24-Dec-2020 Theme: 'Yule-tide'

(1) What Australian island, most of which is now a national park, was named on 25 December, 1643?

Answer: Christmas Island.

(2) “The north wind is tossing the leaves…” is the first line of an Australian Christmas carol written in 1948 by John Wheeler and William G James. What is the next line?

Answer: “The red dust is over the town”.

(3) Anoplognathus is a genus of large beetles in the scarab family, with more than 30 known species in Australia and South Africa. What are they commonly known as?

Answer: Christmas beetles.

(4) Who wrote and recorded the Australian Christmas song ‘White Wine in the Sun’ in 2009?

Answer: Tim Minchin.

(5) Austracantha minax is a small, brightly patterned, endemic animal which often lives in large communities in bushland throughout Australia. What is its common name?

Answer: Christmas spider (aka Jewel spider).

(6) What once-popular Australian children’s Christmas song, released in 1961, has been banned from being played by many childcare centres?

Answer: Six White Boomers.

(7) What author and artist, best known for characters based on Australian native seed pods, was first published in the 1889 Christmas edition of the ‘W.A. Bulletin’?

Answer: May Gibbs (creator of Gumnut Babies).

(8) What do these native flora species from different parts of Australia have in common: Ceratopetalum gummiferum, Prostanthera lasianthos, Bursaria spinosa and Nutsyia floribunda?

Answer: They are all associated with Christmas because of their flowering times (C. gummiferum, B. spinosa and P. lasianthos are all known as ‘Christmas bush’, N. floribunda is known as ‘Christmas tree’).

(9) How many people were killed at sea and on land by Cyclone Tracy when it struck Darwin in the early hours of Christmas Day, 1974? (a) 16 (b) 44 (c) 71 (d) 108 (e) 132

Answer: (c) 71.

(10) What is in the boot when you are “dashing through the bush in a rusty Holden ute” (bonus question: is the back of a ute actually called a boot?).

Answer: Esky (bonus: no idea – just put that in to start arguments). Merry Christmas all.

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