Top Australia Resources

Australia is home to perhaps the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world - that is, those of the Aboriginal Australians, an artistic tradition that began to receive international recognition in the late 20th century. It has also produced notable artists coming out of Western traditions whose most distinctively Australian feature is the gradual development of a way to represent the equally distinctive Australian landscape.

Debate about the role of the ABC continues, as many assign it a marginal role, and claim that American-influenced commercial TV and radio stations are far more popular choices. These critics claim that Australian children grow up watching Sesame Street and The Simpsons, eating fries at McDonalds, wearing baseball caps, speaking American slang, and some have never heard of Blinky Bill or the Magic Pudding. Television ratings are cited as backing this view, but it is less clear that these ratings tell the whole view. Certainly there have been many local television shows that have been successful, such as Skippy (in the late 1960s), Number 96 and The Box in the 1970s, Prisoner in the 1980s, and Neighbours and Home and Away (in the 1980s and 1990s), which have sometimes been even more successful abroad.

The geography of Australia encompasses a wide variety of biogeographic regions being the world's smallest continent but the sixth-largest country. The population is concentrated along the eastern and southeastern coasts; regular, tropical, invigorating, sea breeze known as "the Doctor" occurs along the west coast in the summer.

Canberra (pronounced CAN-bruh , CAN-berra, Can-BER-ra or Can-buh-ruh) is Australia's capital city and largest inland city (population 311,000). It is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory, (ACT; population 339,000). Canberra is the 7th most populous city in the country, though it is smaller than any of the state capitals except Hobart.

The Australian aborigines , estimated to number as many as 350,000 at the time of the Europeans' arrival, was numbered at 386,049 (including Torres Strait Islanders, who are of Papuan descent) in 1996. Although still more rural than the general population, the aboriginal population has become more urbanized, with some two thirds living in cities. New South Wales and Queensland account for just over half of the Australian aboriginal population. In Tasmania the aboriginal population was virtually wiped out in the 19th century.

The land that is now Australia was first discovered by Europeans in 1522 by the Portuguese explorer Cristóvão de Mendonça, but it was only in the 17th century that the island continent became the subject of European exploration, with several expeditions sighting Terra Australis: The Dutch explorer Willem Jansz (1606), the Portuguese explorer Luis Vaez de Torres in Spanish service (1607), and the Dutch explorers Jan Carstensz (1623), Dirk Hartog and Abel Tasman (1642), after whom is named the island of Tasmania, but which he himself originally named after Anthoonij van Diemenslandt.

Adelaide is the capital city of the Australian state of South Australia. It is a coastal city on the Southern Ocean and was named in honour of Queen Adelaide, the consort of King William IV. It is situated on the Fleurieu Peninsula overlooking the Gulf St. Vincent, bordered by the low lying Mt Lofty Ranges to the east giving the suburbs a roughly north-south rectangular layout. The population is 1,072,585 (census 2001). In terms of population, it is the fifth-largest of the Australian capital cities.

In 1901, Australia adopted a federal constitution and became a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. Australian troops took part in both world wars. Since World War II Australia has been transformed by a massive immigration programme. Australia remains a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state: a referendum to establish a republic was defeated in 1999.

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.

Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territory, and is a city of 109,419 people (2001 census) on Australia's far north-western coastline. Darwin is reputed to suffer more lightning-strikes than any other inhabited place in the world. It is also home to the Territory's only university, Charles Darwin University.