Previous quizzes: 2007

2007 Quiz 'Questions & Answers'

- December's theme was: 'Comparisons'
- November's theme was: 'Colonial Fiction'
- October's theme was: 'You Guess the Theme?'
- September's theme was: 'Where did it Happen?'
- August's theme was: 'Quirky'
- July's theme was: 'Feral Peril'
- June's theme was: 'Environment on Film & TV'
- May's theme was: 'Freaky Fauna'
- April's theme was: 'Sporting Animals'
- March's theme was: 'Chair People'
- February's theme was: 'Acronyms'
- January's theme was: 'Bushfires'

The theme for December 2007/January 2008 was: 'Comparisons'
Question 1: Which has the smallest capacity? (a) Sydney Harbour (b) Warragamba Dam (c) Lake Victoria (NSW)
  Answer:

(a) Sydney Harbour (around 560,000 megalitres)

Question 2: When was the first-ever Federal Environment Minister appointed in Australia? (a) 1971 (b) 1975 (c) 1983
  Answer:

(a) On 31 May, 1971 Billy McMahon appointed Peter Howson as Minister for the Environment, Aborigines and the Arts
Question 3: Who was Australia's longest-serving Federal Environment Minister? (a) Graham Richardson (b) Ros Kelly (c) Robert Hill
  Answer:

(c) Robert Hill. Answer: Robert Hill (1996-2001)
Question 4: Who was Australia's shortest-serving Federal Environment Minister? (a) Andrew Peacock (b) Gough Whitlam (c) Malcolm Turnbull
  Answer:

(b) Gough Whitlam appointed himself as Minister for Environment, Aborigines and the Arts (along with many other portfolios) in the two-person cabinet which governed Australia from 5-19 December, 1972, and held the Environment portfolio again from 2-14 July, 1975.
Question 5: How long is the longest river in Tasmania? (a) 101 kilometres long (b) 201 kilometres long (c) 301 kilometres long
  Answer:

(b) 201 kilometres long (the South Esk)

Question 6: How high is South Australia's highest mountain? (a) 1,435 metres (b) 1,048 metres (c) 716 metres
  Answer: (a) 1,435 metres high - Mount Woodroffe (aka Ngarutjaranya) in far north west South Australia
Question 7: How big is the world's smallest living marsupial? (a) five centimetres long, plus tail (b) six centimetres long, plus tail (b) seven centimetres long, plus tail
  Answer:

After consideration (because sources vary) both answers (a) & (b) were accepted (the world's smallest marsupial is the Long-tailed Planigale, Planigale ingrami of arid northern Australia, which reputedly weighs less than a 10 cent piece).
Question 8: What is the Australian (and world) record for the longest sequence of days with maximum temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit? (a) 160 days (b) 101 days (c) 48 days
  Answer:

(a) 160 days – recorded at Marble Bar, Western Australia, from 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924
Question 9: What was the lowest temperature ever recorded in Australia? (a) minus 26 degrees Celsius (b) minus 23 degrees Celsius (c) minus 20 degrees Celsius
  Answer:

b) minus 23 degrees Celsius – recorded at Charlotte Pass, New South Wales on 29 June, 1994
Question 10: The male of which ape species has the largest penis? (a) Chimpanzee (b) Gorilla (c) Human
  Answer:

(c) Human

The winner of the December 2007/January 2008 Quiz was Antoine Chassagne from Sydney.

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November's theme was: 'Colonial Fiction'
Question 1: Which British author wrote a book in the 1920s describing a fascist, paramilitary ex-servicemen's organisation in Australia, led by a man nick-named 'Kangaroo'?
  Answer:

DH Lawrence (Kangaroo)
Question 2: What teenage girl featured in 15 books about an isolated station, called 'Billabong', in northern Victoria?
  Answer:

Norah Linton (Norah of Billabong series, by Mary Grant Bruce)
Question 3: What poet and newspaper columnist (still writing today) was inspired by the 1956 Murray River flood and the debate over the proposed Chowilla Dam to write two children's books about life aboard paddle-steamers?
  Answer:

Max Fatchen (The River Kings and Conquest of the River)
Question 4: What English author, traveller and archaeologist wrote a world-famous book which popularised Aborigines' use of songs as spiritual and geographical maps.
  Answer:

Bruce Chatwin (Songlines)

Question 5: What United States author, during a visit to NSW, quipped that "God made the harbour ...but Satan made Sydney".
  Answer:

Mark Twain (aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens)

Question 6: Who launched his career as a children's author in 1961 with a book about a German immigrant family struggling to make a living farming in South Australia's Barossa Valley?
  Answer: Colin Thiele (Sun on the Stubble)
Question 7: In which 1955 children's book does a shipwrecked German villain try to provoke a revolt by Aborigines in Australia's remote North West?
  Answer:

Biggles in Australia (Capt. WE Johns)

Question 8: Which British author, known for his war-time romances, also wrote an apocalyptic novel about survivors gathering in Australia to await certain death from radioactive clouds drifting south from a nuclear war?
  Answer:

Neville Shute (On the Beach)

Question 9: What real Australian island, populated by sea lions, is named after a preposterous fictional island invented by an 18th century Irish satirist, who located his island in the same general area?
  Answer:

Lilliput Island, South Australia (south of Ceduna – officially named in 2007)
Question 10: Which New Zealand author penned a murder mystery set in 1942, in which a female politician is murdered in her husband's woolshed, with her body then packed into a wool bale?
  Answer:

Ngaio Marsh (Died in the Wool)

The winner of the November Quiz was Rodney Edwards of Umuwa, Northern Territory

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October's theme was: 'You guess the theme' (you were asked to "give answers to fit the clues, then describe the theme that connects them").

THE ANSWER: The theme was 'AFL team nicknames, in the order the teams finished on the ladder in 2007'
Question 1: Feral predators.
  Answer:

Cats
Question 2: What we need to use less of.
  Answer:

Power

Question 3: Very large birds of prey.
  Answer:

Eagles
Question 4: Macropods.
  Answer:

Kangaroos

Question 5: Large birds of prey.
  Answer:

Hawks
Question 6: Black and white birds.
  Answer: Magpies
Question 7: Large waterbirds.
  Answer:

Swans
Question 8: Black birds.
  Answer:

Crows

Question 9: Located midway between Balaklava and Bowmans.
  Answer:

Saints
Question 10: Large African predators.
  Answer:

Lions

Question 11: European names for Kaltukatjara River.
  Answer: Dockers
Question 12: Used to drop water on bushfires.
  Answer: Bombers
Question 13: English canines.
  Answer: Bulldogs
Question 14: Stingerfish.
  Answer: Demons
Question 15: World's largest whales.
  Answer: Blues
Question 16: Tasmania no longer has any.
  Answer: Tigers

The winner of the October Quiz was Alec Davie of Sydney.

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September's theme was: 'Where did it happen?'
Question 1: On 20 July, 1989 former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, his then wife Hazel and various Australian Premiers and Chief Ministers formally launched the ‘One Billion Trees’ program by ceremoniously planting a river redgum each on a floodplain. Where did they plant the trees?
  Answer:

Wentworth, NSW.

Question 2: In April 1976 a new Baseline Air Pollution Station began sampling the air in Australia, providing (among other things) long-term measures of the changing levels of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting chemicals. Where is the Station located?
  Answer:

Cape Grim, Tasmania.

Question 3: In 1770 Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected plant samples from 11 sites along the eastern Australian coast, providing European scientists with their first-ever specimens of many Australian species. The original specimens collected by Banks and Solander still exist. Where are they kept?
  Answer:

Natural History Museum (formerly British Museum), London. Also accepted was the 'National Herbarium, Canberra' (where some specimens are also kept).

Question 4: In June 1995, in response to an audit of water use, a meeting of the Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council agreed on the first 'Interim Cap' on water diversions from the Murray Darling Basin. Where was the meeting held?
  Answer:

Brisbane.
Question 5: On October 1841 a bad-tempered camel called 'Harry' – later held responsible for the accidental shooting of its owner - was the first of its species to arrive in Australia, aboard the ship Appoline. Where did the camel come ashore?
  Answer:

Port Adelaide.

Question 6: In the 1830s a self-taught hobbyist, Georgina Molloy, became one of Australia's leading botanical experts through study of the native plants near her bush home. Where did she and her husband settle in 1830?
  Answer: Augusta, Western Australia.
Question 7: On 30 August 2007 an Australian capital city experienced its hottest August day on record, peaking at 30.4 degrees Celsius. Which city?
  Answer:

Adelaide.
Question 8: European carp were brought to Australia in the 1800s, but did not become widespread in the Murray River until a particular strain – named after the town in Gippsland where it was reportedly bred - was released in the 1960s. What was the Gippsland town?
  Answer:

Boolara.

Question 9: In early 1996 a local landcare committee painted a large, dead eucalpyt – next to a major highway – bright red to draw attention to the problem of rural tree decline. A few months later vandals burnt the tree down. Where was landcare’s original “red tree”?
  Answer:

Woodbury (near Oatlands) on the Midlands Highway in Tasmania.

Question 10: What township is the benchmark site for measuring River Murray salinity, with the much-quoted target of the Basin Salinity Management Strategy being to hold salinity levels at the site "at 800 EC or less for 95 per cent of the time"?
  Answer:

Morgan, South Australia.

The winner of the September Quiz was Dave Wolfe of Kalorama, Victoria

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August's theme was: 'Quirky'
- a miscellaneous selection of slightly quirky questions (or questions with slightly quirky answers)

Question 1: "I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that." Who said it?
  Answer:

Thomas Edison (1931).
Question 2: What is the largest single source of greenhouse-causing methane emissions in Australia?
  Answer:

Cattle burps.

Question 3: Which political leader went into the 1990 Federal election with a promise that his party was committed to "reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by the year 2000"?
  Answer:

Andrew Peacock.
Question 4: What is the name of the new interim head of Western Australia's Environment Protection Authority?
  Answer:

Barry Carbon.
Question 5: "In the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions." Who said it?
  Answer:

Cardinal George Pell.
Question 6: In November 2006 Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey announced that the Federal Government is considering funding for a technique that might help shield the Great Barrier Reef from coral bleaching. What is the technique?
  Answer: Erecting shade cloth.
Question 7: Who attracted world media attention by deriding Australia's tourism icon, the koala, as an offensive creature, which scratched and piddled on passers by?
  Answer:

Former Federal Labor Tourism Minister John Brown.

Question 8: In the 1960s the Australian and US Governments carried out a joint feasibility study into building a new harbour at remote Cape Keraudren on Western Australia's Pilbara Coast. How did the project's proponents propose to excavate the new harbour?
  Answer:

Nuclear explosions ('Australian Harbour Project') .
Question 9: What iconic Australian grass species is also a widespread native species in South Africa where (by coincidence) it is known as 'rooigrass'?
  Answer:

Kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra) .
Question 10: On 23 October 2000 the Murray-Darling Basin Commission announced Australia first-ever large-scale release of water for environmental flows in the Murray River – 300,000 megalitres from Hume Dam intended for the Barmah-Millewah redgum forests. Later the same day the environmental flow was cancelled. Why?
  Answer:

Due to a flood.

The winner of the August Quiz was Chloe Thomson (& the 3rd floor VFF staff) of Melbourne.

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July's theme was: 'Feral Peril'
Question 1: What stinging hive insect, first reported in Tasmania in 1959 and on the mainland in 1977, has become a major nuisance at picnics and barbecues in southern Australia because it is attracted to meat and sugary drinks.
  Answer:

European wasp (Vespula germanic).
Question 2: According a 2004 report by the Pest Animals Co-operative Research Centre, what are Australia's 'top three' worst feral vertebrates (in terms of measurable negative impact)?
  Answer:

Foxes ($227.5 million per year); feral cats ($146 million per year) and rabbits ($113.1 million per year).

Question 3: What is thought to be the country of origin of Australia's feral rabbit population?
  Answer:

Spain (&/or southern France).
Question 4: In the 1890s, authorities attempted (unsuccessfully) to block the spread of rabbits into Western Australia by releasing a biological control at Eyre. What was the biological control they used?
  Answer:

Cats.
Question 5: From what island, off the west coast of South Australia's York Peninsula, did rabbit calicivirus escape in 1995?
  Answer:

Wardang Island.
Question 6: Which invasive woody wetland weed, native to Brazil, remained isolated in small pockets in Australia's north for 100 years, then – helped by feral water buffalo and unusually extensive floods – spread suddenly in the 1970s to many of the NT's river systems, so it now covers more than 50,000 hectares?
  Answer: Giant sensitive plant (Mimosa pigra).
Question 7: What Australian arboreal marsupial has established itself as a major pest in New Zealand, with an estimated population of more than 60 million, and has also been introduced to North America?
  Answer:

The Common Brush-Tailed Possum (Trichosurus vulpecular).

Question 8: What invasive, yellow-flowing pasture weed of south eastern Australia, named after the Saints day on which it flowers in Europe, is toxic to livestock because it renders them excessively sensitive to sunlight, but is also valued by many people for its reputed medicinal properties.
  Answer:

St John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum).
Question 9: What multi-legged arthropod from Portugal, first reported in Port Lincoln in South Australia in 1953, has since spread to all Australia's southern states, occurring in plague numbers in Adelaide and parts of Victoria?
  Answer:

Black Portuguese millipede (Ommatoiulus moreleti).
Question 10: What salty-leafed 'Weed of National Significance' – once commonly planted as a shade tree around arid zone watering points – has choked hundreds of kilometres of central Australia's Finke River, and has the potential to spread to many other inland waterways?
  Answer:

Athel pine or tamarisk (Tamarix aphylla).

The winner of the July Quiz was Maria Woodgate from Woolloongabba, Queensland

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June's theme was: 'Environment on Film & TV'
Question 1: What is the title of the 1977 Australian film that is centred on a fictional Aboriginal prophecy which predicts Australia is about to be wiped out by a gigantic tsunami?
  Answer:

The Last Wave.
Question 2: What was the name of the fictional Aboriginal detective, portrayed on TV by New Zealander James Laurenson, who used his knowledge of the Australian bush to solve murder mysteries?
  Answer:

Napoleon Bonaparte (aka 'Bony' or 'Boney').
Question 3: Who was the former Vietnam Veteran who hosted an ABC TV series about surviving in the Australian bush?
  Answer:

Les Hiddins ('The Bush Tucker Man').
Question 4: Which Dutch-born adventurer, who spent his boyhood at Murray Bridge and once posed nude for Cleo magazine, became a national celebrity for three wildlife adventure films he made in the 1970s and 1980s?
  Answer:

Alby Mangels.

Question 5: Who were the two British-born siblings who made a series of documentaries about the Australian outback in the 1960s, and who later hosted a popular TV show?
  Answer:

Mike & Mal Leyland.
Question 6: What is the title of the 1971 film in which two English children are abandoned in the Australian desert when their father commits suicide, but are rescued by a young Aboriginal man?
  Answer:

Walkabout.

Question 7: What is the title of the 1979 movie which depicts Australian society collapsing into violent chaos – a collapse which is revealed in the sequel to have been triggered by an international oil crisis?
  Answer:

Mad Max.
Question 8: Which pioneering Australian husband-and-wife film-making team, who first came to prominence with a 1962 film about shark-hunting, are now champions of shark and marine conservation?
  Answer:

Ron and Valerie Taylor.

Question 9: In the 1997 Australian film 'The Castle', Darryl Kerrigan invites lawyer Lawrence Hammill to come fishing with him. What kind of fish is he hoping to catch?
  Answer:

Carp.
Question 10: Which leading Australian sound engineer provided the 'tsch tsch' sound made by Skippy in 'The Bush Kangaroo' TV series?
  Answer:

Phil Judd.

The winner of the June Quiz was Deborah Cleland from Canberra.

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May's theme was: 'Freaky Fauna'
Question 1: If you stumbled across a Gigantopithecus australis in the Australian bush, what might you be looking at?
  Answer:

A yowie.
Question 2: What marsupial carnivore, presumed extinct on mainland Australia at the time of European settlement, has reportedly been found in road kills in South East Victoria as recently as 1991?
  Answer:

Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii).
Question 3: What small NSW town, north of Glenn Innes, has adopted the image of a feral black panther as an emblem - with reported local sightings of the animals dating back to the 1950s?
  Answer:

Emmaville (the 'Black Panther of Emmaville').
Question 4: What is the popular name given to the wolf-like animal - shot and stuffed following a spate of sheep killings in the late 19th century - which can still be seen on display in a pub in South Australia's South East?
  Answer:

The Tantanoola tiger.
Question 5: What animal was reportedly shot sometime before 1870 in a lagoon near Conargo, in NSW's Deniliquin district (also stuffed and displayed in the local pub for many years)?
  Answer:

A seal.
Question 6: A feral population of what popular Mexican aquarium creatures - frozen in a juvenile stage of development, but still able to breed - reputedly inhabits Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin?
  Answer:

Axolotl or Mexican Walking Fish (juvenile form of Ambystoma mexicanum).
Question 7: In his book The Future Eaters, what carnivore did Tim Flannery suggest might be introduced to northern Australia to help control feral pigs and goats?
  Answer:

The Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis).
Question 8: Which respected comparative anatomist - author and illustrator of The Mammals of South Australia - promulgated the unorthodox theory that humans were descended from tarsiers, not apes?
  Answer:

Professor Frederic Wood Jones.

Question 9: Dating from a failed farming experiment in the late 1860s, a small feral population of what large South African bird reportedly persists in South Australia's arid zone?
  Answer:

Ostrich (Struthio camelus).
Question 10: What was the popular name given to the semi-naked woman who was photographed supposedly living in the wild with a mob of kangaroos near the Western Australian town of Eucla in the early 1970s?
  Answer:

The Nullarbor Nymph.

The winner of the May Quiz was Peter Howden from Bendigo, Victoria.

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April's theme was: 'Sporting Animals'
Question 1: What are the animal nicknames for the NSW and Queensland 'State of Origin' Rugby League teams?
  Answer:

The Cockroaches (NSW) & the Canetoads (Queensland).
Question 2: The national men's teams of Australia's two main rugby codes teams are both named after marsupials. What are they?
  Answer:

The Wallabies (Union) & The Kangaroos (League).
Question 3: And what are Australia's national women's teams in the two rugby codes called?
  Answer:

The Wallaroos (Union) and the Jillaroos (League).
Question 4: Which two Super 14 rugby union teams are named after exotic animals which have established feral populations in Australia?
  Answer:

The Brumbies (ACT) and The Bulls (South Africa).

Question 5: And which two Australian National Basketball League teams are named after feral animals?
  Answer:

The Razorbacks (West Sydney) & the Wildcats (Perth).
Question 6: What are Australia's national men's and women's Hockey teams called?
  Answer:

The Kookaburras (men) & Hockeyroos (women).
Question 7: What are South Australia's men's & women's cricket teams called?
  Answer:

The Redbacks (men) and The Scorpions (women).
Question 8: Which Victorian AFL team has an affiliated team in the VFL named after an insect?
  Answer:

Carlton ('The Northern Bullants').
Question 9: What Australian Rules team is called "the Magpies" in the SANFL competition?
  Answer:

Port Adelaide.
Question 10: What Queensland "masters" AFL team (over 33) takes its name from a local fructivorous mammal?
  Answer:

The Hervey Bay Fruitbats.

The winner of the April Quiz was Suzanne Bridgeman from Canberra.

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March's theme was: 'Chair People'
Question 1: Who is the current president of the Murray Darling Basin Commission?
  Answer:

Ian Sinclair

Question 2: Who is the current chair of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority?
  Answer:

Virginia Chadwick
Question 3: Who is the current chair of the Great Artesian Basin Co-ordinating Committee?
  Answer:

Jeff Austin
Question 4: Who was the first independent chair of the Lake Eyre Basin Co-ordinating Committee?
  Answer:

David Lord

Question 5: Who is the current chair of the Australian Landcare Council?
  Answer:

Bobbie Brazil

Question 6: Who currently chairs CSIRO Board meetings?
  Answer:

Terry Cutler (Peter Willcox stood aside as chair & board member in February this year)
Question 7: Who chaired the national 2006 'State of the Environment' Report committee?
  Answer:

Bob Beeton

Question 8: Who is the current president of the National Farmers Federation?
  Answer:

David Crombie
Question 9: Who is the current chair of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority?
  Answer:

Tony Rundle
Question 10: Who was the inaugural president of the Australian Conservation Foundation?
  Answer:

Sir Garfield Barwick

Bonus Question: Who sent a memo in 1963 which inspired the formation of the Australian Conservation Foundation? (no points for this one - just for fun).
  Answer:

Philip Mountbatten (aka the Duke of Edinburgh)

 

The winner of the March Quiz was Paul York from Sydney.

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February's theme was: 'Acronyms'
- What in the NRM world do (or once did) the following acronyms stand for?
Question 1: WSUD
  Answer:

Water Sensitive Urban Design
Question 2: ICM
  Answer:

Integrated Catchment Management
Question 3: DLWC
  Answer:

Department of Land and Water Conservation
Question 4: NAPSWQ
  Answer:

National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality
Question 5: DOPIE
  Answer:

Department of Primary Industries & Energy
Question 6: SAMDBNRMB
  Answer:

South Australian Murray Darling Basin Natural Resource Management Board
Question 7: BDAC
  Answer:

Biological Diversity Advisory Committee

Question 8: ARMCANZ
  Answer:

Agricultural and Resource Management Council of Australia & New Zealand
Question 9: ASS
  Answer:

Acid Sulphate Soil
Question 10: ANIC
  Answer:

Australian National Insect Collection
Question 11: WITF
  Answer:

Water Infrastructure Task Force (or Water Industry Task Force)
Question 12: GABCC
  Answer:

Great Artesian Basin Coordinating Committee
Question 13: SEPP 46
  Answer:

State Environment Planning Policy 46
Question 14: SAWCAA
  Answer:

Soil and Water Conservation Association of Australia
Question 15: RAC
  Answer:

Resource Assessment Commission

Question 16: SCMCC
  Answer:

State Catchment Management Coordinating Committee

Question 17: LEB
  Answer:

Lake Eyre Basin

Question 18: JAMBA
  Answer:

Japan-Australia Migratory Birds Agreement

Question 19: MDBCAC
  Answer:

Murray Darling Basin Community Advisory Committee

Question 20: ABRS
  Answer:

Australian Biological Resources Study


Bonus Question: 		What should be the acronym for the Federal Government's proposed new body to replace the Murray Darling Basin Commission? (no points for this one - just for fun).
   

There were numerous creative answers to this 'Bonus Question, a few of which are listed below:

- BIGMESS (Biodiversity Integrity Group for the Managament of Environmentally Sustainable Systems) was suggested by Michaela Watts, Canberra

- FGCSW (Federal Government Controlling the States Water) was suggested by Mark Williams, Heidelberg, Victoria

- CHOEAWGTSTMDB (Commission For How On Earth Are We Going To Save The Murray Darling Basin?) was suggested by Katie Chambers, Mt Gambier

- FMDBBASC (Federal Murray Darling Basin Band-Aid Solution Commission) was suggested by Tanya Cornish, Townsville ("not that I'm a cynic or anything...")

- MDB VOTES (Murray Darling Basin Visionary Operational Trading & Entitlements Secretariat) was suggested by Rebecca Neumann, Adelaide

- BO Experts (Body of Experts) for Water, was suggested by Melissa Cutler, Canberra

- NRI (No Real Idea) was suggested by Todd Maher, Sydney

- DRIP (Department of Regional Intensive People), was suggested by Andrea Garnsey, Canberra

- ASSWIPE 2007 (Australian States Signatory to Water Initiative Planned Early 2007) was suggested by, Darren Wilson, Mildura, Victoria

- AUSMDB was suggested by Justin Williams, Adelaide

- MDBTAC (Murray-Darling Basin Technical Advisory Council) was suggested by Sara Bright, Westonia, Western Australia

- DPAC (Drought Proofing Australia Commission) - "as we should look further than just the Murray Darling Basin" - was suggested by Peter Sahb, Adelaide

Typical of many comments was that of James Hutchinson-Smith, from Tamworth, NSW:

"I dont mind what they call it, let's just get it right"

The winner of the February Quiz was Carissa Knuckey from Brisbane

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January's theme was: 'Bushfires'
Question 1: Perhaps Australia’s best known fire-fighter, who is Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service?
  Answer:

Phil Koperberg

Question 2: And – sharing the same first name – what former Canberra CSIRO scientist is arguably Australia’s best-known bushfire researcher?
  Answer:

Phil Cheney

Question 3: Many fire-tolerant Australian native plants can regenerate quickly after a fire due to the presence of buds under the bark, which sprout new leaves within a few weeks. What is this new growth called?
  Answer:

Epicormic shoots
Question 4: What event, hosted by the Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre, will be held in Canberra on 27 February, 2007?
  Answer:

National Forum on Bushfires (theme: 'Are Big Bushfires Inevitable?')

Question 5: In terms of human fatalities, Australia's two worst bushfire events on record were the 1983 ‘Ash Wednesday’ fires (75 deaths) and the 1939 ‘Black Friday’ fires (71 deaths). What was the third worst bushfire event?
  Answer:

1967 bushfires in southern Tasmania (62 deaths)

Question 6: Who in 1969 coined the phrase "firestick farming", to describe the Aboriginal practice of deliberately burning bushland for hunting and other purposes?
  Answer: Dr Rhys Jones
Question 7: "Frankly, on the evidence before the inquiry, it is a miracle that no more than four people died." Whose report, released in December 2006, strongly criticised the ACT Government for its handling of the January 2003 fires?
  Answer: ACT Coroner Maria Doogan
Question 8: The semi-circular 'Fire Danger Rating' roadside signs used in Australia (based on the system developed by Alan Mcarthur in the 1960s) have five ratings, with a movable arrow which can point to 'Low', 'Moderate', 'High', 'Very High' or 'Extreme'. What colour is usually used for each rating?
  Answer: Low - green; Moderate - blue; High -yellow; Very High - orange; Extreme - red
Question 9: When asked in December 2006 if climate change was causing more bushfires in Australia, Prime Minister John Howard dismissed this as an "esoteric debate", and said that instead the bushfire debate should focus on what?
  Answer: Firefighters being denied access to National Parks because of blocked fire trails.
Question 10: In 1991 an academic from Arizona State University published a seminal book about the history and ecological role of fire in Australia (which was followed by a similarly titled sequel in 2006). Name the author and the book.
  Answer: Stephen Pyne, 'Burning Bush' (the 2006 book was titled 'The Still Burning Bush'.

The winner of the January Quiz was Rachael Dawes from Canberra.

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