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 Pop Top Can idea of press-buttons on cans (where the button is hinged to the can) so it does not cause a litter problem, was developed by Sir Ian McLennan of BHP in 1973
  
  
• The first ultrasound scanner was built in 1961 at the ultrasonics institute in the Commonwealth Department of Health by George Kossoff and David Robinson.
  
  
• The world's first Plastic Banknotes were invented in Australia in 1988. They last longer and are harder to counterfeit than paper money.
  
  
• The Baby Safety Capsule was invented in 1983. Now, the Australian Standard for infant and child restraints is one of the most stringent in the world, demanding an extremely rigorous degree of protection.
  
  
• The Wiltshire Staysharp Knife - a knife sheath which sharpens the knife each time it was withdrawn - was invented in 1965.
  
  
• A lightweight, fully-enclosed hybrid toilet system which needs no water and requires minimal maintenance was released in 1998.
  
  
• The u-beaut "ute", with a front including the comforts of a car, and a rear like a truck, was designed in 1933 at the Ford Motor Company in Geelong, Victoria.
  
  
• Automated betting at horse races was made possible with the Automatic Totalisator invented by George Julius in 1913.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Longtime household glove maker, Ansell, introduced disposable latex gloves for use in surgery in 1964.
  
  

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.