GUINNESS RECORDS

EPIC LAND JOURNEYS

Most participants in a bike ride

In 1988 there were 2,157 starters in the Australian Bicentennial Caltex Bike Ride from Melbourne to Sydney.

 ‘END TO END’ AROUND AUSTRALIA

Driving

The first men to drive round Australia were Nevill Reid Westwood and G. L. Davies in their 5-cv Citroлn. They left Perth on 25 Aug 1925 and returned from the opposite direction on 30 Dec, 127 days later.

Mrs Mitchico Teshima of Osaka, Japan, claimed to have done the same journey solo from 17 June to 10 Sept 1980.

Motorcycling

In 1924, Arthur Grady of Fremantle, Western Australia, made the first motorcycle circuit of Australia on a Douglas in five and a half months. Neil Bromilow also achieved this on a 1922 678cc Martinsyde, from 2 June to 5 July 1984 over 15,985 km.

Walking

On 25 Jan 1976, Tom Hayllar of Sydney, NSW, completed a round-Australia walk of 12,000 km. He began on 1 March 1975.

The first women to walk across Australia, from Steep Point, WA, to Byron Bay, NSW, were Patricia Dysart (USA) and Karen Jeffrey (Australia), from 1 March to 14 Sept 1988.

Sgt. Bob Walters walked from Cape Byron, NSW, to Steep Point, Western Australia, (5,672 km) from 3 March to 25 June 1978 and from Wilson’s Promontory, Victoria, in the south-east to Kalamburu, Western Australia, in the north-west, 4,324 km from 5 May to 5 Sept 1985.

Cycling Across Australia

The record from Perth, Western Australia, to Sydney, NSW (4,502 km) is 9 days 23 hr 25min, by Tomio Uranyu (Japan), from 28 March to 7 April 1992.

Gabrielle Smith was the first woman to cross Australia, solo and unsupported. She cycled from Avoca Beach, NSW, to Perth, Western Australia, from 4 March to 27 May 1981.

Cycling Around Australia

Hubert Schwarz (Germany) cycled 14,183 km around Australia in 42 days 8 hr 25 min, from 23 Aug to 4 Oct 1993.

The first woman to cycle around Australia was Barbara Tipp (Canada), as part of the CYC-RAM 88 team which cycled a distance of 15,687 km in 112 days, from 7 May to 8 Oct 1988, starting and finishing in Kanberra, ACT.

A Relay Team of 12 from Charters Towers Wheelers Cycle Club, Queensland, took 21 days 21 hr 17 min in Sept 1996 to travel 14,294 km.

LONGEST…

Christmas Cracker

The longest functional cracker ever made was 45.7 m long. It was made by the rugby league footballer, Ray Price, for Markson Sparks!, NSW, Australia, and pulled at Westfield Shopping Town, Chatswood, Sydney, NSW, Australia on 9 Nov 1991.

Fence

The dingo-proof fence enclosing Australia’s sheep farming areas stretches for 5,531 km. It is 1.8 m high, and extends 30 cm underground.

Straight Railway

The Trans-Australian line over the Nullarbor Plain run by Australian National Railways, is dead straight, although not level for 478 km from Mile 496 between Nurina and Loongana, W Australia, to Mile 793 between Ooldea and Watson, S Australia.

MOST UNEXPECTED RECENT DISCOVERY

Gilbert potoroo (Potorous tridactylus gilberti), a type of Australian rat kangaroo which was believed to have been extinct since 1869, was rediscovered by scientists in Western Australia in 1994. In May 1997 there were known to be over a dozen individuals.

LARGEST PREHISTORIC BIRD

Fossil leg bones found near Alice Springs in 1974 indicate that the flightless Dromornis stirtoni, a huge emu-like creature which lived in central Australia between 15 million years ago, must have been 3 m tall and weighed about 500 kg.