Australia - My Country

It is all these things and much, much more.

Australia is a very large country, an island continent, but without a large population. There are only nineteen million people, in fact.

It has a diverse history that goes back at least 40,000 years and probably longer, but no-one really knows how long the Aboriginal people have lived here.

European settlement only commenced in 1788, in Sydney New South Wales. This first settlement was a convict settlement.

Many European seafaring explorers discovered the coasts of Australia, particularly from Holland "http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery in the preceding centuries.

The existence of Australia was also known to the inhabitants of the nearby Indonesian islands, (formerly Dutch East Indies), some of whom traded with the Aborigines.

Over the last 200 years Australia has grown into a society with its own unique culture and history. Originally a British colony, it is now an independent country within the British Commonwealth of Nations.

The majority of the population is still British/Irish but succeeding waves of immigration have made it a multicultural nation.

The ethos of "the bush" is still very much part of the Australian psyche, even though the majority now live in the cities. The cities provide a vibrant cultural and intellectual life of literature, the arts, a film-making industry and the sciences.

Sports are the true interests of most Australians, the country stops for a horse race on the first Tuesday in November each year and Australian Rules football is regarded by many as the "religion" of the state of Victoria.

This is the Australia I know and love and want to share with others.

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