Surprising Aussie inventions that changed the world

From the wine cask to WiFi and so much more, Australia has a lot to be proud of when it comes to world-changing home-grown innovations.As a nation of back-shed tinkerers, we have a lot to be proud of when it comes to inventions.

Every school kid knows an Aussie created the wine cask, pie floater and cork hat, but there are a few other home-grown innovations that have had even more of an impact on the world stage and all our lives than the ingenious Esky.

Hills Hoist and the Heg

Coming 67 years apart, these two true-blue inventions prove Australia has the market cornered when it comes to linen-based ingenuity. The humble Hills Hoist came first in 1945, when Lance Hill’s wife asked him to provide an easier way to dry large amounts of clothes in the backyard (as well as a fun ride for kids to swing around on). It quickly became a symbol for Aussie suburbia. The Heg, on the other hand, arrived in 2012 when Scott Boocock added a hook to a peg so it wouldn’t leave indentations on his wife’s fancy clothes and this won Scotty a Good Design award. The unique two-part peg and hook system means you can hang extra items as well – making that Hills Hoist even more efficient.

Black box flight recorder

Confusingly orange in colour, black boxes are invaluable to investigators attempting to piece together what went wrong after an airline accident. Dr David Warren was the man behind the machine.

When David was nine, his father died in a plane crash, and the boy grew into a man who wondered if future accidents could be avoided by hearing directly from the pilots involved in such tragic events. In 1956, he developed a prototype to record what was happening in the cockpit, and the subsequent flight recorder was made compulsory on all Australian aircraft in 1961.

 Notepads

Okay, it’s not as exciting as WiFi or the Black Box, and it’s a little ‘old school these days’, but it took a Tasmanian stationer to take the pieces of paper we jot our ideas on...and stick them together with glue along one side and a bit of cardboard at the back. Before writing pads, paper was sold in looseleaf boxes of 24 called quires. JA Birchall thought his idea would be more convenient for note-takers, but his very conservative British suppliers balked at this outrageous notion. Birchall went ahead with it, though, naming his new product “Silvercity Writing Tablets”. So fancy.

A lot of people still take paper notes on the fly while others prefer to save trees and use iPads and Tablets.

Spray-on skin

Some of the best inventions come from frustration with the way things are – that’s how we got spray-on skin. Dr Fiona Wood, born in Britain, become a leading plastic surgeon at the Royal Perth Hospital. She was looking for ways to grow skin more quickly, to reduce the chance of scarring in burn victims. Previously it took 21 days to grow, but Dr Wood’s research – which is still ongoing – has reduced that to a mere five days. Her spray-on skin, made from patients’ own cells, was pivotal after the Bali bombing in 2002 and she received the Order of Australia in 2003 and was honoured Australian of the Year following her work with the Bali bombing victims. In 2005 she was honoured as Australian of the Year.

Dual-flush toilet

In 1980, everything we knew about using the toilet changed. Kids stood awed around newly installed systems as parents explained that from now on we’d be pushing ‘this’ button after a number one...and ‘this’ button after a number two.

Bruce Thompson, who developed the system that uses half as much water to wash away the wee, can count himself personally responsible for saving around 32,000 litres of water per household per year in its initial trial. Today where a full flush toilet uses about 11 litres per flush, a dual flush can reduce this by 6.5 litres per push of the full flush button and 8 litres for every half flush. That’s a staggering amount of water saving.

WiFi

Ask most people the five things they can’t live without and coffee, chocolate and WiFi are normally high on the list. Aussies can’t take credit for chocolate or coffee, but we can lay claim to WiFi.

Coming straight from the CSIRO brains trust, WiFi was originally a failed attempt to detect exploding mini black holes (that’s science for you). Much like mould accidentally led to the discovery of penicillin, it was Dr O’Sullivan and his team who realised the ability to unscramble radio waves could be used as a way to let us all look at funny cat videos on the way to work.

Cyber Security

No. We can’t take credit for inventing this one. But when we’re talking WiFi and internet, online security is an important topic, with increasing activity from hackers, phishing and other scams.

Who doesn’t love streaming, gaming and social media? But our in-home devices can expose the whole family to security threats.

That’s why Optus partnered with McAfee(R) to create Optus WiFi Secure.

Included at no extra cost in Optus Family Internet Plans, WiFi Secure actively monitors for malicious websites that house malware and other threats and protects your connected devices from any attempts to gain access to your home WiFi network.

Keep your home WiFi network safer with Optus.

Find out how Optus WiFi Secure works