Our Aussie Blog

[Blog Post] Australian Animal Facts – The Platypus

One of the most unique native animals from Australia is the platypus and here we have a list of fun and informative facts about the platypus – we hope you find them interesting.

1. The platypus is one of the few venomous mammals.
2. It’s also a monotreme which means it lays eggs when producing it’s offspring.
3. The male platypus has a spur on it’s hind legs which contains venom capable of causing severe pain to humans. The female has a spur but it does not produce venom.
4. The platypus has been used as a mascot at sporting events and also appears on the 20c coin in Australia. The platypus was one of the mascots at the Sydney 2000 Olympics in Australia along with an echidna and kookaburra.
5. In the past, the platypus was hunted for it’s fur but that stopped in the 20th century.
6. There is only one species of platypus but it was called many things in the past by British settlers including: watermole, duckbill, duckmole. Often it’s referred to as the duck-billed platypus.
7. The platypus is covered in dense brown fur that traps a layer of insulating air and keeps the animal warm.
8. The platypus has webbed feet (to aid with swimming) and a bill that resembles a duck bill.
9. The platypus uses it’s tail for storage of fat reserves and the weight of the animal can be between 700 grams to 2.4kg – quite a variation in size.
10. It’s semi-aquatic and inhabits small streams and rivers over a wide distance from Tasmania to Qld – it’s actual distribution is not fully known.
11. When the first settlers found the platypus and sent sketches and a pelt to scientists back in Britain they thought it must be a hoax or a mocked up animal – they even checked whether several other animals had been stitched together to make it.
12. Natural predators of the platypus include snakes, crocodiles, water rats, goannas, hawks, owls and eagles.
13. The platypus is often nocturnal, but not always, if the sky is overcast they may come out during the day – they seem to be shy creatures.
14. It was once said that the platypus is proof that God has a sense of humour.

For all of the products we offer featuring this native Australian animal, click here.

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[Blog Post] 10 Ways To Tell If You’re Australian..

Totally tongue-in-cheek Aussie humour – here are 10 ways to tell if you’re Australian with brief explanations for our visitors from overseas – see if any apply to you!

You know you’re Australian when: 

1. You still think of Kylie Minogue as “That girl from Neighbours” (Long-running Australian TV Soap).
2. You know that many people have the impression that everyone in Australia is just like Steve Irwin or Crocodile Dundee (Crikey, we’re not quite like that, you know!).
3. You know that Sydney 2000 was one of our proudest moments in history – we rock! (The Sydney Olympics was a wonderful event for all Australians – we’re very proud!).
4. One Simple Word: Skippy (the smartest TV kangaroo to ever live, 6 or 7 times!).
5. You know that there is a universal place called “woop woop” located in the middle of nowhere… no matter where you actually are (if someone lives out of the main cities, it’s generally said that they live out in “woop woop”).
6. You have some time in your life slept with Aeroguard on in the summer – maybe even used it as perfume (Aeroguard is bug spray you can spray or roll on to your skin, very useful for keeping the “mozzies” away).
7. You say “no worries” quite often, whether you realise it or not (no worries is our version of “not a problem”).
8. You’ve ordered a piece of meat the size of your head and only paid $15.00 for it at your local RSL club (Returned Servicemen’s Leagues Clubs – a great place to eat and have a few drinks at a great price!).
9. You think footballers dressing up in drag on TV is funny (seems to be a very popular activity among our “football” players, that is, Rugby League and AFL, NOT Soccer).
10. You believe that “stubbies” can either be worn or drunk (a small bottle of beer is a stubby, as are short mens shorts!).

We’re as Aussie as you get round here mate, because every one of these is familiar to us – how about you??

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[Blog Post] Meet Some Australians (Friendly Animals)

Meet Some Australians...
Here is a delightful list of all the lovely animals in Australia that can kill, harm, scare, annoy or “just” give you lots and lots of pain – it’ll certainly make you want to visit our shores (with body armour and jungle strength bug spray on!).

• Redback Spider
• Funnel Web Spider
• Scorpions
• Centipedes
• Scrub Ticks
• Mosquitoes
• March Flies
• Sand Flies
• Bull Ants
• Red Belly Black Snakes
• Taipans
• Brown Snakes
• Tiger Snakes
• Death Adders
• Crocodiles
• Great White Sharks
• Grey Nurse Sharks
• Tiger Sharks
• Hammerhead Sharks
• Wobbegongs
• Stingrays
• Stonefish
• Rock Cod
• Fire Cod
• Blue Rings
• Sea Wasps
• Blue Bottles
• Sea Snakes

Check out our Australian animal t-shirts range here.

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[Blog Post] Quirky Australia – The Ettamogah Pub

Most Australian’s would remember the Ettamogah Pub as the cartoon pub featured in the old Australia Post magazine by cartoonist Ken Maynard. The first ‘Ettamogah Pub’ was built 10km north of Albury, NSW and since then others have been built in Sydney, the Sunshine Coast in QLD and in Cunderdin Western Australia.

It really is quite a quirky building where you can get a beer and most Aussies enjoy visiting them when they are in the area.

Ettamogah Pub - photo credit: © Bryan Garnett-Law

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[Blog Post] Spotlight on Australian Made Pewter

One of the products we’re proudest to carry on Australian Native T-Shirts is the range of pewter figurines and belt buckles made by Aradon Pewter. 

Being an Australian owned and operated family business, we’re proud to support another business that offers 100% Australian made products and it’s also run by a family, just like ours! We find that Aradon really care about the product they make and the quality is excellent.

One of the pewter series offered by Aradon is the Australian Heritage range and it features scenes from the past and present including stockmen, shearers, Aboriginal figurines, swagmen and other country icons including Ned Kelly – our most famous outlaw! If you’re looking for Australian bush icons, the heritage range is the place to browse.

And of course we couldn’t miss the huge range of pewter Australian animal figurines – they go so well with our Aussie animal t-shirts and gifts! Both small and large figurines are made with the largest being just 10cm or so in size, the detail around the animals is amazing.

Many animals are covered including Aussie reptiles like the goanna and crocodile, birds like the cockatoo and kookaburra, unique natives like the kangaroo, koala, echidna and platypus and so much more – check out our full range of Australian animal pewter figurines here.

Another range of course is the wide range of hand finished pewter belt buckles from Aradon. Unlike a lot of the poor imitations, these buckles are actually made in Australia from pewter and the quality cannot be matched by imports that only claim to be pewter. Aradon produce Australian buckles, country designs, sporting/rodeo buckles and motorcycle logo buckles – all fully licensed.

So if you’re looking to buy Australian, be sure to browse the range of pewter figurines and buckles by Aradon Pewter!

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[Blog Post] Fun & Interesting Facts about Australia

Here we have a few fun and interesting facts from Australia – We will add more of these every now and then, sure makes for an interesting read!

• Australia is the worlds biggest island and also the smallest continent (bizarre right?!).
• The largest organic construction on earth is in Australia and is known as the Great Barrier Reef (been there, must visit!).
• Tasmania is know to have the cleanest air in the world (who knew?).
• In 1954 Bob Hawke (former Prime Minister) made it into the Guinness Book of Records – why? He drank 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds (he was a bit of a larrikin wasn’t he?).
• There are 1500 hundred species of Australian spiders (eek!).
• There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, and only 24.4 million people (as of April 2017).
• Australia has the biggest number of wild one humped camels in the world (i don’t really know what to say about that).
• The city of Melbourne in Australia has one of the largest Greek populations in the world outside of Athens Greece (not surprising).

No wonder they call Australia the land of wonders – this is just a drop in the ocean of fun facts available for our great land.

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[Blog Post] Spotlight on Tuxedo T-Shirts

At Australian Native, we’ve been selling tuxedo t-shirts for years. Originally when we thought about adding them to our range we thought.. would people really wear these? It’s so 80’s! Would they be considered daggy (for international visitors – daggy kinda means uncool or goofy) or would people really buy them?

Well it turns out they make great t-shirts for parties, work functions, sports award nights and we’ve even sold them for casual weddings where the bride and groom had a wonderful sense of humour! Not to mention the baby size tuxedo t-shirt for the child in attendance (hehehe).

We’ve kitted our whole football teams for a trophy night, convention visitors for a Mafia party, staff members for a work party, individuals for a James Bond 007 party and so many more events. Even school formals (or proms) have had a look in because not every guy wants to wear a traditional tux.

After carrying the black and white tuxedo t-shirt for quite a period of time, we added childrens tuxedo t-shirts to the range, then womens cut tuxedo t-shirts. For the great Australian BBQ (which we all know is very formal), we added a Tuxedo BBQ Apron!

So whether you think it’s daggy or it’s cool.. it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than an actual tuxedo – think about that next time you’re attending an event where you can get away with it! View our full range of tuxedo t-shirts here.

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[Blog Post] A Funny Aussie Bloke's Love Poem

The author of this poem is unknown as it was received via e-mail however we thought it sounded like a true blue Aussie male so we’re sharing it here. Who said Australian men weren’t romantic?!

An Australian Love Poem.

Of course I love ya darlin
You’re a bloody top-notch bird
And when I say you’re gorgeous
I mean every single word.

So ya bum is on the big side
I don’t mind a bit of flab
It means that when I’m ready
There’s somethin there to grab.

So your belly isn’t flat no more
I tell ya, I don’t care
So long as when I cuddle ya
I can get my arms round there.

No Sheila who is your age
Has nice round perky breasts
Yurs just gave in to gravity
But I know ya did ya best.

I’m tellin’ ya the truth now
I never tell ya lies
I think it's very sexy
That you’ve got dimples on ya thighs.

I swear on me nanna’s grave now
The moment that we met
I thought you was as good as
I was ever gonna get.

No matter what u look like
I’ll always love ya dear
Now shut up while the footballs’ on
And fetch another beer.

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[Blog Post] Learn the Lingo – Occupations

Welcome to another “Learn the Lingo” post, we’re looking at slang terms for occupations, hope you’ll find these amusing!

• Ambo – ambulance driver
• Bushranger – outlaw or highwayman (well, they were an occupation for some all those years ago ha ha)
• Cockie – farmer (Cockie is short for Cockatoo, the bird)
• Digger – a soldier
• Fisho – fishmonger
• Garbo or Garbologist – garbage collector
• Greenie – environmentalist
• Gyno – gynaecologist
• Jackaroo – a male station hand – stations are massive farms with a lot of livestock over vast areas.
• Jillaroo – a female station hand
• Journo – journalist
• Milko – milkman
• Offsider – usually an assistant
• Truckie – truck driver
• Weekend Warrior – Someone in the Army Reserve

I’m pretty sure you can work out how these would fit into mainstream ‘talk’.

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