5 facts about Australia that might surprise anyone

1. Australia almost became a Dutch colony

Everyone knows that Australia was once a British colony. But if history had turned out a little differently, now the locals would speak Dutch and obey (formally) not Charles III, but Willem-Alexander. Yes, this is the King of the Netherlands.

There is a common misconception that Australia was discovered in 1770 by the famous British sailor James Cook. But that's not true. In fact, the first shores of the southern continent has reached Dutchman Willem Janszoon in 1606. And after him, in 1644, Australia was explored by his fellow countryman Abel Tasman. By the way, the one he opened was later named after him. Tasmania.

Tasman immediately named Australia New Holland and declared it a possession of the Netherlands.

However, its discovery did not lead to the colonization of the continent. The Dutch government simply did not show much interest in Australia, as it was considered unsuitable for settlement and farming due to a lack of arable land.

Only on April 19, 1770, James Cook and his crew on the ship Endeavor researched east coast of the mainland, renamed New Holland New South Wales and decided that this was a suitable place to establish a settlement.

2. The only military coup in Australian history was caused by booze.

In the 19th century, Australia was not yet such a comfortable country to live in as it is now. The population of the colony was less than 7,000 people, and people experienced lack of food, housing and other necessary things. In addition London did not allocate enough official currency for the needs of the settlement, which is why trade was carried out there through barter transactions, the use of promissory notes and coins brought from different parts peace.

But the main currency of Australia then was... rum.

Judge for yourself: this drink allows you to brighten up the boring and difficult life of a colonist, distracts you from sad thoughts and helps you relax. Naturally, whoever owned the alcohol owned all the trade in New South Wales, so the military controlled distilling.

Life in the colony went on as usual until, in 1808, Governor William Bligh decided restore order and stop drinking. Well, to show London that order and splendor reign on the lands entrusted to it. He introduced prohibition, prohibiting the issuance of salaries alcohol, and even ordered the main value of the colony - the distillation cube - to be taken back to their homeland.

Naturally, the officers of the New South Wales corps, having lost their source of income (and entertainment), could not stand it. And they arrested the governor - who, by the way, tried to hide from them under the bed. Blaya with disgrace sent into exile in Tasmania, and Major George Johnston took charge of the colony.

When rumors of what had happened reached London, a new governor, Lachlan Macquarie, was sent to Australia. Johnston was court-martialed and demoted, while Bligh was pulled out of Tasmania and promoted to rear admiral.

Thus ended the only military coup in history in Australia, which occurred due to love for rum.

3. The Australians were at war with the emu. And lost

In the 1930s, farmers in Western Australia faced serious problems as thousands of emus migrated onto their farmland in search of water and food. Birds ate and spoiled crops, broke fences - in general, they made life as difficult as they could for ordinary farmers.

Farmers contacted to the government for help. And the Australian Department of Defense, to force the emu to order... involved the army.

Veterans of the First World War wars, who later settled as settlers in Australia, were aware of how effective a weapon machine guns could be. And they asked the government to use this type of weapon to combat the emu population.

In November 1932, two soldiers under the command of Major Meredith from the 7th Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery arrived in Campion County. They were armed with two machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. The military mounted weapons on a truck and began hunting for emus. But from the very beginning everything did not go according to plan.

It turned out that birds were surprisingly elusive and resilient opponents. They could run at speeds of up to 50 km/h and easily overtook a truck. They were difficult to hit by machine gun fire, and according to Meredith, emus remained remarkably maneuverable even when wounded.

Major Meredith called for reinforcements. But even with additional personnel, he was unable to inflict noticeable damage on the emu population.

According to Meredith's report, after a month of fighting, a total of 986 birds were destroyed - while the command calculated for many thousands. And the Ministry of Defense Australia decided to curtail the operation due to its ineffectiveness.

Ultimately, the government advised farmers to manage the emu themselves, promising to pay an incentive for each carcass provided. And this turned out to be an effective measure: within six months of 1934, local residents killed 57,034 emus.

If you want to do something well, don’t trust it to martinets.

4. Australia has the largest fence on the planet

Besides emus, Australian farmers have other enemies. Some of them are very dangerous - dogs dingo. By the way, they were brought not by European settlers, but by immigrants from Southeast Asia, from the Malay Archipelago. Research showthat dingoes have lived in Australia for at least 3,500 years.

In the 19th century, the key sector of the country's economy became sheep breeding. But dingoes tried their best to destroy this industry by devouring the poor animals. To stop their atrocities, farmers used traps, shooting and poison.

In New South Wales alone, several tons of strychnine were spent annually on the fight against wild dogs.

When it became clear in the 1880s that all these methods were ineffective, the Australians began building a huge chain-link fence. He had to protect sheep grasslands in southern Queensland from dingoes.

The main part of the construction was completed by 1885. And in the 1960s, separate sections of the fence were connected, creating a single barrier, interrupted only by highways. The fence stretches from Toowoomba in Queensland to the Great Australian Bight, dividing the country's arid north-west from the more fertile south-east. The total length of the fence is 5,614 km.

Its annual maintenance costs the states of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia about A$15 million. And this structure is jokingly called the Great Australian Wall.

5. There are more kangaroos in Australia than people. And there are also plenty of camels and rabbits

Australia is known for its unique fauna and flora. A significant part of the animals living there are endemic. That is, they are nowhere else in the world don't meet. Australia's most common endemic species include koalas, wombats, platypuses and echidnas.

But the calling card of the continent is, naturally, the kangaroo. There are 42.8 million of them living in Australia. For comparisons, there are only 26.4 million people there.

Naturally, kangaroos on this continent will not surprise anyone. However, there are also species that you would never expect to find there. For example... one-humped camels, or dromedaries. Where do you think their largest wild population lives? In Saudi Arabia or Africa? No, they were all killed there or domesticated.

But in Australia today lives about a million camels - they were brought there back in 1840, they forgot about them, and the humpbacks began to run around the deserts and reproduce in their usual conditions.

From time to time, Australians even have to shoot camels, because they can be aggressive and attack sheep and other livestock.

In addition to camels, there are a lot of rabbits on the continent. Even more than necessary. them there brought back in 1859, and since then they have multiplied so much that many local animals have survived. Rabbits eat grass and other vegetation and can turn entire regions into deserts.

Between 1901 and 1907 Australians even built a 1,833-kilometre fence to keep Western Australia free from the damned rodents and prevent them from interfering with agriculture. But the fence didn’t really help: the rabbits crawled under it. Therefore, a second fence had to be erected to the west.

Perhaps it would have been necessary to build a third one, but since 1950, different viruses began to be used in Australia, including in particular, myxoma and hemorrhagic disease, to control the rabbit population, and fences have become needed.