Trivia questions and answers

The trivia compeition is currently on hold due to the Stage 3 restrictions preventing us delivering the prizes.

Each week, we will publish 10 trivia questions together with the answers for the previous week’s questions. The prize each week will be your choice of: a box of chocolates; a bottle of white wine; or a bottle of red wine. All delivered in a contactless manner to your door. The person who submits the most correct answers wins, with ties being split by random draw. Obviously, no Googling of the answers is allowed.

7th July

Question	Answer
How many nations are part of the Commonwealth?	54.
Excluding India, which nation in the Commonwealth has the largest population: Bangladesh, Pakistan or Nigeria?	Pakistan.
Prior to the Belfour Declaration being signed in 1926, what was The British Commonwealth of Nations previously known as?	The British Empire.
Which is the only South American Commonwealth member state?	Guyana.
Where will the 2022 Commonwealth Games be played?	Birmingham, UK.
Where in the Commonwealth is the Milford Sound?	South Island, New Zealand.
Where in the Commonwealth is the CN Tower? Answer: Toronto, Canada.	The Statue of David.
What year did Australia last host the Commonwealth Games?	2018, Gold Coast.
The British Empire Games was first held in 1930 at a place called Hamilton. In which country is this particular host?	Canada, Ontario.
The Queen’s Baton Relay travels around the world prior to the Commonwealth Games. What is held in the Baton?	A message from the head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, to read at the opening.

Winner: Judy Vizzari.

30th June

Question	Answer
Sailors from years past suffered from scurvy due to a lack of what?	Vitamin C / fruit & veg.
Kiwifruit are indigenous to what part of the world?	China.
What does this idiom mean: 'two shakes of a lamb's tail'?	Very quickly. In a very short time.
"We’ve got to have rules and we've got to obey them. After all, we're not savages" comes from what novel?	Lord of the Flies.
Who was Australia’s 'golden girl of athletics' during the 1950s?	Betty Cuthbert.
Which famous drink originated in the Raffles Hotel in Singapore?	Singapore Sling.
Which famous statue by Michelangelo is in the Italian city of Florence?	The Statue of David.
What type of seaweed grows up to 100 metres in length and is farmed for its alginates?	Kelp / brown algae.
The Alfred Hitchcock movie, Rear Window (1954), starred which male American actor?	James ('Jimmy') Stewart.
Which flower does the spice saffron come from?	Crocus.

Winner: John Conley.

23rd June

Question	Answer
What city is located both in Asia and Europe?	Istanbul.
Which country (and its territories) covers the most time zones?	France, including its 8 territories (France has 12 time zones as it has territories all over the world).
Who in 1667 wrote the epic poem Paradise Lost?	John Milton.
A teetotaller is a person that never drinks what?	Alcohol.
Who was the host of the American travel and food show called No Reservations?	Anthony Bourdain.
In 1967, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt died, presumably drowned at which Australian beach?	Cheviot Beach, VIC.
Which 1989 movie has the following line "Carpe Diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."?	Dead Poets Society.
Gardeners need to manage the levels of which element in their soil – oxygen, nitrogen or hydrogen?	Nitrogen.
Which famous English ice dancing duo in 1984 at Sarajevo became the highest scoring Olympic competitor of all time?	Torvill and Dean.
In which year was Vegemite first sold in Australia – 1923, 1933 or 1943?	1923.

Winner: Jo Ball.

16th June

Question	Answer
What leaves does a silkworm prefer to eat?	Mulberry.
Cherry, Plum and Grape are all varieties of which fruit?	Tomato.
Entertainment icon Elvis Presley passed away in what year?	1977 (at age 42).
Who wrote the best seller A Tale of Two Cities?	Charles Dickens.
What famous movie does this line belong to: "My mama always said life is like a box of chocolates"?	Forest Gump (in 1994).
What state in Australia will you find the 'Big Lobster'?	South Australia.
What falling fruit supposedly inspired Isaac Newton to write the laws of gravity?	An apple.
What two countries share the Iguazu Falls?	Brazil and Argentina.
London’s Trafalgar Square lions, installed in 1868, are crafted from bronze which has been re-claimed from melted cannons. TRUE or FALSE?	True.
Which animal in the world is prone to heart attacks as it has the highest blood pressure at 280/180 mm Hg?	Giraffe.

Winner: Terry Ball.

9th June

Question	Answer
What is the name and location of the longest waterfall in the world?	Angel Falls, Venezuela (979 metres).
Who was the last Queen of Egypt?	Cleopatra.
Who discovered penicillin?	Alexander Fleming.
With over of 37 million residents, what is the most populous city in the world?	Tokyo.
Fill in the blanks of this Shakespeare quote "All the world's a stage, and all the […] and […] merely …"	"All the world's a stage, and all the men and woman merely players.".
Mr Potato Head was first manufactured in 1952. In 1987, what controversial accessory was deleted?	The pipe.
Who first proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection?	Charles Darwin and/or Alfred Wallace.
Hickory trees produce which type of nut?	Pecan.
Who wrote the Da Vinci Code?	Dan Brown.
What is the name of the scale used to measure the spicy heat of chillies?	Scoville scale (Wilbur Scoville in 1912).

Winner: Maria Roca.

2nd June

Question	Answer
What was Sir Don Bradman batting average?	99.94.
Who was the last Australian to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon?	Lleyton Hewitt.
Who is on the front of the current issue $100 note?	Dame Nellie Melba.
In what city did the first Commonwealth Parliament first sit?	Melbourne (9th May 1901).
Who was the first Australian writer to win the prestigious Booker Prize?	Thomas Michael Keneally (Schindler's Ark, 1982).
Who designed the Sydney Opera House?	Joern Utzon.
Where was Australian bushranger Ned Kelly’s last stand?	Glenrowan, Victoria.
What year in Australian was decimal currency introduced?	1966.
What year did Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin?	1974.
In rhyming slang, if someone was going to have 'a Bo Peep' what will they be doing?	Having a sleep.

Winner: Margit Alm.

26th May

Question	Answer
In the Animal Kingdom, what is the fastest animal on earth?	Peregrine falcon (389km/h).
If you were eating du Barry, what would you be eating?	Something made with cauliflower.
What is the chemical symbol for iron?	Fe.
Globe and Jerusalem are types of what?	Artichoke.
Which country invented the Skype software?	Estonia.
Name the movie and famous screen actor who said "Of all the gin joints in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine"?	Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart.
What weather pattern translates in Spanish to mean Little Boy?	El Nino.
Which famous writer first created the word puke or puked (meaning to vomit)?	Shakespeare.
What are the painters' three primary colours?	Red, blue and yellow.
During WW2, who were the Prime Ministers of Australia and the United Kingdom?	For most of the time, Winston Churchill and John Curtin. For some of the time, Neville Chamberlain, Robert Menzies and Arthur Fadden.

Joint winners: June Rushton and Lesley Alves.

19th May

Question	Answer
Where does the Blue Nile start?	Ethiopia.
What is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea?	Sicily.
The Statue of Liberty was given to the USA by which country?	France.
What names were given to the three escape tunnels in the movie, The Great Escape?	Tom, Dick & Harry.
Who was the first actor to play BBC’s Dr Who?	William Hartnell.
Complete this famous movie line: "Frankly my dear …"	"I don’t give a damn".
Who killed Macbeth?	Macduff.
In which country is the Nobel Peace Prize awarded?	Norway.
Complete the Fibonacci Sequences 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 …	55.
What is the number one food that never expires?	Honey.

Winner: Brenda Smith.

12th May

Question	Answer
In what year did the Titanic sink?	1912.
What is the smallest country in the world?	Vatican City.
In what year did India gain its independence from Britain?	1947.
Which plant has flowers but no proper leaves?	Cactus.
What are the only birds that are able to fly backwards?	Hummingbirds.
Which actor stared in the 1961 movie The Hustler?	Paul Newman.
How many bones are in the adult human body?	206.
According to the old proverb, to which European capital city do all roads lead?	Rome.
What country owns and runs the Bermuda Islands?	United Kingdom.
The original lyrics of Waltzing Matilda were written by which Australian poet?	Banjo Paterson.

Winner: Bill Naim.

5th May

Question	Answer
Which island does Japan's capital city Tokyo belong to?	Honshu.
What do female ants typically lose after mating?	Their wings.
Does the gravitational pull from the Earth increase or decrease with higher altitude?	Decrease.
How old was Queen Victoria when she became Queen of England?	18.
What type of pasta is shaped like a bow-tie?	Farfelle.
What is celebrated on July 14 in France?	Bastille Day.
Which of Snow White's dwarfs has the longest name?	Bashful.
What type of bird has the largest wingspan of all surviving species?	Albatross.
Coven is the collective name for a group of what?	Witches.
Which famous movie character said, 'Close your mouth please, Michael. We are not a codfish'?	Mary Poppins.

Winner: Guy Palmer.

And the winner is … well, actually the winner is your humble newsletter editor with a score of 1 out of 10 (gravity decreases with altitude). Let me explain: during the week, I spoke with several people who said that they knew 4 or 5 of the answers but, as that clearly wouldn't be enough to win in their opinion, they weren't going to formally submit their entry. So, no one actually submitted an entry! So, 1 minute before the Saturday midnight deadline, I snuck my answer in.

28th April

Question	Answer
Name the actor who starred in 142 films including The Quiet Man, The Shootist, The Searchers and Stagecoach.	John Wayne.
Name the world’s largest island.	Greenland.
Which kind of bulbs were once exchanged as a form of currency?	Tulips.
Which chess piece can only move diagonally?	The bishop.
When did Margaret Thatcher become Prime Minister?	1979.
Name the Spanish artist, sculptor and draughtsman famous for co-founding the Cubist movement.
Who wrote the novel Death in Venice, which was later made into a film of the same name?	Thomas Mann.
May Queen, Wisley Crab, Foxwhelps and Lane's Prince Albert are all species of what?	Apple.
Australia has the world's largest sand island. What is its name?	Fraser Island.
In what year was Advance Australia Fair proclaimed as the national anthem by the Governor-General?	1984.

Winner: April Edwards.

21st April

Question	Answer
Who was the legendary Benedictine monk who invented champagne?	Dom Perignon (in 1693).
Name the largest freshwater lake in the world.	Lake Superior (by surface area) or Lake Baikal (by volume).
Where would you find the Sea of Tranquillity?	The moon.
What is someone who shoes horses called?	A farrier.
What item of clothing was named after its Scottish inventor?	A mackintosh.
What kind of weapon is a falchion?	A sword.
Which word goes before vest, beans and quartet?	String.
What is another word for lexicon?	Dictionary.
What is the seventh planet from the sun?	Uranus.
Who invented the rabies vaccination?	Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux (in 1885).