- [Voiceover] Australia is in many ways an odd place,
home to strange wildlife, as well as being situated
geographically far away from what anyone
might consider the West, yet being an incredibly
Western nation culturally, with much in common
with both the United States and the United Kingdom.
A country such as this virtually demands
that we bring you the 10 Things You Didn't Know
About Australia.
Australia has some of the most unique wildlife
in the world, but the reasons for this
are as interesting as the fact of their presence.
Approximately 99 million years ago,
what is now known as Australia
completely separated from the then supercontinent Gondwana,
where it was to remain geographically isolated
from the rest of the world since that time.
As a consequence of this, many types of animal life
took highly divergent paths of evolution
when compared to fauna found on other continents,
due to their isolation.
Most people know of marsupials, which are pouched mammals,
but few know of monotremes.
Monotremes are egg-laying mammals
that are only found in Papua New Guinea and Australia,
and Australia uniquely has two of them,
the pocupine-resembling echidna,
and the bizarre-looking platypus.
Monotremes are sometimes seen as a cross
between reptiles and mammals because of their physiology.
For example, they lay eggs, and have a lower
body temperature than both marsupials and placental mammals,
but also have fur and lactate,
which justifiably earns them the classification as mammals.
Most uniquely of all, the male platypus
is one of the only mammals to produce a venom
which can be injected from its hind spurs
and is deadly to its prey.
Few other mammals in the world have this feature,
which is why, coupled with their other
strange characteristics, monotremes are one
of the great wonders of Australia.
- If you travel by boat without a visa,
you will not make Australia home.
It is the policy and practice of the Australian government
to intercept any vessel that is seeking
to illegally enter Australia.
The rules apply to everyone,
families, children, unaccompanied children,
educated and skilled.
There are no exceptions.
- [Voiceover] Australia is a developed country
with one of the toughest immigration policies in the world.
Unlike Europe and the United States,
where people just seem to enter and leave as they please,
Australia has a strict vetting process
and fiercely guards its waters
to prevent unwanted immigrants from entering.
Since illegals have to come by sea,
they are sometimes referred to as boat people,
which is why most of the prevention
takes place on the high seas.
Because of this, Australia has come under the fire
of criticism by both other countries and internally.
However, supporters of strict immigration policy
stress the fact that it's allowed
for the maintenance of a healthy economic
and cultural integration compared to other countries.
Whichever side of the debate you might stand on,
the Australian government has been firm on this issue
with the motto being...
- If you come to Australia illegally by boat,
there is no way you will ever make Australia home.
- [Voiceover] After Australian soldiers
had returned home from World War I,
many decided to take up farming for a living.
Unfortunately, after a time, the Great Depression hit,
which made making a living by farming very difficult,
somewhat further compounded by the fact
that large flocks of emus, which are the second largest
flightless birds in the world after the ostrich,
numbering in the tens of thousands,
took to foraging in the newly established
farming locations, and this proved ruinous
to the livestock and crops.
This led to the Great Emu War,
where large contingents of military personnel
were given machine guns with the idea
of mowing down the emus en masse.
However, this proved difficult, as the emus
continually evaded attempts at herding them together,
and the machine guns lacked range.
And so after two major attempts,
efforts were given up, and the emus
continued their destruction.
After declaring war on the emus,
at the end of the day, it was the Australians,
not the troublesome birds, who had lost
the Great Emu War.
Australia has some of the worst internet
of any developed country, unfortunately,
and took rank 44 in internet speed,
behind virtually every other Western country,
and far behind places such as South Korea and Japan.
Part of the reason for this is that Australia
has largely failed to upgrade to the new common
fiber connections used throughout the developed world.
This seems like a minor inconvenience,
but the truth is, it slows down
both business and pleasure, with downloads and uploads
moving at an agonizing crawl, while other countries
get the same amount done in a fraction of the time
Australia requires.
There's been much talk of national upgrades,
but when that will happen, well, only time will tell.
So next time you're in Aus and want to download a game
from Steam, just leave your computer on for a few days.
It might get done sometime later in the week.
Not many people think of steak when they think of Australia,
but Australia has some of the best beef in the world.
In 2015, Australia won the Best Steak
in the World Challenge, but that is just the tip
of the iceberg because Australia
has a huge variety of meats to choose from.
Beef, lamb, chicken are the conventional ones,
but kangaroo, emu, crocodile, and others
are readily available as well.
The great variety, coupled by the great accessibility,
makes Australia one of the number one stops
for meat lovers in the world, where it is both cheap
and accessible.
Australia might be a Westernized country,
but in many ways, that is where the similarities end,
because unlike the West, Australia is home
to some of the most dangerous and venomous animals
in existence.
The inland taipan is considered to be
the most venomous snake in the world,
and if left unattended, bites will cause a swift death.
Coupled by the death adder, which has the fastest strike
of any venomous snake in the world.
Add to that list, brown snakes and tiger snakes,
and you get a virtual cornucopia
of venomous serpentine delight.
But the fun doesn't stop there,
because Australia is also home to deadly spiders as well,
such as the funnel-web spider and redback widow,
the latter resembling a black widow in many ways.
But maybe these critters aren't enough.
Well, the saltwater crocodile might not be venomous,
but it is the largest crocodile in the world,
and is highly aggressive, found throughout parts
of Queensland and the Northern Territory.
And if you want even more danger,
the coasts of Australia are home
to some of the largest populations
of great white sharks in the world,
along with the deadliest jellyfish around,
the box jellyfish, whose stinging tentacles
have caused many to drown because of the agonizing pain
the venom delivers.
Australia can be a fun place to visit,
but potentially a dangerous one as well.
Some Australians might hear the term, stolen generation
and recognize it, but most outside will not,
and it is one of those dirty little secrets
of Australia's past that people tent to ignore.
The stolen generations refers to people
of mixed Aboriginal and European descend
that were forcibly removed from their Aboriginal families
in the belief that they would be better raised
as mixed people within mainstream Australian
culture and society.
This policy ran from 1905 to 1969,
and since its abolition, has stirred
great controversy within Australia.
Activists for Aboriginal rights
cite not only government complicity,
but direct government approval in the abductions
and removals that took place under this policy.
Although seemingly motivated by good intentions,
such as the best interests of the children involved,
the questions raised by the politics
of the stolen generation will likely haunt
the citizens of Australia for years to come,
whatever their descent, and will cast a long shadow
on this otherwise positive and upbeat nation.
Australia is one of the economic powerhouses
of the world, with its huge reserves
of natural resources, particularly minerals
such as gold, lead, iron, zinc, manganese,
and many more.
But having such natural wealth, among other things,
can often be a pitfall.
Australia is one of China's biggest trading partners,
and that trade relationship overall
has been a net positive for Australia
considering the general trajectory of economic growth
and progress in China, but it also creates
a dangerous dependency.
Such trade partnerships are great during booms,
but terrible during busts, and it is very likely
that something will soon go awry
in the Chinese economy, which will have
massive consequences for Australia.
An invasive species is a species that is transplanted
from its home geographical location to a new one,
where it is not native.
This can have, and often does have,
devastating ecological consequences
for the native animals, who often cannot adapt
to the presence of the new species.
Australia might have been the pioneer
of invasive species when it introduced
the dreaded cane toad.
Native to Central and South America,
as well as the Caribbean, the cane toad
has become Australia's public enemy number one
when it comes to invasive species.
Having been introduced in 1935
by the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations
in order to attempt to control the growing problem
of cane beetles destroying sugarcane crops,
the plan backfired massively and is one
of the great examples of human bungling.
The cane toads quickly spread far beyond
what had been intended, and are today
considered to be one of the greatest threats
present to Australia's fragile ecosystem.
They have bred like wildfire and are now so common
that a frequent teenage, quote unquote,
sporting event, if you want to call it that,
is cane toad clubbing, where you swat cane toads
like golf balls.
Unfortunately, there probably is no solution
to the cane toad menace, and it's something
that Australians will just have to live with.
Australia has some of the best quality of life
in the world, with both Sydney and Melbourne
being ranked among the top 20 cities for the year 2016,
a ranking which has been consistent for years,
and it's easy to see why.
The quality of life comes from the warm to moderate
temperatures, a strong economy, an abundance
of resources, and as some might argue,
a strict immigration policy.
Whatever the ultimate reasons might be,
Australia seems to be one of the best places
to live in the world.
That is, if you don't mind crappy internet.
- [Voiceover] For more top lists just like this,
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And I'll see you all next time.