Doodle for your country

If you were asked to doodle a quick picture that captures the essence of Australia, what would you draw?

Australian animals or flags topped the list when Google recently asked more than 10,000 school kids across Australia to do just that to find an image to put on its local search page on Australia Day.

Australian animals such as kangaroos and koalas were doodled by 30% of school kids, while 25% drew the Australian flag or a map of Australia and 12% drew cultural images such as a swagman or the Aboriginal flag.

Surprisingly, despite the media attention and general social focus on sport in Australia, only 9% of school kids made it the focus of their doodles. Among those that did draw a sporty picture, AFL was far and away the most popular sport represented, appearing in 43% of all doodles, followed by cricket on 20%.