Arcania Australiana Trivia Quiz

Answer: The price of wool

The price of wool fell in 1891. It caused industrial chaos with strikes across the continent. The Westgate Bridge also fell, but that was in 1970 in Melbourne and the worst industrial disaster in Australian history. So far, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is still intact and the Bridge on the River Kwai is a film title.

Answer: your tucker

Tucker is food. Before anyone had a refrigerator, food was hoisted up in a cage covered in wet hessian bags. My grandmother still used her Coolgardie Safe in the 1960s.

Answer: a Captain Cook

A squiz is a slang term made even more difficult by using rhyming slang. Having a squiz or a geek means having a look, or a Captain Cook. The other rhyming slang terms deal with personal hygiene. Rubbedy-dub is a tub meaning a bath. Dad and Dave is a shave.

Answer: The posts where convicts were flogged

The old triangles were whipping posts. Convicts were stripped to the waist and strapped by the wrists and ankles to the triangles. They were then flogged. My mother's grandfather, transported to an Australian penal colony at the age of 12, received a total of 314 lashes on the old triangles over a period of 7 years.

Answer: Humping your bluey

Waltzing Matilda must be Australia's most well known song. Heading up the road carrying the swag is 'waltzing matilda'. Another term is 'humping the bluey'.

Answer: A punishment of 25 or more lashes

Another dreadfull cruel punishment given to convicts in the penal settlement of Botany Bay. A sentence of at least 25 lashes was not uncommon and was sarcastically known as the Botany Bay Dozen.

Answer: Nicole Kidman

Nicole may have been born in Honolulu but her parents were Australians and she grew up Downunder. Interestingly, Merle Oberon, acclaimed beauty of the 1940s, always claimed to be Australian to disguise her Anglo-Indian background. Russell and Sam are New Zealanders, a kind of cousin relationship.

Answer: Woomera

Back in the 1950s Woomera was for rocket and missile testing. Nowadays it has a more contentious claim to fame as the first isolated detention centre for asylum seekers. Mulla Mulla is a flowering shrub, Nulla Nulla is an Aboriginal fighting weapon, and Willy Willy is a dust devil, or small whirlwind.

Answer: The Eight Hour Day

In 1856 a group of workers in Melbourne won an eight-hour working day and it's still celebrated as a world first. Both the Rum and Eureka Rebellions are historic events and the less said about the Collingwood Football Club the better.

Answer: all of them

The butterfly swimming stroke is an Australian style made famous by the famous Cavill swimming family. Two-up is a gambling game with two coins played by soldiers. Two-up is mandatory in pubs and clubs on Anzac Day, the Australian Veterans Day.

Answer: Buttocks !

Moomba is a carnival held annually in Melbourne. The name is supposed to mean 'Let's get together and have fun' in an Australian Aboriginal language but in fact means that someone was having a good laugh at the time.

Answer: The sack from your job

Another delightful example of rhyming slang. Lemonade and Sarsaparilla is shortened to Lemonade and Sarse. When you get it, you've been sacked from your job and thrown out on a particular portion of your anatomy.

Answer: Joan Sutherland

Dame Joan Sutherland was one of the world's greatest opera singers and known worldwide as "La Stupenda". Kylie and Germaine are well known Australian exports, and Mary Donaldson from Tasmania is now the Crown Princess of Denmark.

Answer: Allegedly weak of intellect

Not the full two bob, meaning not the full two shillings, means someone is weak of intellect or just a little bit silly. There are many expressions in this vein like 'Two bricks short of a hod' and "A shilling short of a quid" (an earlier version of "A few cents short of a dollar"). More modern examples are 'Two stubbies short of a slab' and 'A couple of chops short of a barbie'.

Answer: Miles Franklin

Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin wrote her first novel, 'My Brilliant Career'under the name of Miles Frankin in 1898. 'My Brilliant Career' is regarded as an Australian classic and the first Australian novel. The title is used as an ironic comment on life.