Australia

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Union Jack - our flag

2001 was the centenary of our Federation and patriotism was as high as it can get as we remembered our past and the forces, inside and outside, that shaped our nation. The national psyche might be split as to how our future lies -- part of the Commonwealth or as a republic, but I think for all our brashness and our weaknesses, the core is strong and we as a nation can still be called the "lucky country". As our population becomes more multi-cultural, and the world becomes a smaller place, it's still the best place to be.

Australia's population has increased from 1,033 who landed in 1770 to 5,217 in 1880 to 3,773,801 at Federation in 1901
In 2001 (the last census), we had increased to 18,972,350
in June 2003 - our estimated population with an area of 7,692,030 sq kms was 19,881,500

Compared with:
Japan in 2003 with an area of 377,822 was 127,619,000
USA in 2002 with an area of 9,372,587 was 288,368,698
and UK in 2004 with an area of 242,910 sq kms was 58,789,194

We do have large allotments (sometimes up to 5 acres for a domestic block) compared to most of the rest of the world, however the interior of Australia is desert with the most fertile land being the coastal plains and the river drainage areas on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range. (for maps, see Geoscience Australia)

Some of the highest, lowest, oddest and interesting facts about Australia (from Australian Facts).

Highest Mountain: Mainland: Mount Kosciuszco 2,229 metres. The highest point is Mawson Peak on Heard Island at 2,754 m.
Australia is the lowest continent in the world with an average of only 330 metres. and the lowest point is Lake Eyre in South Australia at 15 m. below sea level.
The most southerly mainland point is South Point, on Wilson's Promontory south of Melbourne. South East Point in Tasmania is the most southerly point of the main continent excluding the Antarctic.
The longest river is the Murray River and its tributary the Darling River, which joins it at Wentworth in the south-west corner of New South Wales. Together totalling 3,370 km. their drainage basin comprises more then 1 million square kilometres or around 14% of Australia.
The largest state is Western Australia with an area of over 2.5 million square kilometres. The largest island is Australia itself, followed by Tasmania, but offshore the largest is Melville Island of 5,786 sq km. near Darwin.
The smallest state is Tasmania.
The hottest temperature recorded in Australia was 53 degrees celsius at Cloncurry in Queensland in 1889.
The coldest temperature recorded was at Charlottes Pass in the snowfields of the Great Dividing Range near Mt. Kosciuszko of -23 degrees celsius in 1994.
The highest rainfall ever in Australia was 907mm. of rain at Crohamhust in Queensland on February 1893. The highest average rainfall recorded was at Bellenden Ker in Queensland where 11,251 mm. fell in 1979.
The driest place in Australia is Lake Eyre with an average annual rainfall of less than 125mm.
The most extreme range of temperature has been recorded at White Cliffs, an opal mining centre in Western New South Wales with extremes of 57.2 degrees between below-zero winter nights and hot summer days.

The view from the Great Ocean Road, Victoria - The Bay of Islands - Taken by my mate, Peter Quirk©
Bay of Islands, Victoria - Copyright Peter Quirk 2000

Renovated terrace houses - Paddington Sydney
Old Terrace Houses, Sydney

Story Bridge, Brisbane

* "dekko" - have a look at

The not so common Common Wombat

MY AUSTRALIA

To visitors to our shores, Australia conjures up images of kangaroos jumping down main streets, killer spiders, killer sharks and for some reason, in Canada, bikie gangs!!

Yes, we have some unique animals, country and history (and I believe the bikie culture is alive and well!), but modern Australia is a multi-cultural hodge podge of the sophisticated, the innocent, the bigoted, the far-seeing, the most tolerant and yet the most hidebound people. We can be insular and suspicious and yet the most hospitable of people. We tend to shrug politics off as "the bloody pollies .. they're as much use as tits on a bull", yet Australia led the way in social welfare reforms and is still leading the way in medical pioneering. But, apart from a growing few, as long as we're ok, the rest of the world tends to pass us by.

Of course, that is a generality and perhaps it is changing... most of us are urban animals these days: crowded on the coast lines and have the same awe of the mystery and danger of the Outback; the courage and tenacity of the outback settlers and the strange beauty of our land as any foreign visitor.

I am a monarchist and yet fiercely proud of being Australian (I don't see why we should forego our history and our heritage to prove we are a "grown up" country). As our cities become more americanised as time goes on, as yet, even in the city, we still retain our Australian uniqueness of thought.

There is a wealth of information on Australian history, politics, culture and flora and fauna on the Net. And although this is my Australian page, reflecting my interests, I hope it also makes you want to follow the links and discover more about my great country - make sure you follow the webrings and you will find a wealth of different outlooks in and about Australia

The Australian Platypus

The bear who's not a bear -- the Koala

The Australian Kangaroo

The Australian Echidna - Spiny Ant Eater

Old Man Emu

Click above to check out
this great site

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Australian Trivia, no matter how trivial

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© Reproduced with the kind permission of the Courier Mail 2001

2001 was the centenary of the Federation of all the States into Australia. A special $5 note was issued (which I might add will not be accepted by the poker machines!); new stamps, money poured into our heritage buildings, many many events and web pages to celebrate our nation. One of the best is the Courier Mail's site, so if you click on the image above, be prepared to go surfing for a very long time!! The Courier-Mail is Queensland's oldest newspaper, first being published in Brisbane Town in 1846 so it is fitting that they have such a great web site on this milestone in Australian history.

Check out the official Government site too, there's plenty to see and even a quiz to take.

If " Waltzing Matilda" is the definitive Australian song, then this poem is the definitive Australian poem. We learned it at school and it stays stuck in the deepest part of our soul memory. I know I hear the words "I love a sunburnt country ..." and it gives me goosebumps and touches me profoundly these many years after a lot of learning has been forgotten.

MY COUNTRY
Dorothea Mackellar. 1908

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.

Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.

Green tangle of the brushes,
Where the lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold.

Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Read and enjoy more great Australian poetry at Fire of the Southern Cross



SOME TRIVIA ON AUSTRALIA
	The aborigines had it first - and now with the Native Title legislation, they're getting it back! Captain Cook didn't discover Australia, he was just the first who wanted to own it! To England, although there was a strong culture already in place when they arrived, it was declared "terra nullis" which meant they could own it and get rid of the pesky convicts crowding their jails
Australia has the most venomous snakes, spiders and politicians than anywhere in the world. Contrast with New Zealand who have no venom anywhere! The first white child born in Australia was a male, to Sgt Thomas Whittle of the Marines, so I guess he was the first free settler in the land! He was born on 26th January, 1788 which is the day the first settlement was established. Our first police force was a band of 12 of the most well behaved convicts. In 1792, the first American tourist arrived - the brigantine Philadelphia with a speculative cargo which shows the Yanks haven't changed much :o) The first beer brewed in Australia was in 1796 by John Boston, thus starting a lifelong love in us for the amber nectar! It was 1832 when the first bathroom was included in the design of a house (Camden Park House) Melbourne Cup was first run in 1861 and the first English Cricket Team visited Stamp duty on legal documents introduced in 1865 - and the lawyers passed it on! Last convict transport was in 1868: the transportation period lasted 80 years and gave us 160,500 pioneers - somewhere in there there has to be a relative of yours! Queensland introduces free education in 1870 - that's why we are all so literate and intelligent!! "larrikin", a particularly Australian descriptive word becomes part of the English language by appearing in print in 1870 South Australia was the first colony (in 1870 the States were still colonies) to allow a man to marry his deceased wife's sister, but it didn't add that a woman could marry her desceased husband's brother - and would you want to? The first stirrings of calls for Federation begin in 1870 - but it took another 30 years to arrive: have you ever tried to get a group of Aussies from different States to agree on any damn thing?? The Overland Telegraph Line was completed and the first message sent from London to Adelaide in 1872 - now "the boat sank" was no excuse for not following a directive from the Mother Country. Tamworth, now famous for being the mecca of Australian Country Music, becomes the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to be lit by electricity. The racist term "White Australia" (Australia wants white people only) unhappily becomes part of the language in 1888 - and still exists underground today. The National Fitness Movement was inaugurated in 1939 - in 2000, they're still in there trying! When WWII broke out, the touring group of the Vienna Mozart Boys Choir and the Bodenweiser Ballet were in Australia and here they stayed until the end of hostilities In 1939, the population was 7 million, the average wage £3 18s ($7.80). In 1988 it was 17 million and the average wage was $350 per week. The first Holden was produced in 1948, made in Australia BUT an American company. Rationing didn't end until 1948 - don't government hate to give up power! Rolf Harris composes and records "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" in 1960 Europe might have all those old monuments and buildings, but we have the Opera House! The architect had a vision - and brother, did we pay for it. Most Australians live in the cities and urban areas and are about as far from the "cow cockie" image as anyone could imagine. So far mad scientists and the landed gentry have managed to introduce the fox, the cane toad, Argentine Ants, cactus and American sit coms into Australia to bastardise the eco-structure!!

Read an online documentary spanning 65 years - a great descriptive piece of travelling thru Australia check out The Flight of Ducks

Sydney Harbour Bridge circa 1933
Sydney Harbour Bridge 1933

Great Barrier Reef from the air
Barrier Reef

Ayres Rock (now Uluru)
Uluru (Ayers Rock) - at sunset

Sydney Harbour Bridge during Olympics 2000

Ayres Rock - the rock face
Ayers Rock

Uluru - The Shell Cave
The Shell Cave

The Endeavour Replica


	*Explorers of Australia(Discovering physical Australia - the brave explorers)***
	*Uluru/Ayers Rock*
	*About Australia (Great site)*
	*Aussie Slang (Another Australian slang site - plus lots more)*
	*Australian Cultural Network*
	Australian Animals (A good site with detailed information and photos) of our native animals
	Australian History Links (This has a catholic selection of history links from geneaology to slang to "real" Australian history)
	The Australian Share (a short history of Irish immigration, both forced and free)
	The Era of Christian Schools *(The establishment of education in Australia)*
	*A chronology of German speakers in Australia*
	*Scots Down Under*
	*Australian Parliament (Our Parliament's official site)*
	The Menzies Era (An Australian view of the 50s and 60s - music, news, books, TV, etc. - good site)
	Australian Embassy in the US (This is a great site with a total overview of Australian culture, economics, politics and tourism)
	Australian Music Web Site (Any type of music as long as it's Australian)
	*Big Day Out (modern Australian scene)*
	*Australian Country Music*
	Lighthouses Australia (great site and very informative if you're into lighthouses and history)
	Sydney Heritage Fleet - "James Craig" Restoration
	Waltzing Mathilda - Australia's unofficial national anthem

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7 February 2005 *© 2000-2005* *Di's Place* *All rights reserved*		Email me