Australium

“

Every one of mankind's innovations now comes from the lager-pickled brain of an Australian. Because of this. — The Administrator's ancestor, on Australium

”

An ancestor of the Administrator, presenting an ingot of Australium.

First revealed by the story depicted within the Team Fortress 2 web comic "Loose Canon", Australium is a metal element which can adapt and transform itself into different states and forms, therefore making it extremely valuable and sought-after.

Australium was discovered by the country of Template:W, explaining the element's self referential name to the country.

The discovery of Australium has most likely been the cause behind Australia's rapid speed increase of technology advancement. Said advances in technology include cloaking devices, teleportation devices, and the "entire spectrum of moustache sciences".

Australium is believed to be sold and exchanged within the form of solid bars, similar to the way gold is often reserved and stored. Despite sharing similar appearance properties to gold, such as a similar color and the level of reflectivity, bars of Australium can be identified by the unique logo of a lone figure boxing a kangaroo, one of Australia's most iconic animals. This act of boxing between the kangaroo and the figure is supposedly how Australians choose their next rightful king.

Australians are known to be very secretive about Australium, most likely in order to keep the element in high value and demand, therefore allowing them to continue to outpace the rest of the world in the technological race.

Australium was also used in terms of payment to Dell Conagher's grandfather Radigan, in exchange for him building Blutarch Mann and Redmond Mann life extending machines to further their own attempts to try and outlive each other to inherit all of the land given to them by their father. Radigan Conagher is believed to have found many more caches of Australium, and Dell later discovers hidden files detailing these caches amongst the blueprints Blutarch has lent to him to repair his own life extending machine.

Trivia

Australium's electron configuration; notice the kangaroos boxing in the nucleus

The model of Australium

• It was rumored that the Golden Wrench is plated with Australium. This has been essentially confirmed by the developers in the TF2 blog. [1] It is unknown if victims of the Golden Wrench are turned into pure Australium or pure gold.

• Self-referential naming is a common-method (both in the past and present) of naming new discoveries. There are many examples of self-referential naming throughout modern society; planets, stars and elements tend to be a rich source of examples of it.
  • As such Australium would be the latest of many elements named after countries or continents, such as Template:W, Template:W, Template:W, Template:W and Template:W.

• It is possible that those who work with this material have their mental capabilities enhanced as well, explaining the Australians' ability to work with the element despite being described as "a nation of idiots".
  • The latter is also true for physical capabilities, on the Engineer Update three hidden pages show pictures of Radigan wielding his newest contraptions. The first one shows that he grew a mustache, the second him shows with a much larger muscle mass and drinking a beer, the third one shows him wearing nothing but short pants and wielding an empty cup of beer, and the fourth shows him even more bulked up, and holding a keg. It would also explain the appearance of the Australians in the Loose Canon comic.

• Australium alternatively appears to be a parallel of the mythological Template:W. Both substances are mysterious and incredibly valuable, are required for the extension of life (though immortality is given by the Mann Brother's machines, Australium is required for the Engineer to build it) and, if the Golden Wrench is plated with it, the ability to transform other materials into gold.

• An Australium bar model exists in the game files under "models\props_mining\ingot001.mdl." Its current purpose is unknown.

• Australium's electron configuration is the same as Gold's configuration.

• Australium features in the Zachtronics Industries game, SpaceChem on specific Bonus Levels.
• Oddly Australium has a atomic number of 79, the same as gold.

A bar of Australium as seen in SpaceChem.