Australia

Australia

Ariadna Ribera Fenoy Marta González Fenoy Anabel Monfort Obede Mónica Bàez Martínez 4ºESO A

Index Introduction ........................................................ Pag: 1 Geography and Population ................................. Pag: 1 ................................................................ Pag:1

Climate

Demography Languages Religions

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History................................................................... Pag:2 Pehistory.............................................................. ....Pag:2 First contact with Asia........................................... Pag:2 Economy .............................................................. Pag:2 Government and Politics ........................................... Pag:3 Political parties of Australia....................................... Pag:3 Education ............................................................. Pag:3-4 Culture .................................................................... Pag:4 Architecture Folklore

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Gastronomy Arts

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Pag:5

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Literature

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Performing Arts

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Sport ....................................................................... Pag:6 National Symbols ......................................................... Pag:6-7 Curiosities .................................................................... Pag:7 Conclusion .................................................................... Pag:8 Bibliography ................................................................... Pàg:8 Webgraphy ..................................................................... Pàg:8

Glossary …....................................................................... Pàg:8-9

Introduction In this project we will talk about Australia, one of the biggest countries in the world. We chose Australia because it’s a wonderful country full of surprises. There’s a lot of vegetation and there are all kinds of animals.

To make this project we will consult different web pages, books, encyclopediae to extract information of this amazing country such as big it is, where it is located, what its geography is, who it kind of education they have, who they politicians are...

Geography and Population The area of Australia is 7,686,850 km2. The isle is surrounded by the Indict and Pacific oceans the part of the Indict ocean in the south of Australia is known as the Ocean of the South. The Australian continent is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas.

Australia has an area of coastline of 31,218 Km2 without the surrounding isles.

Climate The majority of the Australian territory is desert or semi-arid. Australia is the flattest continent and its lands are not fertile. Only the south-east and southwest corners of the isle have a temperate climate. Most of the population live on the South-East coast. The north has a tropical climate and consists in tropical forest, meadows and deserts.

The climate is influenced by the ocean currents.

Climate of australia in the year 2005

Demography The population of Australia is not high. There was a lot of immigration in the middle of the 19th century because of the discovery of gold. After that, the population started to grow slower. The annual natural growth rate is low (5.4 % in 2002) and the mortality rates (7.4 ‰) and birth rates (12.8 ‰) are weak. The life expectancy at birth is 80 years old and Australia has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. The population is distributed in a very irregular form: the interior and the west are almost deserted because people is concentrated in the south-east area where the climate is better and there are more natural resources. Australia’s most important cities are in the east: Sidney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, etc.

Languages

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The official language of Australia is English. The most common languages apart from English are Chinese, Italian, Greek, Arabic and Spanish. The native languages of Australia are known as the Australian Aboriginal languages.

Religions There is not an official religion in Australia. 68 % of Australian people are Christian (26 % Catholic19 % Anglicans).19 % of the people say that they don’t have any religion (Humanism, Atheism, Agnosticism and Rationalism). 5 % of Australians are from a nonChristian religion. Like in most of the occidental countries, there is not a lot of people who go to Church.

History The history of Australia began when man came to the Australian continent from the North more than 42.000 years ago.Nevertheless, written history did not begin until Dutch explorers arrived there in the 17th century.The interpretation of the Australian history a one topic of discussion still at present, particularly regarding the treatment of Australian aborigines on the part of the European settlers.

Prehistory In what concerns Australia, prehistory is the period that spreads from of the original inhabitants up to the first European settles.That the Australian prehistory is some thousands of years more extensive than in others parts of the world due to the fact that there do not exist writings of human events in the continent previous to the contact with the Europeans. The exact date of the first human beings in Australia is still a topic of debate.

Nevertheless, it is believed that the austral land is been lived by human beings between 42,000 and 48,000 years. This was a period of ecological massive change that was a result of human actions. The first Australians were the ancestors of the Australian aborigines.They came across bridges of land and maritime steps of few length from the Asian southeast.

First contact with Asia in1603Mateo Ricci,'s fatler a Portuguese Jesuit, happened a long time in China he did a map of the world and Australia about the epoch.Nobody had been in this land of the south before.

Economy Australia is a very rich country in natural resources, especially in iron, coal, crude, gold and aluminum. In the last years, the economy and the quality of life of the Australians has become better even with the crisis. The -2-

unemployment level is still low with a lot of job offers.

Government and politics in1901 Australia became a federation and it, stopp depending on England it stanled to have its own laws and autonomy of government. The Australian Federation is composed it 6 territories Tasmania, West Australia, South Australia, Victory, New South Wales and Queensland, besides 3 territories: Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, and Norfolk Island.It The money of Australia also possesses small islands such as Coconut Island, but is are considered to be only possessions, with a representative named by the government to administer them.

The System of Government is Parlamentar where political parties choose a representative , and once a prime minister is closen can change in case of not carrying out the program of the government. In the Parliament 72 senators are electet,12 for each of 6 territories,and 2 for each territory. In other words, the government follouis the legislative and executive power. The Prime minister of Australia is called Julia Gillard.

Political parties of Australia: Australian Democrats (AD) Australia First Party Australian Greens Australian Reform Party (ARP) Australian Women's Party (AWP) Communist (CPA)

Party

of Australia The Prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard.

Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) Labor Party (ALP) Liberal Party of Australia (LP) National Party of Australia (NP)

Education School attendance is compulsory throughout Australia. Each state or territory has its own Education so the rules vary between states, but in general children are required to attend school from the age of about 5 up until about 16. The school in Australia starts with a -3-

School in Australia

kindergarten or preparatory year followed by 12 years of primary and secondary school.

In Year 12, you can study for a government-endorsed certificate that is recognised by all Australian universities and vocational education and training institutions. Some of the subjects that are studied in the school are: English, mathematics, social studies and the environment, science, arts, foreign languages, technology, and personal development, health and physical education. This Senior Secondary Certificate of Education is also recognised by many international universities. The Australian education is the eighth best in the world. With the help of public financing there are 38 universities and some of them are private. Approximately 58% the Australians between 25 and 64 years old have a university qualification.

The school year is divided into four terms and runs from January/early February until December. There is a short holiday between terms and a long summer holiday in December and January.

Culture Architecture The most famous building is Sydney Opera House. It was designed by the builder Jorn Utzon. It was opened in 1973 and it is among the busiest performing arts centres in the world, hosting over 1,500 performances each year attended by some 1.2 million people.

Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel bridge and his designer was John Bradfield. Until 1967 the Harbour Bridge was Sydney's tallest structure.

Another famous building is the Australian National Maritime Museum. It has thousands of exhibits depicting Australia's history.

Visitors can see what life was like on the convict ships, how its first submarine Sydney Opera House fought bravely in World World I at Gallipoli.

Folklore Australian folklore consists in traditional beliefs, legends and customs handed down through generations. Some aboriginal mythology legends about Australian folklore are as follows: Bunyips are men-eating animals. They are said to lurk in swamps, rivers and other water zones. They are considered marine animals and most common descriptions say that they have a horse-tail, flippers, walrus tasks or horns.

Dance: this part is very diverse ranging from the most traditional ballet to most contemporary dances.

Music: in Australia they have Aboriginal music which is a very important part Drop bears are fictitious Australian marsupials. They are large, vicious and carnivorous koalas. Their -4-

habitat is treetops and to get fed they attack their preys jumping from the top of the trees to the prey’s heads.

Lyrebirds are ground-dwelling Australian birds. They’re large passerine birds with strong and feed legs, their wings are rounded. They are generally poor flyers. They are famous for their extraordinary ability to mimic different sounds.

Gastronomy The national dish of Australia is meat pie with gravy sauce. They eat all kinds of meat like crocodile meat, buffalo, kangaroo and camel meat.

Another part of the Australian diet is fish, a lot of varieties of fish and seafood. Pavloa is made with fruit and meringue and it is the most popular dessert in Australia. Australia has a very good variety of tropical fruit and refreshing drinks.

Meat pie with gravy sauce

Arts There are all kinds of arts that are produced by Australian people, and their preceding Indigenous and colonial societies. All arts in Australia are strongly linked to the English, British and Irish traditions and nowadays you can still feel that influence in Australian arts.

Literature Australian literature is very linked to the English one because at first Australia was a collection of British colonies. Australian writers, even the most modern ones, have just included a new continent in Australian literature, where they speak about Aboriginality, mate ship, democracy, etc. An example of a famous writer is David Malouf and the most famous book is An Imaginary life.

David Malouf

Performing arts

Performing arts of Australia is a very important part of Australian art and culture. There are different kinds of performing arts in Australia: of Aboriginal culture, pop and rock music (popular music that has had considerable international success) and classical music which includes symphony orchestras, opera companies...

Theatre: Australian theatre was linked to British and Irish theatre. Corroboree is a theatrical and dramatic ceremony of Australia.

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Sports stralia has a good weather, so naturally people spend a lot of time outside. Australia has had the Olympic Games twice; Sidney was home to the very successful Summer Olympics in 2000. One of the famous sports is swimming, a lot of water sports are popular in Australia because many people live near the sea (and in 10 per cent of Australian gardens there are swimming pools). If you like football, you will find out four different kinds of football to play or watch in Australia. The most famousone is rugby. More than half a million people in Australia play this fast, exciting game with eighteen players on each team.

Many other sports are popular: National Rugby Team of Australia tennis, running, netball and golf are some of them.

Thousand of people like to go to watch horse races, and many of them hope to win some money too.

Mass media plays a very important paper to retransmit all of the sports (Internet, TV, newspaper, etc..)

National Symbols National symbols of Australia are the symbols that are used in Australia to represent the country, what is different from the other countries, to reflect some different aspects of the culture or the history of Australia.

The most important symbols in Australia are:

national

The flag of Australia: is blue, red and white. At the top of the flag on the left, there’s the Union Flag which represents Australia’s history as six British colonies, under the Union Flag there’s the Commonwealth Star that represents the six federating Shield of weapon of Australia colonies, the future ones and the Territory of Papua, also that’s why that star has seven points. That star is also known as the Federation Star. The Southern Cross is another part of the flag, it has been used to represent Australia for along of time because is one of the most distinctive constellations visible in the Southern Hemisphere.

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The coat of arms of Australia is known as the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. It is another official symbol of Australia. The Red kangaroo and Emu that support the shield are from the native Australian fauna (they only live there), that’s why they appear in the coat of arms, because they are the unofficial animal emblems of the nation, Australia. On The flag of Australia the coat of arms the states represented are: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. Up in the centre of the coat of arms there’s the seven-pointed Commonwealth Star, above a blue and gold wreath. The official national floral emblem is present in the background of the Golden Wattle.

Curiosities The most important curiosities of Australia are as follows: 1. A third part of the area of Australia is desert (mainly the center of the isle).

2. Australia is the sixth biggest country in the world.

3. There are more than 1,500 species of spiders. One of the most dangerous is the funnelweb spider.80 % of the Australian spider species are unknown to science.

4. There are more than 100 million sheep.

5. It is estimated that there are 40 million Kangaroos in Australia. Kangaroos are wild animals and they can attack if they feel threatened. These animals are a big risk on the Box Jellyfish Australian roads. They can travel at 60 kilometers per hour over short distances and they can jump distances over 10 meters.

6. There are only 20 million inhabitants.

7. The most dangerous jellyfish of the world lives in Australia (Box Jellyfish).

8. 20 of the most dangerous snakes in the world live in Australia. The most important one is the Inland Taipan that can kill 100 people or 250,000 mice in one bite.

9.90 % of the Australians live in the coast.

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Conclusions In this project we have learnt a lot of things, places, curiosities, culture, etc.. of Australia. It was difficult to make the videos, because the dialogues sometimes were a bit long for some people, but we have always done them. Our group thinks that it is very stressful to do the presentation or search the information but we agree that we like to make the videos, we laugheda a lot. The most important part for us is that we discovered a lot of things of Autralia.

Bibliography Lindop, C. (2008). Australia and New Zealand. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

Webgraphy http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-folklore

(retrieved

on

7th February 2013) http://ca.wikipedia.org (retrieved on 23rd January 2013) http://www.spainexchange.com/guide/AU-gastronomy.htm

(retrieved

on

12th

February 2013) http://www.portaloceania.com/au-life-govern-esp.htm (retrieved on 23rd January 2013)

Glossary Meadows: Camp,part,pradera.

Jellyfish: Medusa Surrounding: Al voltant lowest: El mĂŠs baix unemployment: Atur beliefs: Creencia

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Lurk: Espiar, Rondar...

Swamp: Pentà Flipper: Aleta Tusk: Ullal Gravy: Salsa espesa Neverthless: Però Uninhabitable: Inhabitable Therefore:Pertant

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