AUSTRALIA

Zuzana Veličková

BASIC INFO

Capital: Canberra Area: 7.6 million square kilometers Population: 21 million Language: English Currency: Australian dollar

POPULATION

The population of Australia consists of more than 21 million inhabitants.

95 % of population is British or Irish ethnic origin.

Indigenous Australians are called the Aborigines and now they are just a minority of 380,000 inhabitants.

Other minorities: Scottish, Italian, German, Chinese…

THE ABORIGINES

They arrived from Asia about 40,000 years ago.

Now they live in poverty in reserves. In the early beggining of colonization the

immigrants were killing them massily. Although the government have not ever admitted that.

Today they have a lot of benefits – for example their health service and education are free of charge.

THE ABORIGINES

They had no system of writing, Their legends were painted on rock in a sacred places.

They have many dialects, so it seems they speak many different languages.

They live mainly on hunting or picking of food.

They have a special instrument called Didgeridoo, which is played as an accompaniment to ceremonial dancing and singing. It is made of eucalyptus.

They are also famous for using boomerangs.

THE ABORIGINES

MAIN CITIES

Sydney The largest city with nearby 60 kilometres of

beaches and with 4.2 million people. It is the oldest settlement and the economic

centre of the country. It is called “The Paris of the Pacific.” The Sydney Opera House is a very popular

building, which looks like waves breaking on the shore.

In 2000 the Summer Olympic Games took place there.

THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

MAIN CITIES

Canberra The capital of Australia with only 323 000

inhibitants. It was selected for the capital in 1908 as a

compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two largest cities.

MAIN CITIES

Melbourne The 2nd largest city and the nation´s financial

and commercial centre with 3.8 million inhabitants.

It includes beautiful parks and gardens, museums, galleries, concert halls and three universities.

It is the centre of Australian football, cricket and horse racing.

SYMBOLS

The flag:

Union Jack – the symbol of Great Britain. Federation Star – seven-pointed star

representing the states and the territories. Constellation of Southern Cross – often

connected with Australia.

SYMBOLS

Coat of arms:

Anthem: Advance Australia Fair

GEOGRAPHY

It is the smallest continent of the world and the only country occupying a whole continent.

Major part of the area are deserts and semideserts.

Two of the biggest deserts are the Great Victoria Desert and the Great Sandy Desert.

The highest mountain is Mount Kosciusko in the Australian Alps, another mountains range is for example the Great Diving Range.

GEOGRAPHY

Water areas: It is surrounded by the Indian and thePacific

Oceans. Around Australia, there are Tasman Sea and Coral Sea, too.

The longest rivers are Darling River and Murray.

The most important lakes are Lake Eyre, Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner.

GEOGRAPHY

There is the largest coral reef of the world called The Great Barrier Reef (more than 2,000 kilometres long)

GEOGRAPHY

The largest monolith of the world is Mount Augustus. (It is the pillar of the rock.)

Another popular monolith is Uluru called also Ayers Rock.

HISTORY

Australia was discovered by the Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch explorers.

But the first civilization was established by Captain James Cook in 1770.

Most of the colonists were convicted criminals from Great Britain. When their time of keeping in prison was up, they mostly stayed there and started a new life.

In that time, gold was discovered and Australia became a destination for immigrants seeking fortune.

POLITICAL SYSTEM

Australia is a full member of the Commonwealth.

The head of state is the Queen, who is represented throughout Australia by a governor general.

The governor use his executive power only after reguest of the Prime Minister.

Australia has two self-governing territories – the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.

The Territories are headed by the Prime Minister.

RELIGION

SPORT

Australia dominates with cricket and rugby. The Australian cricket team is known as the

best in the world. Australian Rules Footbal is a unique sport,

which is something like a mix of rugby and American football. It can be very violent.

The world-known is also Formula One racer Mark Webber.

UNESCO SITES

Australia has 19 UNESCO sites. For example: Great Barrier Reef, Sydney

Opera House, Kakadu National Park, Tasmanian Wilderness, Greater Blue Mountains Area, ….

Only 3 of them were made up by people. The rest are natural.

NATURE

Typical Australian plants are wattles and eucalyptus.

NATURE

Typical Australian animals are platypuses, echidnas, kangaroos, koalas and emus.

NATURE

There are more than 2,000 national parks and nature reserves.

13 of them are in UNESCO. For example: Kakadu National Park, Uluru,

the Wet Tropics of north Queensland, Willandra Lakes, Tasmanian Wilderness, Shark Bay etc.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

Irwin Steve "The Crocodile Hunter„ He was an Australian television personality,

who had filmed a lot of wildlife documentary series.

He had a tragic accident which caused his death.

While he was filming an underwater documentary film, a stingray pierced him in the chest.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

AC DC It is an Australian hard rock band, but the

members of the band contend it is rock n' roll.

AC DC was established in 1973 in Sydney by two brothers Angus and Malcolm Youngs.

Their debut album was High Voltage and for example the most successful was Back in Black.

SPECIALITIES

Australian English is different from British English because of shortening words.

Rare animals and plants are dying out and it is caused by import of exotic species.

Australia has the most beaches in the world. The first people living there were thieves.

That is the reason why the Australians do not like speaking about their family-trees.

SPECIALITIES

The people living there have the longest life expectancy. (women 83,5 years, men 78,5 years)

The area of Australia is nearly as large as USA.

Australians invented the crawl. But in fact the inventors were the Aborigines.

There are more sheep than people.

TO SUM UP:

Australia is the smallest, the flattest, the ariddest and the rarest populated continent. (except Antarctica)

It is the 6th biggest state. And I believe that almost everybody would

like to visit this amazing country.

QUESTIONS

What is the name of the original inhibitants?

Tell me 3 cities of Australia.

What are the typical animals?

What is the official language in Australia?

SOURCES:

http://australie.tripzone.cz/ http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/ http://www.didgeridoo-art.cz/index.php?

clanekID=59 http://australia.dobrodruh.net/zajimavosti-z-

australie http://dalky.cz/pruvodce/z-australie.html http://www.factsmonk.com/australia http://www.cestadoaustralie.cz/australie-

informace/historie.php