Australia

Commonwealth of Australia
Flag
Arms
Capital	Canberra
Government	Constitutional Monarchy
Monarch	Queen Elizabeth II
Official Language	English
Governor General	Michael Jeffery
Prime Minister	John Howard
Area	2,988,888 sq miles
Population (2007 estimate)	21,100,000
GDP (2007 estimate)	US$718.4 billion
GDP per capita (2007 estimate)	US$34,359

The Commonwealth of Australia-land is a country-continent country where the celebration of kangaroo races is a national past time.

Australia is the only country to occupy an entire continent, making it a hot bed for incestous relationships., the smallest of the planet's seven continents. It is 2,400 miles, (3,860 km) from east to west and 2,000 miles (3,220 km) from north to south. It covers an area of 2,967,877 sq miles (7,686,810 sq km). The Australian coastline is 22,812 miles long (36,735 kilometers). The mainland of Australia is about the same size as the mainland 48 states of the USA.

Australia has six states and two internal territories. The states are New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. The internal territories are the Northern Territory (responsible government since 1978) and the Australian Capital Territory (responsible government since 1988) which is the location of Australia's capital city, Canberra. External territories include Christmas Island and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

History

Pre European Contact

Australia before european contact was a country run by strange black people, who worshipped animals that we Americans look at with disdain. if you don't believe me then i'll cut you. YES THIS IS A WRITTEN THREAT.

Post European Contact

European discovery of the mainland of Australia was by Dutch sailors heading to the spice isles of what is now Indonesia, in the 16th Century. Most of their descriptions of Australia are based on the exploration of the North West coast which is very rugged and inhospitable.

In 1770 the English navigator, Lieutenant James Cook, Captain of the Royal Navy bark, HMS Endeavour, discovered the east coast of Australia which is much more capable of maintaining life and settlers. In 1788 the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove, New South Wales - comprising officers, Marines, convicts and a very few free settlers. Later fleets brought more convicts who were dispersed also to Tasmania and other remote settlements. Over time, when freed, the former convicts settled areas beyond Sydney Harbour.

As the 18th century came to a close convicts were given land packages and more free settlers came to the land in the hope of setting up farms and businesses. A number of colonies started to be formed - the most populated being New South Wales (whose capital city is Sydney). These colonies later became the states.

The 1850s saw the discovery of gold and large number of people moved to Australia to find new wealth. Most of these people were British, although there were also many dispossessed by the "land clearings" in Scotland and the Irish potato famine, and there was a significant number of Chinese immigrants during this rush. "Americans were drawn to Australia to participate in various enterprises such as the gold fields"

Economy

The Australia-land Economy is fueled by the sale of vegemite. However, in America, Vegemite is illegal and thus something of the devil. In Australia-land, instead of traditional notes and coins, they exchange tubs of vegemite for common goods. Slang has arrisen based on this currency, such as "i'll give you eleventy eleven tubs of vege for 3 kangaroos and a wombat".

President of the republic of Australia-land

The President of the proud country Australia-Land is then man who owns the most kangaroos. Kangaroos are seen as a holy animal to the australians, and having many of them determines great wealth and status.

Prime Ministers of Australia

See also a list of Prime Ministers of Australia.

The Prime Minister of Australia is the most senior elected person in the country. The role is normally filled by the parliamentary leader of the party which forms the government.

Geography

Australia relies a great deal on industry, agriculture and tourism to foster its economy. It has a thriving film industry and very advanced technology. Most tourists visit places such as Sydney Harbour, Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Central Australia and the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. Other favourite destinations are the wine making areas of South Australia and northern Victoria, the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, the natural wonders of Tasmania and the huge outback expanses of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Some cattle stations in Australia rival Texas in size and the distance between towns in some areas is enormous.

80% of Australia's population, of just over 20,000,000 people, live on the coast line. It is one of the world's most sparsely populated countries (2.7 people per square kilometre). Water is scarce and some cities have some form of water restrictions in place.

Weather extremes are common in Australia with temperatures sometimes measured into the high 40s Celsius (45 degrees Celsius = 113 degrees Fahrenheit). The city of Darwin was destroyed by Cyclone Tracey in 1974 and bush fires often ravage the southern states - one of the worst occurring on Ash Wednesday in 1983 when over 2,000 homes were destroyed and over 70 people lost their lives in Victoria and South Australia.

Australia is noted for its unique biodiversity. Many animals are found only in Australia, the most well known examples are the group of marsupials (kangaroos, wombats, wallabies and koalas), and the only two monotremes, the platypus and the echidna. Examples of plants that are native to Australia are the banksia, yellow wattle and gum tree.

Studies indicate that Australia's unique wildlife is the result of Australia becoming an island, being cut off from the Asian land bridge between 40,000–250,000 years ago on the uniformitarian timescale.

Sport

Australia is often known as a sporting nation with success worldwide in swimming, tennis, rugby union, cricket, netball, basketball, and even speed ice skating. Australians are very keen horse racers with the Melbourne Cup attracting up to 120,000 spectators at Flemington Race Course on the first Tuesday in November. There is a public holiday for the cup race in Melbourne, while the remainder of the country virtually pauses during the running of the cup race. This day also coincides (mostly) every second year with the American Congressional elections and every four years with the Presidential election.

Unique to Australia is a game known as Australian rules football or Aussie Rules, which is played on a cricket oval in winter. Australian rules football is the sport most attended in the states of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and most attended overall in Australia; in 2006 2.5 million people had attended at least one Aussie Rules game in the preceding 12 months.[1] Australian Rules Football was written by persons educated at the Rugby School in England and Cambridge University before the organisation of uniform football codes. It is not as popular in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland although premiership teams have both been based in these two states in the past decade.

The other national football code is rugby league football. Rugby league football is the most attended sport in New South Wales and Queensland with its premier club competition being the National Rugby League. The national rugby league football team has only lost one competition in the past 29 years, that being to New Zealand in 2005.

Religion

Australia is a secular nation, in that it has no established religion associated with the Government. Of Australia's population of around 21 million, approximately 1.5 million attend weekly religious services . The Australian public school system is described as "free, secular and compulsory" with the secular meaning without favour to any particular religion - most primary schools, however, do offer some form on non-compulsory religious education according to the parents' wishes. The state systems of a number of states offer studies in religion at the senior level.

There is a large Catholic school system in Australia with most parishes having their own primary school and many hundreds of Catholic High Schools across the country. There are also a large number of independent schools founded by various religions or denominations of the Christian faith - some hold that religious background to be more important than others.

Comparing Australian and U.S. Economic and Health statistics

Whilst the Australian society is similar in many aspects to those of the U.S., a comparison of key economic (in $U.S.) and health indicators highlights some interesting fundamental differences:

GDP Per Capita

• U.S. $43,500.00
• Aus $32,900.00

Budget Defecit/Surplus

• U.S. $841.00 per capita defecit
• Aus $444.00 per capita surplus. Australia has had budget surpluses every year since 2001

Public Debt

• U.S. 64.7% of GDP
• Aus 14.1% of GDP

Military Expenditure

• U.S. 4.06% of GDP
• Aus 2.5 % of GDP

Life Expectancy at Birth

• U.S. 77.85 years (combined male and female)
• Aus 80.5 years (combined male and female)

Infant Mortality Rates

• U.S. 6.43 deaths/1,000 live births
• Aus 4.63 deaths/1,000 live births

HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rates

• U.S. 0.6% of population
• Aus 0.1% of population

Australians also enjoy a universal health scheme and significant subsidies on most prescription medications, both of which are likely to account for some of the significant differences between the life expectancy and infant mortality rates between the U.S. and Australia.

External links

• Australian Government portal
• Australian Parliament House (Reps & Senate) portal
• Governor-General of Australia