2024 Australia Quiz: Outstanding Trivia from Down Under

Dame Quentin Bryce. Screenshot: ABC News (Australia) – YouTube

Australia has had two female governor-generals in its 123-year history. The first was Dame Quentin Bryce, who served from 2008 to 2014. The latest appointment is Samantha Mostyn, announced on April 2, 2024, and sworn in on July 1, 2024. Mostyn will receive an annual salary of over $709,000, significantly higher than her male predecessor’s $495,000. With her salary, she’s breaking a record as Australia’s second female governor-general and breaking the glass ceiling.

Queen Mary of Denmark, originally Mary Donaldson, hails from Hobart, Tasmania. Her journey from Tasmania to royalty is a modern-day fairytale. She met her prince charming, Crown Prince Frederik, during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and the rest, as they say, is history. Fast forward to January 14, 2024, and Mary ascends as queen alongside her husband, King Frederik X, after Queen Margrethe II’s historic abdication. Mary’s Australian roots make her the world’s first Australian-born queen.

Rupert Murdoch, the 93-year-old media mogul, has been married four times and is now married for the fifth time. His previous marriages include Patricia Booker, Anna Maria Torv, Wendi Deng, and Jerry Hall. He announced his engagement to 67-year-old Elena Zhukova in March 2024, and the wedding occurred on June 2, 2024, at his California vineyard.

As of Nov. 2023, Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old media mogul, will be chilling in his new role as chairman emeritus of both Fox Corp. and News Corp. media holdings, with Lachlan Murdoch taking over his previous roles. And when Murdoch Sr. joins the magnificent newsroom in the sky, control of the Fox empire will become a family affair, with all four of Murdoch’s adult children having an equal say.

Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest woman, was displeased with her portrayal in a portrait by Aboriginal artist Vincent Namatjira. The portrait was displayed at the National Gallery of Australia. The picture featured a distorted depiction of her features, including a double chin. Unhappy with this representation, Rinehart requested the gallery to remove the portrait. On May 16, 2024, the gallery refused her request, stating they welcomed public dialogue about their collections. This situation garnered significant public and media attention, often described as the “Streisand effect,” where attempts to suppress information only lead to increased publicity.

In 2024, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania moved two Picasso paintings to a public toilet cubicle to protest a legal ruling. The Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal had ordered the museum to allow men into the previously women-only Ladies Lounge, an installation that featured the Picasso artworks.

Australia is the first country worldwide to approve MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for hard-to-treat depression. The Therapeutic Goods Administration put the two drugs on the approved medicines list starting July 1, 2023, but for a price — the treatment costs about $10,000 (Australian. It’s roughly $6,600 US dollars) per patient.

Fun Fact: Oregon was the first US state to legalize adult psilocybin use, and Colorado’s voters decriminalized psilocybin in 2022.

Barry Humphries was born in Melbourne, Australia, on February 17, 1934. He created the character of Dame Edna Everage, a condescending and snobbish housewife in the mid-50s. Humphries died on April 22, 2023, at 89, in a Sydney hospital due to complications following hip surgery.

Fun Fact: He won a Tony Award in 2000 for his Broadway show “Dame Edna: The Royal Tour.” More Barry Humphries trivia facts here.

Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, UK, in 1948 to a Welsh father and a German mother who had fled Nazi Germany. She moved to Australia with her family when she was five and later became a dual citizen of both countries. She did not come from Greece, despite playing Sandy in Grease.

Is Olivia Newton-John dead?

A state memorial for Olivia Newton-John took place on Feb. 26, 2023, in Melbourne, Australia, with family and friends paying tribute to the late singer and actor, who died in Aug. 2022 at 73 after a long battle with breast cancer. Newton-John was known for her music, film, and philanthropic work, especially in cancer research and wellness.

Fun fact: Queen Elizabeth II made her a dame in 2019.

Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen came together in the 2016 spy action comedy “The Brothers Grimsby.” While the film might not have aimed for the Oscars, it certainly left a mark, especially in Wilson’s memoir, “Rebel Rising,” set to hit the shelves in April 2024. The memoir promises a chapter that has stirred quite the Hollywood tea, with Wilson accusing Cohen, known for his roles as Ali G and Borat, of being the “a**hole” she endured during filming. This revelation has sparked a volley of denials from Cohen’s camp, claiming Wilson’s assertions are “demonstrably false.”

The adorable creature in the picture is a wombat. In June 2024, Tasmania Tourism launched a unique campaign to boost winter tourism by offering quirky “odd jobs,” including the role of a wombat walker. This job involves leading wombats on their morning walks as part of their rehabilitation program at East Coast Natureworld. The initiative aims to attract Australians to take a break from their daily routines and experience Tasmania’s natural beauty and unique wildlife. The campaign features ten quirky positions, including “oyster organizer,” “paranormal investigator,” “sauna stoker,” and “wine whisperer.”