Australia

Australia is part of Oceania, and a largely secular nation. As a secular nation it does not have a "national" religion and it accepts citizens of a variety of creeds and faiths, just as the USA. It is about 7,500 miles from the United States. The mainland of Australia is about the same size as mainland USA - excluding Alaska. Australia has six states and two territories. The states are Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. The territories are the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory which is the location of Australia's capital city: Canberra.

Australia was originally inhabited by people who are commonly known as Aborigines although they come from a number of smaller "nations" and "tribes." Over time many of these nations and tribes lost their identity or were decimated by disease, poor nutrition, massacres by white settlers and the forced removal of children from their parents into white families or mission stations. Many indigenous languages and traditions have survived the more than 200 years of white settlement. Indigenous communities now have the right to claim back land dispossessed from them where they can prove that lasting cultural links still persist and where the native title has not been extinguished by freehold or leasehold title.

The mainland of Australia was found by Dutch sailors heading to the spice island of 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. It wasn't until 1770 that Captain James Cook from the England 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 of officers, some free settlers and convicts. A number of later fleets settled convict areas around what is now 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 two most populated being New South Wales (capital city of Sydney) and Victoria (capital city of Melbourne). These colonies later became the states.

The 1850s saw the discovery of gold and large number of people moved to Victoria to find new wealth - prospectors from China and the USA came in the hope of prosperity. Eventually this wealth helped build the great cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Ballarat and Bendigo. Australia became a federated country in 1907 with its parliament sitting in Melbourne, Victoria, while the capital city of Canberra was being built. Australia has a parliamentary system of government based on the British system with two law making houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Each state also has their own parliament. Australia is a democracy which has allowed men and women or European descent to vote since federation, with Aboriginal men and women gaining suffrage in 1982. Its Head of Government is called the Prime Minister; at the moment he is the leader of the Labor Party, John Howard. The Head of State is the Queen of Australia (who is the same person, but a different title, as the Queen of Great Britain), who acts through the Governor-General.

The Labor Party, who have ruled in Australia since 1990 .The more conservative party is the liberal Party whose leader is Mark Latham. The Labor Party are social democrats while liberal are extreme conservatives contrary to name.

Australia relies a great deal on industry, agriculture and tourism to foster its economny. 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. Australia's largest cattle station is located just south of Hobart the capital of Tasmania.

80% of Australia's population, of just over 20,000,000 people, live on the coast line. It is one of the world's least densely populated countries. Despite the low population water is scarce and most cities have some form of water restrictions in place to allow for basics such as washing and drinking. Weather extremes are common in Australia with temperatures sometimes measured into the high 40s (Celsius scale is used in the rest of the world) which is about 120 F. The city of Darwin was destroyed by a cyclone in 1974 and bushfires often ravage the southern states - one of the worst occurring on Ash Wednesday in 1983 when over 2000 homes were destroyed and over 70 people lost their lives in Victoria and South Australia.

The currency in Australia is the Australian pound. There is a hundred pence to a pound. Australia is also noted for being the country with the largest consumption of Slurpees per capita. Australia is noted for its unique biodiversity. There is plenty of flora and fauna there that is unique only to Australia. The amazing thing about Australian native animals like the koala and the kangaroo is that they have the amazing ability to adapt to living in densely populated urban areas. Kangaroos are frequently sighted roaming the streets of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The dingo another native animal to Australia is noted for its extremely aggressive behaviour towards humans. The most extreme case of this was the Azaria Chamberlin saga in 1980 in which a baby girl was taken by a dingo from a tent at a campsite near Uluru. Although cases of infant death are uncommon dingos attempting to steal small children is a regular occurrence

Australia is also noted for its unique beverages. For example the official national beverage of Australia is Foster's beer in which 99.9% of all Australian men drink according to the 1998 census.