| #ffffff;" /> | | | | production with 3,000 feet of film and 200 coloured |
| Most foreigners imagine Australia as a laid-back | | | | glass slides. Around 2000 people attended the |
| country with lots of sunshine, great beaches, excellent | | | | premiere at the Melbourne Town Hall on September |
| sports and more kangaroos than you can shake a | | | | 13, 1900. In 1902 Herbert Booth took it around the world. |
| stick at. Yet, you might be surprised at how many | | | | In that same year, Cecil B. De Mille saw Soldiers of the |
| everyday things were invented in Australia, or by | | | | Cross in the United States. It ignited his imagination and |
| Australians. | | | | he went on to become creator of such Hollywood |
| To prove the point, here are five Australian surprises: | | | | blockbusters as The Ten Commandments (1923) and |
| 1. The Secret Ballot. Henry Chapman of Melbourne | | | | The Sign of the Cross (1932).) |
| invented a secret ballot system in 1855. In 1856, the | | | | 4. Pick the Aussie in US TV drama Without a Trace. |
| independent colonies of South Australia and Victoria | | | | Easy: its star, Anthony LaPaglia! Adelaide-born |
| adopted this secret ballot system, soon known around | | | | Anthony won a Golden Globe Award as FBI agent |
| the world as the Australian Ballot. New Zealand | | | | Jack Malone, and an Emmy for Outstanding Guest |
| followed in 1870, the UK in 1872, and Canada in 1874. | | | | Actor playing Daphne Moon’s brother Simon in |
| The first US presidential election in to use Australian | | | | the sitcom Frasier. In the 1980s LaPaglia was a soccer |
| Ballot was in 1892. | | | | goalkeeper for Adelaide City and West Adelaide. |
| 2. The black box’ flight recorder. In 1954, Aussie | | | | (Actually, there are two Aussies in Without a Trace. |
| David Warren conceived the idea of a protected | | | | The other is Poppy Montgomery, who plays FBI agent, |
| recording of the flight crew's conversation that would | | | | Samantha Spade). |
| survive a crash. He wrote a report entitled A Device | | | | 5. Immigrate to Oz in a couple of hours. Well, not yet: |
| for Assisting Investigation into Aircraft Accidents. As a | | | | but Australian scientists are working on air-breathing |
| demonstration was needed, the first device was | | | | supersonic combustion ramjet engines called |
| designed and built, using steel wire as the recording | | | | Scramjets. These could make possible two-hour flights |
| medium. It was fully automatic for fit-and-forget | | | | from Melbourne to London. In a two-nation experiment |
| operation with a "memory" mechanism that stored | | | | that could provide a major boost to scramjet |
| four hours of pilot voice and instrument readings, at the | | | | technology, Australian and U.S. defence interests will |
| rate of eight per second up to the moment of an | | | | conduct a controlled scramjet experiment at Mach 10, |
| accident. This original demonstration unit is now | | | | or about 11,000km an hour, at Woomera, South |
| displayed in the Science Museum, Melbourne. | | | | Australia. |
| 3. World’s first movie. Hollywood? Paris? | | | | Bonus Australian surprise: In 2001, Assyl Haidar |
| London? No, the world's first feature length film -The | | | | launched (LIA), an innovative internet-based company |
| Story of the Kelly Gang - was produced in Australia in | | | | that streamlines the application process for Australian |
| 1906. This Tait brothers' production toured Australia for | | | | migration visas. Up until now, more than 80,000 people |
| more than twenty years, and also was shown in New | | | | from more than 200 countries have used LIA’s |
| Zealand and Britain. Earlier, in 1892, the Salvation | | | | services to maximise their chance of success. On top |
| Army’s Limelight Department in Melbourne | | | | of that, the company has a database of over 835,000 |
| produced Soldiers Of The Cross, a major multimedia | | | | categorised prospects. |