Australia Ranks Second on the Where-to-be-Born Index 2013

Great Australian Inventions

Australians are perhaps more famed for their sporting feats than for their technological innovation - but a new children's book aims to change that.

Here are 10 eye-catching inventions that come from the land down under, according to Christopher Cheng and Lindsay Knight, authors of Australia's Greatest Inventions and Innovations. In some cases inventors from other countries may also have a legitimate claim, but Cheng and Knight do not want the Australian research to go unnoticed.

WI-FI

John O'Sullivan, an astronomy and space science fellow at Melbourne's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, is seen in his home country as the father of wi-fi.

"Some of the original seeds were sown in radio astronomy," says O'Sullivan. "Curiously, it was a failed experiment to detect exploding mini black holes the size of an atomic particle.

"I certainly had no idea where things would lead. Back then, we set out to do a wireless network at 100 megabits per second.

"Many people thought we had rocks in our head to try do such a thing. We thought it really would be big, but now I look back and I'm just blown away at how big it has become."

Black box flight recorders

The famous "black box" is, in fact, coated with bright heat-resistant paint in order to be spotted easily after a plane crash.

It is the work of an Australian chemist, Dave Warren, who believed that the dead could help unlock the mysteries of fatal accidents.

In 1953, it was his brainwave to build a device that recorded voices from the cockpit as well as data from flight instruments.

His premise was this - if the black box could remain in one piece after a crash, the final moments of a doomed flight could be replayed to find out what went wrong and help prevent future catastrophes.

Warren was motivated by a family tragedy. His father was killed in 1934 in one of Australia's earliest air disasters, the loss of Miss Hobart in Bass Strait, between the Australian mainland and Tasmania.

The first models were built in the UK, but the idea was born under the Southern Cross.

Hills clothes hoists

An archetypal, if not hackneyed, image of suburbia in one of the world's most urbanised societies. The idea for a rotating "big metal tree" for drying laundry dates back to the late 19th Century and was patented by Gilbert Toyne, a blacksmith-turned-inventor, in Adelaide in 1926.

But it is fellow south Australian Lance Hill who is best known for making these backyard marvels into household names.

"It's a great energy-saving device," says Debbie Rudder, a curator at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. "Why burn fossil fuels when you can use sunshine? Whereas people in some other countries don't like to have their things seen by the neighbours."

Cochlear implants

Dr Graeme Clark, and the cochlear implant he invented

The bionic ear has brought the wonder of sound into the lives of thousands of people. For this, they must thank the persistence of Sydney doctor Graeme Clark.

In 1967, he began to investigate ways to tap into the cochlea, the part of the ear that hears, with electrodes. His task seemed insurmountable - how could he squeeze 20 wires into the equivalent thickness of a needle?

Inspiration came while on holiday at the beach. Pushing a blade of grass into a seashell that looked like an inner ear provided the light bulb moment inventors crave.

In 1985, the cochlear implant was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

"It's one of my favourites because it is such an amazing idea that has changed so many lives," says Rudder.

Dual-flush toilets

As Australian as turning the tap off while you brush your teeth. In the world's driest inhabited continent, water-saving measures are religiously embraced.

The dual flush loo has two buttons to dispatch different amounts of water from the cistern - a half-flush for liquid waste and a full one for more heavy-duty deposits.

It was invented in the early 1980s by Bruce Thompson and is a ubiquitous feature in Australian bathrooms and in a growing number around the world.

"We used to put a brick inside the cistern but now the dual-flush loo is fantastic," says Christopher Cheng. "Think about all the water it is saving."

Mountbatten Braillers

The world's first portable battery-powered braille writer for people with impaired vision. Each letter in the braille alphabet is represented by a combination of raised dots and spaces.

"There was an old machine called the Perkins Brailler that was around for many years, but most users found it heavy and clunky," says Rudder.

"The Mountbatten Trust in England decided to have a worldwide competition to design and manufacture an improved version that was lighter in weight. The company in Sydney that developed it was called Quantum and a couple of guys mortgaged their houses in order to get it off the ground."

Super Sopper Rollers

"Aha, here is a backyard invention," says Rudder. "It was invented on the spur of the moment. A fellow was playing golf with some friends. There had been a bit of rain and they said, 'Come on, you're an inventor. Work out how to soak up that water.'"

So the challenge was thrown down to Gordon Withnall in 1974. With his son, he made a giant rolling sponge that soaks up water from rain-soaked fields.

Sports grounds for cricket, gridiron, hockey and horse-racing have all benefited from this super-sized mop.

The smaller model is pushed by hand like a lawn-mower, while the meatier version is motorised and can remove up to 5,830 gallons (26,500 litres) of water an hour.

Ultrasound

The Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories in Sydney played a part in developing one of the greatest gifts to parents around the world - the first glimpse of their unborn child.

The laboratory was one of many, in a number of countries, trying to find a way of examining unborn babies without using X-rays.

"While researching the use of ultrasound (high-pitched sound) to 'see' inside the human body, [the team] made a technical breakthrough called 'greyscale imaging'. This was a way of picking fine differences in ultrasound echoes bouncing off soft tissue in the human body and converting them into TV pictures," says the Powerhouse Museum website.

"The Ausonics company commercialised this technology in 1976 in the UI Octoson scanner. The patient lies on a water bed covered with a flexible membrane. Ultrasonic waves from eight speakers are beamed through the water and reflect off the part of the patient's body in contact with the membrane, and off internal organs... The Octoson was the first medical instrument to provide good images of internal organs, or of a foetus inside the uterus, without exposure to damaging X-rays."

Disposable syringes

Cheng and Knight argue that we owe this life-saving therapeutic tool to the expertise of a toy-maker from South Australia - though, once again, there are many others thinking the same way at around the same time.

The development of a convenient and efficient syringe became imperative with the arrival of the penicillin. The bacterial-fighting wonder drug tended to clog up glass syringes and make them difficult to reuse.

"In 1951, Harry Willis, a detailer at A M Bickford and Sons, the drug manufacturing company that was granted the rights to produce penicillin in commercial quantities patented his design for a cheap, disposable hypodermic syringe made from plastic," the authors write.

"Needing to find a plastics expert to make his concept a reality, Willis visited Charles Rothauser, whose South Australian business, the Quality Toy Company, was using plastic to manufacture dolls.

"With his plastic toy experience, Rothauser's task was to find a way to produce an inexpensive disposable syringe."

His early creations were cast in polyethylene, a common plastic. Later his designs were simplified when polypropylene, a more durable polymer, became widely available.

Plastic banknotes

The polymer notes even survive being dunked in water then frozen

In the late 1960s, government scientists were asked by the Reserve Bank of Australia to create a banknote that could not be forged, following the introduction of a new decimal currency.

The solution was a transparent panel and hologram embedded in the note, which would be made of plastic.

The waterproof notes were first released in 1988. Australia now boasts a currency that confounds the counterfeiters, and one that lasts four times longer than its traditional cousins.

It also prints polymer banknotes for many other countries including Bangladesh, Chile, Kuwait, New Zealand, Romania and Vietnam.

My Favourite Places to Eat in Sydney

It takes trial and error to find the best places to eat in Sydney. I've been recommended places by friends but then walked away after the meal thinking it's not that good.  What are they raving on about? When you do find the best places that appeal to your taste buds you tend to stick to them. After a while you get to know the people who work there by name and build up rapport. I love going into my favourite cafe, being warmly greeted and asked "the usual?" when I walk through the door. I smile and reply "yes". I don't even need to order.

I'm a mocha drinker and although good coffee is in abundance in Sydney, it's not always easy to find a good mocha. My favourite brand of coffee is undoubtedly Vittoria, it's rich and full flavoured and if made by a good barrista, simply heavenly. The best mocha I've ever had in my life was when I attended the Welcome Wall ceremony at Darling Harbour. One of the owners of Vittoria was there giving away free samples and supporting immigrants who came to Australia. I couldn't believe how good that coffee was, it was perfect. My family were there at the time too and they all agreed. We've been hard pressed to find a coffee better than the one we had that day.

The Lindt Cafe also makes excellent mochas as well as offering many other delicious treats. The Lindt Cafe has three Sydney locations - Darling Harbour, George Street and Martin Place.

There are a few good French patisseries in Sydney but my favourite and the best, I believe, is La Renaissance at The Rocks.   Their croissants are delicious and buttery and I can never eat just one! Their coffee is okay but you don't go there for the coffee, you go for the food.

I've only started eating laksa's during the past few years and the best by a country mile is Jimmy's Recipe in Galleries Victoria, George Street, Sydney. They're great!  If you are visiting Sydney you simply must go there at least once.  We have had several visitors over the years from other countries, including Asian ones, and they all agree that the quality of Jimmy's food is outstanding.

       

Interesting Facts About Australia

When we think of Australia we tend to think of sunshine, golden beaches and friendly, down to earth people. Whilst this is all true of course, Australia is much more than that. It's a vibrant and enterprising country full of small and large wonders.  There are many facts about Australia unknown to many people, including many Australians.  Here follows a list of interesting and little known facts about Australia.

* Australia has the world's largest population of wild camels and exports them to Arab countries

* In 1906 Australia produced the world's first ever feature film - "The Story of the Kelly Gang". After WWI film making slowed down in Australia and America took over

* "The Wiggles" are the highest earning entertainers in Australia

* Australian citizenship did not exist in law until 1949. Prior to that anyone born in Australia was a British subject and had a British passport.  Mass immigration to Australia took place after WWII which saw a huge influx of Europeans.

* The Black Box flight recorder was invented in Australia in 1958

* Australians read more magazines per capita than any other nation in the world. One of the most comprehensive newsagents in Australia is Humphrey's located in Manly, NSW.

* The Sydney Funnel Web Spider is one of the world's deadliest. It's fangs can penetrate through gloves and fingernails and can kill a human in less than two hours There has not been a fatality since anti venom was introduced in 1981.

* There are over 200 languages spoken in Australian homes; the common after English being Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic and Mandarin.

* Australia is a leader in wine production and is the main supplier of wine to the UK, having overtaken France in the 1990s.

* The wine cask was invented in Australia in 1965

* The dual flush toilet system was invented in Australia in 1980

* The Australian Alps are commonly known as the Snowy Mountains and receive more snowfall annually than  the Swiss Alps.

* There are over 1500 species of Australia spiders

* The Australian Coat of Arms feature the kangaroo and emu. These Australian animals are unique in that they are incapable of walking backwards and signify Australia to always look forward and never look back.

* Australia's island state Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world

*  In 1926 New South Wales became the first government in the world to pay pensions to women

* Australia is the only continent in the world without an active volcano

*  Koalas are nocturnal and spend between 16-18 sleeping per day

* Australia produces 95% of the world's opals

* Australia has the largest homes in the developed world

* 70%  of people own their home in Australia

The Best Restaurants in Sydney

Chez Maurcie et Linda
Very few restaurants have ever made me salivate over the mere thought of their food but one that truly does is Chez Maurice et Linda in Balgowlah. This restaurant is by far the best French restaurant I have ever been to, in and outside of France and food critics from around the world have made it a point to stop by whenever they're in Sydney, including French food writers. You will never be disappointed dining at Chez Maurice et Linda, the food is always cooked to perfection and leaves you wanting more and more and more. My favourite meal is the garlic prawns for entrée, Châteaubriand as a main and rich chocolate mousse for dessert.   Chef Maurice enjoys coming out of the kitchen at the end of the night with a glass of vin rouge in his hand to chat with his guests.

Address: 292 Sydney Road, Balgowlah, NSW, 2093  Tel: 02 9949 4155

Beaches Pizza Bar
You would expect that the best tasting pizzas in the world would be found in Italy but that's not the case at all. I've eaten pizzas all across the globe - in Europe, the USA, Asia, Australia, New Zealand etc and none of them even remotely compare to how fantastic they are at Beaches. They are the best pizzas I've ever had - by far. What makes them unique is the thin base and  the ample  toppings which are full of flavour. The pizzas not to be missed are their garlic bread with cheese, and the Cisco and Marinated Lamb pizzas - yum!  You know a restaurant is good when it's busy every night of the week and this one most definitely is!

Address: 22 Darley Road, Manly, NSW, 2095  Tel: 02 9977 0078

The Coachman Russian Restaurant 
My favourite restaurant in all of Sydney when it comes to atmosphere has to be this place. I've been coming here for over 15 years with my family, usually to celebrate my birthday or any other significant occasion. They have live music in both English and Russian including many popular disco tracks which people are not shy to get up on the floor and dance to. Friday and Saturday nights feature dancing girls and a virtuoso violinist.

Address: 763 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, NSW, 2010  Tel: 02 9319 7705

Australia - There's No Place Quite Like it