This year marks Australia’s 222nd birthday as a nation which was celebrated with parades, fireworks, surfing races, and Air Force aerial displays. An estimate crowd of about 7.5 million people from all over the globe gathered to send their good wishes. Highlight of the event is the presentation of the Australian of the Year award and the Australia Day Honours, which recognizes the country’s achievers. We compile our own list of notable Australians and Australian feats and found out that there is more to toast for “the land down under” than just Nicole Kidman, Finding Nemo and the English Australian accent.

The Sydney Opera House

The most recently built World Heritage Site, the Sydney Opera House is Australia’s distinctive architectural face to the world. As one of the world’s busiest performing arts hubs, the House provides more than 1,500 performances yearly, attended by at least 1.2 million people. Built between 1940 and 1973, the House was built in modern expressionist design. During its opening, Queen Elizabeth of Britain was among the first guests, and the program included a performance of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

(Photo by Corey Leopold)

Steve Irwin

The man more popularly known by the title of his hit TV series “The Crocodile Hunter” spent all his life with wildlife. He was given a 12-foot python for a birthday gift, wrestled with a crocodile at nine, made an early career by collecting crocodiles for free, spent his honeymoon wrestling with crocodiles, and captured about 500 million audiences from 137 countries in just two years after his show debuted on Animal Planet. In 2004, he was nominated as “Australian of the Year,” and in 2006, the British TV Awards gave him a “Lifetime Achievement Award” for his conservation efforts. That same year, he died when a stingray punctured his chest while filming the Australian Great Barrier Reef.

Ugg Australia

One of the most copied footwear in the world is Ugg Australia, made of sheepskin’s insulating fibers that allow the boots to keep the feet at body temperature, even without socks. The boots became trendy, first, among WWI aviators, then Australian sheepshearers of the ‘20s, surfers of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and in 2000s, among Hollywood celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Hudson. Pamela Anderson used to don Ugg boots, until she realized that they are made of animal skin.

Black Box Flight Recorder

Popularly called “the black box,” the flight data recorder or FDR was invented in 1958 by the Australian Dr. David Warren at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne. The black box is a hallmark in aviation history as it is used in accident investigation, as well as for evaluating engine performance, material degradation, and air safety issues. After an accident, the recovery of black boxes is the second most important step following the rescue of survivors and the collection of human remains.

Internet WiFi

Wi-Fi, or Wireless Fidelity, is a wireless network technology developed in 1996 by an Australian team headed by Dr. John O'Sullivan at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) of Canberra. As a basis of an ongoing legal battle between CSIRO and various IT companies, Wi-Fi technology is virtually available in all laptops and handheld computer devices and various other gadgets.

(Photo by Dan Taylor)

Walkabout

A rite of passage among male adolescent Australian Aborigines, walkabout refers to living in the wilderness for as long as six months as part of a personal initiation into the world. In recent years, travelers have also gone “walkabout” as a “spiritual quest.” Such tradition, however, is frowned upon by employers as workers who claim to be of aboriginal ancestry suddenly just depart without notice and would suddenly just reappear.

(Photo by bmcguirk)

Penicillin

The discovery of penicillin might be attributed to Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming, but it was the team of Australian Nobel laureate Howard Florey who developed the medicine for human consumption as an antibiotic, after successfully trying it to aid the casualties of WWII.

Billabong

Billabong, which means “small lake” in Australian English, is also the brand name of one of the world’s top athletic wear companies. It was founded on Australia’s Gold Coast in 1973 by surfer and surfboard maker Gordon Merchant and his partner. The two designed their first board shorts on their kitchen table and started to market their products among local surfers and surf shops. By the ‘80s, the brand has established itself as a household name among Australian surfing communities. Through the ‘90s, the company continues to expand alongside the growing boardsports sector, with a total sales of $100 million in 1999 to $1.67 billion in 2009. Today, there are about 10,000 Billabong stores in 100 countries worldwide.

Cate Blanchett

The Melbourne-born Cate studied Economics and Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne and Theater Arts in Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art, where she also started her theater career. She is the first actor to receive an Academy Award for portraying a previous Oscar winner (Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator). Her chameleon-like acting won her two Golden Globes, two SAGs, two BAFTAs, an “Actress of the Year” award for her performance in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and a “Best Lead Actress” distinction from her own country in 2005.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Before Australian actor Heath Ledger broke stereotypes with Brokeback Mountain, another set of Australians have already won an Oscar for another cowboy-set drama, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The 1994 movie provides a different take on the Australian outback, featuring a troop of cross dressers on a journey from Sydney to Alice Springs, aboard a couch they nicknamed Priscilla. The film stars straight actors Guy Pearce (an Australian), Terence Stamp and Hugo Weaving (both British). The movie was screened in the Cannes Festival and even inspired a musical.