Buzz
After sharing my "Ten Strange News Stories from New Zealand," I decided to take a look at what’s happening across the Tasman Sea, affectionately known as "The Ditch" by my Australian neighbors, to uncover the weird and quirky stories making the headlines there.
It turns out the Aussies have their own fair share of odd occurrences, too. Here’s a collection of some of the most unusual news stories that have recently popped up in Australia’s media landscape.
10. Wallaby Steals Easter Bunny's Spotlight
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Easter Bunny’s plans nearly went awry this past Easter, all thanks to a mischievous male wallaby named Polly, whose antics threatened to spoil the festivities.
Polly, who was rescued as a baby after his mother was tragically killed by a car, is now a hefty 20-kilogram (44-pound) adult. He roams freely on the Sparkles’ farm, where Amanda works as a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
Like many animals, including dogs and cats, chocolate is toxic to wallabies and kangaroos. So, Polly couldn’t enjoy the chocolate treats he snatched. However, Amanda cleverly used his favorite vegetable as a bribe to retrieve one of the eggs he had taken.
After Polly handed over the stolen Easter egg, Amanda and her daughters realized they had another challenge—most of the other eggs were still missing. “We started searching to see if there were any others,” Amanda explained. “We couldn’t spot many, but Polly kept darting in and out of the bushes… That’s when we realized he’d hidden all the eggs in the shrubs.”
9. Death Threats and the Robot Waitress
A restaurant owner in Sydney reported receiving multiple death threats earlier this year after introducing a robot waitress to tackle staffing shortages caused by the pandemic.
The Matterhorn, a Swiss restaurant located on Sydney’s North Shore, spent $AU 28,000 to purchase a high-tech robot waitress to assist with carrying plates and taking orders. Named Bella, the robot also performs a rendition of “Happy Birthday” for customers, as singing indoors at restaurants is currently prohibited in the state due to Covid restrictions.
The Matterhorn’s owner, Liarne Schai, shared that Bella was more than just a novelty. With international borders closed and staff poaching taking its toll, the hospitality industry was experiencing a severe labor shortage. Wages for certain roles have soared during the pandemic, with some waiting jobs offering up to $AU 80 per hour. (I mean, who wouldn't want to sign up?) Despite paying well above the award wages, The Matterhorn couldn’t compete with these inflated pay rates, so they opted to invest in Bella.
“99.9 percent of customers love Bella,” Schai explained. “It’s hilarious to see people interact with it as though it’s a person, but the best part is, once the novelty wears off, Bella blends into the background, just like any good waiter would,” she said.
Not everyone was thrilled about the restaurant’s robotic employee, however. The restaurant received an email claiming they were “part of the right-wing prefecture and helping robots take over the world.” After media reports about Bella, a man called the restaurant to make death threats toward the owners. “He said he saw us on the news and that he wanted the owners to die the most horrible, painful, torturous, cancerous death possible,” Schai recounted.
Rather than being a malevolent robot overlord intent on destroying humanity, Schai explained that Bella was more of an “automatic trolley.” She gives the human staff more time to interact with customers, providing them “an extra seven to eight minutes to serve each table that would normally be spent running back and forth.”
8. The Un-Australian Vegemite Toast Scandal
In April 2022, a Sydney café was branded “un-Australian” due to its miserably small serving of Vegemite toast.
For those unfamiliar, Vegemite (and its superior counterpart Marmite) is a yeast extract spread. It’s dark, thick, malty, and extremely salty. Kids in both New Zealand and Australia grow up eating it, and while it’s beloved by many, it’s definitely an acquired taste for newcomers.
But let's get back to the story…
A customer at the café took to social media to show what they'd been served—a rather sad-looking piece of buttered toast with only a thin layer of Vegemite. This instantly ignited a fiery debate about the proper “Vegemite-to-toast ratio.” In this case, the café’s miserly portion didn’t quite make the grade.
One critic slammed the café for botching every aspect of what should be a simple dish. “Not enough toasting, not enough butter, not enough Vegemite,” they remarked. Another commenter quipped, “I’ve always wondered how badly you can mess up Vegemite on toast. We now have a new record.”
Some even went as far as calling it “un-Australian,” while others questioned why anyone would order Vegemite toast from a café in the first place. And in case you're curious whether this was truly a big deal, in November of the previous year, a man was served Vegemite on toast for breakfast at the Albany Police Station. He was so enraged by the spread’s thickness that he angrily smeared it all over his cell, eventually requiring a “specialist cleaner” to deal with the mess.
7. The Alien Sea Creature with Human Lips
In April 2022, Drew Lambert, a long-time resident of Bondi, was stunned to find an unusual, “alien-like” creature washed up on the beach during his morning jog.
Lambert initially thought it might be a “strange type of shark.” However, he quickly noticed the creature's mouth was on the underside of its body, and although its skin resembled that of a shark, it lacked a dorsal fin. “[I thought] oh my god, that’s bizarre. It looked like it was puckering up for a kiss,” he said. “I just stared at it and thought, ‘What the hell? Does this fish have human lips?’,” he added.
Laetitia Hannan, a supervisor at the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, later confirmed that despite its missing fins and tail, the creature appeared to be a coffin ray, a species native to Australia. Also known as the numbfish, this species can deliver electric shocks to ward off predators, generating up to 200 volts of electricity. While some divers have received painful shocks, none have proven fatal.
6. Woman in Love with Herself... a Lot
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
In May 2020, Patricia Christine, a teacher from Sydney, made a bold decision… to marry herself. Surrounded by nine of her closest friends, she held a 30-minute ‘self-commitment ceremony,’ where she became her own partner.
After ending her engagement eight years ago, Patricia shared how societal pressure made her feel as though she needed to get married before turning 30. The ceremony cost around $AU 95, with Patricia purchasing her own Bohemian wedding dress, diamond ring, and flowers.
The ceremony, which took place in a local park, was a personal declaration of the significance of self-love. Patricia later shared that by marrying herself, she wanted to encourage other young women to embrace their individuality, irrespective of their relationship status or societal pressures to marry.
In the ‘emotional’ vows she made to herself, Patricia promised to love herself despite any past mistakes and pledged to trust herself to pursue her dreams. “I wanted to challenge societal norms and show that the most essential relationship we have is with ourselves,” she stated. “We spend our lives declaring our love to others, but we often forget to declare it to ourselves first.”
5. Gigantic Crocodile Eats Dinosaur
Australia is home to a whole range of deadly creatures, including massive spiders the size of your face, a terrifying collection of poisonous snakes (a list from two decades ago reveals that 21 out of the 25 deadliest snakes worldwide are Australian!), sharks, box jellyfish, and stonefish. And of course, there's the crocodiles. Earlier this year, scientists made a thrilling discovery of a 95-million-year-old crocodile ancestor that preyed on dinosaurs.
The creature was named Confractosuchus sauroktonos, which translates to “broken crocodile dinosaur killer.” The “broken” part of the name refers to the enormous, shattered rock where its fossils were uncovered. The specimen measured around 2 to 2.5 meters (6.5 to 8 feet) long, but museum researcher Matt White speculates it would have grown significantly larger had it not met its untimely end.
The fossil, found in a rock bed in eastern Australia, dates back to the Cretaceous Period when most of the well-known dinosaurs roamed Earth. What made this find even more fascinating was the discovery of a partially-digested, near-complete chicken-sized dinosaur inside its stomach. This juvenile ornithopod (a medium-to-large plant-eating dinosaur) weighed about 1.5 kilograms ( pounds) when it died. The croc likely met its demise shortly after, preserving the half-digested dinosaur in its belly.
Although the fossil croc was missing its tail and limbs, most of the smaller dinosaur’s skeleton was remarkably well-preserved. Scans revealed that the croc had bitten down so forcefully that it shattered one of the ornithopod’s femurs and left a tooth embedded in the other femur.
This discovery is believed to be the first conclusive proof that crocodiles in Australia were preying on dinosaurs. According to White, 'It is likely that dinosaurs played a significant role in the Cretaceous food chain.' He continued, 'Due to the rarity of similar specimens worldwide, this ancient crocodile and its final meal will continue to offer insights into the behaviors and relationships of the animals that roamed Australia millions of years ago.'
4. M&M’s Stacking
Brendan Kelbie from Queensland is, by his own account, a habitual record-breaker. His Guinness World Records include: the most drumstick flips in one minute (98), the longest time spinning a basketball on a pair of spectacles (29.67 seconds), the longest time spinning a basketball on his nose (9.57 seconds), and the longest time spinning a fidget spinner on one toe (6 minutes 52.28 seconds), to name just a few!
In October 2021, Kelbie added another achievement to his list of records—he stacked six M&M’s on top of one another, and the tower stood for at least 10 seconds before collapsing. According to Guinness guidelines, only plain chocolate M&M’s were allowed, excluding flavored varieties like peanut.
'I decided to break this record because I’m a serial record-breaker and a versatile world record holder,' he told Guinness.
3. The Echidna Penis That Broke the Internet
'Have you ever seen an echidna’s penis?' the post began. Fans of Australian wildlife were stunned by what followed—an engorged echidna penis displayed in full technicolor, all for the sake of science.
'Dubbed one of the 'weirdest penises in the animal kingdom,' it’s bright red and has four heads,' the post went on. 'Now there's a conversation starter for dinner…' concluded the post. Not wrong there!
Commenters on the post were struggling to compose themselves after seeing the colorful, multi-headed 'd*ck pic.'
'I can’t un-see this,' wrote one page subscriber, 'scarred for life!' https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/a-photo-of-an-echidnas-penis-landed-in-facebook-feeds-without-warning-and-you-cant-unsee-it/news-story/380bac2225d72087db4a586057d3848e 'Wears condoms. They fit like a glove,' another user quipped.
Reproductive biologist Jane Feleon states, 'We’re not exactly sure why it looks so strange, but we do know that they only use their penis for mating, not for urination.' She adds, 'Since they don't need it for urination, they had the freedom to make it much more intricate.' Intricate… is that what we’re calling it these days?
2. Extra Leg of Lamb
Sam Kuerschner, a sheep farmer from Orroroo, South Australia, shared that a lamb born in 2021 was meant to be a family pet rather than dinner when he discovered it had an extra leg growing from the back of its head.
He said he was rather surprised when he found that the lamb had a fully-formed fifth leg attached to its head, resembling a 'mullet' hairstyle (no mention of a mutton chop beard). However, the lamb didn't seem to be affected by the extra appendage. 'It appeared perfectly happy and healthy, with no signs of distress or medical issues,' Kuerschner explained.
He was confident that his children would be excited to have such an unusual pet. 'When it’s time to wean it off its mother, I think I’ll bring it home, and it can run around the yard. I’ve got three young kids, and they’ll love having this special pet for as long as it lives,' he said.
Polymelia is a congenital condition where an individual has more limbs than normal. These extra limbs are often underdeveloped or malformed. However, in this case, the additional leg appears to be fully formed and is connected to the back of the sheep’s head by flesh instead of a bone joint. Veterinarian Paul Nilon estimated that one in 200,000 sheep are born with an extra limb.
1. Unlicensed Cooler
In November 2021, a 25-year-old man in Kerang, Victoria, was stopped by Swan Hill Police while driving a motorized cooler along the sidewalk. The police shared images of the small cooler being loaded onto a large tow truck after it was impounded for 30 days.
Police confirmed that although the driver passed a breathalyzer test and was not intoxicated, he did not have a valid driver’s license and had never held one. As a result, he is now facing charges for driving without a license and operating an unregistered motor vehicle.
"This motorized esky (a brand of portable cooler) qualifies as a vehicle due to its size and engine capacity, and must adhere to legislative standards and road rules," the police statement clarified.
