Media Release: Australia set to break the world trivia record… and end hepatitis C in the process!

From Burnie to Bendigo, Mandurah to Melton; 

Australia’s Biggest Quiz is coming to a town near you! 

19 July 2022

Australia can be the first country in the world to end hepatitis C. 

This historic public health goal is being amplified in a nation-wide trivia event, designed to bring communities together, get people talking, and disseminate positive information.   

Australia's Biggest Quiz will take place on Wednesday, 26 October 2022.  People can play online as well as at 16 community locations across Australia.  More than one hundred community groups and organisations are set to support the events on the ground. 

The landmark event forms part of the Ending Hepatitis C campaign being delivered by Hepatitis Australia and funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care as part of a wider programme of initiatives in Australia’s strategy to end viral hepatitis. 

Whilst the connection between trivia and a health awareness campaign might not be obvious at first, one key barrier to eliminating hepatitis C is lack of knowledge.  “Our research shows that relative to other health conditions the public knows little about hepatitis C. Low levels of knowledge and awareness coupled with often few or no noticeable symptoms means that people may not know they have hepatitis C it until it causes liver cancer” cautioned Carrie Fowlie, Chief Executive Officer of Hepatitis Australia. 

The good news is Australia has a cure. It is affordable, highly effective, non-invasive (all tablets, no injections) and takes most people just eight to 12 weeks to complete. “It’s not every day that the world has the chance to eliminate a serious disease like hepatitis C, and whilst Australia’s Biggest Quiz promises to be a lot of fun it is also history in the making,” explains Carrie Fowlie. “The eradication of smallpox, finding a vaccine for polio and the control of the HIV epidemic are seminal moments in world history. We stand on the precipice of another. Hepatitis C has a cure and Australia has the opportunity to be the first country in the world to achieve elimination.”

Australia’s Biggest Quiz will help galvanise the country to achieve that important goal. And the Aussie competitive spirit will be further piqued, with two world records and some serious prize money on the line.  It is free to take part and anyone can enter, so seasoned trivia buffs and amateurs alike will be in with a shot at the prize pool.

The world record attempt will look beyond only the big cities, with the razzmatazz extending to regional and rural Australia. “Rather than being purely metro-centric, we are intentionally going off the beaten track, taking  Australia’s Biggest Quiz into communities often overlooked ” says Fowlie. “Ending hepatitis C is an inclusive goal which every Australian should feel proud of and every Australian is invited to be part of, either at a live community event or online”.

Live events are planned in the following locations:

  • Ballarat, VIC
  • Blacktown, NSW
  • Bundaberg, QLD
  • Burnie, TAS
  • Dubbo, NSW
  • Gosford, NSW
  • Goulburn, NSW
  • Katherine, NT
  • Melton, VIC
  • Mandurah, WA
  • Mundaring, WA
  • Salisbury, SA
  • Shepparton, VIC
  • Townsville, QLD
  • Tuggeranong, ACT
  • Toowoomba, QLD

You can sign up today to register a team, and be a part of history at www.australiasbiggestquiz.org or follow the record breaking attempt on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.  

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Notes for editors 

  • Around 115,000 people in Australia are currently living with the blood-borne virus hepatitis C
  • Hepatitis C can be cured
  • The World Health Assembly  member states have set a target to eliminate hepatitis C this decade (by 2030) and Australia could become the first country in the world to achieve the goal  
  • Australia’s Biggest Quiz is the public activation of the Ending Hepatitis C Campaign and is being delivered by Hepatitis Australia
  • Hepatitis Australia is the national peak community organisation progressing national action on issues of importance to people affected by viral hepatitis 
  • The Ending Hepatitis C campaign is part of a suite of initiatives being funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care aimed at finding and curing 50,000 Australians living with hepatitis C by 2023
  • Liver cancer, which can result from hepatitis C, is the fastest growing cause of cancer death in Australia

For all enquiries please contact:

Jessica Abbey
Campaign Manager
Hepatitis Australia

E: [email protected]

P: +61 419 471 852

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