lee Freeman, who won his fifth in 2005 (Makybe Diva). Think Big won at odds of 12/1 in 1974, and a long-priced 33/1 in the following year. Champion jockey Harry White got him over the line in both wins.

The three wrong answers are all multiple winners. Archer won the first two Cups in 1861 and 1862, Peter Pan in 1932 and 1934, and Makybe Diva is the only triple winner, scoring in 2003, 04 and 05.

Answer: Andy Thomas

His longest mission was on Space Shuttle STS-89, where he spent 140 days on the MIR Space Station. He retired from NASA in 2014, after three decades of employment, and was also awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia.

The incorrect answers are all retired cricketers who were born in Adelaide, but none of them ever went outside Earth's atmosphere.

Answer: A pelican

Storm Boy lives with his father, 'Hide Away' Tom, who has little time for the young boy. The novel is set in a sparsely inhabited area of South Australia, and Mike has to fend for himself. He meets Fingerbone, a wandering aboriginal, who helps Mike tend to Mr Percival, the abandoned pelican. When the pelican is released into the wild, he returns to Storm Boy, and they become best friends. Sadly, Mr Percival is killed by hunters, and Fingerbone has to explain life, death and the way that the world operates.

Thiele was born in a small dot on the map called Eununda in 1920. In addition to 'Storm Boy', he wrote 'The Sun on the Stubble', 'Blue Fin' and 'The Fire in the Stone', most of which have been adapted to films or mini-series.

Answer: The Cattle King

Kidman worked his way up from nothing, to being one of the biggest landowners on Earth. At the height of his 'empire', he owned 90 cattle stations (very large farms) with a total area of almost 300,000 sq kms- roughly the same as Italy and New Zealand. Most were in outback Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales. Water is scarce in those areas, so most of his properties here along the banks of Cooper Creek, and the Georgina and Diamantina rivers. 'The Cattle King' was not highly regarded on its release, especially by the Kidman family, but is now an integral part of Australian literature.

The incorrect answers are all collections of short stories written by the iconic bush author, Henry Lawson.

Answer: Victor Richardson

Richardson was also a champion swimmer, basketballer and even played top-level lacrosse. He was born in Adelaide in 1894, and died there, 75 years later. He was grandfather to Ian, Greg, and Trevor Chappell, two of who captained Australia to glory on many occasions.

In 1967, the South Australian government honoured him by installing the Victor Richardson Gates at the home of cricket in that state, the Adelaide Oval. Ever since, it is a challenge to all batsmen to hit a ball through the Gates. Many have tried but few succeed.

The Marsh family, dad Geoff, and sons Mitch and Shaun, all played for Western Australia and Australia, but were born in Perth. The Hadlees were New Zealand's version of the Chappells. Walter represented the Black Caps, as did three of his sons, and a daughter-in-law. Sir Donald Bradman was one of the best cricketers ever seen, but his offspring did not inherit his ability.

Answer: Bob Hawke

Hawkie was the head of the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) before switching to politics. He took the post of Federal President of the Labor Party (a non-elective position), in 1973, but did not gain a seat in Parliament until 1980. Within three years he was the Leader of the Labor Party, and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, after the incumbent, Bill Hayden resigned. The Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, called a snap General Election on the same day, and got walloped!

Once in office, he reformed the economic system substantially, floating the dollar, and deregulating the banking industry. He introduced a new taxation system, established Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), made wholesale changes to education and industrial relations, and took a very tough stand against apartheid in South Africa. One of his more amusing outbursts came when Australia had just won the America's Cup yacht race in 1983, when he exclaimed "Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum."

The other three options were all Prime Ministers, but were all from the Liberal Party.

Answer: Governor of South Australia

In 1927, he wrote two academic papers, one was titled 'The Problem of the Surface Tension of Mercury and the Action of Aqueous Solutions on a Mercury Surface', about the element, not the planet. He won a scholarship to Cambridge University, and worked with Sir Ernest Rutherford, a pioneer in nuclear physics. He also conferred with Robert Oppenheimer, the man mainly responsible for the atomic bomb.

After the war, Oliphant returned to Australia to take up various positions in academia, before being appointed to the vice-regal job. Among his array of plaudits, he received the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1959, and the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 1977. He died in 2000.