Facts about Australia. Land and people

Autor: Arne Köckeritz

Australia

Australia is the world largest island, but the smallest continent and only one, where one nation lived. It is 7.7 million sq km big but only 16 million people life their. The Currency is the Australian dollar. Australia produces 30% of the worlds wool (160 million sheeps) and is a big exporter of beef, lamb and wheat. The capital Canberra lies in the capitalteretory(New South Wales). The official language is English, the Australian call it "strine" and it is a strong language with many word jokes. The base is the Lower-Class-English of the first settlers and prisoners, because Australia was a prison colony. Today more than 200 languages are spoken. 26% of Austrakias people are Catholics, 24% Anglican, 14% other Protestants and 3% Orthodox. 88% Of the people in Australia live in Citys. Because most of their land is a dry unfirtile land in the Outback. Australia was divide up into 7 stats.

All stats and territorys:

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Government:

Australia is a parliamentary democracy like Austria, but it is also a federation of states like the EC. There is a federal government and six state governments for the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. The federal government is responsible for major things, like tax, immigration and social security, and the state government decides on things like building roads, libraries and housing. The government is based British and on the American systems and there is a law that all Australians who are over eighteen must vote. At the top of the parliament is the Queen because Australia is a member of the British Commonwealth.

Land and climate:

Australia is the flattest and driest continent. The highest mountain, Mount Kosciusko, is only 2,228m high. Australia is so flat because there was no episode of mountain building and the land has been eroded by wind and weather through millions of years. You can divide Australia into three parts: the Eastern Highlands which are from Cape York to Melbourne, the Central Basin which used to be flooded by ancient seas and even today contains several big lakes with some just getting filled in wet seasons, and the last part the Western Shield which is a plateau of ancient rock. These rocks are the oldest we know. Many mineral deposits are found there. Because there is so little rain, many people chose to live where most of the rain is, on the coast.

Settelment of Australia:

The development of Australia

In the 17th century Australia was discoverd by European ships. 1770 the first with men, Captain James Cook landed in Botany bay for taking the land for Britain. 1788 Australia became a british prison colony. Because british prisons were full, and the new colony needed lots of people. 1868 Australia's most important industrie was wool and wheat. At 1851 Gold was found and diggers from all over the world rushed to Australia. These gold rushes meant the development of wealthy towns and cities. 1901 The 6 british colonies became one country.1974 Austalia needed more people so Australia had an open door to immigrants. Many of the Aborigines were killed, and the remaining were forced to adapt to the British way of life. They were forced to work as helping hands and servants at farms owned by whites or to move to the cities to work in industrial factories.

Australian environments and wildlife:

Australia was isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years, which means that many plants and animals have evolved in isolation. Many of them can be found only in Australia. You can find so many different animals and plants because there is desert and rainforest, flat land and high mountains. Tere are some different climates and because of this, there are so many different plants and animals. But there is another reason for many different species in fauna and flora - in Australia there are so few people that they don't disturb nature very much. There are over 12,000 different plant species and most of the trees are hardwoods like oak, which means that they have hard wood and are growing very slowly. Australia is known by its marsupials, like the kangaroo, the koala and the Tasmanian devil. There are over 600 species of birds and some of them are flightless, like the emu (Vogelstrauss). Some species are becoming extinct because of hunting or changing climates. Australian people are protesting against destruction of the rainforest and other environmental pollution.

The Australian people:

Most, if not all, Australians are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. Just one in a hundred people are Aborigines. For the first 150 years, nearly all immigrants were British or Irish. Even people who had never seen England and whose parents came from the UK spoke of Britain as their home. That changed after the Second World War, when refugees from Italy or Greece came to Australia in big groups. Between 1945 and 1985 the population of Australia more than doubled. Melbourne, for example, is the biggest Greek city after Athens. Every time new immigrants brought other cultures, religions or ways of cooking, they were added to the Australian way of life. Australians think of themselves as strong, silent, but friendly people. For them it is very important to help each other and to have good friendships with other Australian people. That is because they think of themselves as stockmen and farmers and they have to help each other in the bush, batting the fires and other dangers.However, the reality is more complicated. Most Australians live in cities and there is no typical Australian. There is a Vietnamese chef, a Greek builder or a German doctor, as much as a stockman from a cattle station in Queensland. So actually there is no real Australian and it's a bit the same as in Austria. People from outside the border come to live there and soon feel endemic.

Aboriginal History:

The Aboriginals came to Australia from the north at least 40,000 years ago. Different groups spread slowly over the country. living a largly unchanged way of life, close to nature, for many centuries. When the first Europeans settled in Australia there were about 300,000 Aboriginals. But the whites thought that these people were little more than animals and pushed them off their traditionel lands to make way for farms. Living on reservations or near the towns which had been built, many of them became alcoholics, or died from new diseases:

They were not given full rights until 1967. Today some of the 180,000 Aborigionals live the modern Australian way of life, while others live in the traditional way, mainly in the north and west of the country. Many are caught between two cultures, not knowing where they belong. In the early 20th century, the white Australian population started to become more aware of the Aborigines' situation. Special reservations were established where the aboriginal tribes could live like they had done before the British invasion. However, these reservations were often too small. There were also only a few of them so that only a small percentage of the Aborigines had a chance to live there. Therefore, the Aborigines continued to live under poor conditions and they continued to fade in numbers.In 1940, there were only about 35 thousand Aborigines left in Australia.Today only about 1% of Australia's population are Aborigines. The government is trying to make their living standards better but most of them still belong to the poorest group in society. Their unemployment rate is more than six times the national average, and the average wage for Aborigines is half the average national wage.

Festivals:

Most of the Australian are Christians. They celebrate Christ and Easter, but in December it is summertime in Australia, so many people go swimming on Christ day. But they also celebrate other days, like in Melbourne. The Melbourne Cup, a famous horse race, is celebrated as well. There is also a day of called Anzac day, when they remember their first lost battle in Turkey. They like to celebrate.

Education:

Australians start going to school at the age of six. The following six years they are in primary school, which is run by the state or in a private school which is almost always run by a church. The schoolday is from 9.00 am to 3.30 pm. After primary school there is secondary school which takes another six years. School is mandatory until the age of fifteen. Most children leave school at this age. For students who live far outside a city, there is an institution called School on the Air. This school is conducted over the two-way radios.

Citys:

Sydney:

Sydney has 3.3 million inhabints and is the biggest city of Australia. But it is a fast, exciting and expensive city with many beaches and much sun. Sydney got his name from Lord Sydney, who was British Home Secretary when the city was founded in 1788. Today Sydney, which is a business and cultural centre, is sometimes called the real capital of Australia. Sydney is world-famous for the Sydney Habour Brige, the habour, the Opera House and the Tower, from which the whole area can be seen is the tallest building south of the Equator.

The Australian flag:

The flag is modeled on the British flag, next to the GB flag it's blue, it has 5 stars. These stars are a constellation of the "Cross of the South". There is still another big star, they are the territories.

Sport and leisure:

Because of the warm climate, the Australian people can spend a lot of their free time outdoors. Televised sports are extremely popular. They like to play cricket and they are known as a tennis-nation. The Australian Open is the fourth of the Grand Slam Tournaments. But they also like to go to the beach for sailing, surfing, swimming or just laying in the sun. Skiing is very popular in the winter season. But football is the most popular sport played in Australia. By the way, the national hobby is fishing.

Farming and fishing:

Farming was the most important industry in Australia and it still produces one-third of the exports, but mining and manufacturing have become more important. Australia exports most of the world´s need of wool, but they also export meat from sheep, cattle, and fruit like bananas, pineapples, oranges and lemons to Japan, Canada and Europe. Fish, tobacco, rice and wine are also goods which are exported.

Manufacturing and mining:

During the world wars, it was difficult to import and export goods and so the mining grew, but manufacturing is also very important nowadays. They exported goods like iron, copper, aluminum, opal, gold, lead and so on and imported cars, petroleum and products of it, and office, industrial and electrical equipment. Mining is still necessary in Australia. They even export diamonds from Australia to Japan. The only people who are against this destruction of the nature are the Aborigines.

Wildlife:

Don´t be surprised to see a hopping kangaroo or running emu - a large flightless bird - while driving through Australia's countryside. Australia's geographic isolation has created a unique sanctuary for animals and plants. So Australia has for example over 100 species of marsupials, from the koala to the Tasmanian devil, and more than 300 birds which are found nowhere else. In Australia there are a large number of wildlife parks, where you can visit them, e.g. Kangaroo Island in South Australia.