You wouldn't want to get seriously ill or injured in Queensland, with a government survey finding that more than 50,000 adults don't know the emergency telephone number. That's right, a staggering 50,000 people would be better off running for help than picking up the phone to call police or ambulance.

Amazingly, more than half did not even know there was an emergency phone number. (It's triple 000 for those of you who were wondering.) About that many people again actually knew help was just a phone call away, but had absorbed too much foreign television and could recall only numbers such as 911 or 999.

In an effort to reassure those having a little trouble, the Queensland Emergency Services Minister, Chris Cummins, described dialling triple 000 as "a very simple procedure" and noted that children as young as two had managed to get it right. But I don't suppose those children were Queenslanders.

What is going on with the gene pool in Queensland? Perhaps the exodus from Victoria to Queensland is finally having an effect?