PULTEVENT
Australia Day party games: 6 rounds for the backyard, the club or the pub
A backyard in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, the twenty-sixth of January, thirty-nine degrees by noon. The backyard cricket has been called off because the wicket-keeper is lying under the sprinkler. The esky is down to ice and two lemonades. The lamingtons on the outdoor table have gone soft in the heat, and twelve adults and six kids have retreated inside to the one room with an air conditioner and a big telly.
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That's where the games happen on most Australia Days I've seen: indoors, in the cool, mid-afternoon, when the barbie has done its job and nobody wants to move. A trivia round on the TV, played from phones, keeps a mixed crowd of relatives, neighbours and mates talking to each other rather than scrolling.
PULTEVENT runs from a laptop browser plugged into the TV. Everyone scans a QR code and answers on their own phone, no app and no sign-up, as long as the phone has internet: home Wi-Fi or mobile data. The same setup works in a club function room, a council hall or an Aussie pub in London.
6 rounds for the twenty-sixth
1 Straya trivia
Ten general questions: how many states and mainland territories, which city was built to be the capital, the year of Federation, the country's highest mountain, which state has the longest coastline. Four options, answered from phones.
How to run it. Check every answer before the day. There's always an uncle who wants to argue about the coastline.
It gets the whole room tapping in the first minute and settles who the know-alls are.
2 Speak Australian
Slang on the screen, four meanings to choose from. Arvo, servo, doona, hard yakka, chockers, fair dinkum, sanger. Easy for the locals, hilarious for any visitor in the room.
How to run it. Throw in one regional word that splits the states, like the name for a swimming costume.
The argument about cozzies versus togs versus bathers is worth the whole round.
3 Guess the Big Thing
Close-up photos of the country's roadside giants: the banana at Coffs Harbour, the merino at Goulburn, the prawn at Ballina, the pineapple on the Sunshine Coast. The room guesses which one and where.
How to run it. Use your own holiday snaps if you have them. A photo of a cousin in front of one is worth double.
Everybody has a story about stopping at one of these on a long drive, and the round draws them out.
4 Put it in order
Four or five events from the country's past, shuffled on the screen. The room puts them in order, then the screen reveals the answer: Federation, the opening of the Harbour Bridge, Parliament moving to Canberra, the Opera House, the Sydney Olympics.
How to run it. Keep the gaps between dates wide for the first round, then make it tighter.
It's the round the older guests win, which is a nice change.
5 The pavlova vote
One question, the whole room votes from their phones: whose dessert is the pavlova, ours or New Zealand's. Add a couple more of the classic arguments while you're at it, like the best meat pie or which state makes the best beer.
How to run it. If there's a Kiwi in the room, give them the microphone for the result.
No right answers and plenty of opinions, which is the whole point of a public holiday.
6 Too hot for cricket
When the backyard is off limits, move the competition to the screen. Up to twelve players steer cars in Drift Arena from their phones, and the room shouts at the telly as if it were the final over.
How to run it. Kids first, then the adults who claim they won't play.
A few minutes of shrieking that uses up the afternoon slump better than another nap on the couch.
Trivia everyone can play
Questions on places, slang and history, answered from phones with scores on the telly.
Made for the hottest part of the day
Indoors on the TV while the sun does its worst outside.
Kids and grandparents together
Picture rounds and a quick vote alongside the harder questions.
Works anywhere there's a screen
A lounge room, a bowls club, or a pub in Earl's Court on a January night.
Reading the room on the day
The twenty-sixth marks the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788, and for many First Nations people it's a day of mourning rather than a celebration. You'll know your own crowd. Plenty of workplaces now hold their summer do on a different day, and plenty of families keep the barbie and leave out the flag-waving. If you're writing trivia, keep it to places, language, food and shared history, and leave the jokes about the date to someone else.
If you want a First Nations round, do it properly: the traditional owners of the land you're on, the words from local languages that are in everyday use. Check the details with a local land council or a proper source rather than a random website.
The screen versus the sun
A projector outdoors in the middle of an Australian summer's day is pointless; you won't see a thing. Keep the games indoors on a TV, or wait for dusk if you want a screen on the back verandah. The same goes for phone screens in direct sun, which is another reason the games move inside.
At a club, a hall or a council event
Bowls clubs, surf clubs and RSLs often run an Australia Day lunch with a trivia session afterwards. The setup is the same as at home, just bigger: laptop into the club's screen, QR code up, tables play as teams. Ask the club about Wi-Fi first. A hundred phones on one weak network will leave half the room staring at a spinning wheel.
"Who's got the password for the Wi-Fi?"
"It's on the whiteboard behind the bar. Under the meat raffle times."
For Australians overseas
In London, the Australia Day pub crawl and the expat parties are an institution. It's a winter night there, which makes the games more welcome, not less. The guest screens follow each phone's language, handy when half the pub is from elsewhere in Europe, but the questions are whatever you write, so keep the slang round for the ones who'll get it.
Mates who couldn't travel can join through a video call: share the stage window and they play from their phones through the same QR code.
Setting it up
Build the quiz on the long weekend before, while you've got time. The free 3-day demo is enough for that, no card needed, and you can run a test on your own TV with the kids as guinea pigs. The full version is a one-time licence, no subscription, with the price listed on pultevent.ru/en. The ready-made quiz decks are mostly in Russian for now, so the trivia is yours to write.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to run Australia Day trivia on your TV
- 1
Write ten trivia questions and a slang round in the quiz builder, checking every answer.
- 2
Collect six or eight photos of Big Things and load them into the photo round.
- 3
Set up a timeline round with events whose dates you've confirmed.
- 4
Connect the laptop to the TV in the coolest room of the house, and test the QR code on a phone.
- 5
After the barbie, get everyone to scan the code and play the rounds in order.
- 6
Finish with the pavlova vote and Drift Arena for the kids.
FAQ
Is there a ready-made Australia Day quiz?
Can we play outside?
How many people can play?
Do the kids need their own phones?
We're an expat group abroad. Will it work there?
What does it cost?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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