The best Australian trivia questions to see how smart your friends are

Think you know Australia like the back of your hand? Our country is full of interesting facts, strange history, and unique culture, from the sunburnt country to the busy cities. It’s time to see how well you know what you know.

We can help you with anything from hosting a pub quiz to planning a family game night to just proving you’re the smartest person in the room. Even the most experienced Australians will find this ultimate list of Australian trivia questions hard. Get a drink, put on your thinking cap, and let’s see how well you really know the land Down Under.

Fun facts about Australian history

How much do you know about the people and events that shaped our country? This round covers everything from the colonial era to important events in the present.

1. Who was the first Prime Minister of Australia?

• The answer is Edmund Barton.

2. When did Australia become a federation?

• Answer: 1901.

3. In 1854, the Eureka Stockade, an important event in Australian history, happened in what city in Victoria?

• The answer is Ballarat. The rise of the gold miners was a major event in Australia’s progress toward freedom.

4. What was Michael’s first name?

• Answer: Batmania.

5. People often call the naval battle in 1942 “the battle that saved Australia.”

• The Battle of the Coral Sea.

6. What was the name of the ship James Cook used to chart Australia’s east coast for the first time in 1770?

• The answer is HMS Endeavour.

7. When did Australia switch from pounds, shillings, and pence to decimal currency?

• The answer is 1966.

8. Who was the famous bushranger who supposedly said “Such is life” before he died?

• The answer is Ned Kelly.

9. What is the “Bringing Them Home” report from 1997 about?

• Answer: The generations that were stolen.

10. What did the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, which was one of the biggest engineering projects in Australia, set out to do?

• Answer: To make electricity and move water for farming.

Geography and famous places

Let’s see if you can put these famous places and geographical facts in the right order, from our huge deserts to our beautiful coastlines.

1. What is the name of the biggest desert in Australia?

• How to get there is through the Great Victoria Desert.

2. What state is home to the Three Sisters rock formation?

• Answer: New South Wales.

3. What river in Australia is the longest?

• There is only one way to find out.

4. Which capital city in Australia is the most cut off from the rest of the world?

• Answer: Perth.

5. Uluru is a single rock, but what is the name of the group of big, dome-shaped rocks that are close by?

• The Olgas, or Kata Tjuta, is the answer.

6. What is the tallest mountain in Australia?

• The answer is Mount Kosciuszko.

7. What is the only island state in Australia?

• Answer: Tasmania.

8. Which body of water is the Great Barrier Reef in?

• The Coral Sea is the answer.

9. What is the northernmost point of the Australian mainland?

• Answer: Cape York, Queensland.

10. What two cities in Australia does the Indian Pacific railway connect?

• The answer is Sydney and Perth.

11. What is the name of the body of water that separates Tasmania from the rest of Australia?

• Answer: Bass Strait.

Australian sports

Here, sports are almost like a religion. See how much you know about our best athletes, teams, and sports events.

1. Which horse won the Melbourne Cup in 2003, 2004, and 2005?

• Makybe Diva is the answer.

2. What do people call Australia’s national men’s soccer team?

• The Socceroos are the answer.

3. What was Sir Donald Bradman’s Test batting average when he retired? He is the best batsman in cricket history.

• The answer is 99.94.

4. What year did Sydney host the Summer Games?

• The answer is 2000.

5. What two teams are in the AFL’s “Showdown”?

• The Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide are the answers.

6. Who was the first person from Australia to win the Tour de France?

• In 2011, Cadel Evans won.

7. What number did Shane Warne wear on his one-day international uniform that was so well-known?

• Answer: 23.

8. Where does the Australian Open tennis tournament take place?

• Melbourne is the answer.

9. What sport did Cathy Freeman win a gold medal in at the Sydney 2000 Olympics?

• Answer: The sprint of 400 meters.

10. What do the letters NRL mean?

• Answer: The National Rugby League.

11. Who is the Australian golfer known as “The Great White Shark”?

• Greg Norman is the answer.

TV and pop culture

How much do you know about Australian entertainment, from classic movies to famous TV shows?

1. Which Australian soap opera takes place in the made-up suburb of Erinsborough?

• Answer: Neighbors.

2. What is the name of the dog that the main character has in the movie Red Dog?

• Answer: Red Dog. (A little bit of a trick question!)

3. Which 1986 movie has the famous line “That’s not a knife… that’s a knife”?

• The answer is Crocodile Dundee.

4. What Australian band sang the song “Down Under,” which is not the official national anthem?

• Answer: Men at Work.

5. What does Kath’s husband do for a living on the show Kath & Kim?

• Answer: A butcher who sells high-quality meats.

6. Who was the Australian actress who won an Oscar for playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours?

• Nicole Kidman is the answer.

7. What Australian city is the children’s show Bluey set in?

• The answer is Brisbane.

8. Who is the author of the famous Australian book Picnic at Hanging Rock?

• Joan Lindsay is the answer.

9. Chris Lilley made a funny show with characters like Ja’mie King and Mr. G. What was it called?

• The answer is Summer Heights High.

10. Jimmy Barnes is the lead singer of which Australian rock band?

• Answer: Cold Chisel.

Languages and cultures of the natives

Take a moment to respectfully recognize and test your knowledge of the oldest living cultures in the world.

1. What is the name of the traditional wind instrument that Indigenous Australians made? 

• Answer: Didgeridoo (or yidaki).

2. The idea of “The Dreaming” or “Dreamtime” is very important to the spirituality of Indigenous Australians. What does it mean?

• Answer: The time of creation and the spiritual basis of life, law, and culture.

3. What does the black stripe on the Aboriginal flag mean?

• Answer: The Aboriginal people of Australia.

4. What legal principle did the 1992 Mabo decision change? It was a landmark High Court ruling.

• Answer: Terra nullius, which means “land that belongs to no one.”

5. What is the name of the traditional Indigenous practice of controlled burning that is used for land management?

• Answer: Cultural burning or cool burning.

6. Who is the Indigenous artist known for their watercolors of the Western MacDonnell Ranges?

• The answer is Albert Namatjira.

7. How many different Indigenous languages and dialects were spoken when Europeans first came into contact with them?

• Answer: More than 250.

8. What does the “NAIDOC” in NAIDOC Week stand for?

• Answer: The National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

9. What does the Indigenous word that means “Canberra,” the capital of our country, mean?

• Answer: “Place to meet.”

10. What does “Welcome to Country” mean?

• Answer: A ceremony that Traditional Owners do to welcome people to their land.

Aussie slang and daily life

Do you think you can speak Aussie well? Let’s see if you can figure out these old slang words and common facts.

1. What does it mean when an Australian says they’re “chockers”?

• Answer: It’s full (short for “chock-a-block”).

2. What does “sanga” mean?

• Answer: A sandwich.

3. What are you doing if you’re “whingeing”?

• Answer: Complaining.

4. In Australia, what do people call a bottle shop?

• Answer: A bottlo.

5. What do Australians call the afternoon?

• Answer: Arvo.

6. What do Australians call “thongs”?

• Answer: Flip-flops.

7. What should you do if someone says, “Bring a plate?”

• Bring a dish of food to share, the answer is.

8. What does “ute” mean?

• Answer: A car that can be used for many things.

9. What does the phrase “fair dinkum” mean?

• Answer: Real or true.

10. What is a “sausage sizzle” that a lot of people do?

• Answer: Grilling sausages, which are usually served on a piece of bread, is a common activity at fundraisers and community events.

Animals and nature

We live on land with some of the most interesting animals on Earth. How well do you know the animals that have fur, feathers, or scales?

1. What is the only mammal, besides the echidna, that lays eggs?

• The platypus is the answer.

2. What kind of Australian animal takes selfies and smiles?

• The quokka is the answer.

3. Is a koala a type of bear?

• No, it’s a marsupial.

4. What is the biggest bird of prey in Australia?

• Answer: The Eagle with a Wedge Tail.

5. What kind of dog from Australia doesn’t bark?

• The dingo is the answer.

6. What do you call a baby kangaroo?

• Answer: A joey.

7. What dangerous thing is the cassowary, a big bird that can’t fly and lives in Queensland, known for?

• Answer: Its big, dagger-like claw on its middle toe.

8. What is the name of the famous Australian tree that is also called a gum tree?

• The Eucalyptus is the answer.

9. What do you call a group of emus?

• Answer: A group.

10. What do people usually call the kookaburra’s unique call?

• Answer: A laugh.

Drink and food

From snacks at the servo to national dishes, let’s learn some fun facts about food and drink.

1. What is the main thing that makes up Vegemite?

• Answer: Yeast extract.

2. What does “spider” mean when talking about an Australian drink?

• Answer: A scoop of ice cream in a glass of soda.

3. What do you do with a Tim Tam Slam? You bite off the corners of the Tim Tam.

• Answer: A straw for a hot drink.

4. What kind of fish do Australians use to make fish and chips?

• Answer: Flake, which is a kind of shark.

5. What is the name of the famous square-shaped lamington?

• The answer is a lamington! It’s sponge cake that has been dipped in chocolate and then covered in dried coconut.

6. What Australian city is known for its lively coffee culture?

• Answer: Melbourne.

7. The meringue-based dessert pavlova is named after which ballerina?

• Answer: Anna Pavlova.

8. What is a “pie floater,” a dish that is very popular in South Australia?

• Answer: A meat pie floating in a thick bowl of pea soup.

9. What are the two most important fruits in a traditional fruit salad pavlova?

• Answer: Strawberries and passionfruit, and sometimes kiwi and banana too.

10. What brand of ginger beer is well-known for being made in Bundaberg, Queensland?

• Answer: Bundaberg.

Strange laws and local stories

There are stories and strange rules in every town. Do you know how many of these strange things?

1. What do you need to be to change a lightbulb in Victoria?

• Answer: An electrician with a license.

2. What does the “Min Min Light” mean?

• Answer: A strange and unexplained light phenomenon that happens a lot in the outback of Queensland.

3. In Queensland, it’s against the law to leave your car unlocked and unattended. Is it true or false?

• Yes, that’s true.

4. What do people call the supposed panther-like animal that is said to live in the Blue Mountains?

• The Blue Mountains Panther is the answer.

5. What is against the law in South Australia to do at a wedding or a funeral?

• Answer: Intentionally block or disturb it.

6. What is the ghost of Fisher?

• Answer: A well-known ghost story from Campbelltown, NSW, about a ghost who helped solve its own murder.

7. What state does it not allow you to have more than 50kg of potatoes?

• Answer: Western Australia (a law from after World War II to control supply).

8. What is the “Yowie”?

• Answer: A legendary hominid, like Bigfoot, that is said to live in the wilds of Australia.

9. Singing an obscene song or ballad in a public place is against the law. Is this true or false?

• Answer: Yes, there are summary offenses acts in a number of states.

10. What does the story of the “Dog on the Tuckerbox” say?

• Answer: A monument near Gundagai, New South Wales, honors a bullock driver’s loyal dog who protected his tuckerbox.

Quick-fire round: a little bit of everything!

No categories, just quick-fire Quiz questions about Australia to see who has been paying attention.

1. What two animals are on the Australian coat of arms? 

• Answer: Emu and Kangaroo.

2. What color is the middle of the Aboriginal flag? 

• Answer: Yellow.

3. What state is often called the “Sunshine State”? 

• Answer: Queensland.

4. What kind of money does Australia use? 

• The answer is the Australian Dollar.

5. What do you call the reef system that runs along the coast of Western Australia? 

• The answer is Ningaloo Reef.

6. Who is on the $20 bill in Australia?

• Answer: Mary Reibey and Reverend John Flynn.

7. What does the acronym ANZAC stand for?

•  Answer: The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

8. Who is the Australian actor who plays Thor?

•  Chris Hemsworth is the answer.

9. What is the capital city of Tasmania?

•  Answer: Hobart.

10. What famous biscuit does Arnott’s make that people often use to make cheesecake bases?

•  Answer: Marie biscuits or Scotch Fingers!

11. What do people call the Sydney Harbour Bridge? 

• Answer: The Coathanger.

12. In what sport do people often say “Howzat?” 

• Answer: Cricket.

13. Who was the “Prince of Paint”? This famous Australian artist was known for his work.

•  Brett Whiteley is the answer.

14. What flower is Australia’s national flower? 

• The Golden Wattle is the answer.

15. When does Australia Day happen?

•  The answer is January 26th.

Kids’ round: Fun for the little Australians

These questions are easier so the whole family can take part in this Aussie quiz.

What kind of sound does a kookaburra make? It laughs!

1. What do you call a baby koala? 

• Answer: A joey.

2. What are the three colors that make up the Australian flag? 

• The answer is red, white, and blue.

3. Where does P. Sherman, the dentist, live in the movie Finding Nemo?

•  The answer is Sydney.

4. What does a koala eat? 

• The answer is eucalyptus leaves (gum leaves).

5. What is the name of Sydney’s famous opera house?

•  The Sydney Opera House is the answer.

6. Can an emu take off? 

• No, the answer is no.

7. What is the name of the blue cattle dog on TV who loves to have fun?

•  Answer: Bluey.

8. What kind of candy do you leave out for the Easter Bilby?

•  The answer is chocolate!

9. What do you make with sand and water on the beach?

•  The answer is a sandcastle.

So, how did you do?

Did you show that you are a true-blue Aussie genius, or are there some things you don’t know about Australia? Add up your scores and don’t be afraid to share them in the comments below!

Ask your friends, family, and coworkers to see if they can beat your score. And if you want more, why not look through our collection of Aussie quizzes? Thanks for playing!