Australia
Australia
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People should be aware that this webpage may contain links to sites with images, voices and names of deceased persons.
Today's Flag:
is for Australia Day, 26 January! G'day mate, are you a ridgy-didge stuck living out Woop Woop? No worries, mate: she'll be alright, its bonzer in the land down under! Have a Captain Cook and throw some snags on the barbie, or hit the frog and toad, have one for the road and be gone on walkabout. Sing oi for drongos and galahs all you blokes and sheilas, crikey, have a ripsnorter, make a dog's breakfast and in the arvo, spend a lobster, pineapple or a grey nurse for six of one, half dozen of the other, and get within a cooee of the fun! Fair dinkum! Now if you understood any of that, you'll probably think me a pommie bastard with a kangaroo loose in the upper paddock, but I'll still have tinnies with yous, and get rooted! Ripper!
The only country in the world that covers an entire continent, Australia also administers several smaller islands and Tasmania. Australia is also known for its unique and diverse wildlife such as wombats, kangaroos and the platypus. Minerals, petroleum products and timber are important natural resources while service, tourism, and health care are prominent industries. Australian arts and culture spans a wide range from classical to pop in music, literature, film and art: Kylie Minogue, Steve Irwin, Paul Hogan, Cate Blanchett, Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman being perhaps the most widely recognized Australians. Sports fans in Australia can admire their own world-class athletes in Rugby, Australian-Rules Football, Cricket, Sailing, Golf, Tennis, Surfing and Horse Racing as well as their successful national teams in the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. Humorously, the continent is also home to some more unusual sporting events such as The Windorah International Yabby Races, the Thirsty Camel Cup or the Henley-on-Todd Regatta, a dry-river bed boat race!
Inhabited for over 65,000 years by indigenous Australians, the first European to land on and chart part of the continent was mariner Willem Janssen of Holland in 1605. Though landed on and partially charted by many contemporary seafarers, no European power had yet claimed Terra Australis Incognita. Ostensibly sent to the south Pacific to observe a transit of Venus from Tahiti, HMS Endeavour and her commander, Lieutenant James Cook had sailed from Plymouth with sealed, secret orders from the Admiralty. Completing the astronomical observations at Tahiti, the orders were unsealed: the Admiralty directed them "...to observe the Genius, Temper, Disposition and Number of the Natives, if there be any and endeavour by all proper means to cultivate a Friendship and Alliance with them... [and] ...with the Consent of the Natives to take Possession of Convenient Situations in the Country in the Name of the King of Great Britain..." Despite these reasonable instructions and ignoring the Gweagal people they briefly made contact with, Cook and his crew landed on the east coast near Botany Bay in 1770, and claimed the "terra nullius" for Great Britain.
Infamously, the British populated their new south Pacific territory with convicts, with the first fleet of those 'transported' landing at Botany Bay. The act of Captain Arthur Phillip raising the Union Flag on 26 January 1788 has come to be celebrated nationally as Australia Day. These new colonists had an immediate and devastating effect on the indigenous population through displacement from land and the introduction of non-native diseases such as influenza, small-pox and measles. The discovery of gold in 1851 only exacerbated violence and conflict with aboriginal people as vast numbers of Europeans continued to pour into Australia.
As communities, farms and industries grew, so did the local governments. By the end of the 19th century, the administration of the colonies had coalesced around six states. A referendum lead to the six states forming a federation, and the modern nation of Australia was created on 1 January 1901. As a British Dominion, Australia made important contributions and suffered grievous losses during the Boer and the First and Second World Wars. ANZAC Day is observed annually on 25 April in recognition of the landing of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli, and has come to commemorate all Australians who have made the supreme sacrifice in military operations. As the British Empire declined following the wars, Australia formed its own international identity, joining the United Nations in 1945 and forming essential alliances with the United States and New Zealand, participating in Korea and Vietnam, as well as becoming a founding member of SEATO in 1954.
From time to time, public attitudes question whether or not to embrace republicanism and change current symbols of British heritage such as the flag, however tradition and established practice have overcome any radical changes in these areas. Aboriginal Australians have disputed and fought back against the loss of homelands, systemic racism, and governmental infringement on their natural rights, winning several court rulings that have established that a century of Australian common law had "violated human rights norms and denied the historic reality of indigenous people's dispossession." Culturally, Australian attitudes are changing as efforts at reconciliation with its indigenous population expand and become more meaningful. Today, Australia is a highly developed country and the 2021 UN World Happiness Report ranks Australia as enjoying the 12th highest Happiness rating, ahead of Ireland, the United States of America and Canada.
Quick Facts:
Monarch: Queen Elizabeth II
Accession: 6 February 1952
Represented by Governor-General: His Excellency, General the Honourable David Hurley, AC, DSC, FTSE (1 Jul 2019)
Population: 25,973,695 (click here for current statistic)
Inhabitants of Australia are called: Australians (colloq. Aussie, Ozzie)
State Religion: none
Currency: AU$, Australian Dollar: current exchange rate
Capital: Canberra, ACT
Population: 462,213
Type of Government: Federal Constitutional Monarchy
Governing Body: Parliament = Prime Minister + House of Representatives + Senate
Founded: 1 January 1901
Flag Adopted: 14 February 1954. Australian Flag Day is celebrated on 3 September annually to recall the 1901 announcement of the winning entry in the Australian flag contest, by Prime Minister Edmund Barton.
Special National Holiday: Australia Day - 26 January
Maps of Australia: Geoscience Australia
Member: UN (1945) , Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (dialogue partner), Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (ARF), Australia Group, Australia-New Zealand-United States Security Treaty (ANZUS), Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Colombo Plan (CP), Commonwealth of Nations, East Asia Summit (EAS), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (G20), Informal social partnership (MIKTA), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Criminal Court (ICCt), International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), International Development Association (IDA), International Energy Agency (IEA), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCS), International Finance Corporation (IFC), International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), International Labour Organization (ILO), International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Organization for Migration (IOM), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRM), International Telecommunication Union (ITU),