Amazing Australian myths

Send in your Australian myths and we'll try to establish if they are TRUE or NOT TRUE!

Birds on the windshield

Scientists at Air New Zealand built a gun specifically to launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners travelling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.
Australian engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new Qantas A380 aircraft. Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the Australian engineers.
When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the engineer's back-rest in two and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin like an arrow shot from a bow.
The horrified Aussies sent Air New Zealand the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the Kiwi scientists for suggestions.......
Air New Zealand responded with a one-line memo: "Defrost the chicken......"

Captain Cook discovered Australia

Many people believe that Captain Cook discovered Australia, but all he did was steal it off the Dutch!
When Cook left the UK for his long journey south, he was given instructions to take possession of the big southern continent, and a map drawn up by the Dutch, showing the continent New Holland where the Dutch had already gone ashore in 1606 when 'the Duyfken' landed up the top of Cape York. Also he was a lieutenant at the time and was only later on return to England promoted to Captain.
More info here on early Dutch exploration of the region...

Daintree village in the the Daintree rainforest

Many people that want to see the World Heritage listed Daintree rainforest in North Queensland head to Daintree Village, presuming this will be set in the middle of the jungle. Unfortunately there was a rush to log all the prized red cedar trees in the late 1800s and so the village is now surrounded by green fields where the cows graze and the rainforest has been missing around here for the last 100 years or so, you can now only see old black and white photos of the giant trees in the town's timber museum. The town is still a relaxed place to visit with some nice accommodation like Redmill House. This is a good place to overnight before heading out on the excellent (very)-early-morning bird watching tour of Dan Irby . There are also several crocodile cruise tour operators in this town but if your interest lies in the Daintree rainforest you really need to turn off about five km. before the town to take the ferry across the Daintree river up to Cape Tribulation.

All Aussies drink Fosters beer

Fosters does lots of advertising overseas to promote its beer as THE Australian beer so many tourists arriving in Australia are surprised to discover that Australians drink other beers. You can place a safe bet on it that, should you see anyone drinking Fosters in Australia, it is a tourist !

Lazy Aussies

TNT does fast and reliable door to door service

When our webmaster paid $172.- to get a parcel from Sydney to Cape Tribulation it took six days until he got a call from a tyre shop in Mossman with the message "your parcel is here".
What do you mean? I have paid for this parcel to be delivered to my house, you are a three hour return trip from here. Numerous phone calls later, lengthened more by a long weekend when there is nobody available to help you, the message remained the same from all TNT employees; although you pay for door to door service TNT will only do this when they feel like it, and reserve the right to dump your parcel at a depot which may be hours away from your house, and there are no refunds or reimbursements for your time and travel expenses to retrieve your parcel that you have paid door to door for!

All Aussies are fit outdoor types

The image of Aussies spending their life on the beach surfing, swimming and getting the muscles tanned by the tropical sun does not apply to all; more than half of Australians are in the overweight to obese class and the majority of Australians have the got a skincancer removed at some point in their life.

Holden is THE Aussie car

This brand of car is considered THE Australian car and has been sold in Australia since 1948, named after car dealer Sir Edward Holden. Ironically it is owned by U.S. giant General Motors which take the profits back to the States but Aussies have always conveniently ignored this fact and the Holden Kingswood was as much of an essential item for every Aussie household as the Hills Hoist, Esky and barbeque.

London Bridge collapse survivors

London Bridge near Port Campbell on the Great Ocean Road, Victoria

This children's song became reality in january 1990 when a rock formation known as London Bridge suddenly collapsed. For many years day trippers had walked out along this natural bridge to the big rock at the end but after sitting there for possible millions of years the bridge spontaneously collapsed in January 1997 leaving two people stranded on the rock who had to wait several hours for a helicipter to arrive to ferry them back to the mainland. There is an urban myth that these two people were not actually a couple but both cheating on their repective partners and then got caught out getting their faces on national television but we do not know if this holds truth or not. Tell us if you can clear up this myth!

The rainforest is full of dangers and poisonous things

Many people think that rainforests are always infested with mosquitoes and poisonous snakes and spiders that will fall out of the trees and attack for no reason. This myth is kept alive by James Bond, Indiana Jones and Steve Irwin movies but the truth is diffferent. At Cape Tribulation in the Daintree national park in the oldest rainforest in the world there is not one poisonous spider, the redback and the funnelweb do not live here and they are the only two poisonous spiders in Australia. Poisonous snakes are more often found in open grassland and snakes seen in this forest are usually pythons or tree snakes, both totally harmless to humans. The mosquito situation also comes as a surprise to many people. If you sit still in daytime eventually some mosquitoes will smell the carbon monoxide in your breath and come and dance around your face. But when it gets dark they all disappear and through the night there will be nothing to bother you!

This article by Rob Lapaer of Rainforest Hideaway B&B accommodation in Cape Tribulation.

Stoned koalas

Koalas tend to preserve their energy as they are hard pressed to get enough nutrients from the gum leaves they eat, it is a myth that they are incapacitated by being totally stoned from the chemicals in the gum leaves.

Amazing Australian Myths