Topic of Australia (0)

Introduction , Location
Australia is a country between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It is the only country in the world that occupies an entire continent . The mainland covers an area of 7.7 million km² and it is about 3700 km from the most northern point to its most southern point and about 4000 km from east to west .
There are also many different seas around Australia, like the Coral and the Tasman Seas in the west or the Timor and the Arafura Seas in the north , where the Indian and the Pacific Oceans meet. Because all seas and oceans near Australia are warm , surfing is a very popular hobby .
Political subdivision
Australia is divided into six states , which are:

• New South Wales
  
• Victoria
  
• Queensland
  
• South Australia
  
• Western Australia
  
• Tasmania
  

New South Wales is the most populous state in Australia. Its capital is Sydney .
Victoria is one of the most densely populated states in Australia. Its capital city is Melbourne and it was named after the British Prime Minister Lord Melbourne. Melbourne is said to be the heart of Australian finance and the headquarters of industry giants. Victoria is more an industry than a tourist state.
Queensland is known for its natural riches like huge coalfields, copper , silver , lead. Its capital city is Brisbane, which is the third largest city in Australia. Because it lies in the
Northeast part of Australia, its climate is mainly tropical .
South Australia is famous as it is the region of fruit farming, vineyards and olive groves. Only the southern coast is fertile , most of the state is arid . Its capital is Adelaide , which is known for the Adelaide circuit.
Western Australia is the biggest state in Australia. It is rich in deserts, as the central part of the state is practically a desert in whole and nearly uninhabited. On the other hand, the desert is important for its resources and mining . Western Australian capital is Perth with a population of 1.5 million people.
Tasmania is the second most densely populated state. Its capital is Hobart, which is a fine Georgian city. Tasmania became the most popular settling region for Europeans due to favorable climate to them .
There is also the Northern Territory, but it has a special status being under the authority of the central government of the Commonwealth .
The capital is not Sydney or Melbourne like many people think, but Canberra , which is situated just between those two. Canberra was chosen as the capital of Australia because Australians could not decide which to choose as the capital, either Melbourne or Sydney. So, Canberra was chosen instead as a fair end to a long fight.
The population in Australia is very high compared with Estonia as there are about 21 million people living there. The most populous city is Sydney with 4.2 million people. Only about 320000 people live in Canberra, but it is still said to be a tourist must.
Government
The head of the State in Australia is queen of the United Kingdom who is also the queen of Australia. In practice , Governor–General performs her functions in queen’s absence. Because Australia is a part of the UK, the Australian flag has a British Union flag on it, plus five stars that represent the constellation Southern Cross and a big star for all the states and territories of the country. The coat of arms has a kangaroo and an emu, golden wattle blossoms, a star for the states and territories and a shield with the coats of arms of the six states of Australia on
It. The Parliamentary triangle
The Parliament consists of two houses -the 76- member Senate and the 148-member House of Representatives, so there are total of 224 members in the Parliament. The polity is constitutional monarchy, but in practice, parliamentary democracy . The Head of the government is the Prime minister, who right now is John Howard.
People
Today Australians are mostly white, but before the first fleet reached Australia in 1788, there were only black people. Most of them live near coasts as the climate there is more fertile and human-friendly. Still there are people who like to live in the country, as there is much land and peace . However , because schools are thousands of kilometers away , children have to learn using special programs on the TV and radio .
People living in big cities do not all use cars for moving . Getting to work with a bicycle or with even a sailing boat is not strange in Australia. Aborigines are described in the History
topic
History
Aborigines
Anthropologists say that the Aborigines were the first humans in the world. Even the word “aboriginal” means “the first” or “earliest known”. It is confirmed that people lived in Australia about 40000 years ago.
At that time, which is called the last great Ice Age, Australia was joined with New Guinea . Because sea passages were narrower between the Java and Borneo islands, the first Aborigines could reach Australia from the north. When they finally got to Australia, it was in a much better condition than nowadays . There were large animals , who are now extinct , that provided much meat . The Aborigines lived in harmony with the environment. Because they were cut off from the rest of the world, Aborigines could not trade goods , acquire animals or crop seed, which was very important because the land did not contain any cultivated crops.
Aborigines lived in clans that all had occupied a piece of land. Nobody thought about selling , buying or trading land because the clan was a part of the land they owned .
Finding food was not easy at that time. In some areas , both men and women had to spend over half of each day on hunting or gathering food. In some areas, mostly inland, there was always a shortage of water and it was even deadly for some people. However, Aborigines were tough and got the water from certain trees and roots . They even squeezed some water out of frogs . In the desert areas, Aborigines traveled a lot because there was not much food, but in coastal areas, people were relatively static because there was enough food for everybody . Nevertheless, those Aborigines, who had to be mobile , had to have mobile belongings, like the coolamon, which was a curved wooden dish used to dig, to carry water or a baby, to toss seeds or collect the plant food. However, the Aborigines were very clever in making things out of noting, like fishing lines for example. They were made out of hair and strings . Bones were used as weapons and as needles .
The “Dreamtime”, the mythological past, is very important to the Aborigines. They believe that it was the time, when spirit ancestors had traveled throughout the land, giving it its physical form, and setting down the ruled to be followed by the Aboriginals. There are also many different stories or legends about powerful beings like the “Fertility Mother”, the “Great Rainbow Snake ”. The story about Pemulwuy is also famous.
As there were shortages of food and water, the Aborigines blamed supernatural forces for those and all the other problems. Magic and rituals were used to correct the situation. A man called either the “ medicine man” or the “ doctor ”, who was a powerful man, cured physical ills that occurred quite often.
Nowadays, there are not many Aborigines left in Australia. It is said that they conceive only 1.5% of Australia’s population and suffer from discrimination in employment. The low population is that low because the British fleets that arrived there in the end of the 18th century brought many viruses and diseases that were deadly to the Aborigines.
Exploring Australia
The first people who knew about Australia were the Chinese sailors (about 2500 years ago).Even the Indonesian anglers visited Australia hundreds of years before the first Europeans.
The first European to see Australia was a Dutch captain Willem Jansz. He explored the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1606. Another European captain, Hartog, visited the west coast at Shark Bay also in 1606.Tasmania was discovered in 1642 by Tasman, who also named the Tasman Sea. However, none of them was happy over the discovery , because the land was very arid and barren. Such grasp remained unchanged until James Cook reached Cape Edward in 1779, where he turned north and landed at Botany Bay. That territory is nowadays called New South Wales. When he got back to home, he reported that the land had luxuriant vegetation and was very suitable for settlers . Therefore , the first settlement reached Botany Bay in 1788, but the bay was not suitable and they started to search a better landing point. It was found at Port Jackson . The captain of the fleet, Arthur Phillip , became the first governor on New South Wales. The first settlement consisted form convicts and their guards. The convicts were put to work immediately after arriving at Port Jackson, but they were all city-bred and so quite unskillful. At that time, there were about 300000 Aborigines in Australia and luckily for the Brits, not all were hostile. Phillip tried hard to befriend with the natives and he succeeded with Bennelong. Phillip had a hut built for Bennelong on the point where the Sydney Opera House now stands .
The second fleet arrived in 1790. That fleet brought soldiers that were called the New South Wales Corps . Their mission was to keep law and order in the colony . However, a great number of the soldiers were corrupted and because there was no currency in the colony, they used rum as the means of exchange. That meant that all soldiers were always drunk and made more mischief than good .
In 1809, a new Governor, Macquarie, began a much-needed program of restoring order in the colony. He improved the existing pattern of the roads, disbanded the New South Wales Corps and promoted exploration.
Convicts were still prisoners, but if they behaved good, they could get a “ ticket -of-leave”, which meant that you could work for yourself. One of those convicts was Francis Greenway, who designed many famous buildings in Australia like the South Wales Parliament House for example.
In the 1830’s a great number of immigrants came to Australia and Aboriginals suffered badly. At the same years, the wool industry was blooming and the Merino Wool is famous even today.
Gold was discovered in 1851 in Victoria and New South Wales. Thanks to that, the population grew from 400000 to 1200000 in just ten years. Of course , new roads, railways and cities were established .
In 1900 the British Parliament passed an act, which permitted the federation of Australian states to form into one commonwealth. On January 1st 1901, all six states became one nation .
At the end of the 1920’s Australia was badly affected from the world economy , which was in depression . About a third of Australia’s work force was unemployed .
During the WWII Australia was an important war ground for the USA and Japan .
Landforms
Australia is the lowest continent in the world with an average elevation of 330 m. The land is quite low, but far from featureless. The mountains are represented by the Australian Alps, which run along the southeast coast. The highest mountain is Mt Kosciusko (2228m), but the most attracting are the world’s biggest monolith Uluru and the beehive mountains of the “Bungle Bungles”. Of course, the Great Dividing Range that runs along the Pacific Coast is a tourist must. In addition , the largest outback town Alice Springs is a sure must also. Ayers Rock-Uluru
The Australian Outback is one of a kind in the world. It is actually a vast arid plateau stretching across most of the continent. There are the Gibson , the Great Victoria, the Great Sandy Deserts and many smaller deserts
Australia is known for its temporary rivers or creeks, which are full only after rains. The longest river is the Murray -Darling, which is 2700 km long. Most of the lakes are also full after rain. The biggest, Lake Eyre , is a salt lake in Central Australia and it occupies an area of 9000km².
Nature
Australia is the second driest continent in the world and 70% of the country is arid or semi-arid. More that one-third of the mainland is occupied by desert. The rain is distributed unevenly around the continent. The driest area is Lake Eyre, but the tropical northeast is the wettest. Savannas have also obsessed a big chunk of land and are located in the northern and eastern parts of Australia.
The seasons are the opposite of the ones in Estonia. If we have summer, then in Australia it is winter and vice versa. The highest temperature ever measured in Australia is +53ºC and the lowest is -23ºC.
Most of the animals that live in Australia are marsupials or pouched mammals and there are more than 150 different species of them. They are special because the babies of these animals are too small to start their lives on their own and so after birth they move to their mother’s pouch where they stay for several months. The most numerous among marsupials is the kangaroo. There are more that 50 different species of them. Kangaroo is a furry and quite long animal who is known for its jumping. They can jump more than 4 meters and achieve 70 km/h. Kangaroos eat grass and leaves.
The koala is one of the best -loved Australian animals. It is a small marsupial that lives in eucalyptus trees and it can sleep for 18 hours straight. The aborigines named it “the animal that does not drink ”, but it eats leaves and bark .
The wombat is a small animal that has short, but strong legs and claws, which it uses for digging burrows. It lives on Tasmania, but also in burrows in grasslands of Australia. They do not see well, but they can hear and smell very well.
The platypus is a strange- looking marsupial that lays eggs . It has a strong flat tail what it uses to swim. It gets its food mainly from rivers and they live in the rivers of East Australia.
The possum is most probably the strangest animal in Australia. It is an egg-laying mammal who feeds its babies with milk . It can climb well and therefore lives in trees. They live in groups and they come out to search food only at nights.
The Tasmanian devil is a fierce animal that lives on Tasmania. It eats small lizards and dead animals. It is about 1 meter long and usually black.
A kangaroo
There are more animals that are interesting in Australia, like the echidna , the dingo, emu and many more.
Because the climate is mainly arid and only coastal areas are wetter , most of the vegetation grows mainly there. Due to warm climate, bananas, peaches, grapefruits, olives, pineapples and sugar -canes are grown in Australia.
Economy
One of the most important branches in Australia’s industry is (and has been) mining, because Australia is very rich in minerals. Minerals can be found in most states, so it is a vital part of Australia’s economy. The leading mineral production area is Western Australia, where gold, uranium, nickel ore and manganese ore can be found.
Australia is also rich in precious and semiprecious stones, like black opals and pink diamonds for example. It is said that mining produces 20% of Australia’s export .
Lead and zinc are also found in Australia in quite large amounts from Mount Isa and Broken Hill. Besides those two, copper, uranium, coal and oil are found in Australia.
Most of the goods produced in Australia come from New South Wales. Iron , steel, power cables, jet aircrafts all come from there. Melbourne is known for producing motor vehicles, machinery, food and clothes.
Tourism is also an important part of Australia’s economy. More than 500000 people work on that profession. Tourists come mainly from Japan and New Zealand , but there are many visitors from the UK and the US also.
Due to convenient climate, sugar cane, peanuts and many different fruits can grow in the tropical and subtropical parts of Australia.
Wool industry is not important just for Australia, but for the whole world, because about 20% of all sheep lives there and about 25% of the world’s wool comes from there.
An interesting thing that you can see only in Australia is the road -train. It is a big truck with many trailers and it can be over 60 meters long. It is mainly used to transport livestock, but they can haul almost everything else also.
Culture
Australian culture is very rich. There are many world-famous singers, bands and artists that come from Australia, but also many famous writers, poets and even race drivers .
Music
Music in Australia was introduced with aboriginal music that is oldest in Australia. Its lyrics are about nature and body sounds have an important part. It is famous even today.
In the 1950’s the rock’n’roll age began and it was influenced by the culture and music in USA. One of the most famous artists at that time was Johnny O’Keefe.
In the 60’s surfing took all the attention and everything was connected with surfing. Surfing is nowadays still very popular sport .
By the 70’s, disco , glam rock and punk rock had reached Australia. One Australian band, the “Bee Gees ” got worldwide attention with songs like “Saturday Night Fever” and “Staying Alive”
In the 80’s pub rock and dance music took over and pushed Kylie Minogue on the same level with the greatest stars ever. She is loved all over the world even today.
In the 90’s alternative music reached its peak and gave a band called “Savage Garden ” reputation that was higher than the Eiffel tower :)
After the millennium , pop was still popular, but hip-hop and garage rock were at least as popular as pop music.
TV, Radio
Television is an important part of the culture in Australia just like in every other country. The first TV channels were ABC and SBS. In 1975 Australia went over to color TV. In 2001 broadcasting became digital and Digital TV was the only way to see TV.
An important part of an Australian’s day is of course serials. “Home and Alone ”, “McLeod’s Daughters” and “Neighbors” are known worldwide and are loved by millions.
The first public radio signal was sent out from Sydney.
Theatre
Theatre in Australia can be divided into four categories:
1788-1849 The early years
1850-1899 The golden years
1900-1949 The shifting concern
1950-today The new foundations
We can say that A. Phillip founded theatre in Australia. In the golden years, it was strongly affected by the English and Italian opera. The first ballet was introduced in 1855.
Because cinema and radio became very popular in the beginning of the 20th century, theatre lost its fans and was not as popular as in the golden years.
Literature
The oldest type of literature in Australia is the aboriginal poetry, which is quite popular even today, as it is found everywhere . The most famous poets are C.Harpur, H.Kendall,
G.G. McCrae .
Today, crime fiction is the most popular genre . Australians love the writings of K.Greenwood, as they are exciting and thrilling.
Art
Australian art is famous for its dot paintings -a painting that is made out of dots . It was painted famous by aborigines, who nowadays can earn good money by selling those paintings.
An interesting genre is the Central Australian art, which uses a fixed set of symbols related to mythology and different shapes like lines, circles etc.
The third most popular art genre is contemporary art: acrylic paintings, paintings with classic elements.
Food
A vital part of a day is breakfast . There are two types of breakfast in Australia-the heavy breakfast (English breakfast) and the light breakfast. The heavy breakfast is eaten in the colder parts of Australia, while the lighter one is eaten in the warmer parts.
No Australian could spend a weekend without barbeque or forget the heavenly taste of pavlova - a sweet cake with different fruits on top of it. Vegemite is the Australian national food. It is meat jelly used on sandwiches and it tastes like broth .
Sport
Australians love tough sports , like rugby and rally for example. Rugby is very famous in Australia. The Australian Rugby Union was created in 1892. The national team has a special anthem that is in aboriginal language .
Australians also love motor sport. The most popular series is the V8 Supercars, which is analog to the DTM in Europe . Sprint cars are also loved in Australia and Formula 1 has many supporters, as their own man Mark Webber is one of the 22 lucky ones who can compete in that series.
Did you know that the Australian Parliament passed an act that forbids using usual ( filament ) lamps from year 2010?
7