Some Interesting Facts You Should Know About Australia

Most, if not all, of those people applying for an Australian travel visa are definitely serious in getting their papers approved. Thus, they are bent on memorizing all the basic facts about the country that they can read. But of course, traveling to Australia isn't all about the details that you will find in the books and brochures. Here are some fun facts that will make you even more interested in visiting the land down under.

For the faint hearted, it would be a good idea to be warned. Australia is home to about 1500 different species of spiders. Don't worry though, as most of them are relatively harmless little creatures. However, this one should worry you a lot. According to statistics, an average Australian accidentally swallows three spiders every year.

And since we are on the topic of animals, here are some more interesting tidbits about them. Australian sheep actually outnumber Australian people. There are well over 120 million sheep in the country, as compared to only twenty million Aussies living here. And if you think that it is only in the Arabian deserts that you will see camels, Australia, in fact, has the largest population of the one humped variety of these desert animals.

And tourists will definitely be delighted to know some interesting facts about the places in Australia that they would want to visit. Once of such places is Uluru, in the Northern Territory, which many people marvel at the size of. However, you will likely be surprised to find out that the thing that you see above ground is actually just a small portion of it. Most of the rock is actually buried underground.

And would you believe that Australia actually has a hospital for bats? The Tolga Bat Hospital is located in the town of Atherton near Cairns and caters to hundreds of these flying creatures that they rescue daily. And if you want something a bit more worthwhile to do during your vacation, you can actually sign up, as they are recruiting volunteers to help care for and feed these creatures. Don't worry though they're not looking for blood to feed the vampire bats (which are actually plenty in the area).

And as for the people, you will also be surprised to know that the Australian city of Melbourne actually has the second largest Greek population in the world, following only Athens, of course. And to cap this little trivia sheet, you probably have already known that Australians do love beer a lot. But did you know that Bob Hawke once held the title for the fastest beer drinker? He downed 2.1 pints in just under 12 seconds. Who's Bob Hawke? Well, he is no less than the 23rd Prime minister of Australia.

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