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2006 Quiz 'Questions & Answers'
- December's theme was: 'An NRM Christmas'
- November quiz: 'Celebrity NRM'
- October quiz: 'Climate Change'
- September quiz: 'Biodiversity Month'
- August quiz: 'Songs & Singers'
- July quiz: 'Emblems & Money'
- June quiz: 'Fictional Fauna'
- May quiz: 'Missing Words'
- April quiz: 'Freshwater Critters'
- March quiz: 'Who Wrote It?'
- February quiz: 'Significant Dates'
- January quiz: 'Edible Australians'
December's theme was: 'An NRM Christmas'
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Question 1: |
According to Rolf Harris, what pulls Santa's sleigh in Australia? |
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Answer: |
"Six white boomers" (male kangaroos).
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Question 2: |
What spiny, white-flowered shrub of the Pittosporaceae family, native to all Australian States except Western Australia, has long been associated with Christmas in Australia? |
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Answer: |
Christmas bush (Bursaria spinosa)
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Question 3: |
And what yellow-flowering, parasitic tree – sometimes described as the world's largest mistletoe – has long been associated with Christmas in its native Western Australia? |
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Answer: |
Christmas tree (Nuytsia floribunda)
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Question 4: |
What "is over the town" at Christmas time in Australia according to the well-known carol by John Wheeler and William James? |
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Answer: |
Red dust ("The north wind is tossing the leaves, the red dust is over the town...")
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Question 5: |
And where didn't Santa get to in 1974, according to the song by New Zealand musical duo Bill & Boyd? |
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Answer: |
Darwin (because "a big wind came and blew the town away" - Cyclone Tracey).
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Question 6: |
What genus of large, glossy Australian insects – which feed as larvae on plant roots, and as adults on eucalyptus leaves – has earned its common name because it is drawn to night-time lights around Christmas time? |
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Answer: |
Christmas beetles (Anoplognathus species). |
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Question 7: |
What 1947 movie starring Chips Rafferty (remade under a different title in 1983 with Nicole Kidman) follows the adventures of some Australian children trying to rescue a stolen racehorse? |
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Answer: |
Bush Christmas |
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Question 8: |
Commonly used as a Christmas tree in Australia and New Zealand, what exotic tree species is under severe threat from an introduced disease in its native range in North America? |
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Answer: |
Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata). |
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Question 9: |
In 1999 the Australian Government began a major eradication project to counter an infestation of "yellow crazy ants" found to be devastating crabs and other species in an isolated National Park. Where? |
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Answer: |
Christmas Island |
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Question 10: |
What large shrub - with characteristic red berries and dark green, prickly leaves - is an iconic Christmas plant in the northern hemisphere, but has escaped to become a significant bushland weed in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia? |
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Answer: |
Holly (Ilex aquifolium). |
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The winner of the December Quiz was was Sally Muston from Mildura, Victoria.
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The winner of the November Quiz was was Robert McKelleher from Canberra.
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October's theme was: 'Climate Change'
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Question 1: |
Australia is home to an internationally important 'Baseline Air Pollution Station', which has recorded steady rises in greenhouse gases since 1976. Where is the Station located? |
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Answer: |
Cape Grim, north-western Tasmania.
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Question 2: |
What is the title of former US Vice President Al Gore's book and film warning of the dangers of climate change? |
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Answer: |
An Inconvenient Truth.
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Question 3: |
What name is often given to those 'climate sceptics' who continue to argue that human activities are not responsible for climate change? |
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Answer: |
Contrarians (various other answers also accepted).
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Question 4: |
Which of the following is not a greenhouse gas: carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone? |
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Answer: |
Sulphur dioxide.
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Question 5: |
What international scientific body is due to release its 4th Assessment Report in 2007 – detailing current scientific understanding of the causes, impacts and possible responses to climate change? |
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Answer: |
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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Question 6: |
Which best-selling US writer published a novel in 2005 portraying the greenhouse effect as an international conspiracy promoted by environmental interests to raise funds - including fictional eco-terrorists trying to engineer fake environmental disasters? |
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Answer: |
Michael Crichton (State of Fear).
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Question 7: |
Which Swedish scientist first coined the term "greenhouse effect" – suggesting that burning fossil fuels was boosting atmospheric carbon, and that doubling carbon dioxide levels could raise Earth's termperature by five or six degrees Celsius? |
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Answer: |
Svante Arrhenius. |
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Question 8: |
What term is often used to describe the climate system on Venus, and is sometimes raised as a grim 'worst-case' scenario for planet Earth if carbon dioxide levels rise too high? |
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Answer: |
Runaway Greenhouse Effect ('thermal inertia' also accepted). |
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Question 9: |
On what day — following Russia's formal ratification – did the international Kyoto Protocol officially come into force? |
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Answer: |
16 February, 2005.
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Question 10: |
Which Australian State Government passed legislation this year committing it to a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050? |
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Answer: |
South Australia.
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The winner of the October Quiz was Lesley Hale of Rockhampton, Queensland
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September's theme was: 'Biodiversity Month'
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Question 1: |
The last known Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) famously died at Beaumaris zoo on 7 September, 1936 - 106 years after the Van Diemen's Land Company first offered a bounty for killing the animals. In what year did the Company stop offering its bounty? |
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Answer: |
1914
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Question 2: |
According to the Federal Government, Australia has 15 biodiversity 'Hotspots'. Which State has the most hotspots? |
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Answer: |
Western Australia (eight hotspots)
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Question 3: |
Thought extinct until re-discovered in 1966 at a Victorian ski chalet, what tiny, nationally endangered marsupial is found only in Australia's snow-covered alpine and sub-alpine region, where in spring and summer it feeds largely on bogong moths? |
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Answer: |
Mountain Pygmy-possum (Burramys parvus)
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Question 4: |
In 2005 the Year 2 class at Victoria's Mirboo North Primary School won a national 'Hands on Habitat' award, as part of Biodiversity Month, for its "vivid illustrations" of a nationally endangered species. What species did the Year 2 students depict? |
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Answer: |
The Baw Baw frog (Philoria frosti)
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Question 5: |
The Federal Government's Environmental Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act enables listing of Threatened Ecological Communities as well as individual species. Only one community has been listed so far in 2006 – a "critically endangered" community once wide-spread in Queensland, NSW the ACT and Victoria. What is it? |
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Answer: |
The White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely's Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland
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Question 6: |
Which State Government has adopted the motto "no species loss" for its new biodiversity policy? |
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Answer: |
South Australia
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Question 7: |
What formerly secure marsupial species was listed as "vulnerable" by the Federal Government in June this year, following the spread of a new disease among wild populations? |
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Answer: |
Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) |
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Question 8: |
What high-profile marsupial was nominated for listing as a 'threatened species' under Federal law, but was rejected in July 2006 on the advice of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee? |
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Answer: |
Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) |
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Question 9: |
Mallee moths and their relatives occur world-wide, but in Australia there are so many species that the Oecophoridae family is recognised as the second largest on the continent. Approximately how many Oecophoridae species are known to inhabit Australia? |
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Answer: |
5,500
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Question 10: |
What is Australia's only herbivorous marine mammal, listed as "threatened" by the Federal Government and "vulnerable to extinction" under the IUCN's international Red List of Threatened Animals? |
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Answer: |
The Dugong (Dugong dugon)
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The winner of the September Quiz was Murray Tyler from Roxby Downs, South Australia
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August's theme was: 'Songs & Singers'
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Question 1: |
In 1979 a song said to be about myxomatosis sold over a million copies in the United Kingdom. What was it called? |
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Answer: |
'Bright Eyes' (Art Garfunkel)
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Question 2: |
In 1972 Slim Dusty released a song celebrating an Australian landscape which had "gum trees by the roadway", and what "by the creek"? |
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Answer: |
Willows
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Question 3: |
In the 1970s and 1980s Lynda Nutter was the lead singer of a successful Western Australian band named after a common reptile found in South Western WA. What was the band called? |
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Answer: |
The Dugites
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Question 4: |
What 1953 Australian folk song recounts a supposedly true incident in which a cane grower on Queensland's Barron River had his trousers torn off by a marauding feral pig? |
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Answer: |
'Bold Tommy Payne' (by Jack Crossland)
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Question 5: |
What 1980s hit single by New Zealand band Split Enz compared a love affair with a woman to a fatal encounter with an elasmobranch? |
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Answer: |
'Shark Attack'
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Question 6: |
Best known for a song about a Vietnam veteran, what 1980s Adelaide folk band took its name from a wide-spread species of water-loving eucalyptus? |
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Answer: |
Redgum
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Question 7: |
What 1987 hit song by Midnight Oil describes the ecology of Australia's western desert, which it says "lives and breathes in 45 degrees"? |
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Answer: |
'Beds Are Burning' |
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Question 8: |
What Australian grunge band sprang to international fame in 1995 with a debut album that featured an amphibian on the cover, and included a track named after an insect? |
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Answer: |
Silverchair (debut album 'Frogstomp' included the track 'Cicada') |
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Question 9: |
What Australian vocal artist began her career in 1971 with an album that included a traditional song about a crime of passion on the banks of a US River? |
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Answer: |
Olivia Newton-John ('Banks of the Ohio').
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Question 10: |
And what Australian vocal artist began her career in 2004 with an album that included a song about a 10-year old girl drowning herself in a river to escape an abusive family? |
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Answer: |
Missy Higgins (debut album 'The Sound of White' included the track 'The River')
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The winner of the August Quiz was Dr Ruth Raleigh from Hamilton, Victoria
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July's theme was: 'Emblems & Money'
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Question 1: |
What is the floral emblem of South Australia? |
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Answer: |
Sturt's Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa)
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Question 2: |
All the Australian mainland states, except one, have marsupials as their animal emblems. What is the exception? |
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Answer: |
New South Wales (Platypus - Ornithorhynchus anatinus)
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Question 3: |
What is the official national animal of New Zealand? |
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Answer: |
New Zealand does not have an 'official' national animal (the Kiwi is widely accepted, but has no official status)
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Question 4: |
The type specimen for what emblematic Australian plant was collected by Thomas Mitchell in 1836, and described by British botanist George Bentham in 1842 |
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Answer: |
Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha) – Australia's national floral emblem.
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Question 5: |
Which Australian State or Territory has a floral emblem closely related to domesticated cotton? |
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Answer: |
Northern Territory (Sturt's Desert Rose - Gossypium sturtianum)
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Question 6: |
What is Australia's official national gemstone? |
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Answer: |
Opal
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Question 7: |
What animal featured on the old Australian one cent piece? |
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Answer: |
A Feather-tailed glider (Acrobates pygmaeus) |
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Question 8: |
What animal would you find on a 1950 Australian penny? |
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Answer: |
Kangaroo |
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Question 9: |
What animal featured on the old Australian $2 note? |
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Answer: |
A sheep (merino ram)
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Question 10: |
What bird features on the current New Zealand $50 note? |
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Answer: |
The Kakako or blue wattled crow (Callaeas cinerea wilsoni)
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The winner of the July Quiz was Natalie O'Connell from Deniliquin, NSW
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June's theme was: 'Fictional Fauna'
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Question 1: |
Who were the villains in May Gibbs' children's tales? |
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Answer: |
The Big Bad Banksia Men
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Question 2: |
In 1906 in Melbourne, Scottish-born inventor William Ramsay (married to a New Zealander) launched a famously branded product that is now sold in some 180 countries. What was it? |
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Answer: |
Kiwi Boot Polish
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Question 3: |
The 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney had three mascots: a kookaburra, a platypus and an echidna. What were their names? |
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Answer: |
Olly, Syd and Millie
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Question 4: |
What was the mascot for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne? |
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Answer: |
Karak (a South-eastern Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo - Calyptorhynchus banksii graptogyne)
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Question 5: |
Only one Australian native animal has ever appeared on a Commonwealth Games logo. What was it? |
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Answer: |
Kangaroo (1962)
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Question 6: |
What fictional marsupial became an international video game hero after having his genes altered by a mad scientist called Dr Neo Cortex? |
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Answer: |
Crash Bandicoot
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Question 7: |
Who was Bunyip Bluegum's Uncle? |
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Answer: |
Uncle Wattleberry |
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Question 8: |
In June 1954 Warner Brothers released a Bugs Bunny cartoon that introduced a new, ravenous character from Australia. Who was he? |
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Answer: |
Taz, the Tasmanian devil |
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Question 9: |
What marsupial character created by author Dorothy Wall in the 1930s re-emerged as the star of his own animated movie and TV series in the 1990s? |
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Answer: |
Blinky Bill
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Question 10: |
In the mid-1970s singer Bob Hudson (of The Newcastle Song fame) recorded a song poking fun at Richard Bach's famously flight-obsessed seagull. What was Hudson's song called? |
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Answer: |
Jonathon Livingstone Budgerigar
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The winner of the June Quiz was Shannon Simpson from Sydney
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May's theme was: 'Missing Words'
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Question 1: |
"But one cannot experience at first hand the excitement and the commitment of the people actively involved in --- without becoming infused with hope." (Andrew Campbell, 1994). |
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Answer: |
'landcare' (from Landcare – Communities Shapping the Land and the Future)
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Question 2: |
"The settlers had reached the ---, they wanted more land, and that beyond seemed 'as good if not better'." (DW Meinig, 1962) |
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Answer: |
'line' (from On the Margins of the Good Earth)
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Question 3: |
"The very real, and often serious, changes that European-style land use has had on the uniquely Australian river systems, which over most of the continent are so unlike stereotypic examples in Europe, are a main theme in this book. Failure to understand that --- are essential components of Australian river systems has been the most significant omission." (Mary White, 2000). |
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Answer: |
'floodplains' (from Running Down – Water in a Changing Land)
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Question 4: |
"The politics of --- policy bring little credit to the major political parties. Both act as though they care mostly about gaining immediate political power and little for the long-term well-being of the Australian people." (Doug Cocks, 1996) |
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Answer: |
'population' (from People Policy – Australia's Population Choices)
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Question 5: |
"But while nature has considerable resilience, there is a limit to how far that resilience can be stretched. No one knows how close to the limit we are getting. The --- it gets, the faster we are driving." (Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine, 1996) |
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Answer: |
'darker' (from Last Chance to See)
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Question 6: |
"In actual practice and in theory, the use of --- in farming is a crucial issue. This is something that I cannot seem to get people to understand." (Masanobu Fukuoka, 1978) |
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Answer: |
'straw' (from The One Straw Revolution)
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Question 7: |
"The conservation of --- must be made a primary goal for all land managers – government landowners, private landowners and the holders of pastoral leases." (David Yencken & Debra Wilkinson, 2000). |
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Answer: |
'biodiversity' (from Resetting the Compass – Australia's Journey Towards Sustainability) |
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Question 8: |
"We shouldn't delude ourselves: the population explosion will come to an end before very long. The only remaining question is whether it will be halted through the humane method of birth control, or by --- wiping out the surplus (Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, 1990) |
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Answer: |
'nature' (from The Population Explosion). |
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Question 9: |
"Thus there came to be a --- for virtually all sites in the moderate rainfall areas of southern Australia. The age-old poverty cycle had been comprehensively broken. Natural gain in production could be combined with soil improvement." (David F Smith, 2000) |
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Answer: |
'legume' (from Natural Gain in the Grazing Lands of Southern Australia)
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Question 10: |
"The transition to the --- age is really under way now, not merely in terms of new technologies but, in a broader sense, as a profound transformation of our entire society and culture." (Fritjof Capra |
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Answer: |
'solar' (from The Turning Point – Science, Society and the Rising Culture)
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Question 11: |
"The expansion of --- can be viewed as the gradual establishment and expansion of empires and the bringing of 'civilization' to less fortunate peoples. From an ecological perspective, it seems more like a wave of destruction spreading across the world." (Clive Ponting, 1991) |
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Answer: |
'Europe' (from A Green History of the World). |
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Question 12: |
"The unforgiveable sin of Australian society is to be unaware of the hard choices we have to make about our --- future." (Ticky Fullerton, 2001). |
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Answer: |
'water' (from Watershed – Deciding our Water Future) |
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The winner of the May Quiz was Cliff Seery from Sydney.
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April's theme was: 'Freshwater Critters'
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Question 1: |
What small fish – listed as 'vulnerable' under Federal legislation – played a prominent role in the South Australian Government's decision in 2000 to block a proposed mine development in the Gammon Ranges? |
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Answer: |
The Flinders Ranges Purple Spotted Gudgeon (Mogurnda clivicola)
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Question 2: |
Excluding eels, what is New Zealand's largest native freshwater fish – growing up 50 centimetres or more in length? |
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Answer: |
The Giant Kökopu (Galaxias argenteus).
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Question 3: |
What large freshwater and estuary fish, growing up to 1.2 metres long and found along Australia's northern coastline, was described by fishing writer Ern Grant as a "violent ruffian" and a "close associate of terrorists"? |
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Answer: |
The Mangrove Jack (Lutjanus argentimaculatus).
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Question 4: |
What large golden-bellied rodent, known for its habit of using a regular "feeding table" for dismembering and eating its prey, can be found in rivers and streams throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea? |
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Answer: |
The native water rat, native otter or rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster)
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Question 5: |
What small, semi-aquatic reptile, first described in 1984 and now listed as 'endangered' under Federal legislation, inhabits swamps in NSW's Blue Mountains? |
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Answer: |
The Blue Mountains Water Skink (Eulamprus leuraensis)
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Question 6: |
What freshwater crustacean, typically coloured dark metallic green or blue and growing to more than 250 millimetres long, is found only in south western Victoria and the extreme south eastern corner of South Australia? |
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Answer: |
The Glenelg crayfish (Euastacus bispinosus)
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Question 7: |
What freshwater snake, found in Australia's wet-dry tropics and in parts of South East Asia, hunts sleeping fish at night in shallow water? |
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Answer: |
Macleay’s Water Snake (Enhydris polylepis) |
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Question 8: |
Looking like an underwater stick insect, what slender, predatory insect – closely related to water scorpions – has an air-breathing siphon extending from the rear of its abdomen which it thrusts up through the surface of the water? |
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Answer: |
Needle bug (Nepid family) |
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Question 9: |
What native frog, confined to a single small island off the northern end of New Zealand's South Island, was only discovered to be a distinct species in 1998? |
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Answer: |
The Maud Island Frog (Leiopelma pakeka).
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Question 10: |
Found throughout Australia (except on Cape York Peninsula), what large, vegetarian water bird elicited much excitement when it was first "discovered" by European explorers in 1697, and has since been introduced to both New Zealand and Europe? |
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Answer: |
The Black Swan (Cygnus atratus).
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The winner of the April Quiz was Luke Riley from Perth.
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March's theme was: 'Who Wrote It?'
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Question 1: |
"I am fully convinced that species are not immutable; but that those belonging to what are called the same genera are lineal descendants of some other and generally extinct species, in the same manner as the acknowledged varieties of any one species are the descendants of that species." |
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Answer: |
Charles Darwin (The Origin of the Species, John Murray, 1869).
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Question 2: |
"Natural capitalism is about choices we can make that can start to tip economic and social outcomes in positive directions. And it is already occurring – because it is necessary, possible and practical". |
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Answer: |
Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins & Hunter Lovins (Natural Capitalism – The Next Industrial Revolution, Earthscan, 1999)
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Question 3: |
"Some time this century the day will arrive when the human influence on the climate will overwhelm all natural factors. Then, the insurance industry and the courts will no longer be able to talk of Acts of God, because even the most unreasonable of us could have foreseen the consequences." |
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Answer: |
Tim Flannery (The Weather Makers, Text Publishing, 2005).
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Question 4: |
"By now a planet-sized entity, albeit hypothetical, had been born, with properties which could not be predicted from the sum of its parts. It needed a name. Fortunately the author William Golding was a fellow-villager. Without hesitation he recommended that this creature be called Gaia, after the Greek Earth goddess…" |
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Answer: |
James Lovelock (Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, Oxford University Press, 1979).
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Question 5: |
"So that is how it was, so that is how it is, between Narrabri and Coonabarabran, between Baan Baa and Baradine. Once we lived on the eastern fringe of the forest. Then we lived hard against the western border. And both were good places to live." |
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Answer: |
Eric Rolls (A Million Wild Acres, Penguin Books, 1984).
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Question 6: |
"This book is about the tyranny of human over non-human animals. This tyranny has caused and today is still causing an amount of pain and suffering that can only be compared with that which resulted from the centuries of tyranny by white humans over black humans." |
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Answer: |
Peter Singer (Animal Liberation, Avon Books, 1975)
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Question 7: |
"Then there might be an answer to the question I am asked most frequently about the diversity of life: if enough species are extinguished, will the ecosystems collapse, and will the extinction of most other species follow soon afterward? The only answer anyone can give is: possibly. By the time we find out, however, it might be too late. One planet, one experiment." |
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Answer: |
Edward O Wilson (The Diversity of Life, Penguin, 1992). |
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Question 8: |
"This Commission believes that people can build a future that is more prosperous, more just and more secure. Our report, Our Common Future, is not a predication of ever increasing environmental decay, poverty and hardship in a more polluted world among ever decreasing resources. We see instead the possibility for a new era of economic growth, one that must be based on policies that sustain and expand the environmental resource base." |
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Answer: |
Gro Harlem Bruntland (Our Common Future: The World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford University Press, 1987). |
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Question 9: |
"Life made fire possible – and fire, in return, dramatized Australia's life. Its history, natural or cultural, could not be understood without it. To invoke the lands that evolved from Old Australia is to conjure up a burning bush". |
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Answer: |
Stephen J Pyne (The Burning Bush, Henry Holt & Co, 1991)
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Question 10: |
"Authors are regularly asked by journalists to summarize a long book in one sentence. For this book, here is such a sentence: 'History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among people's environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves'." |
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Answer: |
Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel, Jonathon Cape, 1997).
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The winner of the March Quiz was Jenny Gream from Brisbane.
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February's theme was: 'Significant Dates'
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Question 1: |
In what year did the world's largest-ever toxic algal bloom appear in the Barwon-Darling river system? |
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Answer: |
1991
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Question 2: |
In what year did the last known Tasmanian tiger die in captivity? |
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Answer: |
1936
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Question 3: |
In what year was the Wollemi pine discovered? |
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Answer: |
1994
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Question 4: |
In what year did the 'Decade of Landcare' begin? |
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Answer: |
1990
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Question 5: |
In what year did the Australian Government ban whaling? |
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Answer: |
1979
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Question 6: |
In what year were Victoria's Catchment Management Authorities established? |
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Answer: |
1997
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Question 7: |
In what year was Tim Flannery's book 'The Future Eaters' first published? |
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Answer: |
1994 |
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Question 8: |
In what year was the cane toad introduced to Australia? |
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Answer: |
1935 |
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Question 9: |
In what year was the Sydney Water giardia/cryptosporidium contamination scare? |
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Answer: |
1998
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Question 10: |
In what year did commercial cotton growing begin in Australia? |
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Answer: |
1961
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The winner of the February Quiz was Linda Anderson from Karratha, Western Australia.
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January's theme was: 'Edible Australians'
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Question 1: |
Which distinctive crustacean from Queensland and northern Australia, which lives in muddy or sandy bottomed coastal waters up to 60 metres deep, has become known world-wide as a novel seafood delicacy? |
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Answer: |
The Moreton Bay Bug (Thenus orientalis).
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Question 2: |
Now endangered in the wild in its native southern Queensland, what hard-shelled nut was introduced to Hawaii in the 1880s, where it formed the basis of a substantial industry? |
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Answer: |
The Macadamia nut (Macadamia integrifolia &/or Macadamia tetraphylla)
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Question 3: |
Formerly wide-spread in the grasslands of South Eastern Australia, the tuber of which small plant with a yellow, dandelion-like flower was once a staple food for Aboriginal Australians? |
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Answer: |
The Yam daisy or Murnong (Microseris lanceolata – formerly Microseris scapigera)
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Question 4: |
What very large freshwater crayfish, native to the rivers of south west Western Australia, now forms the basis of a growing aquaculture industry? |
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Answer: |
Marron (Cherax tenuimanus)
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Question 5: |
What native, milky-sapped climber from Australia's inland arid zone bears large, green fruit in spring and summer, the seeds of which taste like fresh-picked peas? |
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Answer: |
Native pear or bush banana (Leichhardtia australis – aka Marsdenia australis)
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Question 6: |
What dark red native 'plum' is actually the swollen stem of a smaller fruit, and grows on a native, fire-tolerant conifer common in semi-tropical New South Wales and Queensland? |
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Answer: |
The Illawarra plum (Podocarpus elatus)
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Question 7: |
What widespread, aquatic fern from inland Australia bears edible spores that were once an important food for Aborigines, but which can cause beri beri if not prepared properly (as explorers Burke and Wills discovered to their cost)? |
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Answer: |
Nardoo (Marsilea drummondii) |
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Question 8: |
What tall pine tree, native to Queensland, is related to the Norfolk Island pine and bears football-sized pinecones in a three-year cycle, each cone containing up to 100 edible 'nuts'? |
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Answer: |
Bunya pine: (Araucaria bidwillii) |
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Question 9: |
What south eastern Australian eucalypt takes its common name from the hard, sugary drops of sap which exude from holes bored by insects in its twigs? |
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Answer: |
Manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis)
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Question 10: |
What arid zone tree, which grows an apricot-sized fruit with a distinctive round stone, is a partial root parasite that can tap into the roots of almost any plant growing within 10 metres? |
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Answer: |
Quandong (Santalum acuminatum)
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The winner of the January Quiz was Jacqui Hyne from Sydney
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