When foreigners think of Australia, they usually link it to Vegemite, kangaroos, and the Outback. But beyond these, many famous and even lifesaving technologies have come from the Land Down Under. So now, we’re looking at five life-changing inventions that Australia has given the world:

Google Maps

Google Maps has made travelling a lot easier, and it’s all thanks to brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen who are Denmark-born but Sydney-based developers. After co-founding Where 2 Technologies, a startup mapping company in early 2003, they sold it off a year later to Google, which eventually turned it into Google Maps.

The Ultrasound

It was in 1961 when researchers David Robinson and George Kossoff first built the ultrasound, which they then called the CAL echoscope. The two were working for the Ultrasonic Research Group of the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories, and by the following year, they had already taken Australia’s first ultrasound image.

Wi-Fi

During the 1990s, Australian inventors John O’Sullivan, Graham Daniels, Terence Percival, John Deane, and Diethelm Ostry made up the research team that would give us the basis for Wi-Fi. By developing the technology that made it possible for data to be delivered wirelessly at high speed from one device to another through a network, they’ve revolutionised the digital world as we know it today.

The Pacemaker

Dr. Mark C. Lidwill has saved many lives by inventing the earliest model of the pacemaker in 1926, and he did so while employed at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Overtime, the device was improved enough to become a common gadget for medical use. Apart from this, Aussie inventors are also behind cochlear implants (bionic ear), anti-flu medication,  the multi-focal contact lens, and more.

Black Box Flight Recorder

In 1953, David Warren, an Australian scientist, created the first black box, otherwise known as the cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder. At the time, he worked at the Aeronautical Research Laboratory, where he and his team developed the technology. The black box has helped make flights safer, and aside from this invention, the Aussies are also to thank for the creation of the inflatable aircraft escape slide.

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