26 crazy Australian facts you can take to your BBQ today.

It’s Australia Day, and if there’s one day of the year that you can start to break out the zany facts about monotremes, it’s today.

So, here are 26 fun facts that you can use to turn yourself into a human bottle cap. Have fun:

1. We are one of the few countries that eats their national animal. (Even if we just put it in dog food.)

2. The Emu and the Kangaroo are on our crest because neither animal can walk backwards.

3. Per capita, we read more newspapers than any other nation.

4. The ‘dingo fence’ is the longest fence in the world (5,530km). It is about twice as long as the Great Wall of China.

5. The largest Greek population outside of Athens is found in Melbourne.

6. 750,000 camels roam our deserts, the largest number of purebred camels in the world.

7. Adelaide’s Botanic Gardens are home to the oldest glasshouses in the Southern Hemisphere.

8. The Australian Alps receive more snow than Switzerland.

9. Glenelg (in Adelaide), Tumut (in NSW) and Parap (in Darwin) are all palindromes.

10. We have 20% of the world’s poker machines, but only .33% of the world’s population.

11. Perth is the only city in the world which can have aircraft land in its CBD.

12. We are the only continent without an active volcano.

13. The Seekers were named joint Australians of the Year in 1967.

14. Crocodile Dundee is the highest grossing Australian film to date.

15. It is illegal to walk on the right hand side of the footpath.

16. If all of the shells on the roof of the Sydney Opera House were combined, they would create a perfect sphere.

17. Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island.

18. Cathy Freeman is the only person to have been awarded both Young Australian of the Year and Australian of the Year.

19. We hold the world record for the most number of Christmas lights on a house. Over half a million lights were placed on a Canberra house last Christmas.

20. The average Australian will consume 165,000 eggs in his or her lifetime.

21. No native Australian animals have hooves.

22. When the English settlers first saw a platypus they thought Australians were trolling them by sewing a duck bill on a rat.

23. In 1838 it was declared illegal to swim at public beaches during the day. This law remained in force until 1902.

24. Kalgoorlie in Western Australia is the our largest electorate, spanning 2,225,278 square kilometres.

25. Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s performance at the 2000 Olympics was pre-recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

26. The wine cask is an Australian invention.

Did we miss any crazy Australian facts?