Great Bloopers of Australian History Quiz

Answer: The bay was too shallow and there was scant fresh water

Captain Arthur Phillip deemed Botany Bay so unsuitable for a settlement that he began an immediate search for an alternative site. By an incredible stroke of luck, one of the world's finest natural harbours (Port Jackson, aka Sydney Harbour) lay only a few miles to the north (Cook had not entered this inlet). Luckily for Cook's reputation, everything worked out okay. Unluckily for Cook himself, he became a human pin-cushion in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in 1779.

Answer: Rabbits

Rabbits were brought to Australia by the First Fleet in 1788 to provide food. Once released into the wild by Victorian grazier Thomas Austin in 1859, they bred like - well, you know. Millions of rabbits later, widespread damage was done to habitats, wildlife, and crops (due to soil erosion, competition, and ravenous hunger).

The Myxomatosis virus, introduced into wild rabbit populations after 1950, dramatically reduced their numbers. Some say that Thomas Austin should have been released into the wild to provide "a spot of hunting"!

Answer: A rendezvous point was abandoned only hours before the explorers returned

After travelling for some four months, enduring terrible hardship, and being overdue, Robert O'Hara Burke, William John Wills, and John King missed their support team at Cooper's Creek by a mere nine hours. Being too weak to catch up, Burke and Wills eventually died, but not before another ironic twist: having eaten the buried supplies left behind for them, the explorers outlined their intentions in a note, buried it in the cache, and left Cooper's Creek - thus they missed a rescue team which, having returned to the spot, failed to check whether the buried supplies had been used.

The erroneous assumption was that the explorers had never returned. The sole survivor of the expedition, John King, was kept alive by local aborigines.

Answer: He was shot in his unprotected legs

Ned Kelly's metal suit was surprisingly effective - so much so, that police, who had no idea he was wearing it during a final shootout at Glenrowan Inn, thought he was some kind of supernatural being for not succumbing to their onslaught of bullets. The armour, which was also was worn by other members of his gang, could be worn while on horseback and was primarily designed to provide protection from the waist up. Kelly was captured after being shot in the legs while defiantly advancing towards the police line at Glenrowan.

He was subsequently executed by hanging on November 11, 1880. Kelly's famous last words were "such is life", and he became something of an Australian folk hero for his stand against authority.

Answer: Prickly pears overrunning the continent

The prickly pear cactus of the Americas plays host to 'Dactylopius coccus' - the cochineal scale insect - from which a crimson dye is extracted. These plants and insects were brought to Australia from Brazil in 1797. The insects died, but the plants thrived and ran amok throughout the landscape.

It was not until the 1920s that the prickly pear was brought under control via the introduction of a South American moth, 'Cactoblastis cactorum', whose larvae selectively eat this plant.

Answer: Some troops arrived in the wrong place

The British were in command of the doomed Gallipoli campaign, but no one is certain about who was at fault for the bungled Allied landings on the Gallipoli peninsula on 25th April 1915. Some of the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand troops) landed at the base of a steep cliff, with little prospect of advancing.

The subsequent confusion and wasted time enabled the opposing Ottoman troops to organize and reinforce themselves. Despite tragic losses and the ultimate futility of the battle, the Gallipoli campaign helped forge a sense of identity for both Australia and New Zealand.

Answer: The Tasmanian tiger

Tasmanian farmers considered the Tasmanian tiger, or Thylacine (a wolf-like marsupial with a banded back), to be a threat to their sheep, so they embarked on an eradication program. Unfortunately they were extremely successful, and the last known Tasmanian tiger died in Hobart Zoo in 1936.

While some people believe that the tiger may have survived in the dense forests of Tasmania (and the odd sighting has been reported), the animal's ongoing existence is now considered an urban (or rural) myth.

Answer: Poisonous amphibians overran the countryside

The cane beetle was threatening Queensland's sugar cane crop, so the South American cane toad, or 'Bufo marinus', was brought in from Hawaii (where it had also been introduced) to control the pests in 1935. Unfortunately the toads didn't follow instructions and hopped away to breed prolifically in the wild.

In modern times, the cane toad remains an ever-expanding problem in Australia's northeast, out-competing native frogs, and killing predators via poison glands in its body. Australian scientists continue to seek a satisfactory way to make them croak.

Answer: Railway tracks throughout the land were of different widths

The colonies (later, "states") of New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria built their railroads with different gauges to each other. Naturally this caused problems when the lines inevitably met. It was not until the 20th century that a uniform gauge was adopted across the continent.

Answer: The Cahill Expressway

Construction of the Cahill Expressway was opposed from the very beginning on aesthetic grounds, but its utilitarian value made it irresistible to politicians of the day. Despite a number of later proposals for the structure's removal, the problem has been deemed too expensive to fix.

Answer: No one knew how to build it

I'm afraid it's true. Construction began in 1959, but it soon became apparent that the original design of Danish architect, Joern Utzon, could not be built according to plan. The great curving shells (up to 200 feet high) could not support themselves as intended, and massive concrete arches eventually had to be built for them.

This compromised the interior theatres, and parts of the structure were demolished and rebuilt as engineers tried to figure out ways to make the whole thing work. Utzon left the country in disgust at the changes, while the cost of the project skyrocketed. Amazingly, the structure turned out to be an elegant visual triumph when it was finally completed in 1973.

Answer: Hutt River Province

Yes, the continent of Australia actually contains TWO nations - although one of them is not officially recognized at home or abroad. Situated near the western edge of Australia, the Principality of Hutt River, as it is has become known, was formed when landowner Leonard George Casley used legal loopholes stretching back as far as the Magna Carta to formally secede from the Commonwealth of Australia because of a dispute over wheat production quotas. Under Australian law, the government had two years to challenge the secession, but no one bothered.

The tax office soon demanded money and threatened legal action, but Casley declared himself a prince of his realm and could not be prosecuted due to a law which gives immunity to royalty. After Prince Leonard briefly declared "war" on Australia, all charges were dropped, mail services resumed, and Hutt River inhabitants were declared non-residents of Australia by the tax office.

Answer: The mobile cauldron became stuck

The music went on and on while Australian athlete Cathy Freeman and the rest of the world waited for the imaginative Olympic flame cauldron to start ascending a water cascade to the top of the stadium. But the thing wouldn't budge. One frantic assistant was even reported to have bashed the apparatus underneath with a sledgehammer to get it to it work. After approximately four minutes, a computer glitch was bypassed and the cauldron began to climb.

Answer: He only won because every other competitor had fallen over

Bradbury was running a distant last in the final when his fellow competitors toppled like dominoes on the last bend, leaving Bradbury to coast to victory. Even more remarkably, Bradbury had only made the final because of a similar crash in the semi-final, and had only made the semi-final because of a disqualification in the quarter-final.

Answer: There was no sound and the performance was cancelled

In front of over 80,000 football fans at Sydney's Olympic stadium, Billy Idol made a grand entrance in a hovercraft, and looked seriously pumped for a big performance. He made it onto the stage, grabbed a microphone, and then ... nothing. Several minutes of frantic technical activity resulted in ... still nothing.

The ground announcer apologized to the crowd, and Billy walked off, looking far, far from impressed. Oh, and the Roosters went on to beat the Warriors, 30-8.