Famous Australian Ideas and Innovations

You're going to be very surprised at some of the great inventions Australians have been responsible for...

Heck, Aussie are even responsible for turning dishwater and beer into electricity, AND running cars on nothing but water!

This page presents a variety of those for your perusal - please REFRESH to see a different selection of ten Aussie innovations.

To find out more, can I suggest you visit
The Power House Museum and Questacon

• The orbital internal combustion engine was developed in 1972 by engineer Ralph Sarich of Perth, Western Australia.
  
  
• Shepherd Castors are strong, easily manoeuvrable dome-shaped castors for furniture, and replaced traditional pivoted wheel castors. They were developed by George Shepherd in 1946.
  
  
• In 1982, the dual flush toilet (dunny) was responsible for initial savings in excess of 32000 litres of water per household a year. Pretty important in a dry continent!
  
  
• The world's first plastic spectacle lenses, 60% lighter than glass lenses, were designed in 1960 by Scientific Optical Laboratories.
  
  
• An Aboriginal inventor, David Unaipon, patented in 1909 an improved sheep shear.
  
  
• It wasn't the first Australian rotary clothesline with a winding mechanism which allowed the frame to be raised and lowered, but the Hills Clothes Hoist (developed by Lance Hill in Adelaide in 1945) was certainly the most successful.
  
  
• Developed by Dr Saul Weiner, Redback Spider Antivenom was released in 1956.
  
  
• Kiwi Boot Polish was first available for sale in 1906. It could restore the faded colour of brown shoes.
  
  
• In 1983, Australia II won the America's Cup in part due to the revolutionary winged keel designed by Ben Lexcen.
  
  
• Automated betting at horse races was made possible with the Automatic Totalisator invented by George Julius in 1913.
  
  

Hit REFRESH to reload the page to see another random selection of more Aussie ideas :)

Written by coais

About Stephen Spry

Stephen Spry is a freelance web designer and Internet publisher. He has been working online, full-time, since 1995 after an 18-year career as a high school Careers Adviser. Stephen operates several websites and web directories in a variety of niches. His main web design business can be found here » Come On Aussie.