August 5, 2025 • 20 mins
Summer may be winding down, but we’re not done traveling yet—so grab your SPF and join Will and Mango on a big trip across the world’s smallest continent! Want to know the secret to Aussie slang? Or why the country is littered with ghost towns? We cover all that and more, including the best place to spot a pod of orcas and the least sweltering time of year to visit. Plus, we answer the age old question: Which side of the dingo fence has bigger kangaroos?
Got a question you’d like us to answer? A rabbit hole you think we should explore? Email higeniuses@gmail.com or leave us a message at (302) 405-5925.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, a production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what, mengo, what's that?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well? I have to tell you. You know, today I
was flat out like a lizard drinking. I was a
real battler who needed to calm my farm.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Wait, what's going on.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I'm just I'm practicing my Australian slang. But you know
one thing I'm not doing doing it in an Australian accent.
I'm sparing you of that. But just so you know
what I was saying. I just told you that I
worked super hard today, but I pushed through even though
I probably should have relaxed.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
You see where I went there. Yeah, I hope they
have this category to do a lingo soon.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Oh it's gonna be so good. Yeah, it's only a
matter of time. I'm sure. You know, people visiting Australia
need to be prepared. I'm in support of this, but
of course we know all the cliches like it ay
made and there's a barbie for barbecue, made famous of
course by Paul Hogan's Australian tourism ads back in the
nineteen eighties. But there are a lot of lesser known ones.
(01:13):
So let's see if you can guess a couple. What's
a slippery.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Dip going for a swim?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It's actually a playground slide. How about a arvo?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Are you just trying to make me feel dumb?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, that's my that was actually my goal. I was like,
you know, I don't feel great about myself today, I'm
gonna make mango feel dumb and arvo?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Is that something to do with avocados?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, it means afternoon. So Australians are big fans of
shortening words and adding an o to the end of it.
So a gas station is a servo, an ambulance is
an ambo, and a liquor store is a bottle.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Of I'm not sure I'm ready to incorporate those into
my vocabo.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Just yeah, you nailed it. That was That was pretty great.
We do want to study up because today we're taking
a virtual trip through US Australia, which is both the
world's smallest continent and the sixth largest country, and we've
got a lot of ground to cover, literally, so let's
dive in.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangush hot ticketter, and over there in the booth
is our Palin producer Dylan Fagan. Now this is interesting.
He has a wolverine claw on one hand and in
the other he seems to be holding it looks like
Thor's hammer.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I'm guessing this is a reference to the great Australian
actors Hugh Jackman Chris hemsquare. Then he's also holding up
a barbie dog that has to be for Margot Robbie.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, I don't know how he's doing all this just
two hands, but you know, Dylan, he's so impressed.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
He is really talented. And today's episode is pretty amazing too.
We are gallivanting across Australia, stopping for nine fascinating facts
along the way. Before we get going, I just want
to say that Ruby, my kid played an Australian bird
and their school play last year.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I can't think of anybody better to play it.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It was just a bird, but they decided to put
on an Australian access. Oh this is good, and it
sounded Chinese sometimes Indians.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Okay, it's a little a little problematic here there, but
it was amazing. That's pretty terrific. I need to see
a clip of.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
This, so let us get started by planning our transportation.
So how do you feel about train travel?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Well, I mean train travel is one of the things
I love, the idea of it, right, you know, I
love I do love sort of shorter train travel trips
that are like a couple hours. I've done the like
really long train trips in the US when I was
a kid, and I used to go up to Virginia
during the summers and what would be like a ten
to eleven hour drive would just be like almost a
(04:05):
full day train. So that sort of thing got a
little long. But I do still have this sort of
ideal version or idea of train travel, and it's kind
of nice or romantic to think about.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
How about you, Yeah, I really have a similar sort
of like romance with train travel. My grandfather was a writer.
He's say the best writing he did was when he
was on trains. He'd get a lot of inspiration. And
I've always wanted to take that train across the Canadian
Rockies and also up to Montreal and the Fall to
see the foliage from the train. But Australia is obviously
(04:36):
a big place at around three million square miles. But
there is a way to go straight across it, and
that is the Indian Pacific Train. It is named for
the fact that it goes all the way from the
Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, which is a journey
of about twenty seven hundred miles from Perth to Sydney. Wow,
and it goes straight through the outback. At one point
(04:56):
in the trip there are three hundred miles of straight track,
which is the longest such stretch in the world. In fact,
it stands out so much that this Australian astronaut his
name is Andy Thomas, once said that you can even
see it from space. He described it as quote like
someone had drawn a very fine pencil line across the desert.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Oh that's so interesting, I guess just because there weren't
many obstacles they were having to deal with, they were
just able to go go straight. I did not know this.
So let's say I wanted to take this train ride,
which honestly I kind of do. Now, how long does
this trip take?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
It is five days and four nights. Actually, I had
a friend who took it on a honeymoon and he
said it felt a lot longer because he had a
kangaroo steak and it sat in his stomach.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Reminder not to do don't do that.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
But there are quite a few sightseeing stops along the way,
so passengers visit Calgourly, a nineteenth century gold rush town,
a remote outback city called Broken Hill that's home to
the country's longest running mining operation, and in the Barossa Valley,
a prominent Australian wine region known for its bold and
(06:05):
full body cher us.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Okay, I'm mean I have to say that sounds like
an incredible adventure. But even without a train ticket, I
do know a bit about what that straight middle section
of the outback looks like, you know, because I did
some research. Mego, I did some research into Australia's topography,
and what I learned is it's extremely flat, very flat mago.
Australia is actually the flattest continent in the world, with
(06:28):
an average elevation of under a thousand feet, and much
of that is just plateau like right there in the
middle of the continent. So you might be wondering, like,
how did this happen geologically speaking? Well, it turns out
Australia is located towards the center of a tectonic plate.
So when two tectonic plates next to each other move,
you know, pointy of things like mountains form, but if
(06:49):
you're right there in the middle of a plate, you
actually don't really get much of that effect.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But there must be some mountains in Australia, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Its highest point is Mount Kozyuzko, with a peak of
seven three hundred and ten feet. It's maybe a little
bit taller than you imagined after this, but overall we're
talking about a pretty flat place, especially in the middle
part where the train tracks are running where we're describing there.
It's one fifth of the country and it's just a
big flat desert pancake, basically dessert pancakes. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So one of the fascinating things about Australia is how
barren it is. Two thirds of Australia is considered too
arid for settlement, which is kind of crazy when you
think about it, which the country learned through trial and error. Actually,
it turns out Australia is littered with ghost towns, which
means that people did try to settle there and it
(07:41):
didn't go that well for them. So back in the
eighteen sixties, this guy named George Goiter, who was originally
from Liverpool, became Surveyor General of Australia and after this
big drought swept through South Australia in eighteen sixty four
and eighteen sixty five, Goiter was directed to make a
map of the affected region, and what he ended up
doing was drawing this kind of curvy line that supposedly
(08:04):
marked where rainfall was too unreliable to plant crops, and
north of the line was no good. South of the
line was okay.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It seems pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, for a curvy line. But the problem was in
the eighteen seventies the rain started falling, and by this
time the government was using Goiter's line to designate where
farmers could buy land on credit. But there wasn't much
land left south of the line, so farmers started buying
up land to the north. They were like, you know,
it's just a line on a piece of paper. What
does this guy know? And for a while things were okay,
(08:34):
but by the early eighteen eighties Goiter was proven right.
The rain to the north just turned out to be
this fluke, and the land dried up and those farms
started failing. Now you can still find the remains of
towns that once appeared to be booming, with schools, bars,
hotels all built up that are abandoned, and people actually
enjoy visiting these ghost towns, but it doesn't make sense
(08:55):
to stick around for too long. And here's a little
detail I can't stop thinking about. One of these towns
was optimistically named Farina, the Latin word for wheat, which
was the crop they thought the town would be famous
for growing.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Oh, I mean, that's kind of sad. So while we're
on the topic of Australia's unpredictable weather, this seems like
a good time to talk about the best months to visit. So,
as many of us probably know, winter in the US
is Australia's summer. So the hottest time of year there
is December through February, which just throws me for a loop.
No matter how many times I know that, it just
seems impossible. So during those months, major cities will experience
(09:30):
temperatures ranging from sixty eight to ninety nine degrees fahrenheit,
So it does get pretty hot. But you know, given
that time of year, it might be your preference.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, especially if you're trying to escape cold or wet
or snowy winter.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, but just so everyone's fully informed of what they're
getting into. I did look up Australia's hottest day on
record that occurred in Onslow, a coastal town in Western
Australia with around eight hundred residents, a pretty small place,
so in January twenty twenty two, the town matched a
previous high from nineteen sixty two. It was a record
set in southern Australia with a temperature of one hundred
(10:04):
and twenty three point twenty six degrees fahrenheit.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Wow. So maybe January and Anslow is something you skip.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah. I do think that heat is a bit much,
even for me. But if you're looking for a season
with some milder temperatures, you might consider traveling during Australia's winter,
which is June through August. So then the temperatures average
between fifty two degrees fahrenheit in eighty six degrees fahrenheit.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, which is more of my kind of weather and
it reminds me a little of India. Speaking of which,
does Australia have a monsoon?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
It does, so Northern Australia experience is a monsoon season
from November to March or you know, in that range.
So this causes weeks of heavy rain. But aside from that,
Australia's climate is incredibly dry. In fact, it's actually the
second driest continent on Earth, just after Antarctica. That's really fascinating.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
So the lesson is check the forecast before you go,
which is good advice even if you're not craffling. Okay,
so we have to take a quick break, but we've
saved our.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Best Ossi facts for last.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
When we come back, we've got Orca's bikes and a
record breaking fence. Stay tuned, Welcome back to Part Time Genius,
(11:25):
where we're counting down nine facts about traveling through Australia.
I should note here in case anyone is wondering this
episode is not sponsored by the Australian Tourism Board, but
it could be Ossy travel Board. Reach out if you
want us to do some on location work for you. Anyway,
I love this next fact. If you visit Southeast Australia,
you might bump into the world's longest fence. The wood
(11:48):
and wire fence known as the Dingo Fence, is three thousand,
four hundred and eighty eight miles long, which is about
the distance between New York City and London.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Oh my gosh, that is a very long I know.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It actually started as a few separate fences primarily built
to address all these wildlife related problems. The goals were
to keep invasive rabbits from destroying crops and to stop
dingos from going after sheep, and by the nineteen fifties
these fences got connected into one long dingo fence. Now
it's so long that if you tried to walk around it,
(12:21):
it would take you about six months. Thankfully, it has
gates so you actually don't have to do that. But
it's a lot of work keeping such a long fence
in tip top shape. There's a staff of twenty three
full time employees patrolling it, and it costs around seven
hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year to maintain.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So has it done the job it was intended to do?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I mean, dingos do get through sometimes, but it has
divided up the wildlife pretty effectively, so the dingo free
side has a lot more kangaroos and EMUs and other
things dingos like to eat. But one interesting recent piece
of research found that young kangaroos outside the fence that's
on the same side as the dingos are larger than
the young kangaroos on the other side, who don't really
(13:03):
have to worry about being dingo food. They'd actually evolved
to be bigger to meet the demands of their environment.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Oh wow, that's so interesting. Yeah, all right, Well, while
we're on the topic of nature doing what nature does,
we do have to talk about Australia's national parks. So,
believe it or not, there are technically only five parks
that are run by the Commonwealth of Australia, although there
are plenty more that are run by Australian states or territories.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
There that's crazy, there are only five national parks. I
remember your dad told me he used to memorize counties
but he couldn't fall asleep. And I told him Delaware
only had three counties. And You're just like, that would
take me much time.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I really wouldn't be that helpful.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
But five parks isn't that many, so I guess it
makes it easier to visit them all if you want to.
But what's the number one national park I should put
on my bucket list if I'm going to Australia.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
All right, Well, if you have to pick one, I
would say go with Kakadoo. It's the largest national park
in Australia. The place is massive, seventies seven hundred square
miles spreading across the Northern Territory. So to put that
in perspective, Grand Canyon National Park is nineteen hundred square miles,
so it's like four of those. It's a massive, massive park.
(14:12):
So given how big it is, Kakadu is a great
place to go if you want to experience a mind
boggling variety of ecosystems. This one park contains floodplains, wetlands, woodlands, rainforests, savannahs,
and so much more. And there are beautiful waterfalls, plenty
of wildlife, from crocodiles to wallabies to pythons.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I mean, I definitely want to see a wallaby. I'm
not sure about the other two.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I was saying it to sound like I was brave,
but I definitely don't want to see a python, especially
I've seen plenty of crocodiles being near Florida. But something
you'll definitely want to experience if you go there is
the Aboriginal culture. So over half the park is Aboriginal land.
The Binning and the Mungoi people have lived there in
that region for more than sixty five thousand years and
(14:57):
visiting is a great way to learn about their history.
There are over five thousand Aboriginal rock art sites in
the park, including some works that are over twenty thousand
years old, which is incredible. And then visiting Kakadu, you
can choose a tour company with Aboriginal guides who share
the sort of the cultural significance of the park and
all of its art there. And I know you might
(15:17):
be a little wary of encountering crocodiles there, and that's fine,
But there is this one company that takes you on
a boat tour up the East Alligator River, so along
the way you get to learn about Aboriginal mythology, traditional
plant medicine, and even bush survival skills. So pretty fascinating.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, I love that. It's like it's called the East
Alligator River. I guess you know what's going to be
on it. Well, speaking of things in the water with
very sharp teeth, Australia's waters are home to the largest
orca congregation in the Southern hemisphere. So if you visit
Bremer Bay, about three hundred miles south of Perth between
(15:57):
January and April, you are actually guaranteed see orca.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Oh wow, I do love an orca guarantee. That's pretty Yeah,
that's pretty awesome. So what is it about this area
that makes it such a great place for whales and
people who appreciate them.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So, about forty miles off the coast of Bremmer Bay,
there's an undersea canyon. It's a biodiversity hotspot where marine
life booms and since things like zooplankton, fish, and squid
all congregate there, bigger animals like to feed on those
things and hang out there as well. So every year
orcas flock to the Bremer Canyon and they use it
(16:31):
as their hunting ground. You can actually take a sightseeing
boat out across the bay to see them. People have
reported seeing hundreds of orcas at a time. That's not
the only large marine life that actually spends time there.
You also find sperm whales, rare beaked whales, and plenty
of shark species swim through the area as well. And actually,
in the past few years, orcas have been observed killing
(16:53):
blue whales in the region, which is sad, but you know,
circle of life.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, it definitely is. All right, Well, let's wrap up
our up with a different circle, and that is circumnavigating
Australia by bike.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
That is insane. I feel like I get winded after
twenty minutes on a city bike and I cannot imagine
bicycling all the way around Australia.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well, get this, because the first time someone cycled Australia
was way back in eighteen ninety nine. It took Arthur
Richardson two hundred and forty five days to complete the journey. Then,
in October of twenty twenty four, cyclist Lachlan Morton made
the trip in thirty days, nine hours and fifty nine minutes,
beating the previous record by over a week.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I mean, first of all, like, it's amazing that it
took the better part of a year to just circle
the country. And then and then someone doesn't in thirty days. Yeah,
it's amazing. It still sounds entirely exhausting to me. So
what does the route actually look like?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
All right? For to count as an official attempt to
circumnavigate Australia, you must bike at least fourteen thousand two
hundred kilometers, which is over eighty eight hundred miles. There
are eight designated locations that you have to pass through,
including Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, but you can go
in any direction you want, though people usually go counterclockwise
(18:10):
because of how the tailwinds work there. According to Morton,
it was a great way to see Australia and quote
get a real feel for the country. Now. He supported
a local charity with his ride, raising over one hundred
thousand dollars for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Oh I love that.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
But given Australia's wildlife, isn't it like a dangerous ride?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It definitely can be, and Morton did have an unfortunate
run in while he was there. He was biking through
northern Queensland and he collided with a kangaroo, which I
think probably wouldn't go very well. He did say later
that he was on top of it before he even noticed,
but luckily both he and the kangaroo were okay.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Well, just because the kangaroo survived the incident, I'm gonna
have to give you today's trophy. If it hadn't survived,
I would have given it to Dylan.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
That makes a lot of sense. All right, well, thank
you very much. I appreciate it, and I'd like to
have Fish share this trophy with Lachlan Morton. I sat
here and recorded a podcast. He biked around an entire continent.
So I don't know who's to say who worked harder
on this one, but thank you did that does it
for today's episode. We'll be back next week with a
new one. In the meantime, please be sure to subscribe
to the podcast on your favorite podcast app. Leave us
(19:18):
a five star rating and review. Today's episode was written
by Meredith Danko. Thanks Meredith, She's always a rock star,
and from Dylan Gabe, Mary Mango and me thank you
for listening.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongschatikler
and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produce
for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social
(20:03):
media support from Sasha Gay Trustee Dara Potts and Viny Shorey.
For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, a production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what, mengo, what's that?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well? I have to tell you. You know, today I
was flat out like a lizard drinking. I was a
real battler who needed to calm my farm.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Wait, what's going on.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I'm just I'm practicing my Australian slang. But you know
one thing I'm not doing doing it in an Australian accent.
I'm sparing you of that. But just so you know
what I was saying. I just told you that I
worked super hard today, but I pushed through even though
I probably should have relaxed.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
You see where I went there. Yeah, I hope they
have this category to do a lingo soon.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Oh it's gonna be so good. Yeah, it's only a
matter of time. I'm sure. You know, people visiting Australia
need to be prepared. I'm in support of this, but
of course we know all the cliches like it ay
made and there's a barbie for barbecue, made famous of
course by Paul Hogan's Australian tourism ads back in the
nineteen eighties. But there are a lot of lesser known ones.
(01:13):
So let's see if you can guess a couple. What's
a slippery.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Dip going for a swim?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It's actually a playground slide. How about a arvo?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Are you just trying to make me feel dumb?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, that's my that was actually my goal. I was like,
you know, I don't feel great about myself today, I'm
gonna make mango feel dumb and arvo?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Is that something to do with avocados?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, it means afternoon. So Australians are big fans of
shortening words and adding an o to the end of it.
So a gas station is a servo, an ambulance is
an ambo, and a liquor store is a bottle.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Of I'm not sure I'm ready to incorporate those into
my vocabo.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Just yeah, you nailed it. That was That was pretty great.
We do want to study up because today we're taking
a virtual trip through US Australia, which is both the
world's smallest continent and the sixth largest country, and we've
got a lot of ground to cover, literally, so let's
dive in.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangush hot ticketter, and over there in the booth
is our Palin producer Dylan Fagan. Now this is interesting.
He has a wolverine claw on one hand and in
the other he seems to be holding it looks like
Thor's hammer.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I'm guessing this is a reference to the great Australian
actors Hugh Jackman Chris hemsquare. Then he's also holding up
a barbie dog that has to be for Margot Robbie.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, I don't know how he's doing all this just
two hands, but you know, Dylan, he's so impressed.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
He is really talented. And today's episode is pretty amazing too.
We are gallivanting across Australia, stopping for nine fascinating facts
along the way. Before we get going, I just want
to say that Ruby, my kid played an Australian bird
and their school play last year.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I can't think of anybody better to play it.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It was just a bird, but they decided to put
on an Australian access. Oh this is good, and it
sounded Chinese sometimes Indians.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Okay, it's a little a little problematic here there, but
it was amazing. That's pretty terrific. I need to see
a clip of.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
This, so let us get started by planning our transportation.
So how do you feel about train travel?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Well, I mean train travel is one of the things
I love, the idea of it, right, you know, I
love I do love sort of shorter train travel trips
that are like a couple hours. I've done the like
really long train trips in the US when I was
a kid, and I used to go up to Virginia
during the summers and what would be like a ten
to eleven hour drive would just be like almost a
(04:05):
full day train. So that sort of thing got a
little long. But I do still have this sort of
ideal version or idea of train travel, and it's kind
of nice or romantic to think about.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
How about you, Yeah, I really have a similar sort
of like romance with train travel. My grandfather was a writer.
He's say the best writing he did was when he
was on trains. He'd get a lot of inspiration. And
I've always wanted to take that train across the Canadian
Rockies and also up to Montreal and the Fall to
see the foliage from the train. But Australia is obviously
(04:36):
a big place at around three million square miles. But
there is a way to go straight across it, and
that is the Indian Pacific Train. It is named for
the fact that it goes all the way from the
Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, which is a journey
of about twenty seven hundred miles from Perth to Sydney. Wow,
and it goes straight through the outback. At one point
(04:56):
in the trip there are three hundred miles of straight track,
which is the longest such stretch in the world. In fact,
it stands out so much that this Australian astronaut his
name is Andy Thomas, once said that you can even
see it from space. He described it as quote like
someone had drawn a very fine pencil line across the desert.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Oh that's so interesting, I guess just because there weren't
many obstacles they were having to deal with, they were
just able to go go straight. I did not know this.
So let's say I wanted to take this train ride,
which honestly I kind of do. Now, how long does
this trip take?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
It is five days and four nights. Actually, I had
a friend who took it on a honeymoon and he
said it felt a lot longer because he had a
kangaroo steak and it sat in his stomach.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Reminder not to do don't do that.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
But there are quite a few sightseeing stops along the way,
so passengers visit Calgourly, a nineteenth century gold rush town,
a remote outback city called Broken Hill that's home to
the country's longest running mining operation, and in the Barossa Valley,
a prominent Australian wine region known for its bold and
(06:05):
full body cher us.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Okay, I'm mean I have to say that sounds like
an incredible adventure. But even without a train ticket, I
do know a bit about what that straight middle section
of the outback looks like, you know, because I did
some research. Mego, I did some research into Australia's topography,
and what I learned is it's extremely flat, very flat mago.
Australia is actually the flattest continent in the world, with
(06:28):
an average elevation of under a thousand feet, and much
of that is just plateau like right there in the
middle of the continent. So you might be wondering, like,
how did this happen geologically speaking? Well, it turns out
Australia is located towards the center of a tectonic plate.
So when two tectonic plates next to each other move,
you know, pointy of things like mountains form, but if
(06:49):
you're right there in the middle of a plate, you
actually don't really get much of that effect.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But there must be some mountains in Australia, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Its highest point is Mount Kozyuzko, with a peak of
seven three hundred and ten feet. It's maybe a little
bit taller than you imagined after this, but overall we're
talking about a pretty flat place, especially in the middle
part where the train tracks are running where we're describing there.
It's one fifth of the country and it's just a
big flat desert pancake, basically dessert pancakes. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So one of the fascinating things about Australia is how
barren it is. Two thirds of Australia is considered too
arid for settlement, which is kind of crazy when you
think about it, which the country learned through trial and error. Actually,
it turns out Australia is littered with ghost towns, which
means that people did try to settle there and it
(07:41):
didn't go that well for them. So back in the
eighteen sixties, this guy named George Goiter, who was originally
from Liverpool, became Surveyor General of Australia and after this
big drought swept through South Australia in eighteen sixty four
and eighteen sixty five, Goiter was directed to make a
map of the affected region, and what he ended up
doing was drawing this kind of curvy line that supposedly
(08:04):
marked where rainfall was too unreliable to plant crops, and
north of the line was no good. South of the
line was okay.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
It seems pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, for a curvy line. But the problem was in
the eighteen seventies the rain started falling, and by this
time the government was using Goiter's line to designate where
farmers could buy land on credit. But there wasn't much
land left south of the line, so farmers started buying
up land to the north. They were like, you know,
it's just a line on a piece of paper. What
does this guy know? And for a while things were okay,
(08:34):
but by the early eighteen eighties Goiter was proven right.
The rain to the north just turned out to be
this fluke, and the land dried up and those farms
started failing. Now you can still find the remains of
towns that once appeared to be booming, with schools, bars,
hotels all built up that are abandoned, and people actually
enjoy visiting these ghost towns, but it doesn't make sense
(08:55):
to stick around for too long. And here's a little
detail I can't stop thinking about. One of these towns
was optimistically named Farina, the Latin word for wheat, which
was the crop they thought the town would be famous
for growing.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Oh, I mean, that's kind of sad. So while we're
on the topic of Australia's unpredictable weather, this seems like
a good time to talk about the best months to visit. So,
as many of us probably know, winter in the US
is Australia's summer. So the hottest time of year there
is December through February, which just throws me for a loop.
No matter how many times I know that, it just
seems impossible. So during those months, major cities will experience
(09:30):
temperatures ranging from sixty eight to ninety nine degrees fahrenheit,
So it does get pretty hot. But you know, given
that time of year, it might be your preference.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, especially if you're trying to escape cold or wet
or snowy winter.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, but just so everyone's fully informed of what they're
getting into. I did look up Australia's hottest day on
record that occurred in Onslow, a coastal town in Western
Australia with around eight hundred residents, a pretty small place,
so in January twenty twenty two, the town matched a
previous high from nineteen sixty two. It was a record
set in southern Australia with a temperature of one hundred
(10:04):
and twenty three point twenty six degrees fahrenheit.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Wow. So maybe January and Anslow is something you skip.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah. I do think that heat is a bit much,
even for me. But if you're looking for a season
with some milder temperatures, you might consider traveling during Australia's winter,
which is June through August. So then the temperatures average
between fifty two degrees fahrenheit in eighty six degrees fahrenheit.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, which is more of my kind of weather and
it reminds me a little of India. Speaking of which,
does Australia have a monsoon?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
It does, so Northern Australia experience is a monsoon season
from November to March or you know, in that range.
So this causes weeks of heavy rain. But aside from that,
Australia's climate is incredibly dry. In fact, it's actually the
second driest continent on Earth, just after Antarctica. That's really fascinating.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
So the lesson is check the forecast before you go,
which is good advice even if you're not craffling. Okay,
so we have to take a quick break, but we've
saved our.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Best Ossi facts for last.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
When we come back, we've got Orca's bikes and a
record breaking fence. Stay tuned, Welcome back to Part Time Genius,
(11:25):
where we're counting down nine facts about traveling through Australia.
I should note here in case anyone is wondering this
episode is not sponsored by the Australian Tourism Board, but
it could be Ossy travel Board. Reach out if you
want us to do some on location work for you. Anyway,
I love this next fact. If you visit Southeast Australia,
you might bump into the world's longest fence. The wood
(11:48):
and wire fence known as the Dingo Fence, is three thousand,
four hundred and eighty eight miles long, which is about
the distance between New York City and London.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Oh my gosh, that is a very long I know.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It actually started as a few separate fences primarily built
to address all these wildlife related problems. The goals were
to keep invasive rabbits from destroying crops and to stop
dingos from going after sheep, and by the nineteen fifties
these fences got connected into one long dingo fence. Now
it's so long that if you tried to walk around it,
(12:21):
it would take you about six months. Thankfully, it has
gates so you actually don't have to do that. But
it's a lot of work keeping such a long fence
in tip top shape. There's a staff of twenty three
full time employees patrolling it, and it costs around seven
hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year to maintain.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So has it done the job it was intended to do?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I mean, dingos do get through sometimes, but it has
divided up the wildlife pretty effectively, so the dingo free
side has a lot more kangaroos and EMUs and other
things dingos like to eat. But one interesting recent piece
of research found that young kangaroos outside the fence that's
on the same side as the dingos are larger than
the young kangaroos on the other side, who don't really
(13:03):
have to worry about being dingo food. They'd actually evolved
to be bigger to meet the demands of their environment.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Oh wow, that's so interesting. Yeah, all right, Well, while
we're on the topic of nature doing what nature does,
we do have to talk about Australia's national parks. So,
believe it or not, there are technically only five parks
that are run by the Commonwealth of Australia, although there
are plenty more that are run by Australian states or territories.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
There that's crazy, there are only five national parks. I
remember your dad told me he used to memorize counties
but he couldn't fall asleep. And I told him Delaware
only had three counties. And You're just like, that would
take me much time.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I really wouldn't be that helpful.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
But five parks isn't that many, so I guess it
makes it easier to visit them all if you want to.
But what's the number one national park I should put
on my bucket list if I'm going to Australia.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
All right, Well, if you have to pick one, I
would say go with Kakadoo. It's the largest national park
in Australia. The place is massive, seventies seven hundred square
miles spreading across the Northern Territory. So to put that
in perspective, Grand Canyon National Park is nineteen hundred square miles,
so it's like four of those. It's a massive, massive park.
(14:12):
So given how big it is, Kakadu is a great
place to go if you want to experience a mind
boggling variety of ecosystems. This one park contains floodplains, wetlands, woodlands, rainforests, savannahs,
and so much more. And there are beautiful waterfalls, plenty
of wildlife, from crocodiles to wallabies to pythons.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I mean, I definitely want to see a wallaby. I'm
not sure about the other two.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I was saying it to sound like I was brave,
but I definitely don't want to see a python, especially
I've seen plenty of crocodiles being near Florida. But something
you'll definitely want to experience if you go there is
the Aboriginal culture. So over half the park is Aboriginal land.
The Binning and the Mungoi people have lived there in
that region for more than sixty five thousand years and
(14:57):
visiting is a great way to learn about their history.
There are over five thousand Aboriginal rock art sites in
the park, including some works that are over twenty thousand
years old, which is incredible. And then visiting Kakadu, you
can choose a tour company with Aboriginal guides who share
the sort of the cultural significance of the park and
all of its art there. And I know you might
(15:17):
be a little wary of encountering crocodiles there, and that's fine,
But there is this one company that takes you on
a boat tour up the East Alligator River, so along
the way you get to learn about Aboriginal mythology, traditional
plant medicine, and even bush survival skills. So pretty fascinating.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, I love that. It's like it's called the East
Alligator River. I guess you know what's going to be
on it. Well, speaking of things in the water with
very sharp teeth, Australia's waters are home to the largest
orca congregation in the Southern hemisphere. So if you visit
Bremer Bay, about three hundred miles south of Perth between
(15:57):
January and April, you are actually guaranteed see orca.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Oh wow, I do love an orca guarantee. That's pretty Yeah,
that's pretty awesome. So what is it about this area
that makes it such a great place for whales and
people who appreciate them.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So, about forty miles off the coast of Bremmer Bay,
there's an undersea canyon. It's a biodiversity hotspot where marine
life booms and since things like zooplankton, fish, and squid
all congregate there, bigger animals like to feed on those
things and hang out there as well. So every year
orcas flock to the Bremer Canyon and they use it
(16:31):
as their hunting ground. You can actually take a sightseeing
boat out across the bay to see them. People have
reported seeing hundreds of orcas at a time. That's not
the only large marine life that actually spends time there.
You also find sperm whales, rare beaked whales, and plenty
of shark species swim through the area as well. And actually,
in the past few years, orcas have been observed killing
(16:53):
blue whales in the region, which is sad, but you know,
circle of life.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, it definitely is. All right, Well, let's wrap up
our up with a different circle, and that is circumnavigating
Australia by bike.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
That is insane. I feel like I get winded after
twenty minutes on a city bike and I cannot imagine
bicycling all the way around Australia.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well, get this, because the first time someone cycled Australia
was way back in eighteen ninety nine. It took Arthur
Richardson two hundred and forty five days to complete the journey. Then,
in October of twenty twenty four, cyclist Lachlan Morton made
the trip in thirty days, nine hours and fifty nine minutes,
beating the previous record by over a week.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I mean, first of all, like, it's amazing that it
took the better part of a year to just circle
the country. And then and then someone doesn't in thirty days. Yeah,
it's amazing. It still sounds entirely exhausting to me. So
what does the route actually look like?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
All right? For to count as an official attempt to
circumnavigate Australia, you must bike at least fourteen thousand two
hundred kilometers, which is over eighty eight hundred miles. There
are eight designated locations that you have to pass through,
including Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, but you can go
in any direction you want, though people usually go counterclockwise
(18:10):
because of how the tailwinds work there. According to Morton,
it was a great way to see Australia and quote
get a real feel for the country. Now. He supported
a local charity with his ride, raising over one hundred
thousand dollars for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Oh I love that.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
But given Australia's wildlife, isn't it like a dangerous ride?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It definitely can be, and Morton did have an unfortunate
run in while he was there. He was biking through
northern Queensland and he collided with a kangaroo, which I
think probably wouldn't go very well. He did say later
that he was on top of it before he even noticed,
but luckily both he and the kangaroo were okay.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Well, just because the kangaroo survived the incident, I'm gonna
have to give you today's trophy. If it hadn't survived,
I would have given it to Dylan.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
That makes a lot of sense. All right, well, thank
you very much. I appreciate it, and I'd like to
have Fish share this trophy with Lachlan Morton. I sat
here and recorded a podcast. He biked around an entire continent.
So I don't know who's to say who worked harder
on this one, but thank you did that does it
for today's episode. We'll be back next week with a
new one. In the meantime, please be sure to subscribe
to the podcast on your favorite podcast app. Leave us
(19:18):
a five star rating and review. Today's episode was written
by Meredith Danko. Thanks Meredith, She's always a rock star,
and from Dylan Gabe, Mary Mango and me thank you
for listening.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongschatikler
and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produce
for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social
(20:03):
media support from Sasha Gay Trustee Dara Potts and Viny Shorey.
For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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