Truth about Australia

Hey guys i'm 16 (15 when I wrote this) and from Australia. Over the years i've heard some weird rumors about my country and most of them make me laugh... such as we ride kangaroos and we don't have clean water. Well i'm going to end all those rumors here by going through them all. Also there are some odd  questions I get asked about Australia too so I will answer them as well.

This was just a bit of fun and do not intend to offend anyone.

If you have any more questions or 'facts' about Australia please feel free to comment and i'll add it in (:

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1. The main question or rumor going around is that we ride kangaroos... well to be perfectly honest, it's rare to even touch a kangaroo in the wild let a lone ride one. In fact, they are very timid animals and would most likely run away before you could even get close. 
Unless they were tamed by a zoo or wildlife park, don't get your hopes up in patting one.
If you were lucky enough to get close to a wild one, especially the bigger Red ones, don't do anything that may scare it or make it feel threatened because it. will. hurt. you. You heard stories about the boxing kangaroo? Well guess where they originated from? (;

RANDOM FACT: The Australian state Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.

2. Where did the rumor come from that we don't have clean drinking water? Seriously guys, we are a developed country and we don't have clean drinking water? Get real. Our water is perfectly clear when it comes out the taps and when we drink it we don't get sick. If you look at the picture, that's a photo I took of a glass of water in my kitchen. It's not dirty, yucky or full of germs. We drink the same water as  you guys do. 

RANDOM FACT: 4/5 of our country is bush land. Only about 1/5 is cities and towns.

3. Koala's. What's the deal with them? They sit in trees and sleep for 18 hours a day. They eat gumtree leaves, that's where they get their water too. You see one and say, "Awwwh! How cute!" Well they are... until they feel threatened or challenged. Those 'cute' little bears hide a secret... they are VICIOUS! Their claws are sharp, and so are their teeth. I'm just saying, don't get on one's bad side.
People say that they are everywhere here in Australia. Well sometimes you can see them but not all the time. In the more civilized cities it's rare to find one sitting up in a tree. They prefer places with alot of trees and closer. Oh and when you're out camping... look out for drop bears...

RANDOM FACT: Gough Whitlam is the only Australian Prime Minister to be dismissed from office. He was dismissed as Prime Minister by the then Governor General, Sir John Kerr in 1975.

4.   Now what do we live in? Oh that's right, Houses! We don't live in tents or mud houses made of stick, we live in brick houses with proper doors, windows, air conditioning/ heaters, streets, ect. We are a developed country meaning we have good finances, clean water and food, houses, buildings, companies, ect. Yes a majority of Australia is country side but we do have major cities too! Almost 23 million people here! So look it up on google maps or something and depending on where you look you should find houses, buildings and cities!

RANDOM FACT: Australia is an island AND a continent AND a country. In fact we are the smalled continent in the world and one of the biggest countries and the biggest island!

5. The weather. Man it's soooo hot here! Um yeah in summer... in summer it's really hot down south! Up North the weather is very much the same everyday being hot, humid, sticky, wet because it's close to the equator! The rest of Australia is very desert like. It could be warm during the day but once that sun goes down, bloody hell it's cold. In winter it can get to below zero in some places! But it is true... Australia is hot most of the time. I guess I don't fell it much anymore because I live here but for a tourist 40 Degrees Celsius may be a bit much.

RANDOM FACT: Australia's tropical north or the top end is home to the world's largest saltwater crocodile.

6. Thongs, Thongs!, THONGS! I'm wearing thongs right now! No, no, not the underwear as people call them but the shoes! Here in Australia the word thongs describes shoes.. flip flops for people who know them better as that. Don't get that mixed up if you travel here because if you travel to Australia thinking thongs mean underwear, well you're gonna be a bit disturbed while walking around, especially at the beach.

RANDOM FACT: Kangaroos, koalas, platypus, echidnas, kookaburras, emus and other a few other animals are native to Australia.

7. Spiders, snakes and dangerous animals. Well you should already know Australia is PACKED with dangerous animals. For crying out loud I killed a red back spider earlier today and killed a brown snake about a week ago that was trying to get under the blow up pool! Get bitten by one of those and ouch! You may want to visit the doctor okay? I'm in SA so there are a lot of dangerous animals here that other parts of the country don't have though those parts have things we don't so it works out. The Sydney Funnel-web spider is considered the deadliest spider in the world. Sea creatures are are pretty dangerous such as jelly fish and sharks. The stonefish is the most poisonous fish in the world and lives mainly above the tropic of Capricorn off the coast of Australia. Don't worry though, that never stops people from swimming at the beach .It would take me waaay to long to write out all the dangers so that's just the gist of it.

RANDOM FACT: Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth. The only continent drier is Antarctica

8. We do say things differently sometimes. Such as the thongs are flip flops. But to be completely honest we have a bit of a lazy way to speak. Servo has been shortened from servo station or gas station, Arvo is short for afternoon, g'day is the lazy way to say hello or good day, mozzie has been shortened from mosquito, cozzie, bathers, togs are three ways to say swim suit! BBQ or barbie means barbecue. We say MUM instead of mom and no it's not weird... also fairy floss instead of cotton candy. Our frieds are called our mates! So yeah we say things differently to other countries or make abbreviations for our words but that's the way we live.

RANDOM FACT: In Australia there are about 150 million sheep.. that means about 10 sheep per person.