Ask Bunyip!

Mrs. Schultz and Grade 3, Saipan International School
Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands

There is a very good reason why Aborigines don't wear shoes... it's too hot! Well, not down in Melbourne where my home is, most of the time, but in Central Australia, and Queensland, even school children are often allowed not to wear shoes to school. Queenslanders are quite well known for their tough feet. They can walk over hot sand without noticing - whilst soft footed southerners like me like to wear thongs (Americans call them 'flip-flops') - on their feet.

Emily
USA

A billabong is a waterhole (like the one I'm sitting next to in my picture).
In the Australian Outback you'll find these all over, surrounded by gum trees. They are often not fed by a stream, but rather from an underground source.
www.dictionary.com says this:

\Bil"la*bong`\, n. [Native name.] In Australia, a blind channel leading out from a river... This is the sense of the word as used in the Public Works Department; but the term has also been locally applied to mere backwaters forming stagnant pools and to certain water channels arising from a source.

Of course MY billabong is not stagnant!!!

Teresa
Cedar Hill, Texas USA

I am in the process of naming a baby (Joey) Wallaby... "Walley" - is the one my husband and son want...

Walley is a great Aussie name, although it's usually Wally (no e). He would then probably get the nickname 'Wozza' or 'Wal' (pronounced Wol). A Wally is also a slang name for a silly person.

Are there any girls names which are particularly popular that are Aussie sounding?

A Jillaroo is a female cowboy here, and sounds a bit like kangaroo - so maybe you should call her Jill!

Bunyips are actually monsters - belonging to the mythology of Indigenous Australians - although they're often quite friendly nowadays :-)

Ms Nystršm and class, Neptunischool
Stockholm Sweden

The children here are very much like the children in Stockholm! Our favourite pets are cats, dogs and goldfish. We also keep guinea-pigs.
By my billabong I also have horses, geese, chickens, one duck, a dog, and many, many fish. In the summer, big kangaroos visit us. They like the shade under the gum trees.

Yes they do! The males fight each-other to show who is the strongest. When they are angry, they balance on their tail and kick with both of their back feet.. it's quite a sight! They can also punch with their little front paws - you may have heard of 'boxing kangaroos'. They can 'box' people too so it's not a good idea to approach them in the wild. The ones at my house (in the summer) can be about 7 feet tall! So I do not go near them. We have some great sanctuaries here where they have kangaroos that are used to people so you can pat and feed them safely. That's a lot of fun :-)

Yes bananas do grow in Australia. The best ones come from Queensland, that's up in the north east of Australia. It's a tropical place and they also grow pineapples, mangoes and macadamia nuts (yum!). It's coming into summer here now, so mango season has just started. The banana plantations look very funny sometimes, because instead of bananas hanging from the trees, you'll see big blue bags! The farmers cover the bananas with the bags to keep away the fruit bats.

Queenslanders have very tough feet! The sand on the beaches is extremely hot, and the children get very tough from walking on it all of the time. I'm sure they keep the schools very clean too, and that the children are clever enough not to walk with bare feet in the streets where there might be glass.

No, but I imagine that they feel firm and rubbery :-) In Queensland there are parks where you can learn about Australian sea creatures. One of my favourites is called Underwater World. You can pick up things like starfish, and sea urchins! Sea urchins look like spiky balls, and they look as though they do not move at all, but I was quite surprised (and shocked!) when the one I picked up made itself feel safer by twisting its spikes so that it was gripping my finger!

Yes we do, but only in zoos. Elephants are only native to India and Africa, I believe. In the time of the dinosaurs we had something called a Diprotodon. It was like a wombat, which today are solid little things, the size of a smallish dog. Diprotodons were the size of hippopotamuses! I am glad that they are not still around today...

There are crocodiles up in the north of Australia (the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia). You never go swimming up there unless you know that it is a safe place! There are no crocodiles down in Melbourne except for the ones in the zoo.

Have you heard of Vegemite? It's this funny, salty black stuff which you spread on your toast (usually with butter). I think that Australians are the only people who like this stuff (I love it!). If you can find some, give it a try!

Haha. We eat with all sorts of things (even our hands!). Being so close to Asia, often children here learn to eat with chopsticks when they're eating Asian food - although most of the time we use European cutlery.

Yes we do. When white settlers came to Australia, they brought all sorts of things with them to remind them of home, including rabbits, foxes, and lots of plants! There are a lot of oak trees in my home city, Melbourne, where the climate is nice and cool (like Sweden!)

The capital city of Australia is Canberra.
When we realised we needed a capital city, we couldn't decide whether to choose Melbourne or Sydney. So we created a brand new city, half way between them! Canberra is surrounded by the smallest of our states/territories - the Australian Capital Territory.

The largest city (in population) in Australia is Sydney. It's where the recent Olympic games were held - so you probably saw it on TV!
This seems to be a fairly good website if you want some more information...
www.sydney.com.au

Yes, oranges are very popular. In Australia we are very lucky to have such an enormous country. We can grow pineapples, coconuts and bananas in the hot, tropical north - oranges in the middle - and plants that love cool weather, like grapes, down in the south.

Ohh yes there are! We have lots of deadly snakes, brown snakes, tiger snakes and black snakes. Then we have little friendly snakes - carpet snakes for example are often kept as pets.

Our spiders can be nasty too. Red-backs live in old sheds, they are quite poisonous but not deadly. John wrote in to remind me not lo leave out white-tailed spiders, funnel webs and trapdoor spiders! We also have 'Daddy Long Legs' - which are funny little things with tiny bodies and big long legs. They're one of the most poisonous spiders, but their fangs are too tiny to bite humans so they're perfectly safe. I have a couple living in my house, killing flies for me :-)

Yes we do! They are not native, but they love the huge deserts. People in the north ride them on long desert journeys. There are wild camels now. I suppose they must have escaped long ago.

The largest bird is a funny one. Actually it's one of the largest birds in the world, but it cannot fly! It's called an Emu. The have LONG legs and beautiful long eyelashes, with silly little wings. They look a bit like ostriches but they're dull brown coloured. They like eating potato chips (I know this from experience!).

Apparently the smallest Australian bird is the Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris). I couldn't find a photo for you - maybe they're too small to photograph!

Yes we have whales off our coasts. We do have killer whales. They prefer the cold water around the arctic so they're more common in the south, but the do venture north occasionally. They also prefer swimming in water less than 200 meters deep.

We only have 26 letters in our alphabet...
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The Murray Cod (Maccullochella peelii peelii) is our largest freshwater fish.
There's a great photo of it here.

Another huge fish is the Barramundi (which also tastes delicious) - and my grandfather used to tell a fish-story of a monster Grouper which lived under a bridge near his house in Queensland.

Madeline
Oakdale, MN, USA

I have not been to the outback myself - it's too hot and dry there for a bunyip like me :-) I love to walk in the High-plains, down in the South-east. It's cool, and wet, and the heather comes up over your knees!
There are wild horses there, which we call Brumbys. They keep away from humans, but you can often see them not too far away, with the stallion keeping a look out over his family.

We don't celebrate Halloween very much here. We know about it of course, but it's not big like in the States.
Did you know that we have Christmas in Summer? That's not to say that we have it in June, but that December is in the middle of Summer on this side of the world! We also have lots of holidays around Christmas... like you have long summer holidays in the middle of the year. It gives us all a nice long time to play with our toys :-)

Barbara Ranstrom, Librarian
Meadowlark School Chinook Montana

Vegemite (produced by 'Kraft') is an Australian mainstay. I believe you can buy it from Australian embassies in other countries, and other specialty stores. A word of warning with Vegemite - spread it THIN!!! It's very strong and salty. We eat it on buttered toast mainly, but it's also nice with cheese on crackers.

There are other Australian recipes. Lamingtons are a favourite. Peach Melba is a delicious dessert. Pea floaters are meat pies with sauce on-top floating in a bowl of pea soup. And yes, people do actually eat them, although you need a very strong stomach! I have observed this strange behaviour myself in Adelaide but was not brave enough to try it myself :-)

Cristobal Farfa Maguina
Peru

A 'rip' is a very dangerous area in the sea: a current which runs parallel to the beach. If you swim there you can get sucked under the water and dragged out to sea. 'Curl' refers to the waves you see at a rip that warn you not to swim there. Australians are taught to look for a V shape in the water which could be a rip, and to avoid it! On our popular beaches, there is always a lifeguard who watches the beach very carefully, and two flags. If you always swim between the flags, you know that that water is safe.

Bob
USA

Well... if you're in the Northern Hemisphere then we're 'Down Under' you! If the phrase had come from, say, Brazil, maybe we would be called 'Around to the Left' - hahaha!

Candra Rens
Maurice, Iowa

Ayers Rock, known locally in the Indigenous language as Uluru, does appear to change colours as the sun changes position over it.
You can find a lot more information about Uluru here.

I pronounce 'Canberra' in three parts
Can - like a 'tin can'
berr - like the start of the word 'berry'
a - like the sound at the start of the word 'up'
The emphasis is on the first syllable.

Abbey wrote in to say that pronunciation of 'Canberra' differs from state to state (like lots of Australian words!).
People in New South Wales are more likely to say 'Can-bra'.

Indigenous Australians were here around 60,000 years ago. Rock engravings discovered in South Australia date back 45,000 years.
You can find out more at Lore of the Land.

Atalaya Ferrari
Australia

The NSW EPA says that billabongs are

"pools associated with a river which have become isolated from the main channel, either in the beds of temporary streams or formed at the bend in a river - [they] tend to be rich in plant nutrients and, because of the rapid turnover of nutrients, can support a diversity of aquatic life."