List of Australian inventions

This is a timeline of Australian inventions consisting of products and technology invented in Australia from pre-European-settlement in 1788 to the present. The inventions are listed in chronological order based on the date of their introduction.

Australian inventions include the very old, such as woomera, and the very new, such as the scramjet, first fired at the Woomera rocket range. The Australian government has suggested that Australian inventiveness springs from the nation's geography and isolation. Perhaps due to its status as an island continent connected to the rest of the world only via air and sea, Australians have been leaders in inventions relating to both maritime and aeronautical matters, including powered flight, the black box flight recorder, the inflatable escape slide, the surf ski and the wave-piercing catamaran winged keel. Since the earliest days of European settlement, Australia's main industries have been agriculture and mining. As a result of this, Australians have made many inventions in these areas, including the grain stripper, the stump jump plough, mechanical sheep shears, the Dethridge water wheel, the froth flotation ore separation process, the instream ore analysis process and the buffalo fly trap.

Australian inventions also include a number of weapons or weapons systems, including the woomera, the tank, and the underwater torpedo. In recent years, Australians have been at the forefront of medical technology with inventions including ultrasound, the bionic ear, the first plastic spectacle lenses, the electronic pacemaker, the multi-focal contact lens, spray-on artificial skin and anti-flu medication. Australians also developed a number of useful household items, including Vegemite, and the process for producing permanently creased fabric.

Many of Australia's inventions were realised by individuals who get little credit or who are often overlooked for more famous Americans or Europeans.

Australian-Aboriginal man David Unaipon is known as "Australia's Leonardo" for his contributions to science and the Aboriginal people. His inventions include a tool for sheep-shearing, a centrifugal motor, a multi-radial wheel and mechanical propulsion device. Unaipon appears on Australia's $50 note.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian-government-funded institution. A number of CSIRO funded scientists and engineers are featured in this list. CSIRO scientists lead Australian research across a number of different fields, and work with industry and government to solve problems such as using insects to tackle weeds, growing more sustainable crops and improving transportation.

Aboriginal technology – before 1788

Didgeridoo – The didgeridoo is a wind instrument of northern Australia. It is sometimes described as a "drone pipe," but musicologists classify it as an aerophone. Traditionally, a didgeridoo was made by selecting a section of a Eucalyptus branch, then burying it near a termite mound so that the termites would hollow it out, to produce a long, hollow piece of wood suitable for fashioning the instrument.

Woomera – The woomera is a type of spear thrower, adding thrust to a spear as part of a throwing action.

Colonial era – 19th century

1843 – Grain stripper – John Wrathall Bull invented and John Ridley manufactured in South Australia the world's first mechanised grain stripper. It utilised a comb to lift the ears of the crop to where revolving beaters deposited the grain into a bin.

1856 – Refrigerator – Using the principle of vapour compression, James Harrison produced the world's first practical ice making machine and refrigerator.

1856 - Secret Ballot voting invented by Henry Chapman and first used in the Victorian election on 23 September 1856. Voters had their names marked off on the electoral roll at the polling place, were presented with a printed ballot paper, and retired to separate compartments to mark their ballot paper in secrecy before depositing it in a locked box watched over by the presiding officer, poll clerks and scrutineers.

1858 – Australian rules football – began its development when Tom Wills wrote a letter published in ''Bell's Life in Victoria & Sporting Chronicle'' on 10 July 1858, calling for a "foot-ball club, a rifle club, or other athletic pursuits" to keep cricketers fit during winter. An experimental match was played by Wills and others at the Richmond Paddock, later known as Yarra Park next to the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 31 July 1858.
The Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859 are the oldest surviving set of laws for Australian football. They were drawn up at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne, on 17 May, by Wills, W. J. Hammersley, J. B. Thompson and Thomas Smith.
The Melbourne club's game was not immediately adopted by neighbouring clubs. Before each match the rules had to be agreed by the two teams involved. By 1866, several other clubs had agreed to play by an updated version of Melbourne's rules.

1859 – Photolithography – developed by John Walter Osborne at the Victorian government's Crown Lands Office. During a land boom the Office had trouble producing the many maps and documents required to keep land records updated. Instead of having to copy surveyor's originals, or having to store stone originals, master copies saved were glass slides of around square.Jean Gittins, 'Osborne, John Walter (1828–1902)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/osborne-john-walter-4343/text7051, published first in hardcopy 1974, accessed online 26 June 2016.

1868 - Granny Smith Apple - Propagated by Maria Ann Smith in Eastwood, New South Wales

1874 – Underwater torpedo – Invented by Louis Brennan, the torpedo had two propellers, rotated by wires which were attached to winding engines on the shore station. By varying the speed at which the two wires were extracted, the torpedo could be steered to the left or right by an operator on the shore.

1876 – Stump jump plough – Richard and Clarence Bowyer Smith developed a plough which could jump over stumps and stones, enabling newly cleared land to be cultivated.

1877 – Mechanical clippers – Various mechanical shearing patents were registered in Australia before Frederick York Wolseley finally succeeded in developing a practical hand piece with a comb and reciprocating cutter driven by power transmitted from a stationary engine.

1889 – Electric drill – Arthur James Arnot patented the world's first electric drill on 20 August 1889 while working for the Union Electric Company in Melbourne. He designed it primarily to drill rock and to dig coal.

1892 – Coolgardie safe – Arthur Patrick McCormick noticed that a wet bag placed over a bottle cooled its contents, and the cooling was more pronounced in a breeze. The Coolgardie safe was a box made of wire and hessian sitting in water, which was placed on a verandah so that any breeze would evaporate the water in the hessian and via the principle of evaporation, cool the air inside the box. The Coolgardie safe was used into the middle of the 20th century as a means of preserving food.

1893 – Box kite – Invented by Lawrence Hargrave, the box kite is a high performance kite, noted for developing relatively high lift; it was used as part of his attempt to develop a manned flying machine. Having added a seat to four connected box kites, he flew with the kites 16 feet (4.8 metres) off the ground, proving to the world that it was possible to build a safe, heavier-than-air flying machine. Hargrave’s designs were quickly taken up by other inventors, including the American Octave Chanute with whom he was corresponding, and whose designs were later incorporated by the Wright brothers into their Wright Flyer, the first aircraft to achieve powered flight with a pilot on board in December 1903.

20th century Post-Federation – 1901–1945

1902 – Notepad – For 500 years, paper had been supplied in loose sheets. Launceston stationer J. A. Birchall decided that it would be a good idea to cut the sheets in half, back them with cardboard and glue them together at the top.

1903 – Froth flotation – The process of separating minerals from rock by flotation was developed by Charles Potter and Guillaume Delprat in New South Wales. Both worked independently at the same time on different parts of the process for the mining company BHP

1906 – Feature film – The world's first feature-length film, ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', was a little over one hour long.

1906 – Surf life-saving reel – The first surf life-saving reel in the world was demonstrated at Bondi Beach on 23 December 1906 by its designer, surfer Lester Ormsby.

1907 – Michell thrust block bearing – Fluid-film thrust bearings were invented by Australian engineer George Michell. Michell bearings contain a number of sector-shaped pads, arranged in a circle around the shaft, and that are free to tilt. These create wedge-shaped regions of oil inside the bearing between the pads and a rotating disk, which support the applied thrust and eliminate metal-on-metal contact. The small size (one-tenth the size of old bearing designs), low friction and long life of Michell's invention made possible the development of larger propellers and engines in ships. They were used extensively in ships built during World War I, and have become the standard bearing used on turbine shafts in ships and power plants worldwide.

1910 – Humespun pipe-making process – The Humespun process was developed by Walter Hume of Humes Ltd for making concrete pipes of high strength and low permeability. The process used centrifugal force to evenly distribute concrete onto wire reinforcing, revolutionising pipe manufacture.

1910 – Dethridge wheel – The wheel, used to measure the water flow in an irrigation channel, consisting of a drum on an axle, with eight v-shaped vanes fixed to its outside, was invented by John Dethridge, Commissioner of the Victorian State Rivers and Water Supply Commission.

1912 – Surf ski – Harry McLaren and his brother Jack used an early version of the surf ski for use around the family's oyster beds on Lake Innes, near Port Macquarie, and the brothers used them in the surf on Port Macquarie's beaches. The board was propelled in a sitting position with two small hand blades, which was probably not a highly efficient method to negotiate the surf. The deck is flat with a bung plug at the rear and a nose ring with a leash, possibly originally required for mooring. The rails are square and there is pronounced rocker. The boards' obvious buoyancy indicates hollow construction, with thin boards of cedar fixed longitudinally down the board.

1912 – Tank – South Australian Lance de Mole submitted a proposal to the British War Office, for a 'chain-rail vehicle which could be easily steered and carry heavy loads over rough ground and trenches,' complete with extensive drawings. The British war office rejected the idea at the time, but De Mole made several more proposals to the British War Office in 1914 and 1916, and formally requested he be recognised as the inventor of the Mark I tank. The British Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors eventually made a payment of £987 to De Mole to cover his expenses and promoted him to an honorary corporal.

1912 – Self-Propelled Rotary Hoe – At the age of 16 Cliff Howard of Gilgandra invented a machine with rotating hoe blades on an axle that simultaneously hoed the ground and pulled the machine forward.

1913 – Automatic totalisator – The world's first automatic totalisator for calculating horse-racing bets was made by Sir George Julius.

1915 – Periscope rifle – A periscope rifle is a rifle that has been adapted to enable it to be sighted by the use of a periscope, it was invented by Lance-Corporal W C Beech at Gallipoli. The device allowed a soldier to aim and fire a rifle from a trench, without being exposed to enemy fire. Beech modified a standard Lee–Enfield .303 rifle by cutting the stock in half. The two halves were re-connected with a board and mirror periscope, horizontally aligned to the sights of the rifle, as well as a string to pull the trigger, which allowed the rifle to be fired from beneath the line of fire.

1917 – Aspro – Aspro was invented by the chemist George Nicholas as a form of aspirin in a tablet.

1919 – Non-perishable Anthrax vaccine – Metallurgist and bacteriologist John McGarvie Smith after long experimenting found an effective Anthrax vaccine which would keep for an indefinite period. Louis Pasteur had originally discovered a vaccine, which, however, would not keep.

1920 – Crankless engine– Engines that eliminated the need for a crankshaft found in most automotive and stationary engines was invented by Anthony Michell. The engines did not require connecting rod and bearings found in most engines and as such could be lighter and more compact.

1924 – Car radio – The first car radio was fitted to an Australian car built by Kellys Motors in New South Wales.

1924 – Stobie pole – A power line pole made of two steel joists held apart by a slab of concrete. It was invented by Adelaide Electric Supply Company engineer James Cyril Stobie.

1925 – Record changer – Invented by Eric Waterworth, a record changer (also called an autochanger) is a device that plays several phonograph records in sequence without user intervention. Record changers were common until the 1980s.

1927 – The Pedal Wireless – A pedal-operated two-way radio invented by Alfred_Traeger.

1928 – Electronic Pacemaker – Developed by Edgar H Booth and Mark C Liddell, the heart pacemaker had a portable apparatus which 'plugged into a lighting point. One pole was applied to a skin pad soaked in strong salt solution' while the other pole 'consisted of a needle insulated except at its point, and was plunged into the appropriate cardiac chamber'. 'The pacemaker rate was not good from about 80 to 120 pulses per minute, and likewise the voltage variable from 1.5 to 120 volts.' The apparatus was used to revive a potentially stillborn infant at Crown Street Women's Hospital, Sydney whose heart continued 'to beat on its own accord', 'at the end of 10 minutes' of stimulation.

1929 – Starting blocks – Athlete Charlie Booth and his father are credited with the invention of the starting block. Starting blocks are a device used in the sport of track and field by sprint athletes to brace their feet against at the start of a race so they do not slip as they stride forward at the sound of the starter's pistol. The blocks also enable the sprinters to adopt a more efficient starting posture and isometrically preload their muscles in an enhanced manner. This allows them to start more powerfully and increases their overall sprint speed capability. For most levels of competition, including the whole of high-level international competition, starting blocks are now mandatory equipment for the start of sprint races. IAAF Rule 161

1930 – Letter Sorting Machine – ( Sydney's General Post Office (GPO)) was the site for the first mechanised letter sorter which was developed by an engineer with the Postmaster-General's Department.

1930 – Clapperboard – The wooden marker used to synchronise sound and film was invented by Frank Thring Sr of Efftee Studios in Melbourne.

1932 – Sunscreen –

1934 – Coupé utility – The car body style, known colloquially as the ute in Australia and New Zealand, combines a two-door "coupé" cabin with an integral cargo bed behind the cabin—using a light-duty passenger vehicle-derived platform. It was designed by Lewis Bandt at Ford Australia in Geelong, Victoria. The first ute rolled off the Ford production lines in 1934. The idea came from a Geelong farmer's wife who wrote to Ford in 1933 advising the need for a new sort of vehicle to take her 'to church on Sundays and pigs to market on Mondays.'

1937 – Both respirator – Also known as the ''Both Portable Cabinet Respirator'', was a negative pressure ventilator (more commonly known as an "iron lung") invented by Edward Both. The respirator was an affordable alternative to the more expensive designs that had been used prior to its development (such as "Drinker's" by Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw in 1928), and accordingly came into common usage in Australia. More widespread use emerged during the 1940s and 1950s, when the Both respirator was offered free of charge to Commonwealth hospitals by William Morris.

1938 – Polocrosse – Inspired by a training exercise witnessed at the National School of Equitation at Kingston Vale near London, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hirst of Sydney invented the combination polo and lacrosse sport which was first played at Ingleburn near Sydney in 1939.

1939 – Degaussing – The degaussing of ships to counter the threat of magnetic mines in the early days of World War II was invented and patented by mining engineer Franklin George Barnes, son of Australian politician George Barnes. Barnes' invention was later developed further by Charles F. Goodeve of Canada.

1940 – Zinc Cream – This white sun block made from zinc oxide was developed by the Fauldings pharmaceutical company.

1943 – Splayd – The combination of knife, fork and spoon was invented by William McArthur after seeing ladies struggle to eat at barbecues with standard cutlery from plates on their laps.

20th century Post-World War II

1945 – Hills Hoist – The famous Hills Hoist rotary clothes line with a winding mechanism allowing the frame to be lowered and raised with ease was developed by Lance Hill in 1945, although the clothes line design itself was originally patented by Gilbert Toyne in Adelaide in 1926.

1952 – Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer – The atomic absorption spectrophotometer is used in chemical analysis to determine low concentrations of metals in gases or vaporized solutions. It was developed by Sir Alan Walsh of the CSIRO using ionization lamps specific to the metal being detected.

1953 – Solar hot water – Developed by a team at the CSIRO led by Roger N Morse

1953 – Mills Cross Telescope – a two-dimensional radio telescope designed and invented by Bernard Yarnton Mills at the CSIRO.

1955 – Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) – Invented and developed by Edward George Bowen of the CSIRO, the first DME network, operating in the 200 MHz band, became operational in Australia. Distance measuring equipment is a radio navigation technology that measures the slant range (distance) between an aircraft and a ground station by timing the propagation delay of radio signals

1956 – Pneumatic broadacre air seeder – lightweight air seeder uses a spinning distributor, blew the seeds through a pipe into the plating tynes.

1956 – Stainless Steel Braces – Percy Raymond Begg of Adelaide collaborated with metallurgist Arthur Wilcock to develop a gentler, stainless steel system in 1956 involving gradual adjustments rather than earlier brute force methods used to straighten teeth.

1957 – Flame ionisation detector – The flame ionisation detector is one of the most accurate instruments ever developed for the detection of emissions. It was invented by Ian McWilliam. The instrument, which can measure one part in 10 million, has been used in chemical analysis in the petrochemical industry, medical and biochemical research, and in the monitoring of the environment.

1957 – Wool clothing with a permanent crease – "SiroSet," the process for producing permanently creased fabric, was invented by Dr Arthur Farnworth of the CSIRO.

1958 – Black box flight recorder – The 'black box' voice and instrument data recorder was invented by Dr David Warren in Melbourne.

1960s – Self constructing tower crane – Eric Favelle created the self-construct tower crane (also known as the kangaroo crane, self erecting crane or leaping crane). The crane hydraulically raises the tower, allowing another piece to be installed. It has been involved in the construction of many of the tallest building in Australia and Dubai including the Burj Khalifa and in many of the world's tallest buildings, including the World Trade Centre and its replacement the One World Trade Center in New York City and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

1960 – Plastic spectacle lenses – The world's first plastic spectacle lenses, 60 per cent lighter than glass lenses, were designed by Scientific Optical Laboratories in Adelaide.

1961 – Medical ultrasound – David Robinson and George Kossoff's work at the Australian Department of Health, resulted in the first commercially practical water path ultrasonic scanner in 1961.

1963 – Rostrum camera – The first animation rostrum was commissioned by Graphik Animation, later known as Raymond Lea Animation in 1963. Designed and constructed by Jack Kennedy with the assistance of Jim Lynich, it was in operation by 1964.

1964 – Latex gloves – The Ansell company developed the worlds first latex gloves.

1965 – Inflatable escape slide – invented by Jack Grant of Qantas.

1965 – Wine cask – Invented by Thomas Angove of Renmark, South Australia, the wine cask is a cardboard box housing a plastic container which collapses as the wine is drawn off, thus preventing contact with the air. Angroves' original design with a resealable spout was replaced with a tap by the Penfolds wine company in 1972

1970 – Staysharp knife – The self-sharpening knife was developed by Wiltshire.

1971 – Variable rack and pinion steering – The variable ratio rack and pinion steering in motor vehicles allowing smooth steering with minimal feedback was invented by Australian engineer, Arthur Bishop.

1971 – Microwave Landing System – An all-weather, precision radio guidance system intended to be installed at large airports to assist aircraft in landing, including 'blind landings'. Microwave landing system (MLS) employs 5 GHz transmitters at the landing place which use passive electronically scanned arrays to send scanning beams towards approaching aircraft. An aircraft that enters the scanned volume uses a special receiver that calculates its position by measuring the arrival times of the beams. The project was called INTERSCAN and was developed by the Radio Physics Division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO). It has since been accepted as the world standard technology for assisted landing since 1978 and is still being installed and used in airports around the world such as Heathrow Airport.

1972 – Orbital engine – The orbital internal combustion process engine was invented by engineer Ralph Sarich of Perth, Western Australia. The system uses a single piston to directly inject fuel into 5 orbiting chambers. It has never challenged the dominance of four-stroke combustion engines but has replaced many two-stroke engines with a more efficient, powerful and cleaner system. Orbital engines now appear in boats, motorcycles and small cars.

1972 – Instream analysis – To speed-up analysis of metals during the recovery process, which used to take up to 24 hours, Amdel Limited developed an on-the-spot analysis equipment called the In-Stream Analysis System, for the processing of copper, zinc, lead and platinum – and the washing of coal. This computerised system allowed continuous analysis of key metals and meant greater productivity for the mineral industry worldwide.

1972 – Power board – Peter Talbot, working under Frank Bannigan at Kambrook, invented the power board. This allows multiple electrical devices to be powered where only a single wall socket is available. This is a well-known example of failing to protect intellectual property. Kambrook was more interested in immediate commercial release than patenting its idea and has never received any royalties from this now ubiquitous product.

1973 – Sirosmelt lance and the ISASMELT process – The Sirosmelt lance was invented Dr Bill Denholm and Dr John Floyd at the CSIRO and by Mount Isa Mines (a subsidiary of MIM Holdings

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