So here especially for our very good friends in the Bandicoots Trivia Quiz Team at the Pittwater RSL Club are some teasers to get their teeth into before we arrive in a couple of months! Oh and maybe our (Aussie) son and daughter-in-law could have a go too!! No cheating now!
PASS MARK: 75%
TIME ALLOWED: 2 HOURS
1. Who was the Father of Federation?
2. What were the real reasons the Australian colonies decided to become a federation?
a. What was
3. List all the Prime Ministers of Australia in order, with their years in office.
4. What does Australia Day celebrate?
a. When was the first Australia Day?
b. What happened on the first Australia Day?
5. Who was Chips Rafferty?
a. Was he really gay?
6. Which was the only
7. Name the complete Australian Ashes Test squad from the 1948
a. What was the team’s nickname?
8. How far is it from
9. What was the basis for the Crown to assume ownership of
a. What did it mean?
b. Was it correct?
10. Why can the Australian Prime Minister or Parliament not apologise to its indigenous peoples?
11. Were there ever any massacres (or mass killings) of indigenous people in
12. Did anyone ever take unwilling Aboriginal children from their families?
a. If they had, what would the institutions have been called which carried out these operations (if any)?
b. Did they live up to their name?
13. What has always been the general legal presumption in the Australian justice system if someone is accused of or charged with a crime?
14. According to recently proclaimed Australian laws, what is the basis upon which suspected terrorists are held?
a. What does this mean for justice in
15. What does the Government presume, and say, about David Hicks?
16. Habeas corpus is a fundamental of the Australian legal system. What does it mean?
17. When is Federation Day?
a. What year was the first Federation Day?
18. What is the correct spelling? “Color”, or “Colour”?
19. Two famous Australians travelled on the 1908-9 Shackleton expedition to which continent?
a. Who were they?
b. Together, they were the first to achieve which two feats?
c. Which of them is/was on the $100 note?
d. The other had an avenue named after him in
20. After whom is the mineral “davidite” named?
21. Who was the skipper of the first Australian yacht to win the
a. Who was the designer?
b. What was the name of the boat?
c. In what year did it win?
d. What did the Prime Minister of the day famously say when the boat won?
e. What was the Prime Minister’s name?
22. Have there ever been Jewish Governors General of Australia?
a. If your answer is yes, what was their name(s) and in what years did he/she/they “govern”?
23. Has there ever been a female Governor General?
a. If your answer is yes, what was their name(s) and in what years did she/they “govern”?
24. Has
a. If your answer is yes, what was/were their name(s)?
b. Of which State(s) etc.?
25. After what or whom is Bennelong Point named?
a. Where is Bennelong Point?
b. What is at Bennelong Point now?
26. Who was Pemulwuy?
a. What happened to him?
27. Who cut the ribbon when the
a. Why?
28. What disaster happened to
29. In what month and year did a ship collapse the
a. What was the name of the ship?
b. Where was the bridge?
30. What does DLP stand for?
31. Who was the most famous member of the DLP for most of its history?
32. What was
a. In what year did it occur?
b. Who was Prime Minister?
c. Who was the Governor General?
d. Who became the next Prime Minister?
e. Which national media icon was on the steps of Parliament House at the culmination of the crisis?
f. What was Joh Bjelke Petersen’s role in the crisis?
g. What convention did he break?
h. What was the name of the Senator whose offer of a diplomatic posting precipitated the crisis?
i. From which party did he come?
j. Where was he posted?
33. What sort of creatures populate the island off
a. What is the name of the island?
34. What is the constitutional status of the
35. Who was the first female Justice of the High Court Australia?
36. When did
a. Who was its first Prime Minister?
37. Who called
a. What did he mean?
38. In what year did
a. In what city?
39. In which year and in what city did the world welcome “Matilda” as the mascot for the Commonwealth Games?
a. What was she?
b. How big was she?
c. What did she famously do?
40. For how many years was Robert Menzies Prime Minister?
a. From when to when?
41. Where was the Eureka Stockade?
a. What was it about?
b. When did it happen?
42. When did Aboriginal people gain the right to vote?
43. When was the legislation passed to include Aboriginal people on the Census?
44. Australian indigenous dot painting is world famous. Where did the movement begin?
a. When?
b. Name the person who initiated the movement as a community and economic enterprise.
45. Who was
a. Where did he come from?
b. What language is spoken in that country?
46. Who went to prison for planting a bomb in a rubbish bin outside the Hilton Hotel in
a. What year?
b. What was happening at the Hilton Hotel,
c. Of what religious sect was he a member?
d. On whose evidence was he convicted in the first place?
47. What were Ned Kelly’s famous last words?
48. Who wrote a book with those words as its title?
a. What was his real name?
49. Who was Xavier Herbert?
50. What, and in what year, was the Petrov Affair?
51. In which year did
a. Against whom?
52. In
a. What was the main form of bulk transport?
53. What is the Australian standard gauge for railways?
a. How many different gauges were there before standardisation?
b. What were they?
c. In what year did the first service operate from
d. What was the name of the service?
54. Where was the origin of the most important breed of sheep in
a. Who imported them?
b. Where can the descendants of the first flock be found?
55. What did Paul Hogan do before he became a movie star?
a. What brand of cigarettes did he advertise?
b. To what tune?
c. What was the slogan?
56. Who was the whistler in the advertising campaign for
57. Before cigarette advertising was banned on Australian television, an announcement was made at the conclusion of each advertisement. What was it?
a. Who spoke it?
b. In what popular TV serial did he appear?
c. On which network?
d. What character did he play?
e. How did the character infamously die?
58. When was cigarette advertising banned on television?
59. Who wrote the advertising campaign whose catch phrase was “Where do you get it?”
a. Which radio stations does he now own?
b. Who is his most famous employee?
c. What is the name of the book which explores this employee’s homosexuality?
60. What is the name of the most famous Australian movie about transvestites?
a. Who is
b. Who is the second most famous?
c. What dish was named after her?
61. Which two nations claim to have invented the pavlova?
a. In honour of whom was it invented?
b. On what occasion?
62. What disease was the first attempt to eradicate the rabbit in
a. What was the second?
b. Where was it first released?
c. Why?
63. Which organisation released sparrows and starlings into
a. Why?
64. Why was the cane toad introduced into
65. What is the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act??
a. When was it promulgated?
b. By whom [Prime Minister]?
66. What is the constitutional principle on which the Federal Government halted the proposed damming of the Gordon below Franklin Rivers in
a. When was the proposed damming stopped?
b. Which famous international TV naturalist joined the protest against the dam?
67. Where is the
a. What was the Ord River Scheme?
68. What does QANTAS stand for?
a. Who founded QANTAS?
b. From where to where was the first commercial QANTAS service?
69. What is the full name of
a. After whom was it named?
b. For what was he/ she famous?
70. What does WACA stand for?
a. What does “The Gabba” stand for?
71. What does FNQ stand for?
72. What do the following have in common?
73. What percentage of Australians are indigenous?
74. What was the White Australia Policy?
a. When did it end?
75. Who was Arthur Calwell?
a. Who shot him?
b. Where?
c. Why?
d. What were Calwell’s injuries?
76. When was the first modern terrorist bombing in
a. By whom was it carried out?
b. Against whom?
c. Where?
77. People from how many countries have made their homes
78. Have atomic or nuclear weapons ever been detonated in
a. If so, by whom?
b. How many?
c. What were the long-term consequences?
79. What was the name of the control centre for post WWII rocket testing on behalf of the British Government?
a. What people lived in the area?
b. What happened to them?
80. What happened at Maralinga?
81. Where is Pine Gap?
a. To what extent is Pine Gap an example of Australia/US cooperation?
b. What do they do there?
c. Why not?
d. What access does
e. Why not?
82. Who first climbed and named
a. When?
b. What range is named after him?
c. Where is it?
d. What nationality was he?
e. Why did he leave that country?
f. Who was Kosciuszko?
g. What was his full name?
h. What is the correct pronunciation of his surname?
83. What was the Cowra Uprising?
84. What did Bec do before she married Lleyton?
85. What was Kylie’s first movie role?
a. What was the film’s title?
b. What was her name in Neighbours?
c. List all her boyfriends from Jason to Olivier.
86. What is Molly’s passion?
a. What is going on under his hat?
87. Whom did Elton John marry in
a. On what date?
b. What was she doing in
c. Which Australian singer was present at the wedding?
88. Whom did Graham Kennedy marry in
a. What American TV comedy show did she star in?
89. How many Twelve Apostles are there?
90. In which month are the Birdsville Races held?
91. How many members sit in the House of Representatives?
92. How many members sit in the Senate?
93. Which Australian parliament does not have an upper house?
94. Which place has the lowest elevation in
95. Where are the oldest rocks in the world?
a. How old are they?
96. Where was the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party?
a. What happened to it?
97. Who formed the Liberal Party of Australia?
98. What were the first Australian political parties?
99. Who was the shortest-serving Australian Prime Minister?
a. Who was the longest?
100. What were:
a. The Statute of
i. When was it enacted?
ii. When was it adopted?
iii. What did it do?
b. The
i. When was it enacted?
ii. What did it do?
..................so how did you do?
