Australian facts

1. The Australian Coat Of Arms has on it a kangaroo and an emu. The reason for this is that the kangaroo and the emu cannot go backwards but can only walk forwards.
2.  Australia, founded by convicts. The homicide rate is in Australia is 1.8 per 100,000 of population. The United States was founded by religious zealots. It's homicide rate is 6.3 per 100,000. Almost 400% greater than Australia.
3. The venom of the Australian funnel-web spider can kill a person in less than an hour, and its fangs can bite right through a shoe.
4. Glenn King at the University of Queensland is studying the Blue Mountains funnel-web spider (Hadronyche versuta) with an eye toward developing eco-friendly pesticides. Proteins in this spider’s venom target the nervous system of insects but leave humans unharmed.
5. There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, and only some 20 million people.
6.  Around 115 Australians per 100,000 of population are in jail. This compares with: New Zealand 155, UK 141, Germany 100, Spain 138, Canada 116, South Africa 400, USA 700.
7. The tropical north of Australia is home to the world’s largest species of crocodile, the salt water crocodile. These creatures are protected in Australia. Males can occasionally grow to lengths of over 6 metres (20 feet). Each year one or two people are eaten by crocodiles in Australia
8. Australia has the lowest precipitation of any of the world’s inhabited continents. (Antarctica gets less.) 70 percent of Australia gets less than 500 mm (20 inches) of rainfall per year
9. Nearly twenty million people now live in Australia, 95% of them on only 1% of the coastal land around continent. The entire middle parts of Australia are largely empty, so population density is calculated in square kilometers per person, not the number of people per square kilometer.

And nothing to do with Australia but still is interesting is.......
'Politics: “Poli” a Latin word meaning "many" and "tics" meaning "bloodsucking creatures"'.