Australium

“

Teleportation. Cloaking. The entire spectrum of the moustache sciences. Everyone 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 Australia, explaining the element's self referential name to the country.

The discovery of Australium has most likely been the cause and reason behind Australia's rapid speed increase of technology advancement. Australium is believed to have also played a large part in the process of Australia creating cloaking devices, teleportation devices and the entire spectrum of mustache 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 known and 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 race for further technology advancement.

Australium was also used in terms of payment to Dell Conagher's grandfather Radigan, in exchange for him to build Blutarch Mann and Redmond Mann a life extending machine to further their own attempts to try and outlive and inherit each other's land. 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 is rumored that the Golden Wrench is plated with Australium, due to its ability to transform any struck victim into solid Australium on the killing blow.

• Australium seems to carry many references to Saxton Hale, such as the nature to fight with almost anything and anyone, including cougars, kangaroos, bears and gorillas.

• 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.

• 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 would be the latest of many elements named after countries or continents, such as Europium, Americium, and Californium.

• Australium looks like gold, which could explain many maps like Gold Rush. Another possibly related coincidence is that the symbol within the periodic table for gold is Au, which would tie in with the Golden Wrench being made of Australium theory.

• Australium alternatively appears to be a parrallel of the mythological Philosopher's Stone. 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.

• Australium is possibly an alternate-universe version of gold, as it appears identical and has an identical number of electrons (79). It also has an identical abbreviation on the periodic table. The only difference between the two appears to be Australium's "Kangaroo-boxing" nucleus.

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

• After the Administrator's ansestor gave Radigan 100 pounds of Australium, Radigan grew his chest hair to be shaped like Texas, his country of origin. This could be a possible side effect of exposure to Australium.

• An interesting property that Australium has is that it floats on water, which would make it one of the few elements in the world to do so. Even Australium in equal weight to the Heavy would float.

• It was previously thought that players killed by the Golden Wrench would turn to solid gold on the killing blow. However, gold does not float on water, so it is much more likely that the metal in question is in fact Australium.