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 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.
  
  
• The Surf Lifesaving Reel was first demonstrated at Bondi Beach in 1906. It was designed by Lyster Ormsby.
  
  
• The Federation wheat strain, resistant to fungal rust disease and drought, was released by William Farrar in 1901.
  
  
• QANTAS inaugurated a pioneering round the world airline service with two planes taking off from Melbourne in 1958.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• In 1906, the story about the Kelly Gang was the world's first feature length film.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• In 1929, Alfred Traeger invented the Pedal Wireless - a pedal-operated generator which was connected to a wireless
  
  
• The first Black Box Flight Recorder recorded the pilot's voice and some instrument readings was invented in 1958 by Dr David Warren from Melbourne. It is now used in aircraft 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.