It's a Wild World Out There Trivia Quiz

Answer: New South Wales

Of course, the Big Banana is not a real banana, it is made of fiberglass. It doesn't stop it from being a very popular tourist attraction, however. Tourists can walk around inside it and can also enjoy nearby banana related things such as banana themed restaurants. It was an early example of Australia's "big things", which also includes the Big Shrimp, the Big Guitar and the Big Gumboot.

Coffs Harbour is a coastal city of New South Wales, Australia. It is located about 540 kilometres (or 340 miles) north of Sydney. Banana farming is one of the most important things for Coffs Harbour's economy. Other important things are tourism and manufacturing.

Answer: Opals

Coober Pedy (coming from the Indigenous term "kupa-piti" meaning "white man's hole") is a mining town about 846 kilometres from Adelaide in South Australia. It is known for the large amount of precious opals mined there. Because of these it is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world".

It is also known for the underground homes known as "dugouts" that the residents live in to escape the daytime heat. The dugouts generally look like normal houses inside by the way they are furnished.

The town has a desert climate, meaning it experiences extreme heat.

Answer: Platypus

Although all these animals are Australian, only the platypus is a venomous monotreme. However, the echidna is also a monotreme, but they are not venomous. Koalas and wombats are both marsupials.

The platypus is an unusual semi-aquatic animal with a beaver-like tail, otter-like feet and a duck-like bill. They are so unusual that when Captain John Hunter sent back an example of its fur and a sketch of it to Great Britain, the British thought they were just joking. The males have a venomous spur behind their back feet. The venom can cause severe pain to humans but can't kill one. They are monotremes, meaning they are mammals which lay eggs. They can be found along the east coast of Australia and in Tasmania. They are on the Australian twenty cent coin.

Answer: Western Australia

Hyden is a small town about 339 kilometres east and a touch south from Perth. Wheat, livestock such as cattle and sheep, and tourism are important for the community. It is home to Wave Rock, a granite rock formation in the shape of a breaking wave which is a popular tourist attraction.

Another popular tourist attraction is Mulka's Cave, a cave with a shark head shape to it. According to the legends of the local Aboriginal people, Mulka was the son of a woman whose lover was not allowed to marry. Mulka was born cross-eyed as a result.

He fled to the cave after murdering and eating his tribe's children. On the walls of the cave human handprints can be seen, apparently Mulka's. Both Wave Rock and Mulka's Cave were avoided by Noongars as a result, but they are both still important to their culture.

Answer: The Olgas

The Devils Marbles are a group of large rocks just south of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, Ayers Rock is another name for Uluru and the Bungle Bungles are a group of large rocks in Purnululu National Park in the Northern Territory.

Uluru is a giant sandstone rock in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Australia. The rock looks like it changes colours at different times during the day. It is sacred to the native Aboriginals the Anangu people, some areas cannot be visited in respect to the people. Uluru was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Kata Tjuta, or the Olgas, are a group of large rock formations in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory. There are 36 of them in total. The name comes from the tallest of the group, Mount Olga. Mount Olga was named in honour of Queen Olga of Wurttemberg by explorer Ernest Giles in 1872.

Answer: Coral Sea

The Tasman Sea lies between Australia and New Zealand, the Arafura Sea between the Northern Territory and New Guinea and the Reef Sea was made up by me. The Coral Sea is the correct answer.

The world's largest reef system, the Great Barrier Reef is located off the coast of northeast Queensland in the Coral Sea. It is about 344,400 kilometres squared in area and is a popular tourist attraction. It is made up of 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands and is the world's largest structure made up entirely of living organisms (it is made up of billions of organisms called coral polyps). It is extremely biodiverse and is home to many endangered species such as the green sea turtle and other turtle species, dugongs, dolphins and numerous whale species. Much of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the reef was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. It is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Answer: Nine

There were only ever nine of the limestone rocks that make up the Twelve Apostles since European settlement. However on the July 3rd, 2005 a 50 metre tall stack fell into the sea, leaving eight still standing. The rocks were formed by erosion from bad weather in the Southern Ocean and are still vulnerable to erosion caused by waves (hence the collapse in 2005).

The rocks were at first known as the Sow and Piglets, but were renamed The Apostles in 1922 for tourism and later The Twelve Apostles. The views of them are spectacular and they are popular tourist attractions.

Answer: Sydney and Melbourne

Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's biggest cities by population, both wanted to be the capital city. So they made a compromise and built a new city in between the two. It was agreed that the area would be within New South Wales provided that Melbourne was the acting capital while Canberra was built. This is how Canberra came to be.

Canberra's name comes from the native Aboriginal word "kambera", meaning "the Meeting Place". Canberra is in the Australian Capital Territory, or ACT for short. The ACT is about 280 kilometres from Sydney and 660 kilometres from Melbourne. It is completely surrounded by New South Wales.

Answer: Bass Strait

Torres Strait is between the north of Queensland and New Guinea and has many inhabited islands. Investigator Strait separates the Australian mainland from Kangaroo Island in South Australia and Clarence Strait lies between Melville Island and the Australian mainland in the Northern Territory.

Bass Strait separates Victoria from Tasmania. It was named after George Bass, a man who passed through it while sailing around Tasmania with Matthew Flinders. The waters of the strait are famously rough and have shipwrecked many a ship. Violent storms can occur. Like the Bermuda Triangle, many myths and legends have grown about the strait. There are over 50 islands in Bass Strait including King Island and Flinders Island.

Answer: Broken Hill

Olympic Dam is in South Australia as is Challenger Mine, and Tennant Creek is in the Northern Territory.

Broken Hill is located in New South Wales close to the South Australian border. It runs on Australian Central Standard Time and it was originally called Willyama. Zinc, lead and silver are commodities mined at Broken Hill. Broken Hill was named by explorer Charles Stuart in his diary after seeing the Barrier Range in 1844. It is Australia's longest established mining city.