You would be surprised by some of our firsts that are so mundane all over the world.
1 November 1838 Prepaid postage, Sydney 1 January 1850 Brick veneer homes, Swan Hill, Victoria 1 January 1850 Mechanical Refrigerated plant, Rodey Point Vic 19 March 1856 Vote by secret ballot Vic (Australian ballot) 19 February 1858 International swimming championship Melbourne 26 August 1859 Labor Party MP Melbourne September 1859 Photolithography Melbourne 25 December 1859 Mechanical Freezers Sydney Mobile libraries SA & Vic 3 November 1862 Newspaper with children’s section (German) 30 October 1867 International advertising agency 30 November 1868 Granny Smith Green apples, Ryde NSW 20 November 1871 Woman detective writer Melbourne 23 November 1873 Share ownership scheme for company employees 2 September 1875 Complete meal cooked from frozen food Lithgow NSW August 1876 Stump jump plough February 1884 Combine harvester for wheat 26 July 1884 Crouch start for athletic foot races 3 December 1885 Salvation Army social worker 31 January 1886 Sheep shearing machine Six ball overs in Cricket 20 August 1889 Electric drill Melbourne 5 July 1892 Preferential voting Qld 16 February 1893 Box-kite NSW 18 August 1893 Starting gate for horse races 18 December 1894 Voting rights for women SA (NZ beat us by 1 yr) 16 February 1897 Motor car with differential gears 16 December 1898 Anthropological movie film Australian crawl (free style swimming) 23 September 1901 Documentary film with sound 28 December 1902 Notepads 14 December 1906 Feature film – the Kelly gang 16 December 1898 Anthropological movie film Australian crawl (free style swimming) 23 September 1901 Documentary film with sound 28 December 1902 Notepads 14 December 1906 Feature film – the Kelly gang 22 May 1915 Compulsory voting in elections 18 February 1920 Bathing beauty contest 13 March 1922 Radio broadcast by the Prime Minister 29 November 1924 Radio broadcast of horse races 23 December 1924 Car radio receiver 24 February 1926 Widow’s pension 1929 Commercial use of pure lactic starter bacteria December 1943 1955 Penicillin for civilian use First practical Atomic Absorption machine 14 January 1958 Around the world flight service 18 April 1958 Black box flight recorder July 1964 Purpose built container ship 5 November 1979 Bionic ear Melbourne 28 March 1984 Frozen embryo baby January 1988 Plastic money 1990 Air assisted direct fuel injection for 2 stroke engines
