Tell a Brit about an Australian competition involving giant inflatable thongs and they’ll probably choke on their warm ale.

While thong is a term they use for G-strings, it has a completely different meaning in the antipodes.

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Here, it refers to the most minimalist of footwear – those flip-floppy rubber shoes that wear a groove between the big toe and the second largest tootsie.

And for the past decade, a beach competition involving giant inflatable thongs has been an Australia Day tradition as well as a colossal marketing success.

On Monday, Perth’s Cottesloe beach won the challenge, setting a world record for the fourth straight year with 2210 entrants taking to the water on their footwear-shaped floatie.

One-third of the registration fee is donated to the local surf lifesaving clubs and their Nippers programs.

While some Perth residents watched the world go by on a floating thong, there was a second world record attempt made on Australia Day.

Perth hopes to get the most people simultaneously waving a national flag.

While the current record stands at more than 56,000 people, Skyworks spectators are being handed 60,000 flags in a bid to get Perth into the books.

An estimated 300,000 people are expected to line the Swan River foreshore to watch WA’s biggest fireworks display on Monday night.

The mercury reached 36.4C at 3.30pm in Perth on Monday.