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 Wine Cask - a modern version of the traditional European wine 'bladder' (a leather pouch which collapses as the wine is poured, keeping air out) - was developed by Thomas Angove in 1965.
  
  
• A Sydney inventor, Gordon Withnall, invented the Super Sopper in 1974 to soak up water from wet sportsgrounds.
  
  
• The first ever radio lesson was broadcast from the Royal Flying Doctor Base in Alice Springs in 1950 on the School of the Air.
  
  
• Penicillin was trialled successfully on humans by Howard Florey, and went into production in 1941 to help victims of World War II.
  
  
• Automated betting at horse races was made possible with the Automatic Totalisator invented by George Julius in 1913.
  
  
• In 1956 Jack Grant of QANTAS invented the inflatable aircraft escape slide which could also be used as a raft on water. Such slides are now standard safety equipment worldwide.
  
  
• The world's first plastic spectacle lenses, 60% lighter than glass lenses, were designed in 1960 by Scientific Optical Laboratories.
  
  
• Kiwi Boot Polish was first available for sale in 1906. It could restore the faded colour of brown shoes.
  
  
• In 1906, the story about the Kelly Gang was the world's first feature length film.
  
  
• The first ultrasound scanner was built in 1961 at the ultrasonics institute in the Commonwealth Department of Health by George Kossoff and David Robinson.
  
  

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.