Australia
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
| Commonwealth of Australia | |||||
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| National information | |||||
| National motto: | None | ||||
| National anthem: | Advance Australia Fair | ||||
| About the people | |||||
| Official languages: | English | ||||
| Population: (# of people) | |||||
| - Total: | 21,152,000 (2007 estimate) (ranked 53) | ||||
| - Density: | 2.6 per km² | ||||
| Geography / Places | |||||
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| Capital city: | Canberra | ||||
| Largest city: | Sydney | ||||
| Area | |||||
| - Total: | 7,741,220 km² (ranked 6) | ||||
| Politics / Government | |||||
| Established: | Commonwealth formed: 1 January 1901
Statute of Westminster 1931 |
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| Leaders: | Queen Elizabeth II represented by Governor General Michael Jeffery Prime Minister Kevin Rudd |
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| Economy / Money | |||||
| Currency: (Name of money) |
Australian dollar ($) | ||||
| International information | |||||
| Time zone: | various | ||||
| Telephone dialing code: | 61 | ||||
| Internet domain: | .au | ||||
Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere, between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Its official name is the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia is the sixth biggest country in the world. Many people also call Australia the "lucky country."
The country called Australia is on a continent, which is also called Australia. Together with New Zealand the area is called Australasia and the islands nearby are Oceania.
Contents |
[change] Geography
The continent of Australia, including the island of Tasmania, was separated from the other continents of the world many millions of years ago. Because of this, many animals and plants live in Australia that are not found anywhere else. These include animals like the kangaroo, the koala, the emu, the kookaburra, and the platypus.
People first arrived in Australia more than 50,000 years ago. These native Australians are called the Australian Aborigines. For the history of Australia, see History of Australia.
Most of the Australian colonies, having been settled from Britain, became largely independent democratic states in the 1850s and all six combined as a federation on 1 January 1901. The first prime minister of Australia was Edmund Barton in 1901. Australia is a member of the United Nations and the Commonwealth of Nations. It is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with the British monarch as Head of State.
[change] Regions and cities
- See also: List of Cities in Australia
In July 2007 Australia had just over 21 million people. Most Australians live in cities along the coast, such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin, Hobart and Adelaide. The largest inland city is Canberra, which is also the nation's captital. The largest city is Sydney.
Although Australia is a very big country, a lot of the land is very dry. The middle of the continent is mostly desert. Only the areas around the east and south coast have enough rain for farms and cities. Much of the inland is used only for cattle ranching and mining.
[change] History
[change] Aboriginal people
The Australian Aboriginal people arrived in Australia more than 50,000 years ago. Until the arrival of English settlers in 1789, the Aboriginal people lived by hunting and gathering food from the land. They managed the land in a way that meant there was usually plenty of food. An example of Aboriginal land management was the Cumberland Plain where Sydney is now. Every few years the Aboriginal people would burn the grass and small trees. This meant that a lot of grass grew back, but not many big trees. Kangaroos like to live on grassy plains, but not in forests. The kangaroos that lived on the plain were a good food supply for the Aboriginal people.
Aboriginal people did not usually build houses, except huts of grass, leaves and bark. They did not usually build walls or fences, because there were no horses, cows or sheep in Australia that needed to be kept in pens. The only Aboriginal buildings that are known are fish-traps made from stones piled up in the river, and the remains of a few stone huts in Victoria and Tasmania. The Aboriginal people did not use metal or make pottery or use bows and arrows or weave cloth. In some parts of Australia the people used sharp flaked-stone spearheads, but most Aboriginal spears were made of sharply pointed wood. Australia has a lot of trees that have very hard wood that was good for spear making.
The Aboriginal people did not think that the land belonged to them. They believed that they had grown from the land, so it was like their mother, and they belonged to the land.
[change] Terra Australis
In the 1600s, Dutch merchants traded with the islands of Indonesia, to the north of Australia and several different Dutch ships touched on the coast of Australia. The Dutch Governor, van Diemen, sent Abel Tasman on a voyage of discovery and he found Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen's Land. Its name was later changed to honour the man who discovered it.
The British Government were sure that there must be a very large land in the south, that hadn't been explored. They sent Captain James Cook to the Pacific Ocean. His ship, H.M.S. "Endeavour" carried the famous scientists, Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Solander who were going to Tahiti where they would watch the planet Venus pass in front of the Sun. Captain Cook's secret mission was to find "Terra Australis" (the Land of the South).
The voyage of discovery was very successful, because they found New Zealand and sailed right around it. Then they sailed westward. At last, a boy, William Hicks, who was up the mast spotted land on the horizon. Captain Cook named that bit of land Point Hicks. They sailed up the coast and Captain Cook named the land that he saw "New South Wales". At last they sailed into a large open bay which was full of fish and stingrays which the sailors speared for food. Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander went ashore and were astonished to find that they did not know what any of the plants or birds or animals that they saw were. They collect hundreds of plants to take back to England.
Captain Cook saw the Aboriginal people with their simple way of life. He saw them fishing and hunting and collecting grass seeds and fruit. But there were no houses and no fences. In most parts of the world, people put up a house and a fence or some marker to show that they own the land. But the Aboriginal people didn't own the land in that way. They belonged to the land, like a baby belongs to its mother. Captain Cook went home to England and told the Government that no-one owned the land. This was to cause a terrible problem for the Aboriginal people.
[change] Settlement
In the 1700s, in England, there was a very serious problem with the laws. A person could be sentenced to death for stealing a loaf of bread. Many people were hanged for small crimes. But usually they were just thrown in gaol. Often they were sent away to the British Colonies in America. But in 1770, the colonies in America became the United States. They were free from British rule and would not take England's convicts any more.
By the 1780s the gaols of England were so full that convicts were often chained up in rotting old ships. The Government decided to make a settlement in New South Wales and send some of the convicts there. In 1788 eleven ships set sail from Portsmouth carrying convicts, sailors, marines, a few free settlers and enough food to last for two years. Their leader was Captain Arthur Phillip. They were to make a new colony at the place that Captain Cook had discovered, named Botany Bay, because of the plants found there by the two scientists.
Captain Phillip found that Botany Bay was flat and windy. There was not much fresh water. He went with two ships up the coast and sailed into a great harbour which he said was "the finest harbour in the world!" There were many small bays on the harbour so he decided on one which had a good stream of fresh water and some flat shore to land on. On the 26th January, 1788, the flag was raised and New South Wales was claimed in the name of King George III of England, and the new settlement was called Sydney.
For the first few years of the settlement, things were very difficult. No-one in the British Government had thought very hard about what sort of convicts should be sent to make a new colony. Nobody had chosen them carefully. There was only one man who was a farmer. There was no-one among the convicts who was a builder, a brickmaker or a blacksmith. No-one knew how to fix the tools when they broke. The cattle all escaped. There were no cooking pots. All the plants were different so no-one knew which ones could be eaten. There was a grave danger that everyone in the new colony would die of starvation.
Somehow, the little group of tents with a hut for the Governor, Arthur Phillip, and another hut for the supply of food, grew into a small town with streets, a bridge over the stream, a windmill for grinding grain and warves for ships. By the 1820s there was a fine brick house for the Governor. There was also a hospital and a convict barracks and a beautiful church which are still standing today. Settlements had spread out from Sydney, firstly to Norfolk Island and to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), and also up the coast to Newcastle, where coal was discovered, and inland where the missing cattle were found to have grown to a large herd. Spanish Merino sheep had been brought to Sydney, and by 1820, farmers were raising fat lambs for meat and also sending fine wool back to the factories of England.
While the settlement was growing in New South Wales, it was also growing in Tasmania. The climate in Tasmania was more like that of in England, and farmers found it easy to grow crops there.
[change] Exploration
Because Australia is such a very large land, it was easy to think that it might be able to hold a very large number of people. In the early days of the colony, a great number of explorers went out, searching for good land to settle on. When the settlers looked west from Sydney, they saw a range of mountains which they called the Blue Mountains. They were not very high and didn't look very rugged but for many years no-one could find their way through them. In 1813 Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and a 17 year-old called William Charles Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains and found land on the other side which was good for farming. A road was built and the Governor, Lachlan Macquarie founded the town of Bathurst on the other side, 100 miles from Sydney.
Some people, like Captain Charles Sturt were sure that there must be a sea in the middle of Australia and set out to find it. Many of the explorers did not prepare very well, or else they went out to explore at the hottest time of year. Some died like Burke and Wills. Ludwig Leichhardt got lost twice. The second time, he was never seen again. Major Thomas Mitchell was one of the most successful explorers. He mapped the country as he went, and his maps remained inuse for more than 100 years. He travelled all the way to what is now western Victoria, and to his surprise and annoyance found that he was not the first person there. The Henty brothers had come from Tasmania, had built themselves a house, had a successful farm and fed the Major and his men on roast lamb and wine.
[change] Towns
[change] Politics
Australia is made up of six states and two territories. Each of these has its own Parliament and makes its own local laws. The Australian Parliament sits in Canberra and makes laws for the whole country. The government is led by the Prime Minister of Australia, who is the member of Parliament chosen as leader. The current Prime Minister is Kevin Rudd, elected in November 2007. He is the leader of a political party called the Australian Labor Party. The other main party is the Liberal Party
The leader of Australia is the Prime Minister, although the Governor-General represents the Queen of Great Britain as head of state. The Governor-General, currently, Major-General Michael Jeffrey, AC, is chosen by the Prime Minister.
[change] Economy
Australia's currency (money) is the Australian dollar (AUD).
[change] Culture
Australia was colonised by people from Britain, but today people from all over the world live there. Australia is multicultural, which means that all its people are helped to keep their different languages and ways of life, while also learning English and joining in with other Australians.
The famous artists, musicians, writers, scientists, soldiers, and sports who are Australian include Patrick White who won a Nobel Prize for his writing, the opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland, the pop singer Kylie Minogue, the cricketer Sir Donald Bradman, the swimmer Ian Thorpe and the athlete Cathy Freeman.
Almost all culture in Australia, films, opera, music, painting, theatre, dance, and crafts — achieve international recognition. From the time of European settlement, a common theme in Australian art has been the Australian landscape. In Australian literature, one can also find very much writings about the Australian landscape. In 1973, Patrick White was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the only Australian to have achieved this; he is recognised as one of the great English-language writers of the twentieth century.
Australia has two public broadcasters (the ABC and the multi-cultural SBS), three commercial television networks, three pay TV services, and numerous public, non-profit television and radio stations. Each major city has daily newspapers, and there are two national daily newspapers, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review.
Sport plays an important part in Australian culture, assisted by a climate that favours outdoor activities; 23.5% Australians over the age of 15 regularly participate in organised sporting activities. At an international level, Australia has particularly strong teams in cricket, hockey, netball, rugby league, rugby union, and performs well in cycling, rowing and swimming. Nationally, other popular sports include Australian rules football, horse racing, soccer and motor racing. Australia has participated in every summer Olympic Games of the modern era, and every Commonwealth Games. Australia has hosted the 1956 and 2000 Summer Olympics, and has ranked among the top five medal-takers since 2000. Australia has also hosted the 1938, 1962, 1982 and 2006 Commonwealth Games. Other major international events held regularly in Australia include the Australian Open, one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, annual international cricket matches and the Formula One Australian Grand Prix. Corporate and government sponsorship of many sports and elite athletes is common in Australia. Televised sport is popular; some of the highest rating television programs include the summer Olympic Games and the grand finals of local and international football competitions.
[change] See also
[change] Other websites
- Australia Travel Guide User generated guide to Australia.
| Countries and territories of Oceania | |
|---|---|
| Australia | Australia · Coral Sea Islands · Norfolk Island |
| Melanesia | East Timor · Fiji · Maluku Islands & Western New Guinea (part of Indonesia) · New Caledonia · Papua New Guinea · Solomon Islands · Vanuatu |
| Micronesia | Guam · Kiribati · Marshall Islands · Northern Mariana Islands · Federated States of Micronesia · Nauru · Palau |
| Polynesia | American Samoa · Cook Islands · French Polynesia · Hawaii · New Zealand · Niue · Pitcairn · Samoa · Tokelau · Tonga · Tuvalu · Wallis and Futuna |
