What Americans Get Wrong About Australia
by Taylor Kubota
Australians don’t ride kangaroos. Whether you already knew this or not, let’s clear the air on other misconceptions about Australia.
The land of kangaroos, Crikey, and beaches. At least those are common things that come to mind when we think of the land Down Under. Without a doubt, Australia is an intriguing place. It has a cultural mix unlike any other in the world and is home to fascinating (and terrifying) nature.
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Australia is only slightly smaller than the continental United States and is the only country that is also a continent. It has a population of over 22.7 million, of which about a quarter identify as English and a quarter say they are of Australian ethnicity. About .5 percent are of Aboriginal Australian heritage — descendents of people who likely made the continent home around 40,000 years ago. There are also many people of Asian descent on this island due to its proximity to Asia.
Along with being the driest inhabited place on Earth, Australia exhibits some incredible natural diversity. There are as many species of spiders here as there are beaches — 10,000 of each! It is also the area of the world where we find the greatest variety of marsupials. Around 200 species of this mammalian group live on Australia, New Guinea, and the surrounding islands.
WATCH: Everything in Australia Wants to Kill You
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