Australia wouldn't be Australia without encounters with wildlife and 2016 didn't disappoint.
In January, a woman managed to survive a crocodile attack in the far north of Western Australia but did lose half of her arm.
A more pleasant encounter with wildlife occurred when Victorian MP Harrie Shing spotted a koala near a main road in the town of Leongatha.
Other animals that had lucky escapes in 2016 were two American turkeys named Tater and Tot.
In one of his last official duties as US president, Barack Obama pardoned the National Thanksgiving Turkey at a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House.
The US election campaign was bitter and divisive but there was some levity on the campaign trail.
After the final election debate, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton traded barbs at a dinner in New York.
On his first official visit to the Turkish capital as British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson decided to steer clear of his past prize-winning insults of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan [ret-CHEP TY-yip ER-doe-ahn] but it may not have been a diplomatic success.
"Democracy sausage" was named Word of the Year by the Australian National Dictionary Centre.
The term for a barbecued sausage bought at a polling booth on election day was first used in 2012 but its popularity increased significantly during this year's federal election campaign.
In November, hundreds of people climbed high above Brisbane to catch a glimpse of the biggest and brightest moon in decades.
The moon came closer to earth than any full moon since 1948, and US space agency NASA says we won't see another like it until 2034.
And in early December, Santa used a parachute rather than a sleigh to make a pre-Christmas visit to a village near the Italian town of Amatrice to hand out gifts to kids affected by the earthquake in August.
