All About Countries - Australia

Australia

1

Contents General Information

4

History 6

Australian Personalities

Nature 20

Andrew Barton “Banjo� Paterson

50

People 30

Eddie Koiki Mabo

52

Economy & Transportation

Donald George Bradman

54

Miranda Kerr

58

Hugh Jackman

62

Albert Namatjira

66

Lleyton Hewitt

68

Steve Robert Irwin

72

John Curtin

74

Ned Kelly

76

37

Culture 45

2

49

Australian Cuisine

79

1. Roasted lamb

80

2. Vegemite

80

3. Grilled Kangaroo

81

4. Australian prawns

82

5. Barbecued snags

82

6. Crocodile skewers

83

7. Barramundi

84

8. ANZAC Biscuits

84

Australia Travel

9. Lamington

86

Sydney 90

10. Pavlova

87

Melbourne 94

11. Bundaberg Rum

88

Brisbane 100

89

Perth 102 Adelaide 104 Canberra 106 Other places

110

*We do not claim any ownership for the images that have been included in the creation of these articles. The images were used for the sole purpose of having a better understanding of the topic that the texts speak about, in a purely educational manner. If one may consider that we have abusively made use of their images, please notify us on our email address and we will remove them. Most of the images were taken from these sources: wikimedia.org, pixabay.com, flickr.com, goodfreephotos, maxpixel.co.uk. *The texts are a compilation of information we gathered from various sources and translated them from many languages. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

3

Day is celebrated annually on 26 January.

Australia is the world’s 13th largest economy and the world’s 9th highest per capita income. With the second highest human development index globally, the country ranks highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, as well as civil liberties and political rights. Australia is a member of the United Nations, G-20,

Australia is a country that fully occupies the Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organization continent with the same name and includes several for Economic Co-operation and Development islands like Tasmania and other smaller ones. The country (OECD), World Trade Organization, Asia-Pacific doesn’t have any terrestrial border, but its neighbours Economic Cooperation and the Pacific Islands Forum. are considered to be New Zealand to the south-east, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia to the north-east, as well as Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Indonezia to the north. It has access to the Indian Ocean to the west, the Great Australian Bight to the south, the Tasman Sea to the south-east, the Coral Sea to the north-east, as well as to the Arafura and Timor Sea to the north.

Australia covers an area of 7.692.024 km2, has a density of 2,8 persons/km2 and its capital is located in the city of Canberra, which hosts approximately 382.000 Symbol The Australian flag uses three distinct elements: the people. Australia’s national anthem is called “Advance Australia Fair” and it was composed by Peter Dodds flag of the United Kingdom, also known as the Union McCormick in 1878. Australia is organized as a federal Jack or Union Flag, the Commonwealth star and the parliamentary constitutional monarchy, which consists Southern Cross constellation. Union Jack, also known of 6 federated states, 3 federal territories and 7 external as the Union Flag is the national flag of the United territories. The country’s total population reaches up Kingdom. The flag has an official or semi-official status to approximately 24.318.100 persons. Other important in other countries members of the Commonwealth.

Australian citizens living abroad can be found in For example, in Canada it is known by law as the Royal countries like: the United States of America (200.000), Union Flag. The Union Jack appears in the upper left Great Britain (113.000), Greece (100.000), Hong Kong quadrant of the Australian flag.

The Commonwealth Star, also known as the (90.000) and New Zealand (70.000). Australia’s National Federation Star is a star with seven points that symbolizes the Federation of Australia. It entered in effect on 1 January 1901. Originally, it was a six pointed star that represented the six original states of the Commonwealth of Australia. The 7th point was added to the star in order to represent the current territories and any other future territories of Australia. The proclamation of the Territory of Papua in 1905 has led to the addition of the 7th point to the star in 1908.

The constellation of the Southern Cross (Crux) is visible in the southern hemisphere at any time of year. On

General Information

4

majority of the Australians still recognize the official flag.

Coat of Arms

The Australian Dollar is the official currency of Australia

the Australian flag, the Southern Cross constellation is represented as a group of 5 stars. A star is smaller and has 5 points while the other four are larger and have seven points. As head of state, Queen Elizabeth II has its own flag for the period spent on Australian territory.

The Royal Air Armed Forces and the Customs have their own union badges with the representation of the Union Jack. Every year on 3 September it is celebrated Australia’s Flag Day, but it isn’t regarded as a public holiday.

The flag was proclaimed by King Edward VII in 1904, after a drawing competition for which the rules were that the British flag would still be present on the Australian one. This flag was primarily intended for marine use. During the next fifty years, the Union Jack was widely used, as well as the “Red Ensign”, having the same design but with a red background. Only in 1954 it became the official flag of Australia but it was not until the 1970’s that the current flag would replace the Union Jack in the public consciousness, although the Union Jack still has real value hoisted in the presence of the Sovereign or in special commemorations. The “Red Ensign” is used by Australian merchant ships, and there is also a white version of it for the Navy Military and a blue one for the Air Force.

In the 1970’s, in certain areas people wanted to replace the Australian flag with a new one because of the obvious reference to the United Kingdom and because the Union Jack appeared in the upper left quadrant, thing which made Australia look like it still was a British possession. Despite various competitions where many artists participated, the successive governments never reached to a full agreement on whether to replace the flag or not and the 1999 referendum on thwe preservation of the monarchy made its point regarding the subject. The

Australia’s Coat of Arms is the official symbol of Australia. The first coat of arms was created by King Edward VII on 7 May 1908, while the current version was created by King George V on 19 September 1912, although the old 1908 version continued to be used in some contexts, particularly on the sixpenny coin until 1966. The present coat of arms is composed of six parts: the first one has a white background with a red Saint George cross and on the cross there are a heraldic lion and four stars with eight points each (for New South Wales); the second one has blue background and the five stars of the South Cross (Crux Australis) under the British royal crown which stands (for Victoria); the third has a white background and the Blue Cross of Malta, as well as the British Royal Crown at the center of the Cross (for Queensland); the fourth one is gold and has a magpie (Piping Shrike) (for South Australia); the fifth one is also golden and has a black swan drawn on it (for Western Australia); and finally the sixth part has a white background with a red heraldic lion (for Tasmania).

The Red Kangaroo and Emu that support the shield have an unofficial recognition as official animal emblems due to the fact that they are native Australian fauna and have been most likely chosen because they are the most well-known native Australian animals large enough to be positioned together in scale holding up the shield. The kangaroo is supposed to be male. In the background there is a wreath of Golden Wattle, the official national floral emblem, though the representation of the species is not botanically accurate.

At the bottom of the coat of arms is a scroll that contains the name of the nation.

Australian Coat of Arms

5

History Pre-history

Named by geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD, “the unknown land�, Australia had a common territory with New Guinea 40.000 years ago.

The rift has accentuated during the next millennia and led at first to increased distance between Australia and Asia and then the modern territory of Australia was shaped as a new continent. At the arrival of the first European navigators, mainly Dutch and Spanish, at the end of the 18th century, on the actual territory of Australia there lived approximately 300.000 to 500.000 Aborigines. They were grouped in 350 tribes and spoke more than 250 different languages. Within the tribes, there were also various clans, each of them having at least 2 members and the most powerful ones up to 30 or 40 members.

These indigenous people were nomads, so they travelled a lot across this area in search of food.

Aborigines have lived in Australia for thousands of years. From those days, through oral history, some aspects dating from ancient times have been passed along generations in the form of myths and songs. Human remains as old as 40.000 years have

6

1578 Map portraying, among others, Terra Australis

been discovered southwest of New South Wales.

Terra Australis

There are many data referring to when the Aborigines from the present territory of Australia have settled there, but specialists are currently advancing two theories: either 40.000 or 60.000 years ago. Regarding the place where they came from, according to the first theory, historians admit that they would have arrived in northern Australia from India and Malaysia. According to the second theory, they would have arrived there from the Pacific Islands by travelling on light boats. Rather gatherers and hunters than farmers, the Aborigines had reduced needs for food so they created an original spiritual culture, whose achievements amaze people even nowadays. Their rituals, some of them being preserved even in our days, individualize the early history of this territory.

Australia’s recorded history began in 1606, when during a scientific voyage from the Indonesian city of Bantam, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, which was in the command of the Dyfken ship, reached the Australian continent.

The first Europeans who arrived on those shores were the Dutch. They arrived there at the half of the 17th century.

Dutchman Abel Tasman reached the shores of this

The Aboriginals were the indigenous people of Australia

Abel Tasman with his wife and daughter

territory in 1642 and realized the first map of this area.

Tasmania Island was named in his honour. More than four decades have passed until Englishman William In the name of the British Crown Dampier explored the western coast of the continent in Although several proposals have been made 1688. He resumed with even more diligence, more than for colonization between 1717 and 1744, there was a decade later, the research of the same area. no interest for such actions on the grounds that the Aborigines were much less interested in trade with Europeans than the residents of the East Indies, China and Japan were. Except for the subsequent Dutch explorations in the west of the continent, Australia has remained mainly unvisited by Europeans until the first British explorations. In 1769, Lieutenant James Cook, commander of the HMS Endeavour ship was en route to Tahiti. He also had secret instructions from the Admiralty to locate the supposed Southern Continent.

On 19 April 1770, the crew observed the eastern coast of Australia and the ship landed at Botany Bay.

In 1772, a French expedition led by Louis Francois Marie Aleno de Saint Aloßarn marked the first claim of sovereignty over the western coasts of Tasman’s navigation routes

7

land. Banks, along with James Matra, made up a plan for the establishment of a new settlement in New South Wales. The plan contained a complex set of reasons for the selection of such a place. A few days after the arrival at Botany Bay, the fleet moved to Port Jackson, as this place was considered to be a more suitable area. On 26 January 1788, a settlement was established in this area.

This date later became Australia’s National Day. The colony was formally proclaimed by Governor Arthur Phillip on 7 February 1788 at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson.

The colony included the current territory of New Zealand, which was administered as part of New South Wales, but the British government relinquished New Zealand, plus other islands from the South Sea in 1817. Jan Bassett estimated that between 1788 and 1868, approximately 161.700 prisoners, out of which 25.000 were women, were transported to the Australian colonies of New South Wales, Van Diemen (Tasmania) and Western Australia. Most of them were recidivists.

Conflicts with the Aborigines

Between the Aborigines and the settlers there were frequent conflicts regarding land seizures made by the latter. In time, the superiority of the settlers, both

James Cook started the British colonization of Australia

Australia, but its colonization never continued. The ambition of Swedish King, Gustav III, to form a colony for his country in 1786 also remained unfulfilled.

The colonization of Australia didn’t take place until 1788 when the economic, technological and political conditions of Britain made possible such an action. The British made a great effort to send a fleet of 11 vessels with approximately 1.487 people on board, including 778 inmates, to create the first European colony in New South Wales. The fleet was led by Captain, and later admiral, Arthur Phillip.

In 1779, Sir Joseph Banks, the eminent scientist who accompanied Lieutenant James Cook in the 1770 voyage, recommended Botany Bay as a suitable area to 8

Sir Joseph Banks

in terms of weapons and numbers, led to a serious decrease in the number of natives. If the Aborigines from Tasmania were totally exterminated between 1828 and 1877, in 1933 in Australia, their number amounted to 67.000 members. In the next 50 years, by 1981, their numbers increased to approximately 160.000 people.

Nowadays, their numbers reach up to about 400.000 members, around 2,2% of the total Australian population.

Massive land surfaces have been used for agriculture and many other purposes in the first 100 years of European colonization. These actions and the import of hoofed animals have seriously affected indigenous Australians by reducing the resources they relied for food, shelter and other essentials. All these actions forced them to move into smaller areas. Their numbers also decreased due to newly introduced diseases and lack of resources. Indigenous people fought against settlers between 1788 and 1920.

18th century map of Australia

In these conflicts around 20.000 natives and 2.000 or 2.500 Europeans died. By the mid-19th century, many indigenous Australians from south-eastern Australia were relocated, often by force, in reserves and missions.

Wills Tragedy or Cullin-la-ringo massacre of 1861 represented one of the largest conflict between the European settlers and Aboriginal people

9

Gold Rush and Colonial Aristocracy

The first 5 governors of the new colony have realized the importance of populating this area, but the British government has remained fairly indifferent.

Starting with the 1820’s, many entrepreneurs have started to arrive to the new colony and the government began several actions in order to attract them in greater numbers. Separate settlements and later colonies were created, such as South Australia in 1836, New Zealand in 1840 and Queensland in 1859. The Northern Territory was founded in 1863 as part of South Australia.

The discovery of gold was attributed to Edward Hammond Hargraves, near Bathurst, New South Wales, in February 1851. The Gold Rush brought many immigrants to Australia from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and continental Europe, as well as from North America and China. For example, the population from Victoria colony has grown rapidly from 76.000 people in 1850 to 530.000 in 1859. Almost immediately there appeared problems between gold seekers, in particular on crowded areas, because of the system of licenses granted by the colonial administration. After a number of petitions for reform, violence erupted at the end of 1854 at Ballart.

10

Map of Australia in 1865

On the morning of 3 December 1854, British soldiers and police attacked a barricade of gold seekers, and after a brief struggle about 30 miners were killed and an unknown number of them were wounded. A few months later, a royal commission has made changes regarding the management of gold areas. Along its recommendations there were included the relinquishment of licenses and full rights for miners. In 1855, New South Wales was the first colony that gained the right to self-governing, thus managing its own affairs while it was still part of the empire. Then Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia

People digging for gold during the Gold Rush

Gold diggers outside Gulgong Mine

Electric trams in Sydney in 1900

gained the right to self-governing in 1856, Queensland in 1859 and Western Australia in 1890.

The gold seekers era led to a long period of prosperity.

This was also supported by British investments and the continued growth of pastoral and mining industry, plus the efficient transportation by rail, river and sea. In 1891, the sheep population of Australia was estimated at 100 million and even if the revenues from gold mining had fallen, they were still estimated at that time to 5,2 million pounds. Economic expansion eventually came to an end and the 1890’s were years of economic recession, felt the strongest in Victoria and its capital, Melbourne.

The late 19th century was eventually characterized by an increase in towns in southeastern Australia. Australia’s population in 1900, except for the Aborigines who were not included in censuses, was 3,7 million. Almost 1 million of them were living in Melbourne and Sydney. More than two thirds of the population lived in cities, making Australia one of the most urban societies in the developed world.

In 1895, there began to appear

powerful interests, including among some politicians from the colony and newspapers, regarding the increasing desire for national identity. At the end of 1899, after many debates between the settlers, citizens from five of the six Australian colonies voted in referendums in favor of a constitution that would form the Federation of Western Australia. The Act “Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act” was approved on 4 July 1900 and received royal approval from Queen Victoria on 9 July 1900.

Immigrants arriving to Australia

11

Federation of Australia

Confederation of Australia or Commonwealth of Australia came into existence when the Federal Constitution was proclaimed by the General Governor, Lord Hopetoun, on 1 January 1901. The first elections were held in March 1901 and the first prime minister in Australia’s history was Edmund Barton. One of the first laws approved by the new Australian parliament was “Immigration Restriction Act 1901”, which aimed to restrict immigration from Asia, especially China. The law had a strong support even with all the overt racism that came into evidence. The law passed both houses of the parliament and constituted the principal element of the immigration law in Australia until it was abandoned in the 1950’s.

By 1901, units of soldiers from all six Australian colonies had been active as part of the British forces in the Boer War. When the British government asked for more Australian troops in early 1902, the Australian government sent a national contingent of 16.500 volunteers. The war eventually came to an end in June 1902. Australians felt vulnerable at home because the Anglo-Japanese Alliance from 1902 allowed the Royal Navy to withdraw its vessels from the Pacific Ocean until 1907. Thus, Australians saw themselves as an isolated outpost in case of war. The impressive visit of US Navy’s “Great White Fleet” in August-September

12

Great White Fleet

1908, determined the Australian government to focus on establishing an Australian fleet. In 1913, the dreadnought battleship “Australia” led the Royal Australian Navy.

Australia has acquired the status of a sovereign and independent state after World War I, following the “Statute of Westminster” act adopted by the British parliament, which stated legislative equality for all selfgoverning dominions of the British Empire. However, Australia did not ratify the act until 1942. According to historian Frank Crowley, this happened because Australia was little interested to redefine its relationship with Great Britain until the Second World War crisis.

Opening of the First Australian Parliament

WWI Aussie officers

Australia in WWI

World War I broke out in Europe in August 1914 and it automatically involved the British colonies and dominions. About 416.000 Australians have voluntarily fought on the frontline between 1914 and 1918, out of a total population of 4,9 million people, which, according to historian Lloyd Robson’s estimates it accounted for one-third to half of the men who could enroll in the army at that time. The first war experience of the Australian forces (“Australian Imperial Forces”, or simply “AIF”) also meant the biggest loss in a single military confrontation in the history of Australia. In “The Trumpet Calls”, Australian recruitment poster during WWI July 1916, at Fromelles, AIF had 5.533 people killed or wounded in 24 hours. Over 60.000 Australians died and The “Australia Act 1986” has removed any remaining 160.000 were wounded during the First World War. ties between the British Parliament and the Australian The success of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia was states. a threat in the eyes of many Australians, and at the

From 1 February 1927 until 12 June 1931, the same time a source of inspiration for a small group of Northern Territory was divided into North Australia socialists. In 1920, the Communist Party of Australia and Central Australia at latitude 20º S. New South was founded. It remained active until today, although Wales gave up a territory of 6.667 hectares in 1915, it was split several times in smaller factions and was called Jervis Bay Territory. Among the reassigned banned in 1940, 1941 and 1942. Another attempt to Australian territories, these are: Norfolk Island in 1914, outlaw it took place in 1951.

Ashmore Island and Cartier Islands in 1931. Australian Antarctic Territory was transferred from Great Britain in 1933, while Heard Island and McDonald Islands, as well as Macquarie Island were transferred from Britain in 1947. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) region was formed in New South Wales in 1911 in order to provide a suitable location for the proposed new federal capital, Canberra. Melbourne was the seat of government from 1901 to 1927. The Federal Capital Territory was renamed to Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in 1938.

The Northern Territory region was transferred from the South Australian government to confederation control in 1911.

4th Queensland Contingent returned from the Boer War in 1901

13

Australia in crisis

In the 1920’s, the Australian government has resorted to very large foreign loans. Although it mutually benefited from a reciprocal system of trade with Great Britain known as “Imperial preference”, Australia’s commercial balance in trades with Britain was negative. During 1924-1928, 43,4% of the total imports were from UK, while exports to the same country accounted for only 38,7% of the total. Grain and wool represented about two-thirds of all Australian exports and it was considered very dangerous for the Australian economy to rely only on these goods for export. During the same time, Australia has experienced a significant development in transportation through the introduction of steam engines on commercial vessels and the development and improvement of railways and road transport.

The Great Depression of the 1930’s was an economic catastrophe that severely affected most countries of the world and Australia was not immune to this phenomenon, given the fact that it was among the most affected developed countries, along with Canada and Germany. Australia’s dependence on exports has

14

left the country extremely vulnerable to international market fluctuations. Although there is still discussion on the topic, the high unemployment rate in the times of the economic crisis is mentioned in many cases as reaching a peak of 29% in 1932.

By the late 1930’s, defense has not been a significant issue for Australians. At the 1937 elections, both political parties have increased the spending on defense in the context of Japan’s increased aggression on China and Germany on Europe. There were many differences in the views regarding money allocated on defense. The United Australia Party or briefly UAP suggested cooperation with Britain, thus leading an “imperial defense” policy. The Australians put their hope in the British naval base from Singapore and the British Royal Fleet, which they thought they were going to be used if needed. Expenditure on defense in the interwar years reflected this priority. During 1921-1936, a total of 40 million £ were spent for the Royal Australian Navy, or RAN, 20 million £ for the Australian Army and 6 million £ for the Royal Australian Air Force, or RAAF. In 1939, the fleet that included two heavy cruisers and four light cruisers was very well equipped for war.

School children lining up for free issue of soup and a slice of bread during the Great Depression

Card players in Centenary Place, Brisbane, in 1935

Robert Menzies, former Prime Minister of Australia

Bombing of Darwin in 1942

15

Aussie troops at Milne Bay

16

WWII Australian Prime Minister John Curtin with US General Douglas MacArthur

Australia in WWII

On Sunday, 3 September 1939, Prime Minister Robert Menzies made a national announcement on radio, which brought to the attention of Australians that due to the invasion of Poland by Germany, Great Britain declared war on Germany and as a result, Australia was also at war, a war which he considered just. Between 1940 and 1941, Australian forces played a prominent role in the fighting from the Mediterranean theater of war. The war came even closer to home when vessel “HMAS Sydney” was completely destroyed in the fighting with German vessel “Kormoran” in November 1941.

After the attacks on Pearl Harbor and on other allied countries in East Asia and the Pacific from 8 December 1941 (Australian time), Prime Minister John Curtin insisted that the Australian forces would be brought home in order to fight the Japanese. After the Allies defeat in the Battle for Singapore from 1942, when Britain suffered its biggest capitulation in the history of British led forces, about 15.000 Australian soldiers became prisoners. A few days later, Darwin was heavily bombed by Japanese planes. This was the first time in history when Australian territories were attacked by enemy forces. Over the next 19 months, Australia was bombed nearly 100 times. The shocking defeat of the British in Asia in 1942 and the threat of a Japanese invasion made Australia look towards the

United States of America as a new ally.

Curtin’s government has created a strong alliance with the United States and made a fundamental change in Australia’s foreign policy since its beginnings. US General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of the Allied forces in Southwest Pacific moved his headquarters in Australia in March 1942. Australia has never been considered a military opponent by the Japanese army, but their intention was to blockade and psychologically pressure Australia in order to force it to become neutral.

Between July and November 1942, Australian forces have rejected the Japanese attempts at Port Moresby.

The Battle of Milne Bay from August 1942 represented the Allies first victory against the Japanese land forces.

Between November 1942 and January 1943 the Battle of Buna-Gona took place. This battle has set the tone for the final stages of the New Guinea campaign, which lasted until 1945. After this battle it succeeded an ambitious assault led by Australians on the Japanese bases from Borneo.

At the end of the war, the number of those who were involved reached 727.200 men and women in the Australian Army, out of which 557.800 fought abroad, 216.900 people in the Air Force (RAAF) and 48.900 in the naval forces (RAN). Over 39.700 soldiers were killed, out of which about 8.000 have died as prisoners of war of the Japanese.

Australian machine gunners in Borneo in 1945

17

their rights, the natives have appointed in the federal government since 1967 a Ministry entitled Department of Aboriginal Affairs. This first population of Australia is defined as an independent nation, having as a distinctive sign their own flag, a yellow circle over two red and black horizontal stripes.

Modern period

After the end of the Second World War, the Australian government strongly encouraged a massive European immigration program. In addition to the traditional immigrants from Great Britain, a large number of immigrants from southern and central Europe arrived for the first time. A thriving economy which was in a sharp contrast compared to the cluttered On 26 August 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam handed a leasehold title to land at Daguragu (Wattie Creek) to Vincent Lingiari, representative of the Gurindji people

The Aboriginal’s rights

Regarding the natives, they won their right to vote in 1962 and the right to gain Australian citizenship in 1967 following the referendum held in that year when 91% of Australians without Aboriginal origins agreed to protect their citizenship and civilization.

The Aboriginals have initiated a movement called “Land Rights”, that doesn’t mean anything other than the restitution by the state of their lost lands in favor of the occupants. In 1976, the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, followed by the 1981, 1984, 1991 and 1993 laws, especially the latter one, Native Title Act, acknowledged the Aboriginal’s full rights over the free lands. The Native Title Act was an edifying step towards the modification of the Australian legislation.

Following these successive restitutions, the Aborigines hold today 12% of the Australian national territory.

Within these territories, there are included two national parks: Kakadu and Ayers Rock / Uluru-Kata Tjuta.

In order to represent their interests and to defend

18

Northern Territory Flag

ANZUS Signatory Countries

post-war European economy made it possible for the newly arrived immigrants to find work through programs supported by the government. Two million immigrants arrived in Australia between 1948 and 1975.

In 1951, the ANZUS Defense Treaty was signed with the United States and New Zealand. Together, these countries sent troops in the Korean War. Melbourne

Australian soldiers in Vietnam

hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics and in collaboration with the UK it undertook nuclear tests and missile launches near Woomera, in South Australia. Australia’s population reached 10 million in 1959. Since 1951, Australia has been a formal ally of the US, on the basis of the ANZUS treaty and fought in the Vietnam War. The

final constitutional ties between Australia and Britain ended in 1986 with the promulgation of “Australia Act 1986”, which ended any British role in the Australian states. Australia remains a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being Queen of Australia.

The US-Australia relation experienced a sharp

Former Prime Minister of Australia, 19 John Howard

Australia, through the city of Sydney, hosted the Olympic Games in 2000

slowdown since the 1970’s reports: the Labourist government sent, after repeated pressure, a symbolic contingent of a hundred men in the new open conflict by the Americans in Vietnam. The relation between the two countries frosted and provoked bitter controversy and a real risk for Australia to remain isolated. Tensions erupted with the announcement of strikes and protests by workers who opposed the rising cost of living and demanded a wage increase. In 1975, after a serious government crisis, the Liberals won again the elections with Malcolm Fraser in charge. Fraser reestablished contacts with the United States, finally overcoming the crisis that started a few years earlier. At the same time, he promoted an ambitious economic recovery program and tax reductions with cuts in social spending.

The new Prime Minister Bob Hawke, marked the new Australian policy on the basis of a program which provided economic development on the basis of reforms in favor of the middle class. Regarding foreign policy, he approved plans for industrial cooperation with the 20

United States and New Zealand which led Australia to a long period of economic and social growth which lasted until the early 1990’s. In November 1986, Pope John Paul II became the first pope to ever visit Australia. In 1991, a scandal forced Hawke to resign. Paul Keatin, the finance minister took his place.

In 1996, a right-wing coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party of Australia was able to break the long lasting Labour government. A new Prime Minister, John Howard, was appointed. Howard imposed decisive changes in the policy followed since then by Australia. In foreign policy he decisively rejoined Britain and the United States, while in domestic policy he promoted an extensive campaign of privatization and cuts in public spending. Howard reintroduced limits on immigration and passed laws that limited the rights of Aboriginal people in the territories that the previous governments had entrusted to them.

In 2000, the city of Sydney hosted the 27th edition of the Olympic Games, which were marked by a

Kevin Rudd

great sporting and commercial success. The resulting economic growth, however, was blocked by the social tensions that characterized the beginning of the 21st century. The tensions were due to the attempts of the unions to limit a new project of neo-liberal reforms that wanted to create a health and a social system closer to the US model. Howard was a faithful and determined ally of the United States, supporting the fighting project against terrorism. He also supported President Bush by sending Australian troops both in Afghanistan and in Iraq, despite widespread public dissent. In the new legislature, the Howard government passed a thwarted immigration law. In 2005, a ship containing Afghan refugees was rejected at the border, causing harsh UN protests. Howard agreed to re-discuss a plan for the reform of the asylum law.

The serious difficulties encountered by the allied coalition in Iraq, the growing Chinese influence in the neighbouring territories of Australia and the economic stagnation experienced by the country between 2005

and 2006 with a hard fall in consumption, favored the increasing decline of Howard’s policy. Heavily defeated in the territorial election of 2006, when all Member States, except for the Northern Territory, elected Labourist governors, Howard was also defeated in the next general elections of 2007 where Kevin Rudd, one of the toughest opponents of his policy prevailed.

A pension reform was harshly criticized. Rudd was forced to resign and replaced by “modern” Julia Gillard, the first woman to head an executive in Australia. Julia Gillard was therefore a leftist candidate in the elections of 21 August 2010, where she opposed conservative Tony Abbott. In the election outcome, for the first time in history, neither party was able to gain the majority in the Parliament. Following an agreement with the Green Party and some independent Members of the Parliament, Gillard has formed a new government, retaining the post of head of government.

Located at “the end of the world”, Australia, a country with a written history of few hundred years, little known to the Europeans, is currently a great power in South-East Asia. With an economy very little affected by the world crisis, nicknamed “California from the antipodes”, this federation has experienced an unprecedented development in the contemporary world, its secret consisting in the applied strategy.

Having a performance education, ranked 5th in the world due to its large number of students, in Australia, there are currently studying more than 230.000 young persons, 60% of which are from Asia. A power balance in the region alongside Japan, Australia is treated with respect by all other countries and its future seems bright.

Port Lincoln in South Australia, Panorama

21

Feathertop Peak in the Great Dividing Range

Nature Landforms

Australia is the 6th largest country in the world and the smallest continent. The country is also the lowest and flattest dry stretch of earth and the driest continent. It has more desert than any other continent as two thirds of its surface is either arid or semi-arid.

The country has a very short coastline for such a large area. Besides the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Great Australian Bight, there are very few bays along the total 19.000 km of coastline. The continent obviously lacks

22

important forms of relief as there are no major rivers and the mountains have quite low altitudes. The highest altitude is of only 2.228 m, less than half the height of Mont Blanc, at peak Kosciuszko of the Australian Alps, on the border between New South Wales and Victoria.

The continent can be divided into three main regions: the Western Australian Shield, the Eastern Plateau and the Great Artesian Basin. The shield is a plateau that largely overlaps with the state of Western Australia, consisting mainly of 5.703 million years old Precambrian rock outcrops. The most remarkable of these outcrops are the Arnhem Peninsula and the Kimberly Plateau, located in the north-west. The Eastern Plateau is a mountainous region with a width of about 500 km that forms the Great Dividing Range. The

Great Australian Bight

Lake Eyre

Charlotte Pass in the Snowy Mountains

highest peaks have an elevation of only 1.500 meters.

The New England and Blue Mountains from the south of the country have heights between 900 and 1.500 m.

Between the Western Australian Shield and the Eastern Plateau there are three major basins: Murray Basin, Carpentaria Basin and Eyre Basin. Together they form the Great Artesian Basin, which mostly has less than 300 m above sea level. In the north, the greater part of Carpentaria Basin is flooded by the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Reef, the largest coral reef in the world, has a length of 2.000 km and is clearly visible from space.

Australia’s rocks were formed mostly during the Precambrian Age, roughly between 3 billion and 600 million years ago, when the Earth had no oxygen in its gaseous state. These rock formations have been flattened by the erosion of the weather, and they form the so called Great Australian Shield. Mostly occupied by deserts, the shield extends from Australia to the central and western Gulf of Carpentaria and the Arafura Sea, to re-emerge in the South Island of New Guinea. The Precambrian formations contain: gold, plumb, uranium and some oil storage.

The eastern Australian territory is largely arid and flat, having an average altitude of 274 m. The mountain ranges are concentrated mostly in this part of the country where the Great Dividing Range lies, with an average altitude of 1.200 m, which cuts Australia from North-East to South-East. Within the mountainous chain that stretches on more than 3.500 kilometers, there can be found several smaller groups of mountains

Great Barrier Reef

The Eyre Basin contains Lake Eyre, which at 15 m below sea level is the lowest point in Australia.

The intersection of Simpson Desert with these interior basins fades the physical distinctions of these regions In Australia, volcanic activity had ceased in the last million years and there are a lot of seismic activities in the Western and Eastern Plateau. The other important geographical feature of Australia is the sea that lies near the tropical coast of Queensland. The Great Barrier Great Australian Desert

23

was conferred in 1873 by explorer and photographer William Gosse, the first European to discover it, to honor Sir Henry Ayers, which was in charge of the post of Chief Secretary of the then South Australia colony within whose territory Uluru is precisely located.

Australia’s coastal profile is varied. Primarily, along the northern and southeastern lines there are scattered numerous coves, peninsulas and smaller islands. In fact, there are numerous pieces of jagged coastline and overlooking the sea, while others are completely

Uluru rock seen from helicopter

such as the New England Range, the Blue Mountains and the Australian Alps, which in turn comprise the Snowy Mountains. It must be said, however, that the highest mountain in the country is Mawson Peak (2.745 m), located on the island of Heard, in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Australia’s western territories are occupied by the Great Australian Shield, a geological formation largely covered by desert areas. Here, there can be found part of the Simpson Desert, as well as the Great Australian Desert (Gibson Desert, Great Victoria Desert and Great Sandy Desert). The Nullarbor Plain region is instead a karst plateau, devoid of trees. There are very few prominent peaks: Mount Meharry (1.251 m), Mount Ord (947 m) and Mount Cooke (582 m).

Mount Augustus in Western Australia, is the largest monolith in the world.

In Central Australia, the Uluru rock is a symbol of the country and subject of high veneration for the Aboriginal population. It is also known as Ayers Rock. This name

24

Bielsdown River

hilly. Near the Centre-Est region, there is located the large Central Lowlands, which consists of plains and territories situated below sea level. The main mountains are Mount Bruce (1.236 m), MacDonnell Mountains (1.510 m), Mount Bartle (1.661 m), the New England Range (1.615 m) and Mount Ossa (1.617 m). Australia is in a good part an arid and desert land and subject to strong evaporation because of its location on the Tropic of Capricorn.

The main rivers that drain into the Pacific Ocean are

Mount Kosciuszko stands as mainland Australia’s highest peak

Burdekin, Fitzroy and Hunter. The most important river of the country is Murray, which marks the border between New South Wales and Victoria. The river is fed by the snows of Mount Kosciuszko and by major tributaries like the Darling and Murrumbidgee, together with which it forms Australia’s largest hydrographic system, Murray-Darling. Victoria, Daly and Roper are among the largest rivers of the Northern Territory.

Queensland is crossed by several rivers, which flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Some of these rivers are Flinders, Gilbert and Leichhardt. Many rivers have been dammed and closed for the water supply of cities and countryside.

The lakes, mostly salt, are concentrated in the SouthWest region of the country. Among the main ones there are: Lake Eyre, Lake Torrens, Lake Frome, Lake Gairdner and Lake Hillier. During summer, these lakes are transformed into marshes. The main freshwater lake is Lake Argyle. It is an artificial lake and people worked for more than 12 years to realize it. The lake was built to facilitate irrigation of the Kimberley Plateau region.

humid summers which run from November to March.

The tropical northwestern coast has dry winters and humid summers. Here, there are tropical rains and monsoon conditions exist.

Tasmania Island and peak Kosciuszko have snowy lands during winter. Yet elsewhere, snow is extremely rare. The northern city of Darwin has an average temperature of 30°C in summer and 27°C in winter, while the average rainfall is approximately 1.500 mm/year, mostly falling in summer. In Sydney, on the southeastern coast, the average rainfall is falling throughout the year and is approximately 1.200 mm/year. The chilliest region of the country is Hobart in Tasmania. The average temperature there is nearly 17°C in summer and 12°C in winter. In Perth, Western Australia, there are about 900 mm of rainfall per year and the average temperatures are 23°C in January and 13°C in July.

As mentioned before, most of Australia’s climate is desert or semi-arid since 40% of the country’s surface is covered with sand dunes. Only the southeast and the southwest have a temperate climate and fertile soil. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate: part covered by rainforest, part covered by meadows and Climate

Most parts of Australia are very arid. During part occupied by the desert. Rainfall is very variable summer, which runs from December to February, as there are frequent droughts that can last for several there are frequent heat waves with temperatures that seasons. Sometimes, sandstorms tend to form and cover can reach up to 38°C. Other regions on the other hand some regions or even several states and occasionally are wet, generally the eastern coastal regions and the originate large tornadoes. The rising salinity level and Tasmania Island. The unpleasant effects are to some desertification are changing the Australian landscape in extent mitigated by the western chilly breezes that certain areas. blow throughout the year. In some restricted areas of Southern and Western Australia, the dry winters which run from June to August tend to alternate with the

Climate Map of Australia

Köppen climate classification map of Australia

25

Spring storms in cities like Adelaide, are a common phenomena

The situation of Australia in the tropical and subtropical zone and the cold waters of the western coasts make of Western Australia an arid desert, a very marked characteristic of the continent. The northern and northeastern coasts have a tropical climate. From December to April, the weather is very hot with temperatures of 29°C in Darwin and 26°C in Cairns, while during the tropical summer rains the climate tends to get quite humid. In these regions, it rains about 15 to 20 days a month. Thus, only in December, 225 mm of water falls in Cairns and Darwin, in January and February from 300 to 400 mm, while in March there is an average rainfall of 300 mm in Cairns and 450 mm in Darwin. Starting from mid-April, rains become rarer and temperatures drop a little, but they still remain high (26°C from May to September in Darwin and 22°C in Cairns in the same period). The months of May and September, which corresponds to the southern hemisphere winter, are the most pleasant months due to the dry weather and mild temperatures. From October on it begins to rain again and temperatures are rising dramatically.

The eastern coast has a humid subtropical climate and 26

abundant rains fall throughout the year. In Sydney, it rains on average about 12 to 14 days each month of the year. In the summer season, from December to March, temperatures are the most pleasant, the average being 22°C in Sydney, while the warmest months of the year are January and February. In October and November, as in April, the average temperature is 18°C, but from May to September, the temperature tends to become cooler with averages between 12 and 15°C, July being the coolest month. Tasmania, the island located in the south-east of the continent, has an oceanic climate, marked by its constant humidity, mild winters with averages of 4°C and fresh summers with average temperatures of 17°C. It is the wettest state in Australia, one of the few to have no problems at all with water shortages.

The South and South-Western coasts benefit from a Mediterranean climate. From April to October the coasts receive winter rains with 50 to 75 mm of rainfall per month in Adelaide and Perth. Between the above mentioned months, it is a rainy and cool season with average temperatures between 11 and 16°C. June and July are the rainiest and coolest months of the year. There are about 16 to 19 rainy days in the month,

the average temperatures being only 11°C in Adelaide and 13°C in Perth. On the other hand, in the summer season, from December to March, the weather is dry.

There are no more than 5 days of rain per month and temperatures are very pleasant with averages of 20 to 23°C, January and February being the hottest and driest months of the year. In October and November, as well as in April, the weather is dry but the average temperatures are around 16 to 19°C. During summer, the southern region tends to suffer from fires in times of drought and high winds. In 1983, bush fires had killed 75 people in the south of the country and in the state of Victoria. The bush fires of February 2009 caused at least 181 deaths and significant destruction, affecting 365.000 hectares and 1.000 houses.

On the western coast, from November to April, the summer season is wet and warm. Temperatures in the shades tend to reach averages of 30°C in Broome, December being the hottest month of the year for the region. It usually rains 6 to 10 days each month with

Alpine heathland at High Shelf Camp near Mount Anne, in Southwest National Park, Tasmania

75 to 150 mm of water. On the other hand, the winter, from May to October, is very dry with very rare rains even in Broome. From June to October, temperatures are varying from 21 to 26°C, June being the warmest month of the year with averages of 21°C in Broome.

This is the most enjoyable season.

Central Australia has a quasi-desert climate. Rainfalls are rare during the year, usually no more than 1 to 4 days per month. The summer, from November to March, is really hot with averages of 25 to 28°C in Alice Springs.

The heat is very hard to bear because the humidity level varies from 28 to 35%. In September and October, as well as in April, the temperatures are mild, varying from 18 to 22°C in Alice Springs but the humidity level remains quite low: 30 to 40%. From May to August, average temperatures tend to become cooler, with 15°C in Alice Springs and the humidity level never exceeds 50%. In this region, September, October and April are the most pleasant months.

27

Flora

Banskia Serrata is commonly found on the east coast of Australia

28

Australia’s flora is rich and diverse and vegetation consists mainly of evergreen plants. The Australian flora is distributed in three main areas: the tropical zone along the northern edge of the continent and part of the eastern coasts; the temperate zone along the southeastern coast, including Tasmania; and the inner area, characterized by monsoon climate and by high temperatures, which is covered by dense forests of nonperennial trees. Along the north-eastern coast, there are many rainforests, palms, ferns and climbing plants that flourish along with oaks, ash, cedar, beech trees and underwood vegetation, while the mangroves, with their typical aerial roots, grow along the wet north coast. The savannah is found in the inner regions of the country.

The temperate zone is characterized mainly by plants that are adapted to a harsh climate and a constantly arid soil. These plants are also known as xerophytes. The main form of vegetation is represented by eucalyptus forests, temperate rain forests and alpine vegetation on

The Golden Wattle is the national flower of Australia

the Australian Alps and on the mountains of Tasmania.

The pine tree is not native to Australia, but it grows along the eastern coast and Tasmania. Tasmania is characterized by forests of beech trees and has a very similar vegetation to that of New Zealand. In the inland regions of the country, there predominates the savannah, the steppe and the semi-arid grasslands.

Although much of Australia presents a desert or semiarid surface, there is a great diversity of habitats, from alpine heaths to tropical rainforests. Due to the great age of the continent, the low fertility of its soils, its extremely variable climates and its prolonged isolation from the rest of the continents, the Australian biodiversity is quite unique and diverse. About 85% of the plants, 84% of mammals, more than 45% of birds, and 90% of the fish from the temperate coastal areas are endemic. Many of Australia’s ecoregions and the indigenous species living in them are threatened by human activities and the introduction of exotic species. The 1999 Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is the legal framework used for the protection of threatened species. Numerous protected areas have been created

by the Biodiversity Action Plan to protect and conserve the continent’s unique ecosystems. 64 wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention and there are also 16 World Heritage of Humanity protected sites.

Australia ranked 13th in the world according to the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index.

Most Australian woody plants are evergreen and are adapted to fire and drought, including many species of eucalyptus and acacias. There is a very rich variety of endemic legume species that thrive even on poor nutrient soils thanks to its symbiosis with the Rhizobia bacterium and fungi that make mycorrhiza possible.

The current predominance of the xerophilic flora, typical for the semi-arid, arid and desert areas is due to a process of desertification that has begun about 30.000 years ago. Scientists from the Australian Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) were impressed by the enormous dimensions of mountains and canyons and said that they demonstrate “how slowly these environments grow and how long they will take to recover from any changes”, according to marine biologist Nic Bax.

Hakea, a small bush tree native to Australia

29

Fauna

In Australia, there are living up to 300.000 different species of animals, out of which only 100.000 are classified and counted. It is a typical fauna, present in Australia since the time when the continent was part of Gondwana, having many features common to the fauna of New Guinea and that of South Africa. In Australia there lives the only egg-laying mammal in the world: the platypus, which lives in the south-eastern Australian rivers. The echidna is also present in New Guinea, besides of course, Australia. Despite also living in South America, the marsupial mammals are characteristic to Australia, out of which the best known is the kangaroo, of which there are about 50 species widespread in the temperate and tropical zones. Typical to the Australian fauna are also smaller marsupials. These include the opossum and the koala bear, animals that are feeding exclusively of eucalyptus leaves, the latter being seriously threatened by the destruction of forests and is considered a protected species across Australia.

The only placental mammals living in Australia, rodents,

30

Thylacines or Tasmanian Tigers were extinct in the 1930’s

bats, and the dingo (wild dog) are of Asian origins. It is widely believed that it may have been the Aborigines that brought the dingo to Australia, a nocturnal predator that feeds mainly on sheep. Among the reptiles present in the continent, there can be included two species of crocodiles, including the saltwater crocodile, the largest on the planet. Among the various species

Typical Australian fauna

Koala bear is another marsupial native to Australia

of lizards there are included the Moloch and the Blue Tongue Skink. In Australia there are about 100 species of poisonous snakes, including the inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus), considered to have the most powerful venom in the world, also nicknamed the viper of death. The Australian seas are home to a great variety of fish and aquatic mammals. In the southern waters there are numerous species of whales, while the seal inhabits the southern coast, the islands in the Bass

Strait and Tasmania.

In the Australian waters, there live about 70 species of sharks, many of which are dangerous to humans.

The Australian fauna is famous for the presence of marsupials and monotremes. In addition to these well known typical animals, Australia is characterized by the extraordinary abundance of poisonous animals, most of them being lethal to humans. For example, the sea wasp or irukandji is a small jellyfish that frequents the seas 31

Dingo

32

Kangaroo is the most famous animal in Australia

Tasmanian Devil

of northern Australia, while venomous octopuses such as Hapalochlaena lunulata and other poisonous fish or marine snakes can easily be found in the waters near the coasts of Australia. On land, the country is home to the deadliest spiders on earth, many of them being frequently encountered in cities. Another characteristic of the Australian fauna is its great variety of lizards.

The Australian marsupials are characterized by the adaptive variety of their species. Herbivores and carnivores can be encountered, as well as species that by evolutionary convergence seem to be either rodents or canid, and among them there are different species of kangaroos, koala, wombats, Tasmanian devil and

thylacine (extinct in the 1930’s) or “Tasmanian Tiger�.

The Australian fauna also presents various species of birds like emu, kookaburra, lyre bird or cockatoo. In the watercourses of Northern Australian, there are large crocodiles and other reptiles such as varans, especially the Varanus giganteus, Australian water dragons and some of the most deadly snakes on the planet. Many animals and plants species became extinct after human settlement, including the Australian megafauna of about 30.000 years ago. Such megafauna included marsupial lions and giant kangaroos. Other species have been extinguished due to the European settlement, as for example the thylacine of Tasmania.

33

autochthonous sign language known as “Auslan”, which is the main mean of communication for about 6.500 deaf people in the country.

A resident of Australia is commonly referred to as Aussie or Ozzie in English. Most linguists consider that there are three main varieties of Australian English: Broad Australian English, General Australian English Language

English is the official language of Australia and Cultivated Australian English. These variants are and it is spoken and written in a variant known as part of a continuous and ordered series according to Australian English. Australian English is distinguished the cultural level in the use of the language, and are from British English by its accent and vocabulary distinguished mainly by the variations in accentuation. and differs slightly from other types of English in its grammar and spelling. Australian English is used in daily exchanges. According to the 2001 census, English is the only language spoken in the home of about 80% of the population. Besides English, the most spoken languages ​​at home are Chinese (2,1%), Italian (1,9%) and Greek (1,4%). Spanish (0,5%), with 104.000 speakers is the 7th second spoken language of the country. Most of the Spanish speakers of Australia are of Argentine, Uruguayan, Chilean or Spanish origin.

Australian Spanish, Italian, Greek or Chinese speakers can be found in large metropolises, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne.

People

Map Census of people who speak Australian Indigenous Languages

Often, but not always, they reflect the social class or the educational level of the speaker. Broad Australian.

English is the archetypal and most recognizable variety.

It is familiar to English speaking people around the world because its use identifies Australian characters in films and television shows of other nationalities.

General Australian English is the stereotypical variety of Australian English. It is the variety used by most of the inhabitants and is often found in contemporary national television and films. The Cultivated Australian English is more similar to the British Received Pronunciation than the previous variants, and are often mistakenly Map Census of males who only speak Australian English at home considered as equals. This variety is spoken by less than 10% of the population. It is sometimes argued

A considerable proportion of the first and that there are regional variations in pronunciation second generation immigrants are bilingual. There and accent. However, if they existed, they would be are believed to have been somewhere between 200 insignificant compared to those of British or American and 750 Australian Aboriginal languages ​​at the time English. In any case, the way of speaking is more of their first contact with Europeans. Only about 70 influenced by social, cultural and educational aspects languages ​​have survived up until this day and about 20 than by regional factors. For example, the differences of them are now in danger of disappearing. Indigenous between urban and rural pronunciation are recognized languages ​​are the main language for 50.000 people or throughout Australia.

An example of minor regional differences can about 0,02% of the entire population. Australia has an 34

be seen in the pronunciation of words like “castle”, “dance”, “chance”, “advance” and others. In Queensland and Victoria, as in Ireland, the phoneme “æ” is most commonly used in these cases, whereas in New South Wales the sound is often pronounced with an “a”, just as in England. The pronunciation of New South Wales in those terms is somewhat more prevalent in examples such as when the national anthem, “Advance Australia Fair” is sung, with the pronunciation “/ əd’va: ns /” being preferred in most of Australia except for Queensland and Victoria where it is also usually used “/ əd’væ: ns /”.

Christianity in Australia (2011 census)

Differences between English, Australian, Canadian and American languages

of the population. 2,5% of them are Buddhists, 2,2% Muslims, 1,3% Hindus and 0,5% practice Judaism. A total of 22,3% Australians were categorized as nonreligious. This includes non-theistic beliefs such as secular humanism, atheism, agnosticism and rationalism, while 9,4% of them refused to respond or didn’t provide an adequate response for a correct interpretation.

There are certain variations in the vocabulary of Australian English between different regions, particularly in terms of sport, food and clothing. For example, the 285 ml glass of beer is called “middly” in Sydney, Perth and Canberra, “handle” in Darwin, “pot” in Brisbane and Melbourne, “schooner” in Adelaide and “ten oz” or “beer” in Hobart.

The Australian English has many similarities with the English spoken in the south-east of England, especially in Cockney and Received Pronunciation. Like many English dialects it is distinguished according to the study of phonemic vowels. The vowels can be divided into two categories: short or long. The first ones are only monophthongs, used mostly in the Received Pronunciation as lax vowels. The others are either monophthongs or both diphthongs. To this category it belong the tense vowels and the centering diphthongs.

Religion

Australia has no state religion. In the 2011 census, 61,1% of Australians identified themselves as Christians. 25,3% of them were Catholic, 17,1% were Anglican, while the rest of 18,7% were from other Protestant or Orthodox denominations. Australians who follow non-Christian religions comprise 7,3%

Saint Mary Cathedral in Sydney

35

As in many Western countries, the level of active participation in religious services is much lower than the population following a certain kind of religion.

Weekly attendance to the churches is estimated at around 1,5 million people, more or less 7,5% of the entire population. At the time of the British settlement, the Indigenous Australians had their own religious traditions of “the Dreaming”. According to Mircea Eliade, “There is a general belief among the indigenous Australians that the world, man, and the various animals and plants were created by certain Supernatural beings who afterwards disappeared, either ascending to the sky or entering the earth.”

The Aborigines also have ritual systems, with an emphasis on life transitions such as adulthood and death.

According to Manning Clark, the early colonial officials of the colony were against the “consolations of religion”, but however shared a view that “the Protestant religion and British institutions were the finest achievements of the wit of man for the promotion of liberty and a high material civilization.” Thus the Protestant ministers were seen as the “natural moral policemen of society”,

of obvious social use in a convict colony for preaching against “drunkenness, whoring and gambling”. Chaplain Johnson was an evangelical priest of the Church of England, the first of a series of clergymen, according to Clark, through whom “evangelical Christianity dominated the religious life of Protestant Christianity in Australia throughout the whole of the 19th century”.

The Catholic Church in Australia is part of the universal Catholic Church, under the spiritual

Russian Orthodox Church in Lidcombe, Sydney

leadership of the Pope and the Holy See. This includes about 5,4 million Catholics, representing 25,3% of the population and is the largest church in the number of faithful in the country, if the confessions that make up the diverse Protestant religions are considered separately. The Catholic Church is divided into 7 archdioceses and 32 dioceses, having about 3.000 priests and 9.000 men and women belonging to various religious orders.

For much of Australian history, the Anglican Church of Australia was the largest religious affiliation. However, multicultural immigration has contributed to a decline in its relative position, with the Roman Catholic Church benefiting from the opening of post-war Australia to multicultural immigration and becoming the largest group. The Greek, Russian, Serbian and Macedonian Orthodox Churches have also increased in numbers in Australia through various organizations like the National Council of Churches in Australia.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia is the largest Orthodox Church in Australia. As of 2015, there were more than 120 parishes and 8 monasteries in the four diocesan districts of the archdiocese.

More than 400.000 people in Australia identify themselves as Muslims. Diverse Muslim communities 36

Saint Mary MacKillop of Australia

since 1996. Buddhist temples are very active in this manner. For example, the Quang Minh temple from Braybrook, Melbourne, gathers around 2.000 people every Sunday and offers a free vegetarian meal to about 600 people. When important events take place, usually more than 20.000 people come to the temple.

Even more people frequent the Nan Tien Temple.

There are about 34 Hindu temples in Australia, the Sri Mandir Temple in Auburn, Sydney, being the first Hindu temple built in the country. At present, many Hindus are well-educated professionals in fields such as medicine, engineering, commerce and information technology.

Auburn Gallipoli Mosque

are concentrated mainly in Sydney and Melbourne.

More than half of them are non-practicing cultural Muslims however. Islamic schools have been established in the country since the 1970’s and there are more than 100 mosques and prayer centers across the country. Many notable Muslim mosques are usually found in large Australian cities. Some of the most well known are the Central Adelaide Mosque, which was constructed during the 1880’s or Sydney’s Classical Ottoman style Auburn Gallipoli Mosque.

According to the Australian census in 2006, Buddhism is the largest non-Christian religion in Australia. There are more than 420.000 adherents to this religion or approximately 2,1% of the total population. Buddhism is the fastest growing religion in terms of percentage because its number of adherents increased by 109,6%

World Heritage

On UNESCO’s list there can be found 3 cultural objectives, 12 natural objectives and 4 mixed objectives in Australia: Cultural Objectives: • Australian Convict Sites • Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens • Sydney Opera House Natural Objectives: • Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh / Naracoorte) • Fraser Island • Gondwana Rainforests of Australia • Great Barrier Reef • Greater Blue Mountains Area • Heard and McDonald Islands • Lord Howe Island Group • Macquarie Island • Ningaloo Coast • Purnululu National Park • Shark Bay, Western Australia • Wet Tropics of Queensland • • • •

Mixed Objectives: Kakadu National Park Tasmanian Wilderness Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Willandra Lakes Region

Demographics

Most of the approximately 25 million Australians live concentrated in major cities. The population of Australia has quadrupled since the end of World War I, being fueled by an ambitious immigration program.

In 2001, the five largest groups comprising 23,1% of forKolaia man wearing a headdress worn in a fire ceremony

37

Median Age of Australia

eign-born Australians came from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Vietnam, and China. Following the abolition of White Australia policy in 1973, numerous government initiatives promoted ethnic harmony based on a multicultural policy.

The majority of the Australian population is descended from immigrants of the 19th and 20th centuries that came from the British Isles. They are mainly of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh descent.

Although the Australian colonies were founded as penal colonies, except for South Australia and West“The Southern Cross, the call of the stars to British Men & Women” issued ern Australia, the arrival of British convicts in Ausby the Overseas Settlement Office to attract immigrants tralia stopped gradually between 1840 and 1868.

During the Gold Rush of the late 19th century, nority in front of the hundreds of thousands of settlers the convicts and their descendants became a small mi- that came from the British Isles. In the 1850’s, the total

38

immigrants that arrived in New South Wales and Victoria represented the equivalent of 2% of the total population of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

After 1945, immigrants from Greece, Turkey, Italy and other countries increased the cultural diversity of the country. While privileging citizenship over multiculturalism, John Howard’s government (1996-2007) significantly increased the national immigration program.

From the end of 2007, if new immigrant applicants wish to obtain Australian citizenship, they must pass a set of questionnaires that include questions regarding Australian history, aboriginal history, culture, national sports and knowledge of the English language. The Australian government hopes that in this manner it will allow a better social integration of immigrants.

For many years, Australia allowed only whites to colonize the country. These were mostly people from Great Britain, Italy and Greece. In 1972, this policy was changed and since then immigrants have come from all over the world. The “new Australians” include Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese. These groups have contributed to the country’s culture with their own languages, festivals and gastronomy. Many young people from Asian countries usually come to study in Australia. As a matter of fact, about 25% of Australian students come from Asian countries.

The indigenous population, Aboriginal inhabitants of the continent and Torres Strait Islands, were found in

a number of 410.003 inhabitants or 2,2% of the total population in 2001. It is estimated that the Aborigines of Australia were approximately 350.000 when the Europeans arrived in 1788. Significant population growth has been signaled for this group since the 1976 census, when the indigenous population consisted of approximately 115.953 people. Although the Aborigines are a more rural population than the general population, two-thirds of them live in cities. New South Wales and Queensland account for half of the Australian Aborigines. In Tasmania, the Aborigines were exterminated in the 19th century. Australian aborigines have high rates of incarceration and unemployment, lower educational levels, and a younger life expectancy than other Australians. Ethnic inequality is a political problem that is still present today in Australia.

Like many other developed countries, Australia is experiencing an aging population, having more retirees and fewer people of working age. More than 1 million Australians live outside their native country.

Australia has maintained one of the most active immigration programs in the world in order to boost population growth. Many immigrants are well educated, but there are also refugees and people who cause lots of problems. In the country, there are also quite a few “bogans”, meaning people who lack any knowledge about culture, fashion, and the modern world in general. Basically, yob or gopnik.

Australian Aborigines have grew in numbers in the last decades, now reaching up 39 to a population of 350.000 – 450.000 inhabitants

Australia is made up of the following 6 federated states, 3 federal territories and 7 external territories: Federated State New South Wales Queensland South Australia Tasmania Victoria Western Australia Federal Territory Australian Capital Territory Jervis Bay Territory Northern Territory

Capital Sydney Brisbane Adelaide Hobart Melbourne Perth Capital

External Territory

Capital

Ashmore and Cartier Islands Australian Antarctic Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Coral Sea Islands Heard Island and McDonald Islands Norfolk Island

40

Canberra Jervis Bay Village Darwin *Offshore anchorage* Davis Station Flying Fish Cove West Island Willis Island Atlas Cove Kingston

Australia’s administrative divisions

The top 20 largest cities from Australia can be seen in the following table: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

City Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Perth Adelaide Gold Coast – Tweed Heads Newcastle Maitland Canberra Queanbeyan

Region New South Wales Victoria Queensland Western Australia South Australia Queensland / New South Wales New South Wales

Population 5.000.000 4.500.000 2.350.000 2.100.000 1.350.000 650.000 450.000 435.000

Australian Capital Territory / New South Wales 9 Sunshine Coast Queensland 10 Wollongong New South Wales 11 Hobart Tasmania 12 Geelong Victoria 13 Townsville Queensland

310.000 300.000 225.000 190.000 180.000

14 Cairns 15 Darwin

150.000 145.000

16 17 18 19

Toowoomba Ballarat Bendigo Albury – Wodonga 20 Launceston

Queensland Northern Territory Queensland Victoria Victoria New South Wales – Victoria Tasmania

115.000 100.000 95.000 90.000 88.000

Australian population by age and sex (2013)

Economy & Transportation

are considered for the construction of dams and for the recycling of wasted water. After the Second World

Economy

Australia’s economy is ranked 15th in the world by volume. The population’s living standards are very high, comparable to those in Canada, Japan and Northern Europe. The country mainly exports unprocessed products while imports relate to finished products. As a result, the country is vulnerable to fluctuations in market prices and to inflation from the supplier countries. The agriculture and mineral exports have had a great importance for the economic growth of the country. Currently, Australia is one of the world’s major minerals provider. The country has lots of food resources and it is a major exporter of wheat, meat, dairy products and wool. The industry, that in the late 20th century has made a rapid development in the country, now only provides 26% of the total GDP. The service sector, like many other developed countries, is the largest sector involved in the total GDP with more than 70%.

Australia deals a lot with breeding and exporting cattle and wool from sheep. The cultivated area doesn’t occupy more than 6% of the total territory. Wheat occupies about half of these areas, while forage and other cereals occupy 20%. The production in the country is very mechanized and widespread. About 70% of the total production is exported. The irrigation problem is common to all farming areas, except for those that receive more rain during the year. Australia has the most decreased availability of water of all inhabited continents. Given the wide distribution of the crops, this fact is a major problem for the inhabitants. In 2004, the central government has allowed the creation of a proper free water market. Direct public interventions

Tree Map Export of Australia

War, Australia’s industrial potential has experienced a remarkable growth, thanks to the introduction of new products and the development of existing ones.

New South Wales, particularly Sydney and Newcastle, and the state of Victoria, in particular the metropolitan area of Melbourne, ​​ are the main industrial centers.

In New South Wales, the following industries are the most developed: steel and metal industry, mechanical engineering, in particular aviation industry, electronics and petrochemicals, as well as the production of synthetic fibers and electrical wires. In Melbourne, the main industries are: production and assembly of machinery and vehicles, food and manufacture industry.

In South Australia, whose economy has traditionally been agricultural and pastoral, there has been a development of many important manufacturing centers since 1950. In Tasmania, the metallurgical industry, food industry and paper industry are the most well developed. The island’s main industrial centers are

41Sydney Business District of

industries are those based on the transformation of raw materials: steel industries, metallurgical, chemical and petrochemical. The country is a major exporter of coal and iron. The rich and diverse natural resources of Australia attracts high levels of foreign investment and include extensive reserves of coal, iron ore, copper, gold, natural gas, uranium and renewable energy sources, as mentioned before. A series of major investments, such as the 40 billion $ invested by USA in the Gorgon Liquid Natural Gas project, will significantly expand the resource sector.

The Super Pit near Kalgoorlie was Australia’s largest open cut gold mine before being surpassed by the Newmont Australia also has a wellBoddington gold mine in Wester Australia developed service sector and is Launceston and Hobart. Today, Australia is tied and a major exporter of natural resources, energy, and food. has important economic partnerships with India and The key principles of Australia’s trade policy include China, countries which provide the metals and minerals needed for the country’s continuous economic growth.

In many areas of the country, the primary sector is still the most profitable one. Australia is the world’s 1st producer of wool, in particular merino wool, obtained from about 105 million sheep that are bred here. The country is also abundant in meat production. Only 6% of the land is cultivated. Except for wheat and forages, limited but more convenient is the production of other grains such as oats, barley, rye, corn, rice and oilseeds, tobacco and cotton. In some states, it is produced sugar from sugar canes. The fruit sector is also very well developed with abundant production of apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, pears, papayas and pineapples.

The country is totally self-sufficient in energy demand and in many cases is one of the world’s largest producers of some minerals required by the market.

From Australian mines there are extracted, among others: coal, lignite, bauxite, copper, uranium (world’s largest producer), gold (12% of world production), iron, diamonds (world’s largest producer), manganese and tin. In Western Australia, there have been discovered important reserves of oil and natural gas. The industrial sector has about 21% of the total workforce. Australia is rich in mineral resources such as: gold, iron, nickel, lead, zinc and copper. The most developed 42

Australia is the world’s 1st producer of wool

in order to compensate the effect of the world economy slowdown, while the Reserve Bank of Australia has cut interest rates to historic lows.

Due to these policies and demand for commodities, particularly from China, the Australian economy recovered after only a quarter of negative growth. The economy grew by 1,2% during the year 2009, the best performance of the OECD, and by 3,3% in 2010. Unemployment, originally expected to reach 8 or 10%, has reached to 5,7% at the end of 2009 and fell to Australia’s oil and gas facilities 5,1% in 2010. As a result of an improved economy, support for open trade and the success of the Doha Round the expected budget deficit didn’t exceed 4,2% of GDP. regarding multilateral trade negotiations, particularly Thus, the government returned to budget surpluses in for agriculture and services. Australia’s economy has 2015. grown for 17 consecutive years before the global financial Australia was one of the first advanced economies in crisis. Subsequently, the Rudd government introduced the world to raise interest rates, reaching seven peaks a fiscal stimulus package worth over 50 billion US $ between October 2009 and November 2010. Gillard

Australian exports

43

Government focused on increasing the economic productivity of Australia ensuring the sustainability of its growth. The country still continues to deal the symbiotic, but sometimes tensioned, economic relationship with China. Australia is engaged in discussions regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership and negotiations regarding free trade agreement with China, Japan, and Korea.

Imports concern mainly machineries, chemicals, motor vehicles, paper and cardboard, fabrics and yarns.

Exports consist of metals, coal, wool, cereals and oil.

In 2004, according to the Ministry of Commerce, the total value of Australian exports amounted to 97.138 billion US $, while the value of imports was estimated at 105.461.000 US $.

Transportation

Because of the great distances, flying is the most common form of travel in Australia. The MelbourneSydney-Brisbane business triangle is run during the day almost like a bus service with flights departing every 15 minutes. The only way to get the best airfare is to go directly to each site of the various airlines and compare the rates. Never assume that the Qantas fare is more expensive because their online deals are often the cheapest on a particular route. The best rates are always available on the most competitive routes. Unofficial web sites and travel agencies almost always add more to the price than direct booking. To be sure of the price, you should always check the official website of the company before booking.

There are four domestic airlines in Australia operating flights between the capitals and major destinations: Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar and Tiger Airways Australia. There are also various airlines with purely regional destinations. They hardly ever offer discounts and their proportion rates are higher than those that

44

Qantas is one of Australia’s most important air carriers

Sydney Airport

connect the major centers. These airlines are: Qantaslink, Regional Express, Skywest, Airnorth, Skytrans Airlines and Sharp Airlines. These companies fly only in a handful of the thousands of airports located throughout Australia. There are many charter flights that can get you to even smaller towns located on distant islands from the coast. If you check the web pages of the local flying clubs, there are always private pilots willing to fly on weekends if someone is willing to cover the costs.

Australia has a generally good condition system of roads and highways, and cars are the means of transport most commonly used. Most of the state capitals are linked through good quality roads. Some of them have two lanes but many others have only one lane for each direction of travel. The main regional areas have two lane paved roads, but isolated areas may have poorly maintained dirt roads or even track roads. The distances and speeds are specified in kilometers and fuel is sold per liter. There are no tolls on roads and bridges outside the urban areas of Sydney, Melbourne

Melbourne Airport T1

Greyhound Bus Services

and Brisbane.

In Australia you drive on the left, just like in Britain and other places. Foreign visitors who are used to driving on the right should be precocious as soon as they start driving, even when traveling on country roads with little traffic. Generally, overseas driving licenses are valid for driving in Australia for three months after arrival. If the license is not in English you need an International Driving Permit (IDP), in addition to the driving license.

The code of the street varies slightly from state to state.

The low population density and large size of Australia makes longer travel times between major centers.

The most important and well maintained roads of Australia are: Perth – Sydney (4.000 km); Melbourne – Perth (3.500 km) Perth - Adelaide (2.700 km); Brisbane – Melbourne (1.700); Brisbane – Cairns (1.700 km); Brisbane – Sydney (1.000 km); Sydney – Melbourne (900 km); Adelaide – Melbourne (750 km) and Sydney – Canberra (300 km).

It is almost impossible to predict the travel time

RV

based only on the distance. Consult the locals to inquire about the best route. You can maintain an average speed of about 100 km / h on straight roads or other relatively minor highways where there are few cities. On other national roads where you can go through mountain ranges and travel through small towns, even an average speed of 60 km / h can be challenging. While the main highways are well serviced, anyone leaving the paved roads in inland Australia should consult with the local authorities, check the weather and road conditions and take with themselves sufficient spare fuel, spare parts, tires parts, food and water. On some remote roads, a car passes there once a month or even more rarely. The heat and dehydration can kill at any time of year. If stranded, stay with your vehicle and do what you can to improve your visibility from above. Do not take this advice lightly as local people are dying out there as well when their cars break down and they are not reported as missing to local authorities.

An RV is a vehicle, usually a van turned into an RV (recreational vehicle), most of the time spacious enough for the vast number of young travelers from Europe and America that are crossing the country. The east coast from Sydney to Cairns is particularly rich in happy, carefree youth traveling with these vehicles. The campers form and quality varies widely. Some of them have showers, toilets, kitchens and many others, while others have little more than the mattresses in the back.

Check the additional costs very carefully and make sure that you don’t pay the same or more for a lower quality vehicle.

Many large Australian cities have a ferry as part of their public transport system. Some minor roads in regional areas have even barges to transport cars through rivers and canals. The reef islands have some water line services and there are some cruises which also pass through the

Metro in Melbourne

45

Tram in Melbourne

Ferry at Kangaroo Island

upper part of Australia. However, large public ferry services are not so common. The Spirit of Tasmania is the only long distance route that connects Tasmania to the mainland and transports cars and passengers across the Bass Strait daily between Melbourne and Devonport. Sealink connects Kangaroo Island, the second largest island south of Australia to mainland via

regular car transport ferries. Sea Saturday provides a shortcut through the Gulf of Spencer between Adelaide and the Eyre Peninsula, having daily ferry services for car transportation. Australia has a large number of ports and airports. The main ones are: Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Fremantle, Geelong, Gladstone, Mackay, Melbourne, Newcastle, Sydney, Townsville,

46

Fremantle Port

Grain Train in Geelong

Wollongong and Port Lincoln.

Visitors from countries with long distance well developed rail systems like Europe and Japan may be surprised by the lack of high-speed trains in intercity rail services in Australia. The historical lack of cooperation between Member States in concomitance with the long distances and a relatively small population to be served has left Australia with a slow national rail network, mainly used for freight. As a result, travelling between major cities is not only faster by air, but often it is also cheaper. However, traveling by train is more scenic and tourists will most probably see a lot more traveling by train than they would see otherwise. On the other hand, the use of trains can be recommended when someone

needs to reach smaller regional cities that aren’t served by frequent and cheap flights.

Long distance rail services that do exist are mainly used to connect regional municipalities with the state capital, such as Bendigo to Melbourne or Cairns to Brisbane. In Queensland, a high-speed train runs from Brisbane to Rockhampton and from Brisbane to Cairns. Queensland also has passenger services to inland centers including: Longreach (The Spirit of the Outback), Mount Isa (The Inlander), Charleville (The Westlander) and Forsayth (The Savannahlander). There are also intercity rail services operated by Great Southern Railways on the following routes: Melbourne-Adelaide (The Overland), Sydney-Adelaide-Perth (Indian

Train in Alice Springs

47

Pacific), Adelaide-Alice Springs-Darwin (The Ghan).

However, as noted above, these aren’t “high speed services”, so if you don’t like to travel by train as part of your holiday then you should choose another mean of transportation. Tasmania doesn’t offer any passenger rail service. The Northern Territory has the rail line linking Darwin to Adelaide through Alice Springs only, and the Australian Capital Territory has only one railway station, near the center of Canberra.

The major long distance rail operators are: Great Southern Railways, NSW Trainlink Regional, V/ Line Passenger, Queensland Rail – Traveltrain, The Savannahlander and TransWA. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide have extensive electric commuter rail networks which have grown and expanded over time. Sydney Trains operate the busiest system in the country with approximately 1 million trips per day. Metro Trains Melbourne operates a larger system albeit with a lower number of trips.

Travelling by bus in Australia is cheap and convenient even if the distances for interstate connections are nothing short of daunting. Buses generally have air conditioning, reading lights, adjustable seats and TV. Services are frequent, cheap and efficient. Greyhound has the largest network of buses. Other important bus services operators are Firefly Express and Murrays.

The reason why buses aren’t so used is because of the cheap airfares. Every important town and city has a bus network, however some smaller cities don’t have bus transportation. If the petrol prices remain low then Australians prefer to use their own cars, but as soon as they go up they might start to consider travelling by bus

48

TransPerth Train

more.

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Wollongong and Newcastle have services of integrated trains and buses in the public transport of the city, with even a tram service in Melbourne and Adelaide, and ferries in Sydney and Brisbane. The remaining cities have only bus services. In any case, the frequency of municipal services may be low and at the weekend or in the evening almost non-existent.

In larger cities there are taxi services. Taxi’s always have a meter on board. If the taxi driver tends to negotiate the price, refuse and ask him to start the meter. Women travel in the back seat of the taxi for safety reasons, while men seat near the driver. The “flag fall” for riding in the cab is usually no more than 3 or 4 AUD. Tipping taxi drivers is not so common in Australia, but if you enjoyed the ride, the tip will surely be appreciated.

Australian Taxi

Culture Australian Proverbs

1. We are all visiting at this time and place. We are just passing through. We came to observe, to learn, to grow, to love and to go home.

2. Leaving your village, but do not be left by the village.

3. There is nothing cheap without reason and expensive worthless.

4. If the foundation stone is tilted, the wall can’t be straight.

5. The stupid sheep confesses to the wolf.

6. The more you know, the less you need.

7. Those that can no longer dream are lost.

8. You will never be loved if you will only think about yourself.

9. Dog must not steal from dog.

10. In the planting season visitors come singly, and in harvest time they come in crowds.

11. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

12. One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

13. The clash of ideas brings forth the spark of truth.

14. The bigger the hat, the smaller the property.

15. A Platypus is a duck designed by a committee.

16. Once bitten, twice shy.

17. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and have their shoes.

18. If you catch a man, throw him back!

19. Half a loaf is better than none.

20. If the guy next to you is swearing like a wharfie he’s probably a billionaire. Or just conceivably, a wharfie.

Holiday New Year’s Day Australia Day Royal Hobart Regatta (only in Tasmania) Labour Day

Period 1 January 26 January 2nd Monday in February 1st Monday in March (Western Australia); 1st Monday in May (Queensland); 1st Monday in October (South Australia; New South Wales; Australian Capital Territory); 2nd Monday in March (Victoria)

Adelaide Cup (only in South Australia) Canberra Day (only in Australian Capital Territory) Eight Hours Day (only in Tasmania) Good Friday Easter Eve Easter Sunday Easter Monday Easter Tuesday ANZAC Day May Day (only in Northern Territory) Western Australia Day (only in West Australia) Queen’s Birthday

Picnic Day (only in Northern Territory) Royal Queensland Show (only in Queensland) Family and Community Day (only in Australian Capital Territory) Friday before Australian Football League Grand Final (only in Victoria) Recreation Day (only in Tasmania) Melbourne Cup (only in Victoria) Christmas Eve (only in South Australia) Christmas Boxing Day (except for South Australia) Proclamation Day (only in South Australia) New Year’s Eve (only in South Australia)

2nd Monday in March 2nd Monday in March 2nd Monday in March Variable Date Variable Date Variable Date Variable Date Variable Date 25 April 1st Monday in May 1st Monday in June 2nd Monday in June (NSW; NT; SA; VIC; ACT; TAS); September/October (WA); 1st Monday in October (Queensland) 1st Monday in August Variable Date 1st Monday of 3rd term school holidays Variable Date 1st Monday in November 1st Tuesday of November 24 December 25 December 26 December 26 December 31 December

49

People celebrating Australia Day

Australian football is a slightly different sport than American football or Rugby and is played between two teams of eighteen players on an oval shaped field, often a modified cricket ground

50

Aboriginal People of Australia have their own culture

Aboriginal bush food

Surfing is one of the most loved sports in Australia and is practiced especially on the Gold Coast

Tao Boathouse in Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village

The Phallus is a special symbol in Aboriginal 51Culture

52

Great Northern Highway

Australian Personalities

53

Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson

Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson (b. 17 February 1864 near Orange, New South Wales, Australia – d. 5 February 1941 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include “Waltzing Matilda”, “The Man from Snowy River” and “Clancy of the Overflow”.

Banjo Paterson was born in Narambla, near Orange, New South Wales as the eldest son of Andrew Bogle Paterson, a Scottish immigrant from Lanarkshire and Rose Isabella Barton, an Australian woman. The Paterson family lived in Buckinbah Station until their son reached the age of 5 years old. When Andrew’s uncle died, the Paterson family moved to a farm located in Illalong, near Yass, New South Wales, midway between Melbourne and Sydney. During this time, he had several experiences of rural work, especially with horses, an

54

Andrew “Banjo” Paterson

element that would be present in his later work.

Paterson’s elementary education ran on behalf of a private teacher (governess), but once he was able to ride a pony, he began studying at the Binalong bush school.

In 1874, Paterson was sent to the Sydney Grammar School, where he earned good grades in both student and sports activities. During this time, he lived in a cottage called “Rockend”, in the suburbs of Gladesville.

This cottage is currently listed as state property. He left the school at the age of 16 years old and began working as an apprentice at a law firm. On 28 August 1886, he was admitted as a “qualified solicitor” at this firm.

During a stay with the family of his fiancée, Sarah Riley, near Winton, inspired by the history of a shepherd during the great Australian Shearer’s strike of 1891, Paterson wrote his most famous work “Waltzing Matilda”, which developed into the unofficial national anthem of Australia. A relationship between Paterson and Sarah Riley’s schoolmate, Christina Macpherson, led to the departure of Paterson.

In 1885, Andrew Paterson began to write and publish his poetry works in the editions of a magazine entitled “The Bulletin”, where he used the pseudonym of “The Banjo”, this being the name of his favorite horse.

Paterson, just as the whole redaction of “The Bulletin”, was an ardent nationalist and in 1889 he published a pamphlet called “Australia for the Australians”, where he expressed his disdain for cheap labor, as well as his admiration for hard work and the nationalist spirit.

In 1890, Banjo wrote “The Man from Snowy River”, a poem that attempted to portray the Australian spirit of the nation, while in 1895 a collection of his works was published under that same name. The London Times compared him to Rudyard Kipling, who also personally contacted Paterson. This collection of works is the best-selling book within the so-called “Bush poetry” and is still reprinted even nowadays. Paterson was also a journalist, lawyer, jockey, soldier, and farmer. On 8 April 1903, “Banjo” married Alice Emily Walker in Tenterfield. New South Wales. His first house was on Queen Street, Woollahra. The couple had two children, Grace, born in 1904 and Hugh, born in 1906.

Banjo Paterson was born in Narambla, near Orange, New South Wales as the eldest son of Andrew Bogle Paterson, a Scottish immigrant from Lanarkshire and Rose Isabella Barton, an Australian woman. The Paterson family lived in Buckinbah Station until their son reached the age of 5 years old. When Andrew’s uncle died, the Paterson family moved to a farm located in Illalong, near Yass, New South Wales, midway between

Andrew Paterson in 1890

Melbourne and Sydney. During this time, he had several experiences of rural work, especially with horses, an element that would be present in his later work.

Paterson’s elementary education ran on behalf of a private teacher (governess), but once he was able to ride a pony, he began studying at the Binalong bush school. In 1874, Paterson was sent to the Sydney Grammar School, where he earned good grades in both student and sports activities. During this time, he lived in a cottage called “Rockend”, in the suburbs of Gladesville. This cottage is currently listed as state property. He left the school at the age of 16 years old and began working as an apprentice at a law firm. On 28 August 1886, he was admitted as a “qualified solicitor” at this firm.

During a stay with the family of his fiancée, Sarah Riley, near Winton, inspired by the history of a shepherd during the great Australian shearer’s strike of 1891, Paterson wrote his most famous work “Waltzing Matilda”, which developed into the unofficial national anthem of Australia. A relationship between Paterson and Sarah Riley’s schoolmate, Christina Macpherson, led to the departure of Paterson.

In 1885, Andrew Paterson began to write and publish his poetry works in the editions of a magazine entitled “The Bulletin”, where he used the pseudonym of “The Banjo”, this being the name of his favorite horse.

Paterson, just as the whole redaction of “The Bulletin”, was an ardent nationalist and in 1889 he published a pamphlet called “Australia for the Australians”, where

he expressed his disdain for cheap labor, as well as his admiration for hard work and the nationalist spirit.

In 1890, Banjo wrote “The Man from Snowy River”, a poem that attempted to portray the Australian spirit of the nation, while in 1895 a collection of his works was published under that same name. The London Times compared him to Rudyard Kipling, who also personally contacted Paterson. This collection of works is the best-selling book within the so-called “Bush poetry” and is still reprinted even nowadays. Paterson was also a journalist, lawyer, jockey, soldier, and farmer. On 8 April 1903, “Banjo” married Alice Emily Walker in Tenterfield. New South Wales. His first house was on Queen Street, Woollahra. The couple had two children, Grace, born in 1904 and Hugh, born in 1906.

Although for most of his adult life, Paterson lived and worked in Sydney, his poems mostly presented a highly romantic view of the bush and the iconic figure of the bushman. Influenced by the work of another Australian poet, John Farrell, his representation of the bushman as a tough, independent and heroic underdog became the ideal qualities underpinning the national character. His image appears on the 10 $ Australian banknote, with an illustration inspired by “The Man from Snowy River” and part of the text of the poem. A college in Arundel, on the Gold Coast, Australia and the Sydney Grammar School library are named after him.

Painting realized by John Longstaff representing “Banjo” Paterson as winner of the 1935 Archibald Prize

55

Eddie Koiki Mabo

Eddie Koiki Mabo (b. 29 June 1936 in Mer, Torres Strait Islands, Queensland, Australia – d. 21 January 1992 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) was an Indigenous Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights and for his role in a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia which overturned the legal doctrine of terra nullius (“nobody’s land”) which characterized Australian law with regard to land and title.

Edward Koiki Sambo changed his original name to Eddie Mabo, when he was adopted by his maternal uncle, Benny Mabo. He was born in the island of Mer Murray in the Torres Strait, between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Mabo has had countless jobs before becoming a gardener at the age of 31 years old, at the James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland. The period spent in the campus had a huge impact on his life and his future struggles in favor of property rights for Aborigines. In 1974, during a discussion with Professor Noel Loos and Henry Reynolds, he discovered that the island he thought it belonged to his family for 16 generations, in reality, for the English crown legislation,

56

Eddie Mabo

the island was terra nullius.

Loos recalls the discussion with Mabo as following: “We were having lunch one day in Reynolds’ office when Koiki was just speaking about his land back on Mer or Murray Island. Henry and I realized that in his mind he thought he owned that land, so we sort of glanced at each other, and then had the difficult responsibility of telling him that he didn’t own that land, and that it was the Crown’s land. Koiki was surprised, shocked and even ... he said and I remember him saying “No way, it’s not theirs, it’s ours.” Reynolds also recalls the following: “He got as far as Thursday Island and no further. He was refused permission to land on any of the other islands in the Straits. A reputation as a radical was a heavy burden in Queensland at the time. For Eddie the rejection was devastating. He could not go home.

He was not only landless in the eyes of white man’s law, he was an exile as well.

Before the arrival of British settlers, the Aborigines had the ownership of the land based on rules handed down by oral tradition. As the rules were codified and not written, the British settlers declared invalid any title of ownership recognized by any of the previous Australian inhabitants. This conduct conformed to the principle of Terra nullius. From this principle it derived the whole Australian legislation which prevented the Aborigines from owning any property or being able to have one for any kind of transaction. The lands that weren’t allocated to new settlers were still owned by the British crown. Mabo was unaware that the land that belonged to his family for over 16 generations according to the Australian law not only had it never been owned by anyone before the colonization, but it rightfully belonged to the British crown then.

Mabo married Bonita Neehow, an Australian South Sea Islander, in 1959. The couple had seven children and adopted three more. One of their daughters named Gail, is an Aboriginal artist and dancer who works with schools in New South Wales as a cultural advisor and serves as the family’s designated spokesperson.

In 1981, at James Cook University there was held a conference on land ownership rights and Eddie Mabo gave a speech in which he explained the land inheritance system on Murray Island. A lawyer from Perth who participated at the conference, Greg McIntyre, has taken note that these revelations could have an impact on the Australian legal system and suggested that the case exposed by Mabo could be a test case to claim the natives’ ownership rights of those lands through

Edward Koiki Mabo during his case against the British crown

the court system. This case led to a more than 10 years struggle that saw Eddie Mabo fight against the British crown in all levels of jurisdiction of the Australian courts.

While the lawsuit proceeded, Eddie Mabo retired to his native island to fish and paint. Perhaps partly because of the tensions and struggles with the authorities, his health deteriorated. On 21 January 1992, Eddie Mabo died of cancer at the age of 55 years old in Brisbane. He didn’t live enough to see that the lawsuit in which he was involved in, was won. In fact, five months later, on 3 June 1992, the Australian High Court announced its historic decision, namely overturning the legal doctrine of terra nullius. This decision had important effects for all the other Australian Aborigines, given the fact that nowadays 40% of the land properties from the Northern Territory are owned by Aboriginal people. Before 1992, the percentage of properties owned by the Aborigines was 0%.

In Australia, this sentence is now commonly and simply referred to as “Mabo”. Three years after his

death, a meeting was held in Townsville for a memorial service. That night, the islanders have made their traditional ceremony for the burial of kings, a ritual that has not been seen on the island for the past 80 years. His body was buried on Murray Island, in the same land he loved and for which he had fought so long. The same night, Eddie Mabo’s grave was desecrated by vandals who fired eight shots on his grave, painted red swastikas and wrote racist offenses on his grave, like “Abo”. They also removed a bronze bas-relief in which there was a picture that represented Mabo.

In 1992, Mabo was posthumously awarded the Australian Medal for Human Rights in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Awards, together with Reverend Dave Passi, Sam Passi, James Rice, Celuia Mapo Salee and Barbara Hocking. The prize was awarded in recognition for their long and determined battle to obtain justice for their people, as well as their work for many years to get the legal recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples.

In 1993, “The Australian” commemorated his struggles by voting him as the 1992 Australian of the Year. On 21 May 2008, the James Cook University has named the campus library of Townsville “Koiki Eddie Mabo Library” in his honour. Mabo Day is celebrated each year on 3 June in the Torres Strait region. In 2012, a television drama based on the life of Eddie Mabo was filmed.

Grave of Eddie Mabo

57

Donald George Bradman

Donald George Bradman (b. 27 August 1908 in Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia – d. 25 February 2001 in Kensington Park, South Australia, Australia) often referred to as “The Don”, was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman’s career Test batting average of 99.94 is often cited as the greatest achievement by any sportsman in any major sport.

Throughout his career he always maintained a very high score and was described by some as “strong as three batsmen”. His talent pushed England even more to develop a controversial tactic in order to limit his performance.

Bradman constantly practiced cricket during his childhood, playing as a batsman and inventing his own solitary variant of the game. He used a golf ball and a stump as a bat. A water tank, mounted on a curved brick support was located in the back of his family home. When the ball hit the curved face of the support, it bounced at high speed and in varying angles, so Bradman tried to touch it again. This practice significantly developed his timing and reflexes. In a more formal form of cricket, he managed to score his first century at the age of 12 with the team from the Bowral Public School against the Mittagong High School.

58

Donald George Bradman

Between 1920 and 1921, Bradman played for Bowral’s team, whose captain was his uncle, George Whatman.

He was included in the team during a match where the team lacked players. He left school in 1922 and worked for a real estate agent who encouraged his sporting hobbies by offering him free time whenever it was necessary. He abandoned cricket in favour of tennis for two years, but returned to his true passion between 1925 and 1926.

He started his career with the New South Wales team in a match against the Sheffield Shield champions, Victoria, in 1927, where he scored 118 runs in the first innings of his debut. Already in the following year he played for the first time with the Australian national team against England in Brisbane. Even before reaching the age of 22, he accomplished some world records, some of which are still unbeaten nowadays, and soon became an Australian sporting idol during the period of economic crisis due to the great depression. With the shirt of New South Wales, he won the national title three times, in the 1928-1929, 1931-1932 and 19321933 seasons and five times he was the leading scorer of the competition, including four consecutive seasons.

After he was selected in the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1931, he was also elected to the list of the 5 Wisden Cricketers of the Century with 100 out of 100 possible votes, that is to say, the list of the five best cricket players of the 20th century. In 1949, he became the first and only Australian cricketer to become a Knight Bachelor in the aristocracy. Bradman met Jessie Martha Menzies for the first time in 1920. The couple married at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Burwood on 30 April 1932. During their 65 years of marriage, Jessie was “perspicacious, reliable, disinterested and, above all, simple”. It was the perfect complement to his concentrated and sometimes changing personality.

Bradman regularly payed tribute to his wife, summarizing her contribution: “without Jessie, I would never have succeeded what I succeeded”.

The Bradman family lived in the same modest commuter home in Kensington Park throughout their lives from their 3rd year of marriage. Their first child died an infant in 1936, while their second, John, born in 1939, contracted polio. Their daughter, Shirley, born in 1941, had cerebral palsy since birth. John Bradman carried his surname as a burden, and was officially called Bradsen from 1972. After the death of Don Bradman, a collection of letters he wrote to his friend Rohan Rivett between 1953 and 1977 were published and gave researchers new insights into the Bradman

family life, including the tensions between John and his father.

In his last season with New South Wales, Bradman’s batting average was 132.44, his best at the time. He was appointed vice-captain of the Australian team for the trip to England in 1934, but he suffered a good part of the summer. Journalists suggested that he had heart problems. Although he started the tour with a double-century in Worcester, he regularly showed a surprising lack of concentration during the matches. He did not score a century for 13 consecutive innings, the maximum achieved in his career, leading to comments that Bodyline had eroded his confidence and altered his technique.

In 1935, he transferred to South Australia where he continued to play at the highest level and won two national titles before the forced break due to the Second World War. Bradman joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on 28 June 1940 and was declared fit to be a member of the crew. The RAAF had more recruits than it could equip and train and Bradman spent four months in Adelaide before Australian Governor, General Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Growie, persuaded him to be transferred to the terrain army, a change considered to be safer for him. Appointed Lieutenant, he was posted to the Army School of Physical Training in Frankston, Victoria. He was Divisional Supervisor of Physical Training. The efforts of the job aggravated his chronic muscular problems due to fibromyalgia. Oddly,

in view of his prowess as a cricketer, a routine army test revealed that he had problems of sight.

After the war, his performance slowly began to decline and, although still at high level, he never returned to his pre-war level. In 1948, he led the Australian national team as its captain in a tour in England, where the team went undefeated and conquered the nickname of the “Invincible Team�. In the last game of the series, at The Oval, Bradman received a standing ovation from the public and his opponents as he prepared to bat in the first Australian round. His average bat at Test Cricket was then 101.39. He faced the spin bowler Eric Hollies.

He was deceived by the second ball he received and was eliminated without scoring any run. The British missed both their innings, and Australia won the match without having to play their second inning. Bradman finished his international career with a batting average of 99.94, while four additional runs would have allowed him to reach the average hundred runs. For many years, it was rumored that Bradman had missed the ball because of tears in his eyes, thing which he denied during the rest of his life.

Bradman retired from international competitions in that same year and definitively in the following year. On 4 March 1949, Donald played the last game of his career against Victoria, in Adelaide.

During his active time, Bradman dominated the cricket matches. In his 52 Test matches and 80 innings for the Australian national team, he scored 29 centuries and

Donald Bradman and his charming smile

59

13 half centuries. He held many world records, such as the highest number of runs per innings (334) and his average number of runs (“batting average”), wasn’t even reached by any player. An England batting collapse resulted in an innings defeat as Bradman needed only 4 more runs to finish his career with a three digit average.

A story developed over the years that claimed Bradman missed the ball because of tears in his eyes was denied by the cricketer.

After his retirement from competitive activity, he maintained a strong influence in the field of cricket, becoming a book writer regarding this subject. He participated as a commentator on various television programs and wrote for several newspapers. Donald Bradman occupied several executive positions and was also the chairman of the Australian Cricket Board in two different periods, between 1960 and 1963 and between 1969 and 1972. He was also a member of the commission responsible for the schism caused by the creation of World Series Cricket.

A controversial set of tactics, known as Bodyline, was specifically devised by the England team to curb his scoring. Bradman’s game performance evolved with his experience. He temporarily adapted his technique to Bodyline, deliberately moving around the zone of play trying to score against the short throws. At the height of his career, in the mid 1930’s, he was able to move indifferently from a defensive to an offensive approach

60

Don Bradman in a picture with his “Don Bradman” Sykes bat

and vice versa. After the Second World War, he adjusted his game because of the constraints due to his age, becoming a calm “accumulator” of runs. He preferred shots where the bat was horizontal, such as the hook, sweater and cut to face rebounds and used an original hand position on the bat that allowed him to play these moves without compromising his ability to defend. In the field, he used a lateral position and stayed motionless while the opposing pitcher gained momentum. His bat movement backwards to a “tortuous” aspect earned him criticism at the beginning, but he resisted the temptation to correct himself. During this movement, he kept his hands close to his body, thing which allowed him to maintain his balance and, if necessary, to change the type of stroke he was about to play at the last moment during his bat movement towards the front. Another essential aspect of his technique was his footwork. He used his playing area to the maximum, sometimes retreating until his feet were at the same level with the wicket in order to make a cut, hook or pull.

In the last years of his life, Don Bradman was reclusive, partly because of his wife’s problems, especially after her open heart surgery. Jessie Bradman died in 1997 of cancer at the age of 88 years old. Relations with his son improved to the extent that John resumed his birth name. After the death of his father, John Bradman became a spokesman for the family and became involved in the defense of his father’s memory in a number of cases. Relationship between Donald Bradman and his family are less known, but nine months after his death, his nephew Paul Bradman calls him “snob” and “loner”.

Even after his retirement, despite his shy and aloof character, he continued to maintain a very high reputation among the Australians. He was defined in 2001 by the Australian Prime Minister John Howard as “the greatest living Australian”. After his wife’s death in 1997, Bradman began to suffer from mood swings and depressive crisis, simultaneously having several health problems. In December 2000, he was hospitalized with pneumonia, but his advanced age worsened his clinical status and after losing hopes, the doctors allowed him to return home in a suburb of Adelaide, where he died on 25 February 2001, at the age of 92 years old.

Donald Bradman owned the most expensive cricket bat in the world. This bat, named “The Don”, was used in Bradman’s Test debut in 1928 and was auctioned on 24 September 2008 for 108.000 € at Leski Auctions House in Melbourne, Australia. The Austrian airline Lauda Air named a Boeing 777 in Bradman’s honour. The plane used to fly on the Vienna-Sydney route.

Don Bradman during training

61

Miranda Kerr

Miranda Kerr (b. 20 April 1983 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian model. Kerr rose to prominence in 2007 as one of the Victoria’s Secret Angels. Kerr was the first Australian Victoria’s Secret model and also represented the Australian department store chain David Jones. Kerr has launched her own brand of organic skincare products, KORA Organics, and has written a self-help book.

Miranda Kerr was born in Sydney, but grew

62

Miranda Kerr

up in Gunnedah, New South Wales. Her parents are Therese and John Kerr, and she has a younger brother named Matt. In an interview, Kerr claimed to be of English, French and Scottish ancestry. During her childhood, Kerr competed with motorcycles and rode horses on her grandmother’s farm. She describes her childhood in the Australian countryside as “with the feet on the ground ... there was no pretense and nobody really cared what you wore. You could just be yourself.”

Her family then moved to Brisbane in order to allow Miranda and her brother to experience city life, where she graduated from All Hallows School’ in 2000. Kerr had originally planned to study nutrition at a university before continuing with modeling.

Miranda began her modeling career just before graduating from high school when she won the Dolly Magazine competition in 1997. At that time, her young age sparked controversy, but Miranda eventually returned to her hometown in Australia and finished her studies. Only then she went on to study Nutrition and Health Psychology at the Academy of Natural Living. In the following years, she was a model for various brands like Billabong, Roxy and Tigerlily. In 2003 she started working with Madison Models in Paris. Miranda’s career began with an advertising campaign for Ober Jeans Paris in 2004 with photographer Erick Seban-Meyer.

She then moved to New York where she worked for brands such as LAMB, Neiman Marcus, Veet, Clinique, Maybelline New York or Roberto Cavalli. She has also appeared on the cover of ELLE, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar magazines.

In 2008, Miranda Kerr appeared in Forbes magazine as the 10th highest paid model in the world, with revenues of over 3.5 million $ in 2007 alone. In 2006, Kerr appeared on TV in the final episode of “Project Runway”, modeling clothes from Daniel Vosovic’s final collection. At the same time, she signed a contract with the American cosmetics brand Maybellyne New York, which made her appear in covers of magazines like Cosmopolitan, CLEO and Elle. She had the doors open to work at the prestigious lingerie firm Victoria’s Secret, appearing for the first time in its catalogs, thus becoming the first Australian model to have a contract with the renown brand. Kerr officially became a Victoria’s Secret Angel in mid-2007, replacing Gisele Bündchen. Before becoming an Angel in 2007, she was picked as the successor of Alessandra Ambrosio to be the new face of PINK. Her popularity grew as she appeared at the brand’s annual fashion shows from 2006 to 2009.

In 2007, Miranda became the face of California

based fashion retailer Arden B. She also appeared in an episode of “How I Met Your Mother”, along with Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima, Heidi Klum, Selita Ebanks and Marisa Miller. Kerr appeared on the 2010 Pirelli Calendar, which was photographed by Terry Richardson in Bahia, Brazil. In the same year, she was also a model for Prada, where she paraded along with Alessandra Ambrosio and Doutzen Kroes at the Milan Fashion Week. Miranda was the face of Jil Sander at the same time.

She appeared for the first time on the cover of “Vogue Italy”, where she was chosen to be the New Version of Femininity, having 3-D photographs. Then, she appeared on the cover of “Vogue Spain” in September.

In January 2011, she became the first pregnant model to appear on the cover of magazine “Vogue Australia”.

Just two months after giving birth to her first child, Kerr went back to parade at the Paris Fashion Week for Balenciaga. This same year, she was chosen to be the Ambassador of Earth Hour in 2011 and was the face for the Mexican firm Liverpool in September 2011. At the second Fashion Week in Paris, Miranda paraded for Christian Dior, Lanvin, Stella McCartney, Chanel, Viktor & Rolf, John Galliano and Loewe.

Kerr was chosen to wear the luxurious 2.5 million $ bra from Victoria’s Secret called Fantasy Treasure Bra, which was inspired by mythology and mermaids. Kerr wore the bra at the 2010-2011 Fashion Show of the brand, which was held on 29 November. She was chosen to open the 4th segment of Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, called Aquatic Angels, with the Fantasy Treasure Bra. Miranda was also one of the presenters of the parade along with her companions, Lily Aldridge and Alessandra Ambrosio. In January 2012, Kerr was named the new ambassador for the Australian airline Qantas Airlines. Kerr held a photo shoot for Australia’s “Grazia” magazine, appearing as Australia’s Wonder Woman in January 2012. Miranda appeared as a guest judge on TV show “Project Runway All Stars”, appearing in Episode 4, on 26 January in 2012. In the top 99 list of the sexiest women made by Ask Men, Miranda ranked 5th in 2011 and 6th in 2013. She was named the “Sexiest Woman Alive” in 2012 by Esquire UK. In March 2012, Kerr worked for the brand Lipton, where she acted as a waitress and singed in Japanese. In the same month, she paraded for the second time for brands Chanel and Miu Miu, along with her partner Doutzen Kroes, at the Fashion Week in Paris. In March 2012, she was also elected for the second consecutive time as the Global Earth Hour Ambassador. In April 2012, Miranda Kerr

Miranda Kerr at the 2012 AACTA Awards in Sydney, Australia

appeared for the second time on the cover of “Who Australia” as the most beautiful person of 2012, along with her son, Flynn.

Miranda Kerr, known as the Australian Angel for being the image of the well-known fashion brand Victoria Secret’s, has become the protagonist of the new catalog for Spanish company Mango for the springsummer season 2013. Mango has counted for its new spring-summer 2013 campaign on Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin as responsible photographers, with whom they had already collaborated on previous campaigns like that of Kate Moss. The campaign, held in New York in mid-November, didn’t look for great 63

novelties or surprises, but a nice and simple finish.

KORA Organics by Miranda Kerr is Miranda Kerr’s line of organic treatments, a reflection of her passion for living a healthy and ecological lifestyle. She began to develop KORA Organic Skin Care with a team of experts. KORA Organic skin care products are rich in Noni antioxidants, essential fatty acids, herbal extracts, essential oils and vitamin A, C and E, as well as many others that are good for rejuvenation. These products are designed to nourish, replenish and rehydrate the skin. Her mother, Therese, has been the brand manager since February 2010 and her brother Matt, also works for the line.

Miranda’s first book, “Treasure Yourself ”, is a collection of thoughts, memories and lessons for personal self-improvement. Written for a new audience of young adults, the book contains important lessons about self-confidence, inner beauty and acceptance.

“Treasure Yourself ” uses some of the classic wisdom quotes that has inspired Miranda, including several thoughts from world-renowned authors and spiritual leaders such as Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, and others. The book also includes personal illustrations of her friends and family. She quit working with Victoria’s Secret lingerie firm in 2013.

Although she is an admirer of Christy Turlington, Miranda Kerr has been compared on a physical level with classic and current beauties, such as Gemma Ward, Lily Cole, and Australia’s modeling legend, Elle Macpherson. Kerr was considered “The New Elle Macpherson” in the world of fashion. In June 2009, Kerr posed naked and chained to a tree in the “Rolling Stone” magazine in order to attract attention for the protection of the Koala bears.

In 2003, Kerr started dating broker Adrian Camilleri. After investigating the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Camilleri was convicted of five counts of fraudulent conduct from February 2003 to February 2004. Kerr subsequently ended the relationship. A 2007 newspaper report said Kerr suffered financial losses “after soliciting financial advice from her boyfriend”, but chose not to take legal action.

She previously had a long relationship with Jay Lyon, formerly Brent Tuhtan, the lead singer of the band “Tamarama”, who has made appearances in the first season of the MTV series “The City”. Kerr appeared in the music video clip, “Everything To Me” by Tamarama.

The two were together for approximately four years, but the relationship ended by mutual consent in the middle of 2007.

64

Miranda Kerr in February 2013

In early 2007, Kerr and English actor Orlando Bloom were linked sentimentally. Shortly after the couple confirmed their relationship, in June 2010, the representative of the model confirmed that the couple had committed themselves. On 23 July 2010, it was confirmed that the couple married in Los Angeles.

Shortly afterwards, it was announced that the model was pregnant. Finally in January 2011, Miranda gave birth to her first child, Flynn Christopher Bloom. The couple split in October 2013, claiming “irreconcilable differences”. In 2015, Miranda started a relationship with Evan Spiegel, co-founder of Snapchat and they committed in July 2016.

Swarovski Activity Tracking Jewelry 65 Collection feat Miranda Kerr

Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman (b. 12 October 1968 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian actor, singer and producer. Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in a variety of film genres. He is known for his long running role as Wolverine in the “X-Men” film series, as well as for his lead roles in films such as the romantic comedy fantasy “Kate & Leopold” (2001), the action-horror film “Van Helsing” (2004), the magic themed drama “The Prestige” (2006), the epic fantasy drama “The Fountain” (2006), the epic historical romantic drama “Australia” (2008), the film version of “Les Misérables” (2012), and the thriller “Prisoners” (2013). His work in “Les Misérables” earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in 2013.

66

Hugh Jackman

His parents separated when he was only 8 years old and so he grew up with his father and his brothers. Hugh studied journalism at the University of Technology in Sydney and also engaged in singing.

He played the role of Gaston in the Australian edition of the musical “Beauty and the Beast”, and thus began a successful career as a musical actor. This led him in 1996 to the role of Joe Gills in the Australian edition of “Sunset Boulevard” by Andrew Lloyd Webber, alongside Debra Byrne. In 1995, he was among the protagonists of the television series “Corelli”, alongside Deborra-Lee Furnes.

In 1998, by now well-known in Australia but still almost unknown abroad, he made his debut in London’s West End Theatre, playing the role of Curly in “Oklahoma!”. He played the same character in the following year in the film version directed by Trevor Nunn in 1999. The role earned him an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical and helped him become better known to the general public, even outside of Australia. About this experience, Jackman said: “I felt I could not do anything more beautiful! In some ways, that production will always remain one of the high points of my career.”

His cinema success came thanks to Bryan Singer, who chose him for the role of Wolverine in his movie, “X-Men” (2000), instead of Dougray Scott. The actor, at that time still pretty unknown to the general public, was hired about three weeks before the film started shooting. After Russell Crowe rejected the role, Hugh Jackman became the director’s first choice. In order to play this role, Jackman inspired from actors like Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson. The film proved to be a great success both to the public and to the critics.

In the movie, Jackman played the role of a mutant that doesn’t remember anything about his origins, but has regenerative capabilities and adamantium claws that can pop out from his hands. Initially, the character is hostile to most of the protagonists, mainly Cyclops, played by James Marsden, but then Wolverine joins the group called X-Men, and helps them defeat their enemy, Magneto and his subordinates.

Jackman also played this character in the other sequels: “X-Men 2” (2003), “X-Men - The Last Stand” (2006), in the spin-off “X-Men Origins – Wolverine” (2009) and had a cameo role in the prequel “X-Men – First Class” (2011). The last but one of these films was produced and partly scripted by the actor. “The Wolverine”, a sequel to “X-Men Origins – Wolverine” released on 25 July 2013, saw Hugh Jackman once more

in the shoes of Canadian hero, Logan. In the movie that was set in nowadays Japan, Logan had to face a threat that came from his distant past. This film precedes the 6th installment of the saga, “X-Men - Days of Future Past” (2014) where Jackman again played the role of Wolverine. He also played in “X-Men: Apocalypse” (2016) and declared that the 2017 movie “Logan” will be the last time he would play Wolverine.

Following the success of the “X – Men” series, Jackman worked assiduously in the United States, playing in various movies such as “Swordfish”, with Halle Berry and John Travolta, and “Kate & Leopold”, where he received a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination. He was given the main role in the movie “Van Helsing”, which was a big hit at the box office, but also the subject of negative criticism. In 2002 he played the role of Billy Bigelow in the musical “Carousel” in a special concert

performance at Carnegie Hall, and in 2003 he finally made his debut on Broadway as the star of the acclaimed show “The Boy from Oz”. For his portrayal of Australian singer and performer, Peter Allen, he received acclaim from audiences and critics, obtaining the Drama Desk Award and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2004. The show was on stage for almost a year and ranked among the biggest hits of the season, with revenues of over 40 million $, but then it came to an end as Hugh Jackman’s contract expired.

For the next three seasons, respectively 2003, 2004 and 2005, Jackman presented the Tony Awards prize giving ceremony. In 2004, he won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performer in a Variety, Musical or Comedy program. In the summer of 2006, he resumed for a few weeks the role of Peter Allen in the show “The Boy from Oz - Arena Spectacular”, a special edition of the musical, directed

by Kenny Ortega. In the autumn of the same year, Jackman was the protagonist in Woody Allen’s movie “Scoop”. He then played in movies like “The Prestige”, directed by Christopher Nolan and “The Fountain”, directed by Darren Aronofsky. In 2008, he played alongside Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann’s movie “Australia” and in the same year, People magazine proclaimed him “the sexiest man in the world” in its annual ranking.

In 2009, he received many appreciations as a presenter of the Oscar Night, where he performed in dance numbers and singing.

Two years later, he returned as a guest alongside Neil Patrick Harris. In autumn 2009, he was still on Broadway as the star of the play “A Steady Rain”. In May 2011, Hugh performed at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco in a “one man show”, in which alternating songs, including extracts from “Oklahoma!” and “The Boy from Oz” to anecdotes and stories about his life and career were made. There were moments of interaction with

Hugh Jackman at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con

67

the public as well. In October 2011, he returned once more to Broadway with his new show “Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway”, inspired by the previous show held in San Francisco, where the actor, accompanied by an orchestra of 18 elements and an ensemble of singers and dancers, retraced the most important roles of his career, along with many classics of Broadway. In 18 November 2011, the movie “Real Steel”, directed by Shawn Levy, was released in Europe.

In 2012, Hugh Jackman played Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables” by Tom Hooper, a role which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. The following year, he played in a new spin-off of the X-Men, entitled “The Wolverine” and then went on to play the role once more in “X-Men Days of Future Past”, in April 2014.

Jackman is working on creating a new comic book series called “Nowhere Man”, for which it is provided a future film adaptation. Also, the actor is involved in many productions, including the film “Unbound Captives” with Rachel Weisz and Robert

68

Pattinson. In 2015, he played villain Blackbeard in the movie “Pan”, which revolved around the backstories of J.M. Barrie’s characters Peter Pan and Captain Hook.

In 2017, he will interpret for the last time an old aged Wolverine in the movie “Logan”, directed by James Mangold.

In April 1996, Hugh Jackman married actress Deborra-Lee Furness, 13 years older than him, whom he met in the set of “Correlli”. After the actress found out that she wasn’t able to have children, the couple decided to adopt two: Oscar Maximilian Jackman, in 2000, and Ava Eliot Jackman, in 2005. On 22 November 2013, he underwent an operation to remove a basal cell carcinoma skin type of cancer. The operation was repeated on 9 May 2014. In a period of 18 months, four skin cancers have been removed from his body.

Hugh Jackman is also the godfather of Grace and Chloe, Rupert Murdoch’s daughters. In August 2015, he fulfilled Domenic’s wish, a 9 years old kid who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth. He met Hugh Jackman on Kyle and Jackie O’s KIIS 106.5 show in Australia as part of “Make a Wish” Foundation.

Fan made poster of Hugh Jackman in the role of Wolverine

Hugh Jackman in 2011

69

Albert Namatjira

Albert Namatjira (b. 28 July 1902 in Hermannsburg, near Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia – d. 8 August 1959 near Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia) born Elea Namatjira, was a Western Arrernte-speaking Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. As a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, he was the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation.

He is best known for his watercolors of Australian desert landscapes, a style that inspired the Hermannsburg School of Aboriginal Art. Although his works are obviously the product of his life and his experiences, his paintings don’t relate to the symbolic works of the traditional style of the Aboriginal native art, but rather to the richly detailed Western representations. He is also known to have been the first aboriginal of the Northern Territory to be granted Australian citizenship. The discriminatory restrictions of the Australian legislation were eventually lifted and made the aborigines people of the state. Until the 1970’s, they were considered to be people of the “fauna and flora”.

Born at the Lutheran Mission of Hermannsburg, near Alice Springs in 1902, Elea Namatjira, as he was born, was baptized Albert and raised according to the Christian religion of his adoptive parents. After receiving a Western style education, at the age of 16 years old, Namatjira returned to the bush in order to receive the initiation and traditional culture of the

70

Indigenous Australian Aboriginal artist Namatjira singing autographs

Arrernte community, of which he was eventually to become one of the elders. He experienced a great deal of love and respect for his lands of origin, as it can be seen in his works. After he returned to his tribe, at the age of 18 years old, he married his wife, Rubina. His wife, just like his father’s in law, wasn’t part of the group of women whom tradition permitted him to marry, and thus violated the law of his people by marrying outside the classificatory kinship system. He was separated from his tribe for several years during which he worked as a camel driver and visited Central Australia, which he later depicted in his paintings.

Although he had made some small paintings in his youth, which weren’t traditional works of art in the true sense of the word, he was introduced to the Western style of painting through an exhibition made at the Lutheran mission by two Melbourne painters in 1934. One of these painters, Rex Battarbee, returned to the region during the winter of 1936 to paint the scenic areas of the region and Albert served as the guide that showed him the local landscapes. In return, Battarbee showed Albert how to paint with watercolors, an art where he would quickly excel.

Albert Namatjira then began to paint in a style that became unique to him. His landscapes highlight both the robustness of the geological features of the land, as well as in the foreground, the Australian flora with very ancient and majestic white gum trees surrounded by twisted scrub. His work had a high quality of illumination that brought out the details of the gashes and the twists in the trees, thus creating an effect that managed to take the viewer’s breath away. His colours are similar to the ochres that his ancestors used to paint the same landscapes, but his style was more appreciated by the Europeans because it was based on the aesthetics of Western art.

In 1938, his first exhibition took place in Melbourne and he sold all his works there. The same thing happened at the exhibitions held in Sydney and Adelaide, where all of his works were sold. During the next ten years, Namatjira continued to paint as his works were quickly selling and his popularity continued to increase. Queen Elizabeth II became one of his most notable admirers and the Aboriginal artist was awarded the Queen’s Coronation Medal in 1953. He also met the Queen in Canberra in 1954 and won the Archibald Prize in 1956. He became very popular, critically acclaimed, and very rich. He has, however, always been happy to get back into the outback. At least three films based on his life were made in the following years.

He began his artistic career by portraying the Australian bush on canvas, depicting the landscapes with meticulous details, thing for which he gained immense popularity among the Europeans who followed the Western art. During the 1930’s, he created several famous paintings such as “Central Australian Gorge”, “Ajantzi Waterhole” and “Red Bluff ”. In the following decade, he outlined the Australian evergreen tree “ghost gum” in his series of paintings “Ghost Gum Glen Helen” (1945-1949). He was an expert at detailing trees with meticulousness, fact that can be seen in the earlier mentioned series of paintings. All these paintings made his name and fame spread far and wide across the whole world.

He mainly painted landscapes and nature. As he grew older, he wanted to build a house in Alice Springs.

This move proved to be difficult as he was a ward of the state as an Aborigine, which is why he couldn’t acquire any real estate. Because of his high popularity and after many protests, he and his wife were the first Aborigines of the Northern Territory to acquire the full Australian citizenship in 1957 and thus could buy the building land.

With each painting, his skills as an artist kept increasing more and more, eventually becoming outstanding in his profession. His painting entitled “Mount Hermannburg” was considered by many to be as graphic as a camera click. Two years after he finished this painting, the talented artist died. He often abandoned the mission and embarked on various journey to Mt. Hermannsburg. He gathered a pretty

impressive amount of wealth and as a result had to care for many individuals who belonged to his tribe and who weren’t well. He suffered a cardiac arrest and was sent to the Alice Springs hospital where on 8 August 1959, he gave his final breath on the hospital bed.

At the time of his death, Namatjira had painted a total of around 2.000 paintings. His unique style of painting however was denounced soon after his death by some critics as being a product of his assimilation into western culture, rather than his own connection to his subject matter or his natural style. This view has been largely abandoned and Albert Namatjira is hailed as one of the greatest Australian artists and a pioneer for Aboriginal rights. The Northern Territory electoral division of Namatjira created in 2012 was named after Namatjira.

Albert Namatjira (center) with Jack Kramer and Frank Sedgman

71

Albert Elea Namatjira and painter William Dargie in 1950

Lleyton Hewitt

Lleyton Hewitt (b. 24 February 1981 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia) is an Australian former world no. 1 professional tennis player. In November 2001, Hewitt became the youngest male ever to be ranked no. 1 in the world in singles, aged 20. He won the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon men’s singles titles, the 2000 US Open men’s doubles title, back to back Tennis Masters Cup titles in 2001 and 2002, and the Davis Cup with Australia in 1999 and 2003. Hewitt reached the final of the 2004 US Open, where he was defeated by Roger Federer in straight sets. Between 1997 and 2016, he contested in twenty consecutive Australian Open men’s singles tournaments, reaching the 2005 final where he was defeated by Marat Safin in 4 sets.

Hewitt became one of the youngest winners of

72

Lleyton Hewitt in the Birdcage at the 2015 Melbourne Cup

an ATP tournament by winning the 1998 tournament in Adelaide, beating among others Andre Agassi in the semifinals. The following year in 1999, he played 4 ATP tournament finals. However, he won only one tournament in Delray Beach by defeating Belgian, Xavier Malisse. He advanced 91 positions in the world rankings and ended that year as No. 25 in the world.

In 2000, Hewitt won his first Grand Slam tournament when together with Belarussian Max Mirnyi, he won the doubles title at the US Open. During that year, Lleyton also he won 4 ATP tournaments in Adelaide, Sydney, Scottsdale and at Queen’s, ending the season for the first time in his career as the No. 1 Australian. He also ranked on position No. 7 in the world ranking.

He won his first Grand Slam singles tournament in 2001, again at the US Open, where he defeated the 4 time champion Pete Sampras with the score of 7-6; 6-1; 6-1. In 2001, besides winning the US Open, Lleyton also won the Sydney tournament, as well as the Queen’s, Hertogenbosch and Tokyo tournaments. He also won the Masters Cup in Shanghai where he managed to defeat Sébastien Grosjean in the final. He finished that year with 80 victories and 17 defeats and became the new No. 1 professional tennis player, the youngest in history, at only 20 years and 8 months.

In 2002, Hewitt won his second Grand Slam title at Wimbledon where he defeated Argentinian David Nalbandian with the score: 6-1; 6-3; 6-2. His victory has reinforced the idea regarding that even if Wimbledon was dominated by players with good serves and volleys, it could also be won by baseliners like Agassi and Hewitt himself. In 2002, he also won his first Masters Series tournament in his career at Indian Wells by defeating Tim Henman. Besides it, Hewitt also won for the third year in a row the title at Queen’s, thus becoming the first one to succeed this performance since John McEnroe.

He also obtained victories at the San Jose tournament and at the Masters Cup in Shanghai for the second year in a row by defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final. He finished the season with 61 victories and 15 defeats, thus defending his No. 1 position in the world throughout the year.

In 2003 he had to defend his title at Wimbledon, but Hewitt was defeated in the first round by Croatian Ivo Karlović and obtained the negative distinction of being the first Wimbledon winner in the Open Era to be defeated in the first round in the year he had to defend his title. In that year however, he won 2 ATP tournaments, the Masters Series at Indian Wells for the second year in a row and the Scottsdale tournament.

Lleyton Hewitt

He finished the season with 36 victories and 10 losses, going down as No. 16 in the world partly because of various minor injuries.

In 2004, Hewitt became the first player in history to lose in all Grand Slam tournaments against the future winners. So, he was defeated in the 4th round of the Australian Open by Roger Federer, in the Roland Garros quarterfinals by Gastón Gaudio, in the Wimbledon quarter-finals he was defeated once more by Federer and he lost the US Open final against Roger Federer again. In the same year, he won however the Sydney, Rotterdam, Washington and Long Island tournaments and reached the final of the Masters Cup, but he was defeated again by his nightmare of that year, Roger Federer. He finished the season with 66 wins and 17 defeats, positioning himself as No. 3 in the world ranking.

In 2005, Lleyton won only one title, in Sydney, by defeating Carlos Moya in the final. Hewitt reached for the first time in his career the Australian Open final where he was defeated by Marat Safin, with the score: 1-6; 6-3; 6-4; 6-4. He didn’t play at the French Open due to an injury, while he lost at Wimbledon in the semifinals against Roger Federer. At the US Open he reached once again the semifinals only to be defeated by the Swiss. He finished the year with 37 victories and 9 defeats, classifying as No. 4 in the world.

2006 was a bad year for Hewitt, partly due to many injuries. He only won the Queen’s tournament, while at the Grand Slam tournaments he was eliminated in the 2nd round at the Australian Open, in the 4th round at Roland Garros by future winner Rafael Nadal and finally he was defeated in the quarterfinals at both Wimbledon and the US Open. He ended his 73

7th consecutive year in the top 20 professional tennis players in the world with 33 wins and 15 losses.

At the 2007 Australian Open, Hewitt was eliminated by future finalist, Fernando González. During that year, he won the Las Vegas tournament and reached the semifinals of the Masters Series in Hamburg where he lost in 3 sets to Rafael Nadal. After a period of lights and shadows, he showed a newfound state of form at Wimbledon, a tournament in which he was defeated in the second round by rising star, Serbian Novak Djokovic, in four sets. 2008 proved to be a lost year for Hewitt due to some physical problems that made him drop even more in the world standings.

In 2009, Hewitt returned at the Australian Open where he was eliminated by Fernando González in the first round. Then he reached the semifinals of the Memphis tournament, where he was defeated by Andy Roddick. Hewitt returned to success after two years in an ATP tournament in Houston where he managed to defeat American Wayne Odesnik with the score 6-2; 7-5, thus winning his 27th tournament as a professional tennis player. In June, he was eliminated in the 3rd round of the French Open by Spanish tennis player, Rafael Nadal. At Wimbledon, Hewitt’s race

74

towards the title stopped in the quarterfinals where he was eliminated by Andy Roddick in 5 sets after a match played with extraordinary intensity, which could’ve mark the Aussie’s return at high levels. At ATP Cincinnati, Lleyton Hewitt’s progress came to an end in the quarter-finals, where he was beaten by Swiss Roger Federer. At the ATP US Open, Hewitt was eliminated in the 3rd round with a score of 4-6; 6-3; 7-5; 6-4, by Roger Federer.

After an intensive training period, Hewitt began the 2010 year in a better form than the previous one. At the Medibank International tournament in Sydney, he was seeded No. 4 and reached the quarter-finals where he lost to Marcos Baghdatis. Lleyton easily won the first three rounds of the Australian Open by eliminating Brazilian Ricardo Hocevar with the score of 6-1; 6-2; 6-3, American Donald Young with the score of 7-6; 6-4; 6-1, and Marcos Baghdatis, who had to abandon the match in the second set due to an injury. In the 4th round, a Federer in great shape awaited him and the Swiss easily won the match with the final score of 6-2; 6-3; 6-4. At the US Men’s Claycourt Championships, Hewitt eliminated Somdev Devvarman in the first round in 3 sets (1-6; 6-0; 7-6), only to lose in the second

Lleyton Hewitt in 2009 at Wimbledon

round in front of the future winner of the tournament, Argentinian Juan Ignacio Chela, by 6-4; 6-3. In the doubles, along with partner Nathan Healey, he reached the semifinals only to be defeated by the Bryan brothers with the score of 6-2; 7-6.

At Roland Garros, he easily passed the first round by defeating Frenchman Jeremy Chardy with the score of 7-5; 6-0; 6-4. In the second round, Lleyton defeated in 5 sets Uzbek Denis Istomin by 1-6; 6-3; 6-4; 2-6; 6-2. Just like at the Australian Open, so at Roland Garros Hewitt was eliminated by the eventual winner of the tournament, Rafael Nadal, in three: 6-3; 6-4; 6-3. On 13 June 2010, he got his revenge for the defeat suffered earlier in that year by winning the final of the Gerry Weber Open tournament on the grass of Halle, against Roger Federer in 3 sets: 3-6; 7-6 (4); 6-4. The victory against the Swiss was the first one since 2003, after a series of 15 losses.

In 2012, Hewitt fell on the 181st position according to the world rankings, but he received a wild card for the main draw of the Australian Open where he managed to reach the 4th round only to be defeated in 4 sets by world No. 1, Novak Djokovic. After this match, he stopped playing for several months, thus falling down to position No. 233. He came back on the tennis court at Roland Garros where he was defeated in the first round by Slovenian, Blaž Kavčič. At Wimbledon, the Australian was also eliminated in the first round, this time by seed No. 5 and future semifinalist, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He tried his luck in the next tournament at Newport, where he reached the final only to be defeated

by American John Isner.

During 2013, Hewitt returned to the top 100 ATP world rankings without winning any title. At Australian Open, he lost in the first round against Tipsarević, while in other tournaments he never passed by the second round except for Indian Wells, where he reached the third round, and ATP Aegon Championships, where he stopped in the semifinals, losing in 3 sets against Čilić, after defeating players of the caliber of Dimitrov, Quarrey and Del Potro. At Wimbledon he started the tournament very well by defeating No. 11 in the world, Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, in three sets, but after this sensationally victory, Hewitt lost in the second round in 4 sets against Jamaican Dustin Brown, No. 187. At the end of the year, Hewitt occupied position No. 60 in the ATP rankings. In 2014, Lleyton returned with a win in a singles tournament after 4 years, in Brisbane, by defeating Roger Federer in the final with the score of 6-1; 4-6; 6-3. He continued his successful start at

Newport, where he defeated Ivo Karlović in the final by 6-3; 6-7 (4); 7-6 (3). This was the 30th career title for the Australian in singles tournaments. At the same tournament, he also won the doubles trophy, where he teamed up with compatriot Guccione. This was his third doubles title won in his career, which came 14 years after the last success at the US Open in 2000. After a modest 2015 season, where Lleyton didn’t manage to win any trophy, he announced his retirement at the end of the 2016 season.

Lleyton Hewitt is a counter-striker, one of the best defensive players in the circuit. He typically likes to stay back towards the baseline during a rally and will usually approach the net only to catch a short reply or drop shot from his opponent. He has improved his service very much and managed to draw the best benefits from it in the key moments of the match. He doesn’t like the air game, but when called to the network, he is able to play very well and is considered one of the best skilled volleyers in the circuit, a master of lobs and overhead smashes. Hewitt was a fighter, thing which enabled him to come back from matches that seemed lost, and his will to fight exploded when he used to scream “C’mon!”, following the seize of an important point. In 2005, Tennis Magazine has ranked Hewitt on the 34th place among the 40 best tennis players of all time.

Lleyton Hewitt at the 2010 Australian Open

75

Steve Robert Irwin

Steve Robert Irwin (b. 22 February 1962 in Essendon, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia – d. 4 September 2006 in Batt Reef, Queensland, Australia) nicknamed “The Crocodile Hunter”, was an Australian nature expert and television personality. Irwin achieved worldwide fame from the television series “The Crocodile Hunter”, an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series which he co-hosted with his wife, Terri. Together, the couple also owned and operated Australia Zoo, founded by Irwin’s parents in Beerwah, about 80 kilometres north of the Queensland state capital city of Brisbane.

Steve Irwin was born in Essendon, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. As a child, he moved with his parents to Queensland in 1970, where he attended Landsborough State School and Caloundra State High School. Steve’s source of inspiration was his father Bob, a wildlife expert specialized in herpetology. His mother, Lyn Irwin, worked all her life for the rehabilitation of the animals back in nature. Once they have moved in Queensland, Bob and Lyn founded the “Reptile and Fauna Park”, where unlike other children, Steve lived happily among snakes, crocodiles and monitor lizards.

By the age of 6 years old, when other kids went to school, Steve received a three meter long python and it was love at first sight. When he was 9, he caught his first crocodile under his father’s strict supervision. Immediately after graduating from high school, Steve started to rescue and relocate the crocodiles from the province of North Queensland, where they were badly seen by the locals and therefore mercilessly exterminated. After five years of dedicated and hard work, Steve became a volunteer for the government program “East Coast’s Crocodile Management”.

76

Steve Irwin with his wife, Terri, and his best friend, Wes Mannion

The park remained a family business until 1992, when Steve was handed the full management of the park and renamed it “Australia Zoo”, thus transforming the business into an Australian wildlife rescue mission. In the same year, he appeared in his first television show, surrounded by snakes, spiders and scorpions. In 1991, Irwin met Terri Raines, an American ecologist from Eugene, Oregon, who was visiting wildlife rehabilitation facilities in Australia and decided to visit the zoo.

According to the couple, it was love at first sight. The couple got engaged 4 months later and got married in Eugene on 4 June 1992. They have two children: Bindi Sue, born on 24 July 1998 and Robert Clarence “Bob”, born on 1 December 2003. Bindi Sue is a name that makes reference to two of Steve Irwin’s favorite animals: Bindi, a saltwater crocodile and Sui, a staffordshire bull terrier who died on 23 June 2004. Irwin was an enthusiast of his family, just as he was of his work.

Although the Irwin couple was happily married, they wore no wedding rings, believing that wearing jewelry at work could be a danger to them or to the animals. His wife once said: “the only thing that could keep him away from the animals he loved, were the people he loved even more.”

Steve and his wife Terri Irwin (Raines), of American origin, became known worldwide through TV programs about wildlife, especially crocodiles.

The montage of the scenes where Steve and his wife caught crocodiles on their honeymoon became the first episode of the TV series “Crocodile Hunter”, aired in more than 130 countries and watched by over 500 million spectators. Under the exuberant leadership of Steve Irwin, the “Wildlife Warriors” and “International Crocodile Rescue” foundations were created and started activating. In the “Australia Zoo” there were made some improvements like: the Animal Planet Crocoseum, the rainforest aviary and the Tiger Temple.

In 2001, Steve appeared for the first time in a movie. He was personally invited by Eddie Murphy to play himself in “Doctor Doolittle 2”, and a year later Steve appeared in a production inspired entirely by his life: “The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course”.

Steve’s popularity exceeded that of any Australian. He became a true legend of courage by combining scientific curiosity with the spirit of adventure. Steve Irwin quickly became a star in Australia, where he even had his own zoo. “People” magazine once declared Steve the most beloved personality in the world.

Especially after starring in John Stainton’s series “The Crocodile Hunter” from 1996 to 2005, the atypical

naturalist became an international star. His television broadcasts were seen by millions of viewers who were fascinated by the unexpected circumstances in which he was wandering, as well as by the humor that permanently accompanied him in the adventures among those who do not speak. However, Irwin was heavily criticized in 2004 because he was holding his child of only a few months old, while feeding a crocodile in an Australian zoo. He was also criticized for disturbing whales, seals and penguins while filming in Antarctica.

Irwin has shot 46 documentaries that have been broadcasted by TV channel Animal Planet, and more than 20 episodes of “The Crocodile Hunter Diaries”.

Steve was perhaps the only man equally admired by elders and children, workers and executives, rich and poor, priests and criminals, Christians, Hebrews and Muslims.

On 4 September 2006, Steve Irwin was killed in a subaquatic accident at Port Douglas, Australia. While he and his crew were filming a documentary about the wildlife at Batt Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef, Steve was stung in the chest by a poisonous stingray barb. Irwin was inadvertently passing just above the animal that was hidden in the sand when the stingray has immediately pricked up its 30 cm long tail equipped with stinger venom, hitting a vital area close to the heart, and making useless any attempt of resuscitation.

The incident was entirely filmed by the cameraman who accompanied Irwin in the subaquatic mission, who, according to the testimonies of those who have viewed the video, Steve took out alone the sting from his chest before losing consciousness. He thought he

Steve Irwin feeding a crocodile at Australia Zoo in December 2005

only had a punctured lung, but in fact his heart was pierced and Steve bled to death. Brought to the surface, he was administered first emergency care on his boat, the Croc 1, but nothing could’ve helped him during the helicopter ride to the hospital. In fact, he was declared dead at the scene.

The Queensland Premier has offered the family a state funeral, but they rejected it since, according to Steve Irwin’s father, “he was a normal man.” Moreover, in the hours following the tragedy, there was a discussion about whether to show the audience or to completely destroy the recorded video of the accident. The president of TV channel Discovery said that this decision would depend solely and exclusively on the family. His wife, Terri eventually put an end to the long dispute and the film was finally destroyed. In December 2007, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was renamed Steve Irwin. In this way, the organization honored his work for nature conservation.

Steve Irwin

77

John Curtin

John Curtin (b. 8 January 1885 in Creswick, Victoria, British Empire, now Australia – d. 5 July 1945 in Canberra, Australia) was the 14th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1941 to 1945, and the Leader of the Labor Party from 1935 to 1945. Having first formed a minority government in 1941, Curtin led the Labor Party and the majority of the government to victory at the 1943 election, which remained Labor’s Party greatest victory in a federal election, both in the House of Representatives and the Senate. As the Member for Fremantle, Curtin was the first and to date only prime minister to represent an electorate outside the Eastern states.

Born John Joseph Curtin, at the age of 14, the youngster added the name Ambrose in his official name as a confirmation of his Catholic faith, thus becoming John Ambrose Joseph Curtin. However, he soon abandoned both the Catholic faith and the names Joseph and Ambrose. The son of a police officer of Irish origin, after finishing primary school, Curtin began working for a newspaper in Creswick at the young age

78

John Curtin

of 13. At the age of 20 years old, he began working in a factory in Melbourne. Curtin enrolled in both the Australian Labor Party and the Victorian Socialist Party, a Marxist group in whose newspaper he wrote some articles and signed himself as “Jack Curtin”. In 1911, Curtin became Secretary of the Timber Workers Union and during the First World War he became an active anti-conscriptionist militant.

During WWI, John was also the Labor candidate for the electoral district of Balaclava in the 1914 elections, but he was briefly imprisoned for refusing to undergo a mandatory medical examination. He knew that he would fail the exam because of his poor eyesight.

The tension he accumulated led him to become an inveterate alcoholic, jeopardizing his political career for many years. In 1917, he married Elsie Needham, the sister of a Labor senator.

In 1918, Curtin moved to Perth where he became an editor for the “Westralian Worker”, the official newspaper of the trade unions. John’s happiness in Western Australia due to a less stressed lifestyle has moderated his political vision. In 1928, Curtin was elected in the federal parliament. Legitimately, he expected to be appointed as a member of Prime Minister James Scullin’s cabinet, but his alcohol addiction left him outside Scullin’s plans. In 1931, he lost his seat to William Watson, who decided to come out of retirement, only to regain it back three years later.

After Scullin resigned from the leadership of the Labour Party in 1935, John Curtin was unexpectedly appointed to succeed him after defeating his rival, Frank Forde, who was accused by the left wing and the union members for having supported the Scullin economic policy. In the 1937 elections, the Labour Party led by Curtin made only small progress, failing to jeopardize the comfortable majority enjoyed by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, but after the death of the latter, the Labour’s Party position has vastly improved. In the elections of 1940, Curtin failed to obtain the majority by just two seats.

Despite the outbreak of the Second World War, Curtin has refused the offer made by Conservative Prime Minister Robert Menzies to form a wartime national government because he feared that it would split the Labour party. In October 1941, the two independent members of the Parliament, Arthur Coles and Alexander Wilson, who with their support had enabled the executive conservatives led by Menzies at first and by Sir Arthur Fadden then to govern, decided to support the Labour Party of Curtin, who on 7 October

John Curtin and his wife with Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, examining the Book of Remembrance in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower, Parliament House, Ottawa

1941 became prime minister. With the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the war until then confined to Africa and Europe, had expanded to the Pacific. At the end of 1942, after the battles of the Coral Sea, Milne Bay and the Kokoda Track, which opposed the Japanese forces to the Australian forces near the country, the people felt the threat of a Japanese invasion in their country. In February 1942, Singapore fell into the Japanese hands, who took tens of thousands of Australians as prisoners. During this time, the Japanese troops were dangerously approaching to Australia, as the air strikes and bombings between 1942 and 1943 proved it. The invasion of Australia thus became a realistic assumption.

In that critical hour, Curtin took three crucial decisions that would prove extremely beneficial for the defense of the national territory. First of all, John Curtin attracted the violent reprimands of Churchill after he decided to bring home the Australian troops that were engaged together with the British in the North African war theater and to displace them in the Pacific bases. He then launched a public appeal to the United States so that they would assist the Australian troops.

John Curtin also welcomed American general Douglas MacArthur as a saviour of the Australian nation, thus tightening with the United States that strong bond that survives even nowadays. Thanks to the American intervention of 1943, the danger seemed averted. In the elections held in August that year, the Labour Party gained its greatest victory of all time.

Finally, Curtin managed to introduce the mandatory conscription, which he deemed essential,

without splitting the party. In fact, to meet the furious objections of the left wing of his party, the conscription was introduced to a minimal extent and only for residents located south of the equator. Having made these choices, Curtin proved his leader abilities. The stress of the war, combined with the bitter internal battle within the Labour Party, along with his nicotine and alcoholism addiction strongly deteriorated Curtin’s health. Due to these causes, on 5 July 1945, at the age of 60 years old, John Curtin died at “The Lodge”. He was the second Australian prime minister to die while in office within six years. His body was buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth. Douglas MacArthur said that Curtin was “one of the greatest wartime statesmen”.

His successor was at first Frank Forde, but after only 8 days in function, a second Party ballot held within the Labor Party made Ben Chifley the new Prime Minister of Australia.

Under Prime Minister John Curtin, social services were significantly expanded. His government set up several services like: widow’s pension, funeral benefits, wife’s allowance, pharmaceutical benefits, maternity benefits for Indigenous Australians, unemployment, sickness and many other special benefits. Curtin government’s enactment of the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, reversing the stance of four previous governments, basically marked the moment of Australia’s legal independence. This law, along with the Constitution of Australia and the Australian Act of 1986, is one of the key components of Australia’s modern constitutional framework.

Australia’s Prime Minister John Curtin with US General Douglas MacArthur at the Parliament House

79

Ned Kelly

Ned Kelly (b. December 1854 in Beveridge, Victoria, Australia – d. 11 November 1880 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) was an Australian bushranger of Irish descent. The Kellys were a poor selector family who saw themselves as downtrodden by the Squattocracy and as victims of police persecution.

Arrested in 1870 for associating with bushranger Harry Power, Kelly was first convicted of stealing horses and imprisoned for three years. He fled to the bush in 1878 after being indicted for the attempted murder of a police officer at the Kelly family’s home. After he, his brother Dan, and two associates fatally shot three policemen, the Government of Victoria proclaimed them outlaws.

Ned’s father, John “Red” Kelly was an Irish immigrant. Originally from Tipperary, Ireland, he was like many other prisoners in Australia, deported and imprisoned in Tasmania in 1841, for the theft of two pigs. On his release in 1848 and after 7 years in prison,

80

Ned Kelly

Red Kelly found a job in the village of Beveridge in Victoria at the farm of James Quinn, originally from County Antrim, Ireland. At the age of 30 years old, he married Quinn’s daughter: Ellen Quinn, aged 18 years old. The couple married on 18 November 1850 and had 8 children: Mary, Annie, Ned, Maggie, Jim, Dan, Kate and Grace. The Kelly family then moved to Avenel and Benalla.

At the age of 10, Ned Kelly saved from drowning the young Richard Shelton, who had fallen into the waters of the Hughes Creek, then in flood, located behind the family’s small farm. As a reward, he received a green belt from the boy’s family, which he carried under his armor during his final confrontation with the police in 1880.

The social context was difficult. In these remote and deemed difficult lands, landowners were protected by law enforcement. There were many injustices committed against the people that lived on farming. Suspected of numerous cattle and horse thefts, the Kelly’s were never sentenced until Red Kelly was arrested for a quarrel with his neighbor over the belonging of a calf. Recognized innocent of theft, but guilty of having removed the mark on the skin, he had to choose between a fine of 25 pounds or a penalty of six months of forced labor. As he didn’t have any money to pay the fine, Red was sent at Kilmore Prison. There, he suffered fatal consequences on his health. While Ned was only eleven and a half years old, he had to leave school when his father died in Avenel on 27 December 1866. The saga surrounding Red Kelly and his treatment by the police forces made a strong impression on his son, Ned. In total, 18 charges would be laid against members of Ned’s immediate family before being declared an outlaw. Only half of that number culminated in a guilty verdict. The unusual reports of those times were one of the reasons why the family was unfairly targeted.

At the age of 14 years old, he was charged with assault and robbery on a Chinese worker. He was imprisoned for 10 days, but the charges against him were dropped. He was however regarded from that moment by the police as a bushranger. The following year, in 1870, he was arrested and accused of being an accomplice of Harry Power, a horse thief. He was eventually released for lack of evidence. In 1871, on his way to Glenrowan, he was arrested and charged for receiving a “borrowed” mare from one of his friends.

He explained that he didn’t know that the horse was stolen, but was in the end sentenced to 3 years in prison when he was only 16 years old.

Ned Kelly in a police mugshot, age 15

During his imprisonment, his brothers Jim and Dan, of 12, respectively 10 years old, were arrested for possessing a horse that didn’t belong to them. It was in fact lent by a farmer for whom they had done some work, but they have spent a night in the cells before the misunderstanding was resolved. Jim was again put behind bars 2 years later for cattle theft, but wasn’t convicted as he wasn’t pursued by the owner. Upon his release from prison, Ned Kelly worked with George King, a Californian, with whom his mother remarried.

Later, Ned would describe him as an intelligent horse thief. Ned and his family would continue to be suspected of theft and eventually arrested.

On 15 April 1878, 21 years old agent Alexander Fitzpatrick entered the Benalla Police Station, claiming to have been attacked by Ned, Dan, and Ellen Kelly, as well as their associate, Bricky Williamson and Ned’s weapon brother, Bill Skillion. He showed the police officers a wound on his left wrist, explaining that he was hit by a bullet. Fitzpatrick asserted that all but Ellen Kelly were armed with revolvers.

The Kelly family claimed that Fitzpatrick came to their house to question Dan about a cattle affair.

Once arrived there, he would have made more indecent proposals to Kate Kelly, to which Ned’s mother would have responded with a coal shovel on his left hand, before Fitzpatrick was attacked by the men. No weapons

were said to have been used during the incident. They said that Fitzpatrick would have left the house treated, claiming that the conflict was over. He was subsequently excluded from the forces of order for intoxication and perjury. In this episode, Ned was in New South Wales.

Williamson and Skillion were arrested, Ned and Dan Kelly couldn’t be found, while Ellen Kelly was detained together with her baby, Alice. She was still in prison at the time of Ned’s execution and deceased on 27 March 1923.

Having no doubt that they couldn’t convince the police of their story, Dan and Ned Kelly decided to hide. They were joined by friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart. In their strides, they fell by chance on their pursuers at Stringybark Creek. Considering their weak chances of survival, they decided to disarm them and take their horses. The attack went badly as three of the four policemen were shot and the last one fled on a wounded horse. In response to these murders, the Victoria Parliament passed the Felon’s Apprehension Act, which made the band outlaw and allowed anyone to shoot them down.

After the Stringybark Creek killings, the gang committed two large scale burglaries, one of them at Euroa, Victoria on 10 December 1878 and the other one at Jerilderie, New South Wales on 8 February 1879.

During the second bank attack they captured the two policemen of the city, locked them up in their own prison and dressed with their uniforms. They then explained to the locals that they were police reinforcements that came to protect them against an announced attack of Ned Kelly’s band. They took advantage of the situation to attack the local bank and seized 2.000 £, then went to the post office and destroyed the telegraph lines.

The gang took about thirty inhabitants as hostages in the hotel from the village where they spent the night.

In this hotel, Ned Kelly wrote his famous “Jerilderie Letter”, in which he complained about the governor of the State of Victoria’s attitude towards his family and the unfortunate Irish settlers like him. He tried to have his letter printed by the local printer, which he couldn’t find, and had to simply hand it over to one of his hostages before crossing the border and returning to Victoria.

Their strategy was to take hostages during the robbery of the safety deposit boxes.

In January 1879, the police arrested all friends and sympathizers of Kelly. They were detained for three months without any charge. This action created dissatisfaction with the government’s abuse of power, leading to media condemnation and a wave of support 81

for the band. The people’s support was one of the factors that allowed Ned Kelly’s band to escape the forces of law and order for a long time, especially since Ned Kelly took advantage of the bank attacks to burn the mortgages made to the bank by the inhabitants. In the same year, the head of the gangsters was priced at 8.000 £, a sum that would be worth more than 300.000 € today. On Friday, 25 June 1880, Dan Kelly and Joe Byrne rode into the valley where Aaron Sherritt, Joe Byrne’s best friend, kept a small farm. They discovered that Sherritt was a police informant and his betrayal made Byrne murder him.

The Kelly Gang arrives at Glenrowan on 27 June 1880 and took about seventy hostages at the local inn.

They chose this city for a reason as they knew that it was located on the way of a passenger train that carried a police detachment. In order to derail it, they twisted several rails. In the meantime, the members of the gang were equipped with a home-made armor to repel the bullets, leaving their legs unprotected. The four men also had helmets. Each armour had a weight of approximately 44 kg. All of them wore gray cotton coats over their armor that reached their knees.

The Kelly gang was enthusiastically waiting in the Glenrowan Inn, while the attempt to derail the police train failed because of schoolmaster Thomas Curnow, who was released. Curnow persuaded Ned Kelly to let him go, and as soon as his freedom was restored, he hastened to alert the authorities by standing on the railway line, waving a lantern wrapped in his red scarf.

The train immobilized and the policemen laid siege in front of the inn at the dawn of Monday 28 June 1880.

After an exchange of shots, Ned Kelly walked towards the assailants, armed with his rifle. His armor and his helmet protected him well, but a bullet hit one of his legs. He fell and was knocked out with a rifle.

The other members of the Kelly gang died at the inn: Joe Byrne died as a result of blood loss at the femoral artery from a gunshot wound when he reached the bar for a glass of whiskey, while Dan Kelly and Steve Hart committed suicide, according to Matthew Gibney. No autopsy was done to determine the cause of death. In fact, their bodies burned when the police set fire to the inn. On the police side, only Officer Francis Hare received a slight wrist injury. Several hostages have also been killed. Ned Kelly was eventually arrested.

Despite the 32.000 signatures collected by petitions claiming his pardon, Ned Kelly was sentenced to death and hanged on 11 November 1880. His last words would have been: “Such is life”. On 9 March 82

2008, a team of Australian scientists claimed to have identified the location of his execution. It was a former abandoned prison in Melbourne, where many bones have been found. In August 2011, experts from the Victoria Institute of Forensic Sciences managed to formally identify Kelly’s bones by comparing them to the DNA of Leigh Olver, a descendant of one of the gangster’s sisters.

Ned Kelly became one of the great heroes of Australian folklore and embodied the resistance of the oppressed against the authorities. For some, he represented national pride because he symbolized the resistance against the British Empire. Although he was known to redistribute the fruits of his robberies to his friends and family members, Ned was indeed the killer of the police members who initiated his last prosecution.

He pleaded self-defense during his trial. A recent survey in Australia revealed that 91% of Australians believe that Ned Kelly was not given a fair trial. On 20 January 2013, Kelly’s relatives granted his final wish and buried his remains in consecrated ground at Greta cemetery near his mother’s unmarked grave. A piece of Kelly’s skull was also buried with his remains and was surrounded by concrete to prevent looting. The burial followed a Requiem Mass held on 18 January 2013 at Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church in Wangaratta.

Ned Kelly in 1874

Australian Cuisine

83

1. Roasted lamb Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • • •

1,3 kg lamb leg 500 ml red wine 3 carrots 1 onion Bunch of rosemary sprigs 4 or 5 cloves of garlic 1 teaspoon of ginger powder 1 teaspoon coriander powder 1 tablespoon hot pepper paste Olive oil Salt and Pepper

Steps:

1. Wash the meat, wipe it and make a few incisions of 1,5 cm in width. Sprinkle with salt and pepper inside the incisions and place the rosemary sprigs.

2. Prepare the marinade: mix 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the crushed garlic, hot pepper paste, ginger powder, a tablespoon of salt, pepper and coriander powder.

3. Brush the lamb with the marinade on all sides and incisions.

4. Let the lamb marinate for 2 or 3 hours in the refrigerator, then bring the meat to room temperature for another hour.

5. Chop the onions and carrots into slices and fry them

in a little olive oil.

6. Once the onion becomes translucent, take out the vegetables and put them in a heat resistant baking dish. In it, along the onion and carrots, you will place the meat in the oven.

7. In the remaining oil from the skillet, brown a bit the lamb leg.

8. Turn the lamb on all sides so that it may form a crust.

In this manner, your steak will be juicy because the juice will stay inside, being protected by the crust.

9. Remove the lamb leg and place it over the vegetables.

Pour wine over the remaining sauce only after you’ve browned the meat.

10. Let it boil a couple of times and then pour it over the lamb meat.

11. The wine sauce should cover ¾ of the steak’s height.

Cover the heat resistant baking dish with aluminum foil and put it in the oven at 160°C. Leave it inside for an hour and a half or 2 hours.

12. After the time has elapsed, remove the foil and let it brown a little more. The meat should be soft when pressed with a finger.

13. Once ready, put the meat on a heated platter, cover it with foil once more and let it like this for 15 minutes because the lamb completes its cooking in this steam atmosphere.

14. Meanwhile, pour the wine sauce and put the vegetables in a pan and cook them on high heat so that the sauce may decrease and become syrupy.

15. Loosen the foil, drain the resulted sauce from the steak and pour it in the wine sauce from the pan, continue to boil one more minute and serve the steak accompanied by the carrots and red wine sauce.

16. Garnish with fresh rosemary and serve hot.

2. Vegemite Ingredients:

• 150g black tahini sesame butter • 3 tablespoons yeast flakes • 5 tablespoons tamari

Steps:

1. Put all the above mentioned ingredients in a blender and process them into a creamy and smooth consistency paste. Store it in the refrigerator.

84

Roasted lamb

3. Grilled Kangaroo Ingredients:

• 1,2 kg kangaroo meat (divided into 4 pieces of 300g each • Various vegetables • Peanut oi • 3 star anis • Salt and Pepper

Steps:

Vegemite

1. Grilled Kangaroo is made the same way as grilled beef. Use only salt and pepper.

2. Marinate the meat for at least 2 hours using crushed star anise, salt and pepper.

3. Place the pieces of meat on a grill and turn them from side to side every couple of minutes until done.

Cook them at 60°C or so.

4. Separately, fry a couple of vegetables. You can even make a sauce or serve with jam.

Grilled Kangaroo

85

4. Australian prawns Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • •

800g giant prawns (peeled) 150 ml white wine 200ml mashed tomatoes 1 teaspoon hot pepper paste 2 teaspoons mustard 3 cloves of garlic 1 red onion Parsley Oregano or Basil Salt and Pepper

Steps:

1. Wash the prawns and drain them well.

2. Prepare the marinade for the prawns: white wine, mashed tomato, hot pepper paste, crushed garlic, a lot of pepper and a pinch of salt.

3. Add the prawns and let them marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

4. Chop the onion in thin slices and fry it in a pan greased with a little olive oil.

5. Stir continuously. Once the onion is translucent, add the prawns together with the marinade.

6. Let it simmer a few minutes until the prawns colour

86

turn pink or orange and the sauce drops. Add as much salt as desired.

7. Add the chopped herbs and stop the fire.

8. Stir well so that the food gets all the flavour from the herbs. Serve hot with green beans.

5. Barbecued snags Ingredients: • • • • • •

10 snags (or other sausages) 2 cloves of garlic 100 ml soy sauce 1 tablespoon Worchester sauce 100 ml boiling water Mint sprigs

Steps:

1. Make about 10 holes in each sausage.

2. Mix the crushed garlic, soy sauce, Worchester sauce and mint sprigs in a very large bowl and then add the boiled water. Continue stirring.

3. Add the snags to the bowl and let them stand there for about an hour.

4. Once time has elapsed, toss the snags on the grill and cook them.

5. Serve with mustard.

Australian prawns

Barbecued snags

6. Crocodile skewers Ingredients: • • • • • • •

500g crocodile meat 1 lime (only the juice) 3 cloves of garlic 1 red chili 1 tablespoon lemon myrtle 1 tablespoon powdered ginger 1 tablespoon peanut oil

Steps:

1. Cut the crocodile meat into 2,5 cm cubes.

2. Marinate the meat for at least 2 hours, using crushed garlic, crushed chili, peanut oil, lemon myrtle and powdered ginger.

3. Put the crocodile meat cubes on skewers and fry them on grill over medium to high heat. You can use a pan if you don’t have a grill.

4. Pour lime juice over the crocodile skewers and serve hot.

Crocodile skewers

87

8. ANZAC Biscuits

7. Barramundi Ingredients: • • • • • • •

200g barramundi fillets 50g butter 1 garlic clove (minced) 5 basil leaves (minced) 50 ml olive oil 50 ml lemon juice Salt

Steps:

1. In a small saucepan, sauté the minced garlic in butter for 1 minute then add the lemon juice and minced basil leaves. Don’t forget to add salt!

2. Pat the barramundi fillets dry and brush them on both sides with olive oil.

3. In a regular pan, fry the barramundi fillets in olive oil until golden brown on both sides.

4. Place the fish fillets on a serving dish and add the sauce over them. Add a bit of extra lemon juice if you want. Serve hot!

88

Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • •

125g whole wheat or spelled 50g coconut flakes 50g almond powder 50g small dry fruits (black currants, raisins, blueberries or other berries) 100g rolled oats 125g butter 85g honey A pinch of salt ½ teaspoon sodium bicarbonate 2 tablespoons boiled water

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C. Cover a biscuit tray with baking paper.

2. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, coconut, dried fruits, almond powder, rolled oats and salt) in a large bowl.

3. Melt the butter and honey in a pot over medium heat.

Barramundi

4. Mix the sodium bicarbonate together with the 2 space between them. Flatten them a little by using tablespoons of boiled water and add them over the a fork. dry ingredients together with the honey and butter 6. Bake them for about 15 minutes in the oven until mixture. they get a beautiful copper colour. Place on a grill 5. With your palms, form small snowballs the size of and allow them to cool completely. If not consumed a walnut and put them in the tray, leaving enough quickly, store them in jars with lids.

ANZAC Biscuits

89

Lamington

9. Lamington Ingredients:

• 6 eggs • 50g butter • 250g flour • 250g sugar • A pinch of salt • Vanilla • Zest of 1 lemon • 5 tablespoons boiled water For the glaze: • 400g sugar • 60g cocoa • 300 ml water • 75g butter • Vanilla For decoration: • 200g grated coconut

Steps:

1. Separate the eggs. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch 90

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

of salt, add half the sugar and beat until you obtain a hard, firm, glossy foam.

Beat the egg yolks with the other half of sugar and vanilla until you obtain a foam. Add the cooled, melted butter (not too cool, but also not too hot) and the boiled water. Gradually add flour.

You will obtain a pretty sticky dough. Add little by little from the egg whites mixture until you add half the amount and the dough will become creamy.

Then add the yolks composition over the whites and gently mix with a paddle.

The composition is put in a tray (Ideally would be a 35 × 25 tray), on baking paper and is baked for 15 minutes at 180°C in a preheated oven. After the composition is baked, take it out on a grid upside down and remove the paper. Allow it to cool.

Prepare the glaze. Mix cocoa with sugar, add water and boil. When heated, add butter.

Let it boil until you obtain a homogeneous, lumpfree cream and the sugar is completely dissolved.

Cut the cooled dough in rectangles and soak it in glaze. Then cover it in coconut.

circle with a diameter of 22-26 cm. Turn the baking sheet with the shiny side up and, using a spatula, 10. Pavlova spread the meringue inside the circle. You should be aware that if you form a smaller circle you will get a taller meringue and it will also be bake harder.

Ingredients: 6. Put the meringue inside the preheated oven at • 4 fresh egg whites 120°C. The dough is ready when it detaches easily • A pinch of salt from the baking paper. This usually takes about 1 • 160g fine granulated sugar hour and a half.

• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 7. Allow the cake to cool. If there are any fissures in • 2 tablespoons vinegar it don’t worry, they will be covered with whipped • 20g corn starch cream anyway.

• 700g cream for whipping cream 8. The cream for the whipped cream must be very cold • 2 tablespoons powdered vanilla sugar when whisking. Whisk the cream for the whipping • Fruits (strawberries; kiwi; peaches; raspberries; cream until it begins to form ridges on the surface. oranges; passion fruit; forest fruits) Add powdered vanilla sugar and continue beating • Fruit sauce (optionally) until it hardens.

9. After it hardened, stop whisking. The whipped Steps: cream is distributed in an even layer over the 1. Turn on the oven and heat it up to 120°C. Mix the meringue crust and is put to cold immediately. egg whites with the salt and whisk them until they 10. Depending on how soft you want the meringue are stiff and grow in volume. crust to be, cover it with whipped cream sooner or 2. Gradually add powdered sugar while continuing to just before serving. whisk at high speed. If you use vanilla sugar, add it 11. It also depends if you want or not to prepare a fruit all now. If however, you use vanilla extract, you have sauce. The most recommended ones are passion to add it at the final. fruit or forest fruit sauce.

3. Add vinegar and whisk until the sugar crystals can’t 12. The fruit decor is according to each person’s fantasy. be seen anymore.

Sprinkle the sauce with the fruit sauce you made 4. Add corn starch and incorporate it in the egg whites (if you made), then add forest fruits, passion fruit, foam. Whisk for about 1 minute at high speed so strawberries, peaches, oranges kumquat and kiwi that you may obtain a firm and glossy meringue. slices.

5. Place on a baking tray some baking sheet and draw a

Pavlova

91

11. Bundaberg Rum

92

Bundaberg Rum

Australia Travel

93

Sydney

94

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House at night

Sydney Aquarium

Sydney Tower

Darling Harbour

95

Taronga Zoo

96

Sydney HarbourPanorama

Bondi Beach97

Melbourne

98

Melbourne seen from the botanic gardens

Melbourne Zoo

Royal Botanic Gardens

Melbourne Skyline and Princess Bridge

Melbourne Cricket Ground

99

National Gallery of Victoria

Boomerangs for sale in Victoria Market

100

Australian Centre for the Moving Image

Melbourne Church

Luna Park

101

Yarra River passing through Melbourne

Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne

Old Melbourne Gaol

102

Old Melbourne Gaol Interior

Australian State Library

Royal Exhibition Building

103

Brisbane

104

Brisbane by night

Brisbane seen from Kangaroo Point

Buzz Saw at Dreamworld

Brisbane City Hall

Brisbane City Sign

105

Perth

106

Saint Paul’s Church

Perth by night

Perth Botanical Garden

Perth seen from Kings Park

Perth Skyline

107

Adelaide

108

Adelaide Hills Quarry

Adelaide Cathedral

Downtown Adelaide

Adelaide Stadium

Adelaide Central Park

109

Canberra

National Carillon

110

Parliament House

Australian War Memorial

Australian War Memorial Courtyard

Canberra seen from Mount Ainslie

111

Ta s m a n i a

Alexandra Suspension Bridge in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

112

Hobart seen from Mount Wellington

Tessellated Pavement in Tasmania

Hobart seen from Mount Wellington at dawn

Hobart Wharf

113

Other places

114

Uluru Rock in Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park

The Twelve Apostles

Kakadu National Park

Port Douglas Beach

Aerial View of Shipwreck Coast on the Great Ocean Road

115

The Twelve Apostles

The Olgas

Great Barrier Reef

116

Barossa Valley

An iconic warning road sign in Northern Territory

Fraser Island

Hallett Cove

117

Great Ocean Road

Cape Tribulation

Swan Valley

Sunshine Coast in Queensland

118

Buchanan’s Fort in Lamington National Park

The Pinnacles in the Western Australian Dessert

Daintree Forest

Hells Gate with Alexandria Bay on the Queensland coast in Noosa National Park

119

Three Sisters Blue Mountains in New South Wales

Three Sisters at sunset

120

Kangaroo in Cape Range National Park

Lamington National Park

Jenolan Caves

Katherine Gorge of Nitmiluk National Park

Palm Cove in Queensland

Nitmiluk National Park

121

Kuranda Scenic Railway

Puffing Billy Railway

Puffing Billy Railway panorama

122

Warner Bros Movie World

Byron Bay

Sea World

Skyrail Rainforest Cableway

123

Katherine Gorge

Whitsunday Islands

Frecynet National Park

124

Grampian National Park in Victoria

Purnululu National Park

125

Surfers Paradise Beach in Queensland

Broome

The Wollongong Lighthouses

Townsville

126

Australia Zoo

Lake Pedder seen from Mount Eliza

Whales near Hervey Bay

Geelong Waterfront

Shark Bay

127

Blue Mountains

Springbrook Natural Cave

Cairns Esplanade Pier

128

Springbrook National Park

Alice Springs seen from Anzac Hill

East Point Reserve in Darwin

129

Karijini National Park

Kangaroo Island

Joffre Gorge in Karijini National Park

130

Organ Pipes on Mount Wellington

131