Code Australia: Fractured Sights Quiz

Answer: Vegemite

Vegemite is a yeast-based spread that looks like axle grease (and, some say, tastes like salty axle grease). Most people use it rather more sparingly than is shown in the photo - you scrape it on your buttered toast, you don't apply a thick layer.

Answer: Waratah

There are five species of the endemic plant called the waratah. The image showed Telopea speciosissima, the species which is the state flower of NSW. The shrub on which the flowers appear can grow up to about three metres (10 feet) high, and has dark green leaves.

The spectacular compound flowers have several hundred individual florets, and can be around ten centimetres (four inches) across.

Answer: Merino sheep

The merino sheep is valued around the world for its fine, soft wool. The Macarthurs were responsible for establishing merino flocks in the early years of colonisation, but their specific sheep did not end up being major contributors to the subsequent development of the breed, which was based on later imports.

Answer: Wattle

There are many different species that are called wattles, all members of the acacia family. The image was a golden wattle, Acacia pycnantha, which is Australia's national floral emblem.

Answer: Cassowary

The southern cassowary, endemic to southern New Guinea and northeastern Australia, is one of the three largest and heaviest birds in the world, along with its ratite relatives, the emu and the ostrich. Their diet includes mostly fruit, and they play an important role in distributing seeds in rainforest areas, because they range over a large area, giving wide dispersal.

Answer: Silky oak

The silky oak (Grevillea robusta) is also called the Australian silver oak. It is named for its superficial resemblance to the oak tree with which colonists were familiar, but it is not closely related. Silky oak has long been popular for furniture, as it has a lovely silvery sheen.

Answer: Platypus

The platypus is a small semi-aquatic mammal, about 50 cm (20 in) long - and most of that is the bill and tail - and weighing around a kilogram (two to three pounds). As one of the only two known monotremes (egg-laying mammals), and with body parts that appear to be a conglomeration of other animals, it is an important source of evolutionary information. So unusual is its appearance that the first specimens taken back to England were thought to be elaborate hoaxes.

Answer: Kangaroo paws

The red-and-green kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos manglesii) is the state floral emblem of Western Australia, and features on the state's coat of arms. Plants grow to about a metre (three feet), and have brightly colored tubular flowers which terminate in a flat portion with fine appendages, fancifully compared to the paw of a kangaroo in the common name for the plant.

Answer: Crocodile

The image showed a freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnstoni), which is endemic to northern Australia, and generally not likely to attack humans. Australia also hosts its larger and deadlier cousin, the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), also known as the estuarine crocodile. Saltwater crocodiles inhabit coastal waters of all sorts, and can be found surprisingly far inland in the rivers of northern Australia.

Answer: Lamington

Your basic lamington is made by cutting a sponge cake into cubes, soaking them in a chocolate sauce, then rolling them in desiccated coconut. Many variants are possible - the image showed a lamington that had been sliced in half and filled with whipped cream, and some prefer to insert strawberry jam.

The first recipe for lamingtons was published in 1902. The name apparently comes from Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland between 1896 and 1901, but there are multiple explanations given for the connection, none of them definitive. Similarly, the original creator of the treat is lost in the mists of time and speculation.