2008 Quiz 'Questions & Answers'

- November's theme was: 'River snap'
- October's theme was: 'Murray-Darling'
- September's theme was: 'Ancient monikers'
- August's theme was: 'Famous trees'
- July's theme was: 'Mascots'
- June's theme was: 'Days of our lives'
- May's theme was: 'NRM leaders'
- April's theme was: 'Australian NRM Regions'
- March's theme was: 'Disparate measures'
- February's theme was: 'What is it'
- January's theme was: 'Comparisons'

The theme for November was: 'River snap'
Question 1: What name is shared by a major river in Western Australia (which enters the sea at the Peel Estuary, near Mandurah) and a major river in South Eastern Australia (which arises in the Australian Alps and enters the sea near Goolwa, South Australia)?
  Answer:

Murray River.
Question 2: What name is shared by a river in South West Western Australia (which rises in the Whicher Range, and flows for about 65 kilometres), and a river in WA's Kimberley region (named after the wife of a former State Premier)?
  Answer:

Margaret River.
Question 3: What name is shared by a river in NSW (which empties into Port Stephens), and a creek in northern NSW (made infamous by a massacre of Aborigines in 1838)?
  Answer:

Myall River/Creek (Myall Creek is in northern NSW, not Queensland as was erroneously indicated in the question - thanks to all those who pointed this out)
Question 4: What name is shared by a major river in Western Australia's Kimberley Region (which flows from the King Leopold Ranges into King Sound, near Derby) and a major river in central Queensland (which enters the sea at Keppel Bay, and which has Australia's second largest catchment)?
  Answer:

Fitzroy River.
Question 5: What named is shared by a river near Stanley in North West Tasmania (inhabited by a rare fish species, the Australian grayling), and a river north of Townsville in Queensland (which flows into the ocean at Halifax Bay)?
  Answer:

Black River.
Question 6: What name is shared by a Tasmanian river, west of Hobart (the focus of a 2001 guide book written by Greens Leader Bob Brown) and a river to the west of NSW's New England National Park (which flows into a State Forest named after it)?
  Answer: Styx River.
Question 7: What name is shared by a river west of Melbourne (which rises in the Wombat State Forest, and flows into the Melton Reservoir) and a creek north of Rockhampton, Queensland (which flows through a State forest named after it)?
  Answer:

Werribee River/Creek.
Question 8: What name is (almost) shared by an ephemeral Northern Territory river (which flows through Alice Springs) and the only permanently flowing waterway on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula (a brackish stream which fills a reservoir north of Port Lincoln)?
  Answer:

Todd River/Tod River.
Question 9: What name is shared by a river in Queensland's Wide Bay district (the burial site of a former Commissioner for Crown Lands), and a river in Western Australia's Kimberley region (named by surveyor HF Johnson in 1884)?
  Answer:

Mary River.
Question 10: What name is shared by a river on the Northern Territory's Groote Eylandt (the site of an Anglican mission in 1921), and a creek in Queensland's Dinden State Forest (near Mareeba, west of Cairns)?
  Answer:

Emerald River/Creek.

The winner of the November 2008 Quiz was ???

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The theme for October was: 'Murray-Darling'
Question 1: Who gave the Murray River its current name, and after whom was it named?
  Answer:

The Murray River was named in January 1830 by explorer Charles Sturt. Sturt named the river after Sir George Murray, a former senior British army officer (prominent in the Napoleonic wars) who at the time was the British Secretary of State of the Colonies.
Question 2: In 1887 & 1888 three Canadian brothers pioneered large-scale irrigation at Renmark and Mildura. Who were they?
  Answer:

The Chaffey Brothers: George, William ('Ben') & Charles Chaffey.
Question 3: What single word, added to Section 100 of the Australian Constitution at the insistence of Sir John Downer at the 1897-98 Australasian Federal Convention in Adelaide, gave the Federal Government a role in water management in the Murray-Darling Basin?
  Answer:

"Reasonable" (Section 100 reads: "The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of trade or commerce, abridge the right of a State or of the residents therein to the reasonable use of the waters of rivers for conservation or irrigation.").

Question 4: In 1942 a wartime project which was to have far-reaching implications for the Murray Valley began at Tulla Estate in NSW's Wakool District. What was it?
  Answer:

The first rice was grown in the Murray Valley..
Question 5: What disaster for the Murray-Darling river ecosystems began in 1961 at Boolarra in Victoria?
  Answer:

A new strain of European carp was introduced into a farm dam, from where they were subsequently introduced into the Murray-Darling system.
Question 6: What event in South Australia in 1981 – happening for the first time in recorded history – put the issue of water extraction from the Murray River on the national agenda?
  Answer: The Murray Mouth closed.
Question 7: When did the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council announce the first interim 'Cap' on water diversions from the Murray-Darling Basin?
  Answer:

30 June, 1995.
Question 8: Who in August 1998 – in the run-up to a Federal election - famously called on voters to "zap the Cap"?
  Answer:

Former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer.
Question 9: What major report was released by the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council on 22 October 1999, predicting a worsening Basin-wide problem caused primarily by dryland farming?
  Answer:

The Salinity Audit.
Question 10: On 26 March 2008 the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council agreed to bring the Basin under the management of a newly created independent body, which will incorporate the existing Murray Darling Basin Commission. What is the new body called?
  Answer:

The Murray Darling Basin Authority.

The winner of the October 2008 Quiz was Sarah Towie of Donnybrook, Western Australia.

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The theme for September was: 'Ancient monikers'
Question 1: What popular name was given to the opalised plesiosaur skeleton discovered at Andamooka in 1983?
  Answer:

The Quizmaster appears to have got his plesiosaurs mixed up, so various answers were accepted - including 'Eric', the Addyman pleasiosaur & the St Alban's plesiosaur.
Question 2: Named after a nearby town, what Iguanadon-like herbivorous dinosaur fossil was discovered in outback Queensland in 1963?
  Answer:

Muttaburrasauras.
Question 3: What Victorian dinosaur, named after the discoverers' daughter, has the rare distinction of a female name?
  Answer:

Laellynasaura.

Question 4: Discovered in 1974 by Joan Wiffen at the Mangahouanga Stream, what 12-metre long marine reptile from the dinosaur era takes its name partly from the Maori word for "sea"?
  Answer:

Moanasaurus.
Question 5: Named after a low range of hills in South Australia's northern Flinders Ranges, what famous suite of soft-bodied fossils was discovered by Reg Sprigg in 1946?
  Answer:

Ediacara fauna (aka Ediacara biota etc.)
Question 6: What NSW town is famous for its 'Devonian billabong', first discovered when a slab of rock containing 114 fossilised fish was unearthed by roadworkers in 1956?
  Answer: Canowindra.
Question 7: What dry salt lake, in South Australia's remote north east, is famous for the hundreds of intact diprotodon skeletons found entombed there in 1892?
  Answer:

Lake Callabonna.
Question 8: The fossil centre at Naracoorte Caves in South Australia is named after what extinct genus of giant snakes?
  Answer:

Wonambi.
Question 9: What fossil fish from Western Australia's Kimberley region was proclaimed in 1995 as that State's "fossil emblem", following a campaign by a Perth Primary School?
  Answer:

Gogo fish (Mcnamaraspis kaprios).
Question 10: And what other fossil fish from WA's Kimberley – named after a TV personality – made headlines earlier this year when it was pronounced as the earliest known example of live birth in a vertebrate?
  Answer:

Materpiscis attenboroughi.

The winner of the September 2008 Quiz was Ron Harper from Myrtleford, Victoria.

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The theme for August was: 'Famous trees'
Question 1: Under which River Red Gum in Melbourne did citizens gather on 15 November, 1850 to celebrate the formal separation of Victoria from NSW ?
  Answer:

The Separation Tree.

Question 2: What tree do South Australians revere as the supposed site of inaugural Governor John Hindmarsh's proclamation the new colony of South Australia in 1836?
  Answer:

The Old Gum Tree.
Question 3: Under what Ghost Gum – poisoned in 2006 - did striking shearers meet in 1891 to form the Australian Labor Party?
  Answer:

The Tree of Knowledge.

Question 4: What is the famous Coolibah tree on Cooper's Creek on which departing members of the Burke and Wills exploration party carved a message to the doomed explorers?
  Answer:

The Dig Tree.
Question 5: What was the name of the 79-metre-tall Mountain Ash - claimed to be Australia's largest tree - which was controversially killed by a logging fire in Tasmania in 2003?
  Answer:

El Grande.
Question 6: What is the famous hollow River Red Gum at Springton, South Australia, in which a German immigrant and his expanding family lived from 1855 to 1860?
  Answer: The Herbig Family Tree.
Question 7: What is the famous Boab tree, on the Victoria River near Timber Creek, named after the explorer who camped next to it from October 1855 to July 1856?
  Answer:

Gregory's Tree.
Question 8: What is the Ghost Gum on Oban Station, near Mt Isa, from which 15 Aboriginal people were reportedly hanged by local police around 1900?
  Answer:

The Moonah Creek Hanging tree (aka Killing Tree; Butchering Tree).
Question 9: What is the 61-metre Karri tree near Pemberton, Western Australia, on which the world's tallest fire lookout was built in 1947?
  Answer:

The Gloucester Tree.
Question 10: What is the famous Strangler Fig tree, near Yungaburra on Queensland's Atherton tablelands, which is unusual because the original host tree tilted over to create a spectacular effect?
  Answer:

The Curtain Fig Tree.

The winner of the August 2008 Quiz was Tanya Cornish from Townsville, Queensland.

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The theme for July was: 'Mascots'
Question 1: Who is the mascot of Weedbuster Week?
  Answer:

Woody Weed.

Question 2: What animal is the mascot of the WWF?
  Answer:

Giant panda.
Question 3: What animal mascot commonly collects funds for The Wilderness Society?
  Answer:

Koala.

Question 4: What stuffed animal, which appeared on the TV program The Dream, became the fourth, unofficial mascot of the Sydney Olympics?
  Answer:

Fatso the Wombat.
Question 5: Who is the official animal mascot of Australia's national rugby union team?
  Answer:

Wally Wallaby.
Question 6: Who is the official animal mascot of Parks Victoria's junior program?
  Answer: Ranger Roo.
Question 7: Who is the animal mascot of Apple Computers' 'Darwin' (OS X) operating system?
  Answer:

Hexley the Platypus.
Question 8: Who is the animal mascot of the NT Government's 'Be Water Safety Wise' awareness campaign?
  Answer:

Boof the Barramundi.
Question 9: Who is the animal mascot of South Australia's volunteer Country Fire Service?
  Answer:

Smokey the Koala.
Question 10: What animated character was the mascot of the 'slip, slop, slap' sun awareness campaign in Australia?
  Answer:

Sid the Seagull.

The winner of the July 2008 Quiz was Vani Welling from Franklin, Tasmana.

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The theme for June was: 'Days of our lives'
Question 1: On what date is World Environment Day?
  Answer:

5 June.

Question 2: On what date is World Oceans Day?
  Answer:

8 June.
Question 3: On what date is Australia's National Tree Day in 2008?
  Answer:

27 July.

Question 4: On what date does Australia's Weedbuster Week begin in 2008?
  Answer:

1 September.
Question 5: On what date is Australia's National Threatened Species day?
  Answer:

7 September.
Question 6: On what date is the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer?
  Answer: 16 September.
Question 7: On what date is World Wetlands Day?
  Answer:

2 February.
Question 8: On what date is Clean up Australia Day in 2009 (the main 'Community' day)?
  Answer:

1 March.
Question 9: On what date is the World Day for Water?
  Answer:

22 March.
Question 10: On what date was Earth Hour in 2008?
  Answer:

29 March.

The winner of the June 2008 Quiz was Pat Wake from Lewiston, South Australia.

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The theme for May was: 'NRM leaders'
Question 1: Who is the Federal Shadow Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts?
  Answer:

Sharman Stone.

Question 2: Who represents the Queensland Government on the Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council?
  Answer:

Craig Wallace.
Question 3: Who is Western Australia's Minister for the Environment and Climate Change?
  Answer:

David Templeman.

Question 4: Who is the NSW Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Environment?
  Answer:

Pru Goward.
Question 5: Who has been the Chief Executive of Landcare Australia Ltd for the past 17 years?
  Answer:

Brian Scarsbrick.
Question 6: Who is Director of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists?
  Answer: Peter Cosier.
Question 7: Who is President of the Victorian Farmers Federation?
  Answer:

Simon Ramsay.
Question 8: Who is President of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand?
  Answer:

Bill Haylock (also accepted: Judith Roper-Lindsay, president of the NZ Chapter).
Question 9: Who is President of the Murray Darling Association?
  Answer:

Bill Gorman.
Question 10: Who is President of WWF Australia's Board of Directors?
  Answer:

Dr Denis Saunders.

The winner of the May 2008 Quiz was Eloise Kippers from Cairns, Queensland.

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The theme for April was: 'Australian NRM Regions'
Question 1: How many 'NRM Regions' are there in Australia?
  Answer:

56.

Question 2: What (in land area) is Australia's largest NRM Region?
  Answer:

Rangelands NRM region, Western Australia (1.85 million square kilometeres) .
Question 3: What (in land area) is Australia's smallest NRM Region?
  Answer:

Sydney Metro NRM Region (1,840 square kilometres).
Question 4: Which NRM Region has the largest population?
  Answer:

Port Phillip & Westernport CMA (3.4 million) .
Question 5: Which two NRM Regions have the smallest populations?
  Answer:

Kangaroo Island NRM (4,259) & Alinytjara Wilurara (approximately 4,000) .
Question 6: Which NRM Region has the longest coastline relative to land area?
  Answer: Torres Strait NRM Region.
Question 7: Which State has the most NRM Regions?
  Answer:

Queensland (14).
Question 8: What is the name of the regional NRM group for Western Australia's South Coast?
  Answer:

South Coast Natural Resource Management Inc. (since June 2007).
Question 9: Which NRM Region is the town of Camooweal located in?
  Answer:

Desert Channels NRM.
Question 10: What is the name of the Federal Government's new $2.25 billion replacement for the former Natural Heritage Trust, which includes a promise of $636 million in "secure base-level" funding for the NRM Regions over the next five years?
  Answer:

Caring for our Country.
BONUS QUESTION:
(no points for this one - just for fun)		 When will applications open for the next (11th) round of grants under the Australian Government Envirofund?
  Answer: Never – Envirofund has been axed by Labor.

The winner of the April 2008 Quiz was Nathan Weber from Canberra.

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The theme for March was: 'Disparate measures'
- all answers end in 'meter'

Question 1: What is commonly used to measure the level of a water table?
  Answer:

Piezometer.

Question 2: What is commonly used to measure wind speed?
  Answer:

Anemometer.
Question 3: What is commonly used to measure salinity levels in water?
  Answer:

Electrical conductivity meter (also accepted: EC meter, conductivity meter, salinometer, salinity refractometer, hydrometer).
Question 4: What is used to measure soil compaction?
  Answer:

Penetrometer (also accepted: nuclear densometer, soil compaction meter).
Question 5: What can be used to measure the murkiness of water?
  Answer:

Turbidimeter (also accepted: turbidity meter, nephelometer, colorimeter, transmissometer).
Question 6: What is used to measure how much radiation a person has been exposed to?
  Answer: Dosimeter (various types accepted).
Question 7: What is used to measure the quantity of precipitation?
  Answer:

Pluviometer (also accepted: hyetometer, udometer, ombrometer).
Question 8: What is used to measure tree heights or ground slope?
  Answer:

Clinometer (also accepted: inclinometer, hypsometer).
Question 9: What, consisting of a tube and a porous cup, is used to measure soil moisture?
  Answer:

Tensiometer (also accepted: lysimeter).
Question 10: What uses microwaves to accurately measure distances?
  Answer:

Tellurometer (also accepted: microwave interferometer, electromagnetic distance meter, microwave altimeter).

The winner of the March 2008 Quiz was Katherine Lang from Sydney.

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The theme for February was: 'What is it'
Question 1: What is the 'minimum disturbance' bushland rehabilitation system developed by two Sydney sisters, Eileen and Joan, who died in 1976 and 1982 respectively?
  Answer:

The Bradley method.
Question 2: What condition results when soil containing iron pyrites is exposed to the air, creating acidic conditions which stunt plant growth and can cause fish kills and other aquatic problems after heavy rain?
  Answer:

Acid sulphate soil.
Question 3: What is the cell or cluster of cells found at the very tips of plant shoots and roots, from which all subsequent growth develops?
  Answer:

Apical meristem ('meristem' also accepted).
Question 4: Developed by the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia, what system for assessing the quality of bushland sites and monitoring changes won an SA Premier's Natural Resource Management Award in 2007?
  Answer:

The Bushland Condition Monitoring Manual.
Question 5: Named after the Victorian business that manufactures them, what is the name of a small, collapsible aluminium trap – widely used for small mammal studies in Australia – which has a treadle inside that triggers a spring-loaded door?
  Answer:

Elliott trap.
Question 6: What is the common term for the burial pits or discard areas adjacent to former cattle tick dips in northern NSW and southern Queensland, where chemicals used in the dips were emptied after use?
  Answer: Scooping mound.
Question 7: What is a swollen, woody clump at the base of a plant's trunk, such as that found just below ground level in many mallee species, in which a plant stores food and from which it can re-shoot after fire or other damage?
  Answer:

Lignotuber (or caudex).
Question 8: Invented by Keith Cumming, what tool is commonly used to dig small holes, the same size and shape as propagation tubes, into which seedlings can be quickly planted?
  Answer:

The Hamilton planter.
Question 9: What is a crescent-shaped body of water, typical of lowland Murray Darling rivers, created when a meander is cut off from the main river?
  Answer:

Oxbow lake/billabong/lagoon.
Question 10: Victorian manufacturer Waproo Pty Ltd specialises in shoe cleaning and shoe care products of various kinds. However, Waproo also supplies a product commonly used in bushland restoration. What is it?
  Answer:

The 'dabber' bottle (a 150 millimetre, sponge-tipped 'shoe shine' bottle used for 'cut and swab' weed poisoning).

The winner of the February 2008 Quiz was Sam Thomas from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

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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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