Australia
Australia
is located in the Southern Hemisphere
(that is the bottom half of the world).
This is why it is sometimes called the Land Down Under.
Australia is the
smallest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent in the world. It is the only
country which is also a whole continent. 18.6 million people live here.
The people of
Australia are called Australians. Australians
call different parts of their country by different names:
· The City
Is any large city and its suburbs. Over 85% of the
people live in cities. Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth
and Canberra are
major cities.
· The Country
Is the area immediately outside the city and usually includes the surrounding
smaller towns and farms. Most of what is called "the country" is a
stretch of land about 200 kilometres deep around the eastern and southern
seaboards of Australia. Upper Beaconsfield, the Great Ocean Road , the Dandenongs, etc are in
"the country".
· The Outback
Is the sparsely populated arid interior of Australia. The Australian Outback is
both harsh and breathtakingly beautiful. It's like no other place on earth. Coober Pedy, Uluru, etc are in the Outback.
There are 6 states
and 2 territories in Australia:
- Queensland
- New South Wales
- South Australia
- Tasmania
- Victoria
- Western Australia
- Northern Territory
- Australian Capital Territory
The capital of
Australia is Canberra .
Australia has lots
of unusual Animals.
Australia has the
largest coral reef in the world called the Great Barrier Reef. It is
stunning!.
Australians speak English.
But we also have our own special words and phrases referred to as Strine.
Australia's favourite song is Waltzing Matilda
Aborigines - The
First Australians
The word Aborigine is derived from Latin and means "from the
beginning". This is the name given to the native Australians by the
Europeans.
This is not the name they called themselves.
They prefer to call themselves: Koori.
BEFORE 1770
The first human
inhabitants of Australia were the Aborigines.
They are a
dark-skinned people belonging to the Australoid group who probably came from
Asia. Nobody is quite sure how they came to Australia around 60,000 years ago.
They may have walked and sailed here from Asia.
The Aborigines
were nomadic hunter-gathers. They roamed from place to place. They hunted
animals using spears and boomerangs. They also gathered fruits, nuts and yams
which they ate.
There were around
300,000 aborigines in about 250 tribal groups before the first white settlers
came. Each group had its own territory, traditions, beliefs and language.
They all believed
in the Dreamtime which is the
center piece of aboriginal culture.
THE FIRST ENCOUNTER
WITH SETTLERS
The aborigine
people had never seen white people until Captain James Cook landed in Botany
Bay in 1770. They were shocked to see these white people in their strange
clothes.
When the
aborigines first saw the ships of the "First Fleet"
enter Botany Bay in 1778 with so many white skinned people they thought they
were the spirits of their dead ancestors (after all they were so white). In
actual fact these were the first European settlers led by Captain Arthur
Phillip.
At first the
Aborigines were friendly towards the visitors but were very confused at the way
white foreigners behaved:
- Why did the foreigners walk on aborigine
sacred sites and dig up aborigine graves?
- Why did they boss each other around and
beat and hang people?
- Why did they chop down trees and take
food without asking?
- Why were they mean and selfish towards
each other and not sharing?
THE FIRST MISUNDERSTANDING
While exploring
around the new settlement Captain Arthur Phillip befriended an old aborigine
man. When he returned to camp he met the old man again and gave him some beads
and a hatchet. Later that night Captain Phillip discovered the old man taking
one of his shovels and slapped the man on his shoulder and pushed him away
while pointing to the spade. The old man was very upset and could not
understand why his friend was acting this way.
Aborigines share
what they have with their friends.
Captain Phillip
was very careful not to offend the aborigines but Aborigine and the Settlers
cultures were so different! They didn't understand each other.
CONFLICT
When the
aborigines realised that the white men were not the spirits of their dead
ancestors and that the settlers were taking more and more of their land and
destroying the trees and wild life they began to fight back.
The aborigines
killed a number of the settlers and even wounded Captain Phillip in an attack.
The settlers reacted by slaughtering and poisoning the aborigines and
systematically destroying the land and wild animals they lived on.
DISEASE
White settlers
brought diseases the aborigines had never had before (diseases which were quite
common in Europe at the time).
Aborigines caught
smallpox and even the common cold and died in great numbers. Within two years
smallpox had killed almost half the aborigine population around Sydney.
DEPRAVATION
The British
colonists declared that before their arrival all of the continent was terra
nullius (uninhabited by humans). They used this as justification for taking
whatever they wanted.
As more and more
white settlers moved in and occupied the fertile lands the aborigines were
pushed further and further away from their traditional lands and into the harsh
arid interior. Their families were broken up, their children taken away from
them and sent to be "civilised", their sacred sites destroyed and
their wild animals hunted.
The killing and
exploitation of aborigines by whites continued well into the twentieth century.
The aboriginal population declined from the original 300,000 when the first
white settlers arrived to only about 60,000 people (less than the number of
people that can be seated at the MCG stadium!).
Aborigines were
second class citizens in their own land. They only got the right to vote in
1967.
This is a shameful
part of Australian history.
RECONCILIATION
Much progress has
been made over recent years to try to right the wrongs of the past. Where
possible the government has been returning land to their traditional owners and
encouraging Aborigines to rebuild their culture and lives.
They are the
single most disadvantaged group of people in Australia.
There is still a
long way to go!
ANIMALS - AUSTRALIA
Up to about 250
millions of years ago the world had just one huge super-continent call Pangaea.
Animals and plants were able to move and intermix with one another.
About 200 million
years ago this super-continent broke up into two continents (Laurasia and
Gondwana).
About 60 million
years ago Gondwana broke up into what was to later become South America,
Africa, Antarctica, India and Australia.
Since then Australia has been
isolated from the rest of the world by vast oceans. The animals and plants
which were originally here no longer had contact with animals from other parts
of the world. They evolved separately. That is why they are so different.
NATIVE AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS
Australia has lots
very unusual animals. About 95 percent of the mammals, 70 percent of the birds,
88 percent of the reptiles and 94 percent of the frogs are found nowhere else
in the world.
Find out about
them here:
- Antechinus
- Long-Nosed Bandicoot
- Bat
- Black Snake (Red-bellied)
- Cassowary
- Cockatoo
- Crocodile (Saltwater)
- Echidna
- Emu
- Frilled Lizard
- Kangaroo
- Koala
- Kookaburra
- Penguin (Fairy)
- Platypus
- Possums:
- Bushtail
- Feathertail Glider
- Leadbeater's
- Pygmy
- Ringtail
- Sugar Glider
- Tawny Frogmouth
- Wallaby
- Wombat
WHO DISCOVERED AUSTRALIA
In about 200AD a
famous Greek astronomer named Claudius Ptolemy believed that the earth had to
be balanced or it would topple over. So he figured that there had be a land yet
unknown to Europeans somewhere below the Indian Ocean. Over time this yet to be
discovered land came to be known as
Terra
Australis Incognito
which means the
Unknown Southern Land.
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For many centuries
people in Europe were certain that there was a land down under (this map from
1570 shows what they thought) but nobody knew how to get to it . They kept
missing it or not realising that they had stumbled upon it. For over 200 years
hundreds of European navigators set across the seas searching for the Unknown
Southern Land.
They expected to
find gold and other treasures.
Aborigines were the first
people to discover Australia. They may have walked or sailed here from Asia
over 60,000 years age. They arrived at a time when the northern parts of
Australia had a hot humid tropical climate much like that of Asia today.
Portuguese sailors
may have sailed along the coastline of Australia as far back as 1542. Some maps
have been found which show parts of what appears to be the Australian
coastline. But there is no definite proof that they did.
In 1616 a Dutch
trading ship, the Eendracht, on its way to the Indies (now called
Indonesia) bumped into west coast of of Australia. Captain Dirk Hartog landed
at Shark Bay, looked around a bit but didn't find anything interesting. He nailed
a pewter dish to a tree to record his visit. He did not realize that he had
found Australia. His is the first recorded European landing in Australia.
Dutch sailors
continued see the coastline on their trips and called this land New Holland but
didn't bother to visit it
In 1642 a Dutchman
named Abel Tasman sighted an island he called Van Diemen's Land. He did not
realise that this island was a part of Australia. He also went on to explore
New Zealand.
This island was
later renamed Tasmania in honour of Abel Tasman
In 1770 an
expedition from England lead by Captain James Cook sailed to the south pacific.
They were supposed to make astronomical observations. But Captain Cook also had
secret orders from the British Admiralty to find the southern continent.
They sailed in the
Endeavour. It had a crew of 94 men.
They landed in a
bay on the east coast on the 29th of April 1770. Cook first called this place
Stingray Bay, then he changed it to Botanist Bay and finally called it Botany
Bay because of all the strange and unusual plants there.
He called this new
land New Wales and then changed it to New South Wales. He claimed the land for
England (even though the land already belonged to the Aborigines).
Captain Cook was
also the first European to visit the Great Barrier Reef.
Actually he ran
into it and damaged his ship pretty badly. He had to spend seven weeks
repairing his ship.
Canberra
THE CITY.
Canberra is a city
of about 310,000 people located in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
approximately 200 kilometres from Sydney. Most of the people
in Canberra are employed by the federal government.
Canberra is a very
young city. The plans for the city were only drawn up in 1911 and construction
didn't commence until 1913.
The grand design
for the city was drawn up by a relatively obscure american architect named
Walter Burley Griffin. The lake which is a central focus of the city today is
named after him.
With its imposing
buildings, broad boulevards and uncluttered streetscape (there are no
billboards, in Canberra) it lacks the charm and vibrancy of more cosmopolitan
cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.
FEDERAL PARLIAMENT HOUSE
The Federal
Parliament House is built on top of Capital Hill. It was completed in 1988 and
replaces the old parliament house which is located further down the hill. The
building was designed to merge into the profile of the hill itself.A stainless
steel flag mast 81 metres tall surmounts the building from which flutters the
Australian flag (the flag is as big as a double decker bus).
It cost over 800
million dollars to build and is considered to be one of the most attractive
parliament buildings anywhere in the world.
The House of
Representatives Chamber can seat up to 240 Members of Parliament.
Currently there
are approximately 148 members. They are popularly elected for three year terms.
The numbers of members representing each state is proportional to their
populations but there must be must be at least five members from each state.
The Senate
Chamber can seat 120 Senators.
Currently there
are 76 senators. They are popularly elected for 6 year terms. There are 12
senators from each state and two each from each territory.
HISTORY OF CANBERRA
Aborigines lived around
what is now Canberra for thousands of years.
1820 The first
Europeans to visit the Limestones plains where current day Canberra is located
were Joseph Wild, James Vaughan and Charles Throsby.
1824 Joshua John
Moore took up the first land grant on the Limestone Plains. He called his
property "Canberry" after the name the local aborigines called the
place. His property was where the the Australian National University and Lake
Burley Griffin is today.
1825 Robert
Campbell started a grazing station on the Limestone Plains. He named his
property "Duntroon" after the family castle in Scotland. He built a
house called Duntroon House which was added on to by his son and descendants.
It is part of the Royal Military College today.
Many other people
also farmed and grazed the land around the Limestone Plains.
1901 On January 1
Queen Victoria signed the Constitution Act making Australia an independent
country. Both Sydney and Melbourne wanted the
national capital to be in their cities. So to prevent too much rivalry a search
was begun to find a new site for the federal capital.
1908 The Canberra
area was selected as the future site for the capital of Australia.
1911 An
international competition was launched to find the best plan for the new city.
The design by an American landscape architect named Walter Burley Griffin won
the competition.
1927 The temporary
federal parliament building was completed and federal parliament moved from Melbourne to its new home
in Canberra.
1978 It was
decided that a new parliament building was needed to replace the temporary
building which had been used for over fifty years.
1988 The new
Parliament House was opened by Queen Elizabeth 2.
Coober Pedy
The name Coober Pedy is derived from the Aboriginal words
"kupa piti", which means "white man's burrow".
The description is apt because most people live and work underground.
Coober Pedy
is located 836 kilometres (510 miles) north of Adelaide and about 300
kilometres south of Uluru.
It is a desolate
landscape devoid of vegetation and water. It is an extremely hot place too. The
entire landscape is pockmarked by the telltale tailing of countless opal mines.
In 1915 a young
boy named Willie Hutchison, who was out with his father prospecting for gold,
discovered the first opal there. Since then the town has grown to about 2500
people.
Coober Pedy
produces about 90% of the world's opals.
Because of the
extreme heat during the summer almost all buildings are located underground.
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier
Reef stretches along the east coast of Queensland in Australia. It is the
world's largest coral reef . It is over 2000km (1250 miles) long! It is not a
single reef at all. It is made up of over 2900 individual reefs very close to
each other
WHAT IS A CORAL REEF?
A coral
is a tiny marine polyp. It is the living part of the coral reef. There
are many different kinds of corals. These are what
gives the coral reef its colourful appearance. Corals feed mostly on plankton.
Coral grows in warm climates where there is clear salt water and sunlight. They
don't like pollution.
A coral reef
is a natural barrier made of the bodies of living and dead coral. It is
normally just below the surface of the water.
It is made of two
parts the:
- white part is made from the bodies of
zillions and zillions of polyps which have died over hundreds and
thousands of years.
- colourful part is the living part of the
coral reef. It is made up of living polyps.
WHO LIVES HERE?
· 1500 species of fish
· 400 different types of coral
· 4,00 molluscs (like clams and the sea slug)
· 500 species of seaweed
· 215 species of birds
· 16 species of sea snake
· 6 species of sea turtle
· Whales visit during winter
New South Wales
New South Wales is the fourth largest state in Australia. It is 801,600
sq km in size.
About 6 million people live in New South Wales. One in three
Australians lives in New South Wales.
SYDNEY
Sydney is the capital of
the state of New South Wales. It is Australia's oldest and largest city. The
defining symbols of Sydney are its Opera House and "coat hanger
bridge".
Sydney is the
commercial capital of Australia.
About 3.8 million
people live in the greater Sydney area.
THE BEACH
Bondi and Manly
are some of the famous beaches along the New South Wales coast a short distance
from Sydney
THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
The Blue Mountains
rise from the coastal plains about 65 kilometres west of Sydney. They are
composed of sandstone deposited over 170 million years ago that was then pushed
up to form a plateau which was subsequently eroded by wind, rain and water
leaving spectacular gorges, pinnacles and cliffs. The highest point is about
1100 meters above sea level.
The towering
cliffs of these mountains presented a seemly impassable barrier to early european
settlers. Even today most parts are only accessible to experienced bushwalkers.
WHY ARE THEY SO BLUE?
The Blue Mountains are covered with eucalyptus trees which
constantly release very fine droplets of oil into the atmosphere. These
droplets cause the blue light-rays from the sun to be scattered more
effectively (knows as Rayliegh Scattering) making the whole area look bluer.
Strine - Australian Slang
Australian Strine
consists of words and phrases which:
· have different meanings from other English (like American English
or British English),
· we have made up ourselves or
· we have borrowed from Aborigine words or
from slang used by early settlers.
The Dandenongs
The Dandenong Ranges are located approximately 40 kilometers from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
HEALESVILLE SANCTUARY
The Healesville
Sanctuary is a place where you can see Australian native animals in natural
bushland surroundings. The sanctuary also carries out research and breeding
programs for many endangered animals.
There is a real
cool Koala
enclosure, platypus tank
and snake pit too.
Here is the
official web site for the Healesville Sanctuary
The Exhibits page is very good.
PUFFING BILLY RAILWAY
It is great fun
riding the Puffing Billy Railway as it weaves its way up the mountains. We even
get to sit on the windowsills and dangle our legs out the windows. If you look
closely you can see some people doing just that. Because its a stream train you
get coal dust in your eyes and on your clothes.
When the weather
is really dry and there is a danger of bushfires the Puffing Billy 's steam
engine isn't used. That's because a spark from its steam engine could start a
bushfire. They use a diesel engine instead.
Here is the
official web site for the Puffing Billy Railway .
TULIP FESTIVAL
Every year
thousands of visitors come to see the tulips at the Tesselaar Tulip farm in
Silvan.
There are many
other gardens in the Dandenongs too.
UPPER BEACONSFIELD
Upper Beaconsfield
is located 53 kms (33 miles) south-east of Melbourne in the Dandenong Ranges on
the southern foothills of the Great Dividing Range.
Upper Beaconsfield
retains much of its rural heritage and atmosphere with tree lined streets,
varied eucalyptus forests, wet-lands, fern gullies and secluded creeks.
THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD
The Great Ocean Road
starts at Torquay (about 100kms from Melbourne) and winds its
way for 180 kms along the south-western coast of Victoria , Australia.
It is one of the
most spectacular coastal drives in the world. It winds its ways around ragged
cliffs, windswept beaches, and tall buffs and passes through lush mountain
rainforest and towering eucalyptus.
The Great Ocean
Road was started in 1918 and completed during the Great Depression as a public
works project to give returned soldiers and unemployed people work.
Some of the sights
along the way are:
- Bells Beach - a great place to go surfing and where the Bells Surfing
Classic is held each Easter.
- Shipwreck Coast - where the wrecks of over 80 ships lie on the ocean floor.
Many ships carrying immigrants to the gold fields of Victoria floundered
in the treacherous seas.
- Lorne - a
popular sea side resort in Apollo Bay.
- Port Campbell National Park - One of the most photographed sections of the road where
shear golden limestone cliffs and rock formations withstand the buffeting
of fierce seas.
- Twelve Apostles -
(there are only 10 left!)
- London Bridge
(This is what it looked like before one of its spans collapsed)
- Loch Ard Gorge - where in 1878 the
clipper Loch Ard was driven into rocks during a storm with the
loss of 52 lives.
- Otway National Park
- Port Fairy
- a well preserved fishing village which was settled by sealers and
whalers back in the 1820s.
THE LOCH ARD DISASTER
The 18 passengers
and 36 crew on the iron-hulled clipper Loch Ard had a party on the night of
March 31, 1878, to celebrate their arrival in Melbourne the next day after a
three month voyage from England. But Captain Gibb stayed on deck all night,
worried by the thick mist that obscured the horizon and Cape Otway light. At
4am the mist lifted and the lookout cried: "Breakers ahead." Despite
desperate attempts to turn the ship away -- and then to hold it with its
anchors -- it struck rocks. water flooded in, the masts flailed against the
high cliff face before crashing down and waves swept across the decks,
hampering attempts to get the lifeboats into the water. Only two survived --
ship's apprentice Tom Pearce and Eva Carmichael, both aged 18. Eva's parents
and five siblings were lost. Tom drifted into the gorge where he saw passenger
Eva clinging to a mast -- he swam out, pulled her into a cave and found some
brandy in the wreckage to revive her. He climbed out of the gorge and came upon
two stockmen, and a rescue party was organised. But only four bodies --
including Eva's mother and sister, were able to be recovered from the
treacherous seas and most of the ship's valuable cargo was lost or looted. Tom
Pearce became a national hero for his rescue of Eva, who soon returned to
Ireland.
A few days after
the disaster a packing case washed up in the gorge. It contained a life-sized
Minton pottery peacock destined for the Melbourne Great Exhibition of 1880
The Outback is the arid sparsely
populated interior of Australia.
It makes up almost 85% of Australian landmass. Very few humans live
out there.
It is also sometimes called "Beyond the Black Stump".
The Australian Outback is both harsh and breathtakingly beautiful.
It's like nothing else anywhere else in the world.
A ROAD TO NEVER-NEVER
In the outback you
can travel for days without meeting anyone. This is why it is sometimes called
the Never-Never: the never ending landscape; the never ending horizon.
The land is
unforgiving to the careless and foolhardy. You can die of dehydration within
hours if you are not careful.
A STATION
Yes people
actually do live in the outback.
A person who
rounds up stock is called a Stockman.
A person who works at a Station is called a Stationhand.
The owner is called a Station-Manager
THE PEOPLE
The vast distances
have forced people to adapt to their isolation (some people being more than a
day's drive from their nearest neighbor). A two-way radio and an airstrip are
vital to any outback station.
Because of the
great distances some children in the outback cannot attend regular school. They
learn from the School of the Air which is a special school where the teacher
and student interact via a two-way radio.
Here is a
fascinating school in the outback run by the Mupuru aboriginal community . Its
really worth a visit: The Mapuru Homeland Leaning Centre
The Royal Flying
Doctor Service operates a fleet of airplanes outfitted as flying ambulances and
clinics. They visit these remote locations to provide medical services. They
also provides advice over the two-way radio.
ULURU
Uluru: Is a huge rock (called a monolith) that sticks out in the middle of
the flat desert. From a distance it looks like an impregnable fortress built
eons ago by some mythical warlord.
Uluru is over nine
kilometres (6 miles) around and over 348 metres (1000ft) high. It is believed
to be about 600 million years old and was once part of a huge mountain range.
The mountain range has long since disappeared - eroded away by rain and wind.
With each passing
hour as the sun moves across the sky the rock changes colour - changing from
delicate mauve, blues, pinks, browns to fiery red.
It is a sacred
place to the Pitjanjara Aboriginal tribe.
DEVILS MARBLES
Devils Marbles: These massive boulders are scattered along the Stuart Highway near
Alice Springs. They glow red in the sunset. Aborigines believe they
were left by the Rainbow Serpent of the Dreamtime.
WAVE ROCK
Wave Rock: Is a huge granite rock that looks like a huge wave that has been
frozen in time and turned into stone. It has been made this way by the wind and
rain water running down its sides.
KATHERINE GORGE
Katherine
Gorge: Is one of 13 gorges in Nitmiluk National
Park. They began forming about 23 million years ago as torrents of water
flowing through tiny cracks in the earth slowly eroded away the earth and rock
creating these huge gorges.
It is rich in Aboriginal art, with rock
paintings representing the spiritual 'dreaming' of the Jawoyn people, the
traditional owners of the land.
Apart from boat
rides through the Gorge, with its sheer towering walls, there are also over 100
kilometres of walking tracks and numerous aboriginal rock paintings to visit
THE OLGAS
The Olgas: Are enormous domes of red rock located about 32 kms from Uluru. You
can walk into valleys and gorges between the 36 rock domes and feel the eerie
mystery around you. The Aborigines call it 'Kata Tjuta'. It has great spiritual
significance to them.
The Peoples of Australia
We came from all over the world.
Australians are a
very friendly open sort of people. We love our sports, our family barbecues and
the beach. We are very urbanised - most of us living in the larger cities along
the coast. Almost 94% of the population are of European decent and as a result
we have a western outlook and culture. In general Australians are very tolerant
of other people and their customs.
WORK
Australians are
one of the most urbanised societies in the world. Almost 80% of the workforce
are employed in service industries such as: offices, banks, etc in the major
cities.
About 16% work in
manufacturing
About 3% are
farmers or graziers.
Wool is one of
Australia's major exports. Wool shearing is hard work.
Australia is rich
in mineral deposits. We mine and export alumina, iron, coal, copper,gold,
uranium, etc all over the world.
About 1% work in
the mining industry
SPORTS
During winter we
play Australian Rules Football which is played with an oval ball on an oval
field with eighteen players on each team. We also play Rugby.
In the summer we
play cricket. Cricket is played with a flat bat and a round leather covered
ball. Each team has 11 players. The objective of the game is to hit the ball as
far as possible without getting "caught out" or without having the
ball come in contact with your body or hitting the stumps (3 short poles behind
the batsman). The next Olympic games will be held in Sydney Australia in the year
2000.
LEISURE
Almost 85% of
Australians live within a few hours drive of the coast
Most major cities
have bicycle tracks.
We love to race
almost anything: horses, camels, goats, cockroaches and even earth worms.
Australia has lots
of wide open spaces and parks.
Upper Beaconsfield
Upper Beaconsfield
is located 53 kms (33 miles) south-east of Melbourne in the Dandenong Ranges on
the southern foothills of the Great Dividing Range. Upper Beaconsfield retains
much of its rural heritage and atmosphere with tree lined streets, varied
eucalyptus forests, wet-lands, fern gullies and secluded creeks. The large
residential blocks blend well with the surrounding environment. There are
strict laws protecting the local flora and fauna
STONEY CREEK
We go to Stony
Creek on hikes, to catch yabbies and fish. It's lots of fun. It isn't usually
misty like in this picture.
There are lots of
native ferns and gum trees around the creek.
There are Platypuses in the creek
but they are very shy and hide when us kids come by.
ASH WEDNESDAY BUSHFIRE
There was a
terrible bushfire in Upper Beaconsfield in 1983.
We didn't live
here then. The fire burned right through the land on which our house is now. We
can still see the burn marks on some of the trees in our garden. Lots of houses
burnt down and lots of animals and some people died too. We are all more
careful now.
ELEPHANT ROCK
Elephant Rock is
located on the Beaconsfield-Emerald Road . Kids paint it in all sorts of
colours. There is a good lookout from where you can see Cardinia Dam. There are
also good walking tracks there.
Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda is an Australian icon.
It is quite likely that more Australians know the words to this song than the
national anthem.
There is probably no other song that is more easily recognised by a populace:
young or old: ocker or a newly arrived immigrant.
Once a jolly
swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade
of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and
waited 'til his billy boiled
"Who'll
come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me?"
Waltzing
Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come
a-waltzing, Matilda, with me
And he sang as he
watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"Who'll
come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me?"
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Swagman - a drifter, a hobo, an itinerant shearer who carried all his
belongings wrapped up in a blanket or cloth called a swag.
Billabong - a waterhole near a river
Coolibah - a eucalyptus tree
Billy- a tin can with a wire handle used to boil water in
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Along came a
jumbuck to drink at the billabong,
Up jumped the
swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as
he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll
come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me".
Waltzing
Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come
a-waltzing, Matilda, with me
And he sang as
he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"Who'll
come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me?".
|
|
Jumbuck - a sheep
Tucker Bag - a bag for keeping food in
|
Up rode the
squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred,
Down came the
troopers, one, two, three,
"Whose is
that jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?"
"You'll
come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me".
Waltzing
Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come
a-waltzing, Matilda, with me
And he sang as
he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"Who'll
come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me?".
|
Trooper - a policeman, a mounted militia-man.
|
Up jumped the
swagman, leapt into the billabong,
"You'll
never catch me alive," said he,
And his ghost
may be heard as you pass by the billabong,
"Who'll
come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me".
Waltzing
Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come
a-waltzing, Matilda, with me
And he sang as
he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"Who'll
come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me?"
|
|
|
What does Waltzing
Matilda mean?
The phrase
Waltzing Matilda is believed to have originated with German immigrants who settled in
Australia.
Waltzing is
derived from the German term auf der walz which meant to travel while
learning a trade. Young apprentices in those days travelled the country working
under a master craftsman earning their living as they went - sleeping where
they could.
Matilda has
Teutonic origins and means Mighty Battle Maiden. It is believed to have been
given to female camp followers who accompanied soldiers during the Thirty Year
wars in Europe. This came to mean "to be kept warm at night" and
later to mean the great army coats or blankets that soldiers wrapped themselves
with. These were rolled into a swag tossed over their shoulder while
marching.
So the phrase
Waltzing Matilda came to mean: to travel from place to place in search of work
with all one's belongings on one's back wrapped in a blanket or cloth. This is
what Swagmen did in outback Australia.
How Did the Song Originate?
Andrew Barton
(Banjo) Patterson [1864-1941] was a solicitor (lawyer) by profession and lived
and worked in Sydney, Australia.
In 1895 Banjo and
his fiancee, Sarah Riley, visited the Dagworth Homestead a station in outback Queensland. This
station was owned by the family of one of Sarah's school friends: Christina
Macpherson. While at the station Banjo heard Christina play a tune called the
"Craigeelee" on an autoharp. Banjo liked the "whimsicality and
dreaminess" of the tune and thought it would be nice to set some words to
it.
During his stay
Bob Macpherson took Banjo around the station where they stopped at the Combo
Waterhole where they found the skin of a newly killed sheep. Obviously someone
had made a meal of it. Bob Macpherson may also have told Banjo of the sheep
shearers strike of September 1894 when shearers had set fire to the Dagworth woolshed
killing over a hundred sheep. Macpherson and three policeman had given chase
and one of them, a man named Hoffmeister, shot and killed himself rather than
be captured.
So it appears that
Banjo linked up all these events to conjure up "Waltzing Matilda.
Christina wrote up the score. It was first sung publicly at a banquet for the
Premier of Queensland and was an instant hit. The song was then picked up by
the "Billy Tea" company to advertise their product. Paterson sold the
rights to Waltzing Matilda and "some other pieces" to Angus &
Robertson Publishers for "five quid".
By World War 1 it
was Australia's favorite song and has been ever since.
Some great poems
by Banjo Patterson:
Clancy of The Overflow a
city folk's yearning for the wide open spaces
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital of the state of Victoria in Australia. It is the second
largest city in Australia.
It was voted the worlds' most livable city in 1994.
And the least polluted for a city of its size.
THE CITY
Melbourne is
renowned for its parks, fickle weather, clanging trams, upside-down river,
football and its cosmopolitan outlook. It is also the financial capital of
Australia.
It is a relatively
safe city with a very low crime rate.
About 3.2 million
people live in the greater Melbourne area.
The people of Melbourne came
from all over the world.
YARRA RIVER
The Yarra River
flows right by the city. It is sometimes called "the river that flows
upside down" because of its muddy colour. The reason for this colour
is because mud particles stay suspended in the water and don't settle to the
bottom like in most rivers. It is a very clean river (now).
During the warmer
months people like to walk along the river, visit the parks and sunbathe (ouch)
along the banks.
The Moomba festival also has a
lot of events on the river. I love the birdman competition where they try to
see who can fly the furthest after jumping off a bridge. Its very funny.
TRAMS
Melbourne loves its
electric trams. It is the only city in Australia which still has them as part
of its public transport system. We paint some of them with interesting designs
and motifs. There is even a tram restaurant where you can dine while trundling
past interesting city sites. Trams have right of way on our roads and also make
us do unusual right hand turns at city intersections.
ARTS CENTRE
The Arts Centre is
a short walk across Princes Bridge on St Kilda Road and is now a part of the
larger Southgate entertainment complex.
It consists of
the:
- National Gallery of Victoria with its large collection of works by local and overseas
artists.
- Melbourne Concert Hall which can seat 2600 people and has fantastic acoustics.
- State Theaters home of the Australian Ballet and Opera Companies.
The Art Centre's
lattice work spire glows a light purple colour at night and can be seen from
miles around.
The water wall at
the museum is very popular with young kids.
BOTANICAL GARDENS
- Melbourne has many public parks and
gardens within walking distance of the city centre: Botanical Gardens
was created in the English landscape tradition and extends for 36 hectares
along the Yarra River.
- Flagstaff Gardens the city's first public gardens.
- Fitzroy Gardens has Captain Cooks Cottage, the Fairy Tree carved with tiny
figures and a model Tudor village.
- Treasury Gardens is close to the state government offices.
- Carlton Gardens where the Exhibition Buildings are situated.
Kings Domain contains the Shrine of Remembrance, La Trobe's Cottage and the Myer
Music Bowl
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
Government House
is the official residence of the Governor of Victoria. It is located in the
precincts of the Botanical Gardens. This is where the Queen of England stays
when she visits Melbourne.
It is said to be
the grandest house in Victoria (some say even all of Australia) It was built
during the gold rush when Melbourne was flush with money and was intent on
outdoing everyone else.
LUNA PARK
Luna Park has lots
of entertainment for kids and adults alike. It is located in St Kilda not far
from the city.
WESTGATE BRIDGE
The Westgate
Bridge is the longest bridge in Australia. It is over 2.6 kms long and soars
over the Yarra River and the harbour. It offers a panoramic view of the harbour
and the city.
This is a view of
Melbourne taken from across the bay at Williamstown. Yes these Black Swans
really do live there.
HISTORY OF MELBOURNE
Melbourne was
founded in 1835 by John Batman and a group of businessmen who bought land from
the local Aborigines for
some trinkets.
It was named, in
1837, after the British Prime Minister at the time: Lord Melbourne.
Sydney
THE CITY
Sydney is
Australia's oldest and largest city. About 3.8 million people live in the
greater Sydney area. The defining symbols of Sydney are its Opera House and
"coat hanger bridge".
Sydney is the
commercial capital of Australia.
The people of Sydney came from
all over the world.
OPERA HOUSE
The Opera House,
situated at Bennelong Point, is an absolutely exquisite building. Its roof-line
is meant to symbolise the bellowing "sails" of sailing ships of a
bygone era and the spinnakers of the racing yachts that ply the harbour today.
The Sydney Opera
House:
- Took 14 years to build and cost $102,000,0000
when completed in 1973.
- Was designed by the Danish architect Jorn
Utzon.
- Covers 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres).
- Is 185 metres (611 feet) long, 120 metres
(380 feet) wide and the tip of its highest arch is 67 metres (221 feet)
above sea level.
- Roofs are made up of 2,194 pre-cast
concert sections held together by 350 kilometres (217 miles) of steel
cable.
- Roofs are covered with over 1,056,000
tiles.
- Hosts over 3000 events each year with
audiences of around 2 million people.
- Has nearly 200,000 visitors on guided
tours each year.
THE HARBOUR BRIDGE
The Sydney Harbour
Bridge took seven years to build and was opened in 1932.
- The steel used for the bridge weights
over 52,800 tonnes.
- There are over 6 million steel rivets in
the bridge.
- It took till 1988 to finally pay off the
cost of building the bridge.
- It takes 30,00 0 lifers of paint to paint
the bridge.
HISTORY OF SYDNEY
The Aboriginal people lived
around the area that is now Sydney for thousands of years before the first
european settlers arrived in the 1770's.
The area that is
now Sydney was named Port Jackson by captain James Cook when he visited the
east coast of Australia in 1770. Port Jackson was selected by Captain Arthur
Phillip as the most suitable site for the first european settlement in
Australia in 1788. He named the place after the British Prime Minister at the
time: Lord Sydney.
The colony faced
many hardships and near starvation trying to grow crops in this new land. After
the initial difficulties however the colony grew rapidly as new migrates arrived in larger
numbers.