Australia Brisbane House In Sources of australia brisbane house in information from the Web

Australia has produced a wide variety of popular music. While many musicians and bands (some notable examples include the 1960s successes of The Easybeats and the folk-pop group The Seekers, through the heavy rock of AC/DC, and the slick pop of INXS and more recently Savage Garden) have had considerable international success, there remains some debate over whether Australian popular music really has a distinctive sound. Perhaps the most striking common feature of Australian music, like many other Australian art forms, is the dry, often self-deprecating humor evident in the lyrics.

Rainfall in Australia is highly variable, with frequent droughts lasting several seasons. Occasionally a duststorm will blanket a region or even several states and there are reports of the occasional large tornado. Rising levels of salinity and desertification in some areas is ravaging the landscape.

Although education is not a federal concern, government grants have aided in the establishment of numerous state universities including the University of Sydney (1850), the University of Melbourne (1853), the University of Adelaide (1874), the University of Tasmania (in Hobart, 1890), the University of Queensland (in Brisbane, 1909), and the University of Western Australia (in Perth, 1911).

Australia is unusual because the animal population evolved largely out of contact with the other continents. A very high percentage of Australian animals are endemic (found nowhere else) including about 70% of its birds and 95% of its mammals. Over time, marsupials filled most of the ecological niches that are occupied by placental mammals in most other parts of the world.

The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy: Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia, a role distinct and separate from her position as Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, and is considered to be the head of state, although that term is found nowhere in the Constitution or the law. The Queen is nominally represented by the Governor-General - in practice virtually the entire constitutional role of the monarch is performed independently by the Governor-General. Under the Australian Constitution the role of the monarch is almost entirely ceremonial. Although the constitution theoretically gives very extensive executive power to the Governor-General, these powers are virtually never used directly, and are delegated to the Cabinet, whose members are chosen by the governing party or by the Prime Minister alone, from amongst the current members of the parliament.

The exact date of the first human habitation of Australia is still a subject of considerable research. There is strong scientific evidence for a presence around 50,000 years ago, a period of massive ecological upheaval in Australia which is believed to be consistent with human colonisation. However, there is some speculation about considerably earlier arrivals, even as far as 100,000 or more years ago. These first Australians were the remote ancestors of the current Australian Aborigines, and arrived via land bridges and navigation of significant sea crossings from present-day Southeast Asia.

Australian immigration has a checkered history. Immigration to the continent now called Australia began over 50,000 years ago, when the ancestors of Australian Aborigines arrived via Indonesia and New Guinea. Europeans began landing in the 1600's and 1700's, and the country was colonised by Britain in 1788.

The Australian Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state; there is no state religion in Australia. Although the nation is broadly secular and few are church-goers, three-quarters of Australians are nominally Christian, mostly Catholic or Anglican. A diverse range of other religions are practised.

Australia also has several inhabitated external territories (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands) and several largely uninhabited external territories: Coral Sea Islands Territory, Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory.