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

• It's now the most popular form of house construction. But, since 1928 brick veneer cladding has changed the face of Australia's urban and rural environments.
  
  
• The Sydney GPO had the world's first mechanised Letter Sorting Machine in 1930. It was developed by an engineer with the Postmaster General's Department.
  
  
• Dr Arthur Farnworth of the CSIRO added a special resin to wool fibres in 1957 to change their chemical structure to create Permanent Crease Trousers.
  
  
• The first full-size rotary hoe cultivator was developed in 1922 and used energy to turn the soil directly, rather than dragging a plough behind a tractor.
  
  
• The CSIRO developed a snake antivenom in 1968 which acted against the poison from most Australian snakes.
  
  
• The world's first plastic spectacle lenses, 60% lighter than glass lenses, were designed in 1960 by Scientific Optical Laboratories.
  
  
• Racecam - the lightweight, fixed camera first used in car racing - was developed by Geoff Healey in 1979 and has changed sports broadcasting worldwide.
  
  
• John McGarvie Smith donated his secret discovery of an anthrax vaccine to the NSW Government in 1918.
  
  
• A lightweight, fully-enclosed hybrid toilet system which needs no water and requires minimal maintenance was released in 1998.
  
  
• 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.
  
  

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.