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Whether it's stand-up, podcasts, radio, television or narrative comedy, some of the finest innovators, disrupters and influencers are a group of women from a land down under.

We don’t really know why there is such an impressive crop of female comics hailing from Australia (maybe it’s something in the water) – we’re just delighted they’re creating such hilarious stuff.

Here are just a few of the Antipodeans who are consistently bringing the funny…

Last year’s ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ New Comedy Award winner, Heidi had been toiling in the comedy writing trenches for over a decade (winning an Australian Writing Guild Award in the process) before taking the leap into stand-up in 2015.

Despite having a crippling fear of public speaking, she hurled herself on stage and immediately began to wow audiences with her mix of silly, surreal, philosophical musings on topics as varied as babies, Hitler, Hitler as a baby – and most recently attempting to wrangle an understanding of the modern world via the medium of terrible shark films.

Kicking off her stand-up career in 2008, Felicity mined her own personal history, especially the desperately embarrassing bits of it, for material.

Felicity Ward: 'brutally honest storytelling'

Misadventures with alcohol, chimps, irritable bowel syndrome and her own belly button fuels brutally honest storytelling coupled with a fairly pronounced dose of self-deprecation performed in a gleefully casual manner.

With her recent shows, Felicity has dealt with her own anxiety and mental health problems, attempting to add some awareness to the funny.

She’s recently sought to solve her mental health issues one app at a time in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4 series Appisodes. Listen to the whole series now on Flip.

Sarah Kendall

Beautiful, intelligent, poignant storytelling have ensured Sarah is one of the most popular and revered stand-ups currently on the circuit. Juggling her personal history with the structural chops of a novelist, Sarah’s tangled tales of childhood altercations and exaggerations have won numerous awards and have been transferred successfully to radio.

Her ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4 series Australian Trilogy, based on her youthful exploits in a New South Wales mining town, won a Writers’ Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy.

An Edinburgh New Comedy Award nominee, Claudia is a force of nature whose bizarre, surreal, complicated take on the world makes her unlike any other stand-up currently performing. Presenting a strange, heightened version of herself on stage, she is always desperately seeking approval while claiming to be the biggest Australian export since Paul Hogan.

Her unique approach has led to acclaim both here and in the USA with appearances in The Inbetweeners, Trainwreck, a series of Channel 4’s comedy Blaps, QI, Inside Amy Schumer and a starring role in the hit Netflix series Love.

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Hannah’s recent Netflix special, Nanette crossed a certain comedy divide, shifting from an acclaimed live stand-up special to a must-see cultural event.

Hannah Gadsby: themes of 'LGBT rights, art history and life as an outsider'

The rightly adulated Nanette has brought her to an international audience, but its themes of LGBT rights, art history and life as an outsider have always been present in Hannah’s work, as can be witnessed in her ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4 Extra series, Arts Clown.

Raw, visceral and sweet, Nanette’s conceit that Hannah is giving up comedy is, due to her recent success, thankfully no longer likely to happen.

Deborah Frances-White

The podcast world has opened up a brand new front in the comedy vista with women comedians in particular (Sophie Hagan, Cariad Lloyd, Susan Calman) perfectly utilising the format. With a background in improvisation, Deborah is exceptionally suited to the podcast environment, as anyone who has listened to her chart-topping can attest (she also devised Radio 4's excellent GrownUpLand podcast).

As a stand-up, Deborah has moved away from improv and into more personal territory, exploring her experiences of being adopted and becoming a teenage Jehovah's Witness – areas she also investigates in her ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4 Extra series, Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice.

The internet has completely revolutionised the world of comedy. As well as having a far-reaching, instantaneous impact on an almost unlimited audience, it has also provided new means to create and discover hilarity.

For newcomer Grace Rouvray, a painful and hilarious blog, 600 Bottles of Wine, that dealt with the hazardous world of dating and "anti-relationships" spawned a web series which in turn led to a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ series available now on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Three. A unique and refreshing voice, great things are expected of Grace.