Australia

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The discover of Australia
In the 17th century the Dutch came to Australia by an accident. They were blown off course on their way to the East Indies. They landed on a island in the Western Australia and started to search the area. The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman spent a lot of time to chart large parts of Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. He originally named Tasmania Van Diemen’s Land in honour of the Governor-General of the East Indies, but the island took Tasman’s name in 1855. The Dutch wanted to explore the land, not destroy it or build colonies. When the Englishmen came to Australia they saw the new land as a opportunity where they could settle new colonies. The original population, the Aborigines, were really bad treated under these times. They saw the white people destroy their land, and they couldn’t do anything about it.


The Aborigines
The name Aborigine comes from the Latin words ab origine, witch means, ”from the beginning”. The Aborigines are Australia’s original population and they probably came to Australia about 60 000 years ago. Earlier the 700 000 Aborigines were splitted up in about 500 tribes with totally different languages. Now there is about 145 000 aborigines left. When the Englishmen came to Australia the Aborigines life changed for good. They were forced to move into special camps and the children had to go to school and were not allowed to see their parents. They were not allowed to believe in their own religion. They had to read the Bible and believe in Jesus. The Englishmen did not treat the aborigines well at all. But in 1977 a law were maid so that the Aborigines got their own reservations where they could live as they used to and believe in their own religion. According to the aborigines religion the world was created in the mysterious “dreamtime” when their ancestors first dreamt the world and then walked through it and sang out the life and laws such as; “The world is perfect as it is, don’t change it”. When they had made that they sank down to their own world. Those places are very special for the Aborigines, one of them is Ayers Rock. Today they keep contact with the dreamtime with help of “corroborres”, a kind of religious ceremonies. They teach the rules and songs from the dreamtime to the next generation and in that way they keep their history alive. If you know the songs that the ancestors sang, you know the landscape and can use the songs like a map. And if you understand their paintings, you can understand their culture and nature. Archaeologists have found paintings from the aborigines that are nearly 20 000 years old. They mostly visualize the spirits of the dreamtime and animals, painted in ochre, white mud and coal. Sometimes they are painted with the “x-ray technique”, when you can see the inner organs. The Aborigines has, as I told you, been very bad treated by the white people that came and took over their land. It is better now than then, but it can still be even better!


Nature
Australia lies in the southern hemisphere and is the worlds smallest and geographically most isolated continent. It is the worlds larges island and surrounded by water. The Pacific Ocean to the east and the Indian Ocean to the west. 70 per cent of the 18 million people in Australia lives along the coast side. Australia covers almost the area of the USA or the entire European continent and have a very diverse landscape. The continent has plain coasts and not many islands. In the southeast part of Australia there are very good nature harbours for example in Sydney and Brisbane. Outside the northeast coast reaches the Great Barrier Reef. It’s the worlds largest coral reef (about 2400 km) and it has a unique marine flora and fauna. The coast in the north of Australia is mostly flat and swampy and the south coast is steep. The main part of Australia is a dry plateau landscape with many big deserts, for example the Great Victoria Desert. In the middle of the country there are a few rounded mountains of red and brown sand stone (Ayers Rock). In the south there are salt lakes that in the dry period evaporate into swamps or totally disappear, for example Lake Eyre. The rivers usually dry up. A river that only has water in the rain period is called a creek. The only big river that not dries out is the Murray river in the southeast. The highland on the east coast is a big mountain massive called the Great Dividing Range, and that is the continents watershed. They reach from Carpe York to Tasmania, that’s about 4000 km. In the winter the top, Mount Kosciusko (2230 m) are covered with snow.


Animals
Australia’s isolated position has given it a special animal and wildlife with many spices that only exist there, for example the eucalyptus tree, koalas, kangaroos and platypuses. The bird life is rich with birds such as the Emu and lots of different parrot spices. One of the higher indigenous mammals are the Dingo that is almost eradicated. It probably came to Australia with the Aborigines thousands of year ago. Grass and bush steppes cover the land, but there are also rainforests, savannas and deserts.

The Koala.
About 100 million years ago, the koala was spread over the whole world, but now it only exists in the east of Australia and is protected by the law. Earlier it was very usual, but it has disappeared more and more because the man has cut down so many eucalyptus trees and that’s the only thing the koala eats. There are over 100 different kinds of eucalyptus trees, but the koala only eats 12 of them and of these 12 there are about 5 kinds that I like the most! Talk about being fussy! The koala is a marsupial and about 80 cm. It looks kind of clumpy but is a very good climber because it has two thumbs. About 35 days after the mating the koala mother give birth to her little baby. She carries the baby in a pouch on her tummy because the baby id just as big as a peanut and have no fur. After about 6 months is the little koala ready to face the world.

The Platypus.
The platypus is a very strange animal. When the Englishmen first came to Australia and found the platypus they thought it was a joke! It has a duck bill, fur, a tail like a beaver and webbed feet. It lives in caverns by the rivers and is very sensitive for pollution and for being disturbed. The platypus eat worms, tadpoles and small animal. It lay eggs and is a monotreme like snakes, but it is a mammal because it suckle their babies. The males has poisonous spurs on their back feet and that makes it to one of the few poisonous existing mammals. Their eggs looks like bird eggs and when they crack the babies are as big as a human foetus. The platypus don’t have actual teats, they have more like “holes” where the milk comes out. It doesn’t have many natural enemies so it lives a very comfortable life and their existence is secured for a long time, if it doesn’t come about a natural catastrophe or something like that.

The Kangaroo.
Kangaroos appear in many varying sizes, everything between the size of a rat and a human. They live in all kinds of milieus in Australia, New Guinea and the closest islands. The biggest spices is called “kangaroo” and the smaller ones is called “wallaby”. The very smallest is sometimes called “opossum”. The kangaroos lives in hoards on the steppes. They are ecologically compared to other continents biggest grass eaters. The biggest of them is the Red Giant Kangaroo. It can be almost 1,8 m high and have a near 1 m long tail. The cliffwallabys lives in the mountains and on the cliffs and live like sheep and goats. The Tree Kangaroos lives in the woods, climb in the trees and live quite much as the apes.
The kangaroos are herbivorous. The ones that lives on the ground have big and strong back legs and small, almost useless front legs while the tree kangaroos have more “normal” propositions. On the front legs they have five long claw furnished fingers and on the back legs they have four toes (they have no “big toe”). The tail is used like a “balancer” when they jump and like a “third leg” when they move slow, for example when they eat. When they have to move fast they jump with both feet together. When the males fight about the females it looks like a real boxing game with punches and hard kicks. Many kangaroos are haunted for the meat, but mostly for the skin. It is used to, for example, shoes.



Food.
Australia began to develop it’s own cuisine in the 1970s. they use local ingredients mixed with a taste of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. That makes the dishes unique and truly Australian. Each area of Australia produces their own speciality. For example; rock oysters, honey and lamb from New South Wales, olive oil from south Australia, Salomon from Tasmania, exotic fruits from Queensland and cheese from Western Australia. And you may not forget; The barbecues! The Australians love their traditional barbecues. they say that an Australian seven-course meal includes a six-pack beer and a sandwich, but I think there is a lot of more. Here are some traditional dishes:

Char-Grilled Kangaroo Fillet.
A relative new addition to the shelves. Low-fat kangaroo fillet is usually served rare.



Potato Wedges.
These fried potato wedges are coated with a spicy seasoning. They are a variation of honey chips and are usually served with sour cream and chilli sauce.

Pavlova.
A merengue dessert topped with fresh cream and summer fruits, such as passion fruit. Looks tasty, huh?




Mixed Berry Ice Cream.
In Australia they often make their own ice cream with tastes of fruits such as raspberry, mango or honey. Often served with seasonal fruits.






And, of course. The most national meal of them all;

Barbecue.
Meat, poultry and fresh seafood, like baby octopuses, are grilled and served with bread and green salad.




Canberra and Sydney
Canberra is the capital in Australia. It has 279 000 inhabitants. Earlier it was a insignificant place, but after it had been chosen to the new capital of Australia in 1909 it was rebuilt and enlarged. Canberra is a famous “garden city” with many big open places and park.

The oldest and biggest town in Australia is Sydney...