Australian Handbookfor

North Carolina State University

Australian Study Tour ProgramJune – July

2008

General Information on Australia

Land area: 7.69 million km2

Population: 21 million currently

Language: English

Currency: Australian dollars (A$)

Gross Domestic Product: $965 969 million (Dec 2006)

National colours: Green and Gold

Time: Australia has three time zones: East: GMT + 10 Central: GMT + 9.5 West: GMT + 8

Workforce: 10.6 million (Feb. 2008)

Registered motor vehicles 14.8 million (2007)

People with mobile phones:

75% (2006)

Households with Internet access:

64% (2007)

Highest point: 2228 metres above sea level (Mount Kosciuszko, New South Wales)

Lowest point: 15 metres below sea level (dry bed of Lake Eyre, South Australia) http://www.abs.gov.au/

While the dimensions of Australia are striking, the country is, in fact, the smallest of the continents. It is also the lowest, the flattest and (apart from Antarctica) the driest. At 7,692,024 km2, it comprises just five percent of the world's land area (149,450,000 km2), yet it is the planet's sixth largest country after Russia, Canada, China, USA, and Brazil. Australia is also the smallest continental land mass (or largest island).Whilst the areas of Canada and the United States are similar to Europe, their populations are markedly smaller, by factors of eighteen (3 persons per km2) and two (29 persons per km2) respectively.

See www.ga.qov.au for more information.

Australia and mainland United States

ImmigrationSince 1945, over 6 million people have come to Australia as new settlers. They have had a marked influence on all aspects of our society. In the 50 years of planned post-war migration, Australia has seen:

5.9 million migrants arrive more than 600,000 people arrive under

humanitarian programs, initially as displaced persons and more recently as refugees; and

a population rise from about 7 million to over 21 million.

Today, nearly one in four of Australia's 21 million people are born overseas. For the past three financial years New Zealand displaced the United Kingdom as the largest source birthplace of migrants.

At 30 June 2006, 23.6 per cent of the estimated resident population were born overseas: 6.1 per cent of the population were born in the UK, 12.5 per cent were born in Europe and the former USSR, 5.6 per cent were born in Asia, 2.5 per cent were born in Oceania, 1.2 per cent were born in the Middle East and North Africa, and less than 2 per cent in other regions.

Australia's Political System Australia became a nation after the people of six self-governing colonies voted to unite and accept the Constitution which established the Commonwealth of Australia. With the agreement of the British Parliament, the Commonwealth of Australia was created on 1 January 1901. The colonies became states of the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal government.

Australia is a constitutional monarchy. Although Australia is an independent nation, the formal Head of State is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who is also the Queen of Australia. The Queen is represented by her Governor-General in Australia, who is appointed by her on advice from the Australian Prime Minister. The Governor-General performs the tasks of the Head of State under advice or instruction from the Australian Prime Minister.

The current Governor General of Australia is Michael Jefferey, and the Prime Minister is Kevin Rudd.Please see www.fed.gov.au for more information on the Australian Government.

Weather Spending Christmas at the beach or skiing in August may seem strange but Australia's seasons are the opposite of the northern hemisphere - summer officially starts in December and winter in June. But even in winter you'll enjoy blue skies and warm, bright days. Just remember: the further south you go, the colder it’ll get.

Australia's climate and the fact that it is the driest continent on earth makes it a fabulous holiday destination all year round, whatever you're planning to do. In the Australian winter you can ski in the southern states one day and be diving in the balmy waters of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland the next. Such temperate conditions make al fresco dining, sublime days on the beach or the water, outdoor barbeques, and a huge variety of sports a way of life here. No wonder Aussies believe life is for living!

Please check the Australian Bureau of Meteorology website: www.bom.gov.au for more up- to-date and detailed Australian weather information.

Money

Currency and bankingAustralian currency ($A) is decimal with the dollar as the basic unit (100 cents equals one dollar). Notes come in $100, $50, $20, $10, and $5 denominations. Coins come in $2, $1, 50c, 20c, 10c and 5c denominations. Prices are rounded to the nearest 5c.

The most commonly accepted credit cards are American Express, Bankcard, Diners Club, MasterCard, Visa and JCB.

Banking hours are usually 9.00am-4pm Monday to Thursday and 9.00am-5pm on Friday for most of the large banks. St George Bank has extended hours, with some branches open on Saturday mornings.

Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) operate 24 hours a day and can be found at most banks plus some service stations and selected retail outlets. Direct debit (EFTPOS) and credit cards may be used at most stores but it is advisable to check before purchasing.

Budget GuideIf you buy a It will cost aboutTheatre ticket $A30 and up (depending on

seats)Concert ticket $A40 and up (depending on

seats)Opera or ballet ticket $A60 and up (depending on

seats)Rock concert ticket $A60 and up (depending on

seats)Ticket to a movie $A14 or lessEntrance to museum or art gallery

Free-$A15 (for special exhibitions)

Ticket to a sporting event $A15-$A60Breakfast in a coffee shop $A8 and up per personLunch at a cafe or bistro $A15 and up per personDinner at a fine restaurant $A70 per person (3 courses

without wine)Bottle of Australian wine $A14 and upGlass of beer at a pub $A2.70 (10 oz glass)Cocktail $A14 and upCommuter rail ticket $A2.40-$A6.40 (one-way)City bus fare $A2.20-$A4.40 (one-way)

TaxesAustralia has a Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 10 per cent. Prices in Australia are shown as inclusive of GST. International and domestic flights purchased overseas, by non-residents, are GST free. Continuous domestic legs of international journeys are also GST free.

GST is payable on tourism services such as accommodation, day tours, guides, ground transport (including coach, rail and cruise), translators and meals. The tax applies to pre-booked and pre-paid goods and services in Australia, which are purchased before arrival in Australia, for example tours or accommodation. The prices quoted for your Australian holiday, by your travel agent, will already include the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The total amount is payable at the time of ticketing your holiday.

Tourist Refund Scheme Departing travellers may be able to claim a refund for GST and WET (Wine Equalisation Tax) paid on goods purchased in Australia. The refund is applicable to goods, totalling $A300 (GST inclusive) or more that are being taken out of Australia.  The goods must have been purchased no earlier than 30 days before leaving Australia.  You can purchase several lower-priced items from one store, either at the same time or on several occasions within the 30 day period. These goods will be covered by the one tax invoice. Or you can buy goods from several stores, provided that each store’s tax invoice totals at least $A300 (GST inclusive). Tourist Refund Scheme (TRS) facilities are located at international airports and cruise-liner terminals. To claim, travellers must show their passport, international boarding pass, retailer’s tax invoice and the goods. Other conditions may apply.

Further information can be obtained from Customs on: Phone: Within Australia - 1300 363 263 for the cost of a local callOutside Australia - 61 2 6275 6666Internet: http://www.customs.gov.au Email: information@customs.gov.au

Miscellaneous taxesThere is a range of government, airport, sea and local taxes applicable on air and sea travel. These will usually be included in your ticket.Health & Safety

You will encounter few health hazards when travelling in Australia, and hygiene standards are high. Below is a brief outline of some of the issues you need to take into consideration it is also important to listen to your group leader’s advice and if in doubt ask your group leaders.

HitchhikingHitchhiking is strongly discouraged throughout Australia.  Public and private transport operates between most cities and towns.

Insurance Travel insurance, with comprehensive health cover, is strongly recommended.  Comprehensive insurance should be taken out before departure. See your travel agent for more information.

Medicare Medicare is Australia’s public health care system. Eligibility is generally restricted to permanent residents of Australia. Australia has Reciprocal Health Care Agreements with Finland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

Smoking Queensland has strict tobacco laws with new legislation being phased in. There is no smoking in indoor public places and no sales to children under 18 years. From 1 January 2005, smoking is illegal

between the flags on a patrolled beach. A patrolled beach is a beach on which red and yellow flags mark the boundaries for safe swimming. The smoking ban includes the area between the flags and down to the water and then back behind the flags to any road or park. It is also illegal to smoke anywhere within 4 metres of a non-residential building entrance. This rule applies to the entrances of places like offices, banks, non-licensed food premises, BYO restaurants, snack bars and cinemas. See www.health.qld.gov.au for more details.

Sun protectionAustralians have the highest rate of skin cancer in the world.  Each year over 1300 Australians die from this almost totally preventable disease. Luckily, actions to reduce your risk of developing skin cancer are simple and effective. Enjoy outdoor activities in Australia’s beautiful weather, but minimise your exposure to the sun. Wear a broad-brimmed hat, cover up and apply water-resistant sunscreen frequently. See www.cancer.org.au for more information.

Surf and water safety Australia is fringed with superb beaches just waiting to be enjoyed. As with all beaches, it is advisable to follow basic precautions. Popular beaches are usually patrolled by volunteer lifesavers. Always swim or surf at patrolled beaches between the red and yellow flags which mark the safest area for swimming. Take your time entering the water, and don’t swim alone. Also, don’t forget to protect yourself from the sun - take your hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and cover up, particularly in the middle of the day. From late October to early May, venomous box jellyfish, also called stingers or sea wasps, occur in the coastal waters of northern Australia and around many of the Queensland islands. They are rarely found on the Outer Barrier Reef.

In the Northern Territory, the stingers are present at all beaches, and in Western Australia they are found along the Kimberley coastline. Beaches usually have warning signs during this time, and visitors are advised to swim where protective enclosures are provided. See www.lifesaving.com.au for more information.

General healthYou should protect yourself from risks such as HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Communications

TelephonesAustralia has a modern and competitive telephone system. Local calls from public payphones are untimed and charged at $A0.50. Long distance and international calls are usually timed.  Public payphones accept Australian coins (except 5cent pieces) and some accept credit cards and pre-paid phone cards.

When it comes to making international phone calls, prepaid phone cards offer the most competitive rates. Phone cards can be purchased from Newsagencies, some Supermarkets and service stations, in a number of denominations ranging from $10, to $50. Most companies offer a local number and a freecall number to access their service however the local number is much cheaper. Phone numbers beginning with 1800 are “freecall” – that is, free of charge. Phone numbers beginning with a 3 or 1300 are local calls – at a public phone, these cost 40 cents each. It is recommended that you read the card instructions thoroughly before calling.

Cellular (Mobile) phonesIf you’re planning to bring your mobile phone with you, Australia’s mobile network operates on the 900 and 1800 bands for GSM and 800 for CDMA. Contact your telecommunications carrier for activating international roaming while you are visiting Australia. Mobile Phones are also available for rent from all international airports.

www.vodafonerental.com.au and www.cellhire.com.au are a couple of options.

Email and InternetInternet and email access is readily available at Internet cafes, hotels, hostels and libraries. Australia uses RJ-45 telephone plugs and Telstra EXI-160 four-pin plugs. If your connection is not correct go to a local electronic shop. Also check that your PC-card modem is suitable in Australia. An easy way to access Internet and email is via one of the many free web-based email services such as Hotmail or Yahoo.

Postal servicesAustralia Post offices are usually open 9.00am – 5.00pm Monday to Friday with some city post offices open on Saturday morning. Stamps are usually available from hotels and motels, and selected retail outlets. Please see www.australiapost.com.au for more information on available services.

Other

Time zonesThere are three time zones in Australia, running east to west. Eastern Standard Time (EST) operates in New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland.  Central Standard Time (CST) in South Australia and Northern Territory.  Western Standard Time (WST) in Western Australia. CST is half an hour behind EST, while WST is two hours behind EST.

Daylight savingSome Australian states and territories have daylight saving during the summer months. In New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia daylight saving runs from the end of October through to the end of March.  In Tasmania, daylight saving runs from the beginning of October through to the end of March. Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland do not have daylight saving.

ElectricityThe electrical current in Australia is 220-240 volts, AC 50Hz. The Australian three-pin power outlet is different from some other countries so you may need an adaptor. If your appliances are 110V, you may need a voltage converter. Universal outlets for 240V or 110V shavers are usually found in leading hotels.

TippingTipping is not expected in Australia. However, it is becoming a more common practice and no one will mind if you throw a little change their way.

The Australian way of eating How do you define what's Australian? In recent years, eating in Australia has become a multicultural experience, much influenced by immigrants from around the world. In the cities you visit, you'll find this reflected in the range of restaurants available: Turkish, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Vietnamese... the list goes on.

What links all these cuisines together is their access to fresh local ingredients. Meat is high quality and relatively inexpensive. Seafood is flown in from the nearby coasts. Fresh vegetables are readily available. So even when you're eating Indian style, you're enjoying the flavours of Australia.

But what about traditional Australian "tucker" (food)? In the early days, salt beef and damper were staples. Damper is bread made without yeast and cooked (if it's really authentic) over a camp fire. These delicacies would be followed by a billy of tea (a billy looks like a paint pot and is hung over the fire to boil.) The traditional method demands that you scoop the tea into the boiling water, leave it to "brew", then twirl the billy round and round at arm's length to "settle" the tea leaves. It's also recommended that a couple of gum leaves be added to the tea for that authentic bush flavour. Modern cooks favour adding beer to the dough because "it improves the texture".

Fast food in Australia Yes, you'll find McDonalds, KFC, Hungry Jacks/Burger King, Domino’s and the like, with the same reliable recipes they have everywhere else in the world. You should also try an Aussie pie - meat and gravy encased in pastry, typically eaten with generous helpings of tomato sauce (the Australian name for ketchup).

Traffic (VERY IMPORTANT)

AUSTRALIANS DRIVE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD! Always look in both directions and then look in both directions again. Use crossings wherever possible. It is not enough to simply look to the right, because you may be on a one way street, on a traffic island, tired, happy, partying or a thousand other things that reduce concentration. Always assume the traffic is coming from all directions not just the expected ones.

Shopping

Most shops are open from 9am to 5pm or 5.30pm on weekdays, 9am to 5pm on Saturdays, and 10am to 4pm on Sundays. Suburban shopping centres are open until 9pm on Thursday nights, and City centres are generally open until 9pm on a Friday night for late night shopping. Opening times may vary from store to store, and city to city.

Going outIn Australia, the legal drinking age is 18. You will be required to provide a proof of age document on entry to pubs and clubs. In the case of international visitors you will be required to show your passport to prove you are over 18. Although Australia is a safe country, it is still sensible to observe personal safety protocols as one would anywhere. This may include not going to nightclubs alone or coming home alone at night, watching how much you have to drink, not leaving your drink unattended, staying in well lit areas, not carrying large amounts of cash etc. If you are coming home late taxis are preferable to buses and trains.

When going out, please let someone know where to and when you expect to return.

SYDNEY

Accommodation:Comfort Inn Cambridge212 Riley Street,Sydney NSW 2010Ph: (02) 9212 1111 Fax: (02) 9211 8872The Comfort Inn Cambridge is a short stroll from the bustling retail mecca of Oxford Street and the exotic culinary delights of Sydney's famous Stanley Street. Also located within easy walking distance is the CBD, Darling Harbour, Sydney Cricket & Sports Grounds and most of Sydney's major attractions. - On major bus routes to the beaches.- Museum Rail Station 500m, 750m to City Centre

Footprints Backpackers Westend Sydney 412 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000 Ph: (02) 9211 4588

www.footprintswestend.com.au

Footprints seeks to create a market leading company that is innovative within the budget hotel/backpacker market.  At Footprints we are committed to making our guests and staff feel at home in a safe, comfortable and fun environment.

Right in the heart of Sydney, Footprints is only a few blocks away from: Darling Harbour;Chinatown; Town Hall Station Central Station; Hyde Park; Oxford Street; and City Shopping.

www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.auSydney is the largest city in Australia with a population of 22,000 in central Sydney and 4 million people in greater Sydney. The working population in central Sydney is around 10 times the residential population at 235,000. The CBD is quite small in comparison to other cosmopolitan cities occupying an area of less than 6.2 square kilometres, greater Sydney on the other hand, comprises over 600 suburbs and localities and occupies an area of 2,500 square kilometres.

The city is located on the southern coast of New South Wales between the smaller coastal cities of Woolongong and Newcastle. The CBD is situated on the southern bank of Sydney Harbour, 10 kms west from the mouth of Port Jackson.

The temperature averages a warm 23 ° C (72° F) in summer and averages around 13° C (55° F) in winter. Sydney is bathed in sunshine for around 342 days of the year and has an average annual rainfall of approximately 1220 millimetres (48 inches).

Attractions and Entertainment

Sydney Harbour BridgeBuilt during the Great Depression of the 1930's, its 504 metre long steel span arches to a height of 134 metres with a width of 49 metres and weighs 65,000 tonnes. The bridge was constructed from both shores and met over the centre of the harbour with precise accuracy in the winter of 1930. The bridge 'world's widest long span bridge' was opened in March 1932, with eight road lanes, two railway tracks, a cycleway and a footpath. The great granite pylons of the bridge are constructed from rocks quarried 300 km south of the city, the South/ Eastern Pylon has a lookout, 200 steps to the top, for a 360 degree view of the harbour.

You can climb the bridge and check out the view for yourself with Bridge Climb Sydney. See www.bridgeclimb.com for more information.

Sydney HarbourThe Harbour contains 240 km of foreshore, while the city region's Coastline extends for 60 km. The Sydney Harbour National Park has a number of Islands - Shark, Clark, Goat, Rodd and the rocky island (Mattewai which means 'touch the sky') 'Pinchgut' where, until 1857, the Island became the famous Fort Denison constructed to defend Sydney against a possible Russian invasion during the Crimean War or after two American ships that got into the harbour undetected, which made authorities realize how vulnerable the harbour was.

Darling HarbourDarling Harbour is an exciting blend of entertainment, shopping, restaurants and nightspots. Darling Harbour Visitors Centre is extremely helpful. Located between Cockle Bay and Tumbalong Park. Phone (02) 9286 0111.

Sydney Opera House

The Opera House was built on Bennelong Point which was named after the first Aboriginal man who befriended Captain Arthur Phillip of the First Fleet. It was designed by Danish architect Joern Utzon, who won an International competition launched in 1955. He got the idea for the design from a pile of orange peel. The one million off-white tiles for the roof were imported from Sweden, the brown glass from France, and the rose-coloured granite on the podium was quarried at Tarana, near Bathurst (NSW). The cost came to $102 million and the first performance was held at the Opera House on 28 September, 1973 with the Australian Opera's "War and Peace" and officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on 20 October, 1993.

The Opera House averages around 3,000 events each year using either of Concert Hall (2690 seats), Opera Theatre (1547), Drama Theatre (544) and Playhouse (398), with audiences totalling up to two million.For tours and Box Office information, see: www.sydneyoperahouse.com

Sydney Olympic Games SiteSince opening in 1999, Telstra Stadium has been the scene of a host of sensational sporting moments. From the spectacular Olympic opening ceremony to Johnny Wilkinson’s unforgettable drop goal to win the Rugby World Cup, the Stadium holds a special place in the hearts of sports fans throughout the world. The new interactive Explore tour will allow you to follow in the footsteps of the heroes of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. You’ll experience the stadium where fearless teams do battle for the Bledisloe Cup and Rugby League Grand Final and see where Australian Football and State of Origin idols psyche themselves up

before the big game. This privileged inside view of one of the world’s finest and most technologically advanced stadiums is an experience you will never forget!

Tours operate daily from 10am to 4pm every half hour (with the exception of some event days and Christmas Day), and cost $27.50 for an adult. See www.telstrastadium.com.au for more information.

ChinatownRecently upgraded, the sides of the streets in Chinatown are adorned with lights and Chinese lanterns. Within the vicinity, floor upon floor of shopping centres offer designer fashion at the lowest costs, a perfect contrast to the nearby Chinese Grocers and the hustle and bustle of the streets. Let the aromatic scent of over 200 Asian cuisine outlets infiltrate your senses! Chinatown is an easy 15 minute walk from Central railway station. A light rail service operates from Central to Haymarket, just outside Chinatown. The nearest Sydney Explorer stop to Chinatown is stop number 17.

Taronga ZooTaronga Zoo was officially opened on October 7th, 1916. Perched on the banks of Sydney Harbour, the animals at Taronga enjoy some of the best views in the city. The Zoo is approximately 12 minutes by ferry from Circular Quay and the CBD. (Ferries depart Circular Quay, every quarter past and quarter to the hour). Sky Safari cable car operates between the Zoo wharf and the Top Entrance from 9.30am to 5.00pm daily. The all-inclusive Zoopass includes return ferry, Sky Safari/bus and

Zoo admission and is available for the independent traveller from Circular Quay. For more information on public transport to the Zoo, contact Sydney’s Transport

hotline:www.131500.com.au or call 13 15 00. Entry is $27 (group discounts for groups of more than 12 people) and General Zoo enquiries can be made by phoning +61 2 9969 2777, or visit www.zoo.nsw.gov.au

Sydney's AquariumThis is one of the world's best aquariums, featuring underwater walkways through two enormous tanks filled with fish, stingrays and three meter long Grey Nurse Sharks. The magnificent Great Barrier Reef Section has thousands of coral fish and coral outcrops. There are also salt-water crocodiles and fairy penguins and lots more!

Open daily from 9am -10pm. Aquarium Pier, Darling Harbour. www.sydneyaquarium.com.au

Sydney Fish MarketsSydney Fish Market offers the unique opportunity to experience a vibrant, leading edge, working-market environment in the heart of the city. Sydney Fish Market hosts the largest market of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the world’s second largest seafood market in terms of variety outside of Japan, with over 100 species per day.  Each day, around 55 tonnes of seafood is auctioned and product is sourced both nationally and internationally.

Tours are conducted by a trained Sydney Fish Market tour guide and explore all facets of the Market and its operations, including a tour of the Auction floor, the sashimi pavilion and crustacea pen.  The tours are available Monday – Friday, at 7.00am, to ensure your group will view the Auction which begins at 5.30am and experience the full range of seafood. This is a wholesale and seafood retail dream where you can have spectacular lunches!SFM is located on Pyrmont Bridge Road, visit www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au or phone 02 9660 1611 for more information.

Star City CasinoThere are about 7 restaurants, four bars and the Lyric theatre to choose from as well as the casino of course. Check out www.starcity.com.au for venue and event information.  Sydney TowerThe Sydney Tower experience takes you a staggering 250 metres above Sydney, commanding breathtaking views of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, including the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. From the beaches to the mountains, you’ll be amazed at what you can see from the highest point in town.

Skytour, the largest simulated ride in the Southern hemisphere, takes you on an amazing virtual adventure through Australia’s cultural history and geography. Immersed in Skytour's surround sound technology and "Peppers Ghost" 3D imagery, your virtual Australian tour is an experience not to be missed. Feel the exhilaration of white water rafting down Queensland's Tully River, climb the Northern Territory's Uluru, get up close and personal in a game of Aussie Rules Football and experience a dangerously close brush with a huge saltwater crocodile.

Entry is $22, and Sydney Tower is located within the city, on the corner of Pitt & Market Street. Access: by Bus: Sydney Explorer Bus Stop 14; by Ferry: Ferries from Circular Quay; by Monorail: City Centre Station; by Train: Town Hall Station. Phone: +61 2 8251 7800 www.sydneyskytour.com.au Open Sunday to Friday: 9:00am to 10:30pm, Saturday: 9:00am to 11:30pm.

Shopping

The Queen Victoria Building was a purpose built shopping centre opened in 1898 celebrating Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. In more recent years the building was largely neglected and fell in to a state of disrepair until the early 1980's when the Centre was painstakingly restored to its original granduer. Today the QVB is one of the most stunning examples of Victorian architecture in Sydney. The Centre now houses a superb collection of 190 designer label and specialty stores and excellent eateries. The QVB occupies a full block along George Street between Town Hall and Market Street.

The Strand Arcade is a more hip and groovy version of the QVB. The Strand was opened in 1892 and was almost destroyed by fire in 1976. The resident shopkeepers restored the building which now houses some of Australia's top designer labels, jewellers, boutiques and beauty salons. The Strand extends from the middle of Pitt Street mall through to George Street, a block towards Circular Quay from the QVB.

Skygarden is a newer shopping centre located almost directly opposite The Strand Arcade in Pitt Street Mall. The Centre houses over 50 fashion, accessory, furniture, homeware, gift and specialty stores. On the top floor you'll find a beautiful rooftop food court enclosed under a magnificent glass atrium.

Picadilly houses some of Sydney's more interesting and innovative fashion retailers. With over 40 specialty stores and boutiques from footwear to homewares the centre is a great place to pick up an interesting gift for someone special. The centre is located opposite the Hilton Hotel in Pitt Street, a 5 minute walk from Town Hall railway station.

Grace Brothers' city department store is the retailer's flagship store. The seven levels and mezzanine floor are more like an exhibition space than a store. Grace Brothers boasts the biggest range of cosmetics in Australia and comits a whole level to the latest and greatest appliances and computer equipment. The store is a landmark in itself, situated on the corner of Market and George Streets.

David Jones is Sydney's oldest department store and one of the world's only department stores still trading under its original name. After refurbishing the George Street store in 1877, David Jones boasted the city's first hydraulic lift and now stocked furniture and furnishings. Today the store still stands by its founder's original commitment, to sell "the best and most exclusive goods" and to carry "a stock that embraces the everyday wants of mankind at large." The stores are located at 65-77 Market Street & 86-108 Castlereagh Street. The nearest railway stations are St James and Museum.

At the southern end of Pitt Street Mall you will find Centrepoint which houses over 130 specialty stores and forms the foyer to the 305 metre high AMP tower. Other shopping areas in or close to Pitt Street Mall include the Glasshouse and the MLC Centre which are linked to one another via a covered overpass. Further down

towards the Quay is Chifley Plaza, home to a selection of the world's most famous and stylish international brands.

Paddy's Markets are Sydney's biggest market in the city. It's more mainstream in that the stalls stock new items, albeit cheap or discounted because of the lower overheads incurred as a result of having a temporary shop front. Some retailers use the markets to extend their reach to consumers and others to sell overstocked items at a discount. The very fresh fruit and veg is plentiful and at excellent prices making the markets worth a visit on a regular basis if your staying for a while. Paddy's Markets are open from 10am to 6pm on Thursday and from 9am to 4pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They are situated under Market City on the corner of Hay & Thomas Streets.

The Rocks Markets mainly trade in good quality crafts, homewares, arts and collectibles. The setting is magnificent and the pubs are good for a snack and a beer or if you’re looking for something more substantial, try one of the many first class restaurants nearby. The Rocks markets are a short stroll north from Circular Quay railway station along George Street. They are held on both Saturday and Sunday every weekend from 10am to 5pm.

Bondi Markets have got the spot. If your looking to fill your day by going to the markets but don't actually want to spend the whole day at the markets, then Bondi is for you. Similar to Glebe in size and content, these markets have a good selection of pre-loved clothing and second-hand goods from electricals to hardware. When you've finished browsing retire to the beach or one of Bondi's many al fresco eateries. The Bondi Beach markets are held in the Bondi Beach Public School Grounds on Campbell Parade and they are open every Sunday from 10am to 4pm. The best way to get there is to catch the 380 or 382 bus either from the city or Bondi Junction railway station.

Museums & Galleries

Art Gallery of NSWThe Art Gallery of NSW showcases one of the finest collections of Australian art, including the outstanding Yiribana Gallery, the world’s largest permanent exhibition of Australian Aboriginal Art.

Open daily 10:00am-5:00pm. Art Gallery Road, The Domain. Phone: (02) 9225 1744 or (02) 9221 1790

Australian MuseumDiscover Australia’s natural history and cultural diversity at the Australian Museum. Open daily 9.30am-5:00pm (Closed Christmas Day). 6 College Street (opposite Hyde Park). Phone: (02) 9320 6000

Justice and Police MuseumLearn about Sydney’s most spectacular crimes at this grisly and realistic museum. Open Saturday & Sunday 10:00am - 5:00pm. Corner of Phillip & Albert Streets, Circular Quay. Phone: (02) 9252 1144

Museum of Contemporary ArtAustralia’s most important collection of contemporary art is housed within this striking waterfront museum. Open daily 10:00am - 5:00pm. Circular Quay West. 140 George Street, The Rocks.Phone: (02) 9252 4033 or (02) 9241 5892

Museum of SydneyLearn about Sydney’s colonial history, Aboriginality and the environment at this fascinating and provocative museum. Open daily 10:00am-5:00pm. Corner of Phillip & Bridge Streets. Phone: (02) 9251 4611

Australian National Maritime MuseumDiscover the exciting story of Australia’s relationship with the sea. Open daily 9:30am -5:00pmDarling Harbour (next to Pyrmont Bridge) Phone: (02) 9298 3777 or 1900 962 002

Hyde Park Barracks MuseumVisit the Hyde Park Barracks and discover how Sydney’s early convicts lived. See where they slept, what they ate and how they were punished. There’s also changing exhibitions of Australian history and culture.Open daily 10:00am-5:00pm. Queens Square, Macquarie Street. Phone: (02) 9223 8922

Powerhouse MuseumScience, technology and the decorative arts are explained through fun, hands-on exhibits at this interactive museum. Open daily 10:00am-5:00pm (except Christmas Day). 500 Harris Street, Ultimo.Phone: (02) 9217 0111 or (02) 9217 0444

Public Transport

Perfect! Most modes of transport are within a 2 minute walk from your hotel. Please see concierge for directions.

Mono-RailLeaving from Haymarket Station, the Sydney Monorail runs above ground and does a complete loop of the City Centre and Darling Harbour region. It departs every 3-5 minutes and runs up to 10pm on week nights, 12pm on weekends. Visit www.metromonorail.com.au for further details.

Light-RailThis is a fairly new method of transportation that costs approximately $5 depending on the destination. It operates from Central Station to Star City Casino, onward to

the Fish markets and then through to Lilyfield in the inner western suburbs of Sydney.

Central Railway StationRenovated in early 2000 for the Olympics this is Sydney's major train station. All suburban and interstate trains stop at Central Station so, whether Chatswood, Wollongong, Homebush Bay (Olympic Stadium) or even Melbourne is your destination, this is where you will catch the train. See www.cityrail.info for timetables, ticket and travel information.

Council BusesThese provide frequent and convenient service to Sydney City and all metropolitan suburbs. Many buses run along George Street and are recommended when wishing to explore Circular Quay and The Rocks. See www.sydneybuses.nsw.gov.au for timetables, ticket and travel information.

TaxisYou can book Taxis from your hotel. It is also possible to hail one down outside the front doors of the hotel. Ask reception to help you if you’re having any problems.

FerriesSydney Ferries has been a part of life on Sydney Harbour for more than 135 years. They can take you from Circular Quay to 41 wharves - including Parramatta, Darling Harbour, Pyrmont Bay, Taronga Zoo and Manly, also operating harbour cruises during the day and in the evening.

Visit www.sydneyferries.nsw.gov.au for everything you need to know about travelling with Sydney Ferries Corporation – from timetable and fare information, to assistance planning your trip, and special deals on popular harbour attractions.

Blue MountainsThe Blue Mountains is Sydney's greatest recreation area for people who prefer the bush to the sea. They are part of the Great Dividing Range, which stretches from Gippsland region of Victoria in the south to the tropical rainforests of north Queensland. The Blue Mountains actually got their name from the blue-tinged leaves of the Eucalyptus that cascade down the valleys. The views will not disappoint.

Scenic Skyway - Australia’s only horizontal passenger carrying cable car. It is a 7 minute ride 200 metres above the Jamison Valley where you can appreciate superb views of the Three Sisters, Katoomba Falls, Mt Solitary and Orphan Rock. The Skyway operates every 10 minutes. The price is currently $10.00 per adult.

Scenic Railway - This is the world’s steepest incline railway. Travel through the tunnel and ancient rainforest as the railway descends 415 metres down the escarpment at a gradient of 52 degrees. The railway takes you to the rainforest boardwalk connecting to the Sceniscender platform and operates every 10 minutes. The price is currently $12.00 per adult return or $6 one way.

Sceniscender - The steepest aerial cable car in Australia will take you on a 545 metre ride into the World Heritage Listed rainforest of the Jamison valley. The Sceniscender is completely wheelchair accessible. The price is currently $12.00 per adult return, or AUD $6.00 one way. www.scenicworld.com.au

CANBERRA

Accommodation:

Olims Hotel, Corner Ainslie & Limestone Avenues, Braddon, Canberra, ACT, 2612Ph: +612 6248 5511 Fax: +612 6247 0864 www.olimshotel.com

This Boutique style 4 star hotel is located minutes from the Canberra City Centre and local attractions such as The National Gallery of Australia, the Australian War Memorial and Parliament House.Opened in 1927 the hotel surrounds a landscaped courtyard and combines the grandeur of yesteryear with all of the comfort and conveniences.

Olims Hotel Canberra is one of Canberra's oldest and best loved hotels. Originally known as the Hotel Ainslie, Olims was designed by architect CFA Voysey. Built in English deco style, it was initially established to house members of parliament and public servants. Hotel Ainslie opened its doors in September of 1927, the same year as the Old Parliament House was opened. Privately run from 1930 by the Spendlove family, it was known to many as Spendlove's Hotel. In its early days, the hotel consisted of accommodation for just 60 persons, 16 single rooms and 22 double rooms, and to quote one popular magazine of the day, there is hot and cold water in every bedroom.

Pre-World War II, the Hotel Ainslie was a lively place, and the centre of many social gatherings. The hotel is remembered by many as a Canberra landmark, it was the largest building north of Civic. The hotel was classified by the National Trust, entered on the Royal Institute of Architect's Register of Significant Twentieth Century Architecture and on the Australian Heritage Commission's Register of National Estate, which is a Government body working to identify and protect places of heritage value.Olims has all the charm and elegance of early federation architecture and the appeal of the bygone era, yet boasts facilities and services to cater for the modern traveller. In 1987 a further 87 rooms were added to the original thirty seven, in addition to

extensive landscaping and remodelling of the public areas including the public bar, bistro bar and restaurant and beer garden. All extensions and refurbishments have been carried out in keeping with the original architecture, ensuring none of the old world charm of the property is lost.In 1989 the hotel changed its name to Olims Canberra Hotel when it was purchased by the current owners. The hotel still provides today's visitor with a taste of Canberra as it was in 1927, but with all the comforts of the 21st century.

Burgmann College, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2061Phone: (02) 6125 6100 Fax: (02) 6257 2655Burgmann College is a residential college affiliated with, and located on the campus of, the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Burgmann College offers a unique co-educational environment for the pursuit of academic, social and recreational goals. Established in 1971, it has an enviable reputation as a lively academic community with a strong spirit and high standards. It accommodates 350 residential students (undergraduates and postgraduates) and 17 academic tutors. 

The College is idyllically situated amid parkland within the ANU campus, on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin under Black Mountain. It is ten minutes walk to the civic centre and there are bus services to the door. The capital's main attractions are within easy reach.

Facilities include:

Common Room - equipped with a large-screen TV, video, deluxe chairs, table-tennis and pool table.

TV room Tutorial Rooms grand piano (in Dining Hall) College Bar Computer Rooms Pay Phones

Burgmann rooms are modest and designed to suit the needs of today's students. Standard features include:

desk and chair single bed phone with built-in answering

machine (voicemail) and own phone number

computer network connection washbasin hanging space lockable storage space mirror adjustable central-heating

Floor Facilities: each floor has a kitchen (microwave, fridge, kettle and toaster), bathrooms (three blocks of showers and toilets), and a laundry with free washing machines, dryers, drying room, ironing facilities and vacuum cleaner.

History

Aboriginal people lived for thousands of years in the Canberra region, moving across the plains and into the mountain valleys in small groups to hunt and camp. The first Europeans to visit the area arrived in 1820. They came in search of the Murrumbidgee River which they failed to find but several returned in the autumn of 1821 with an Aboriginal guide who led them to the river near Pine Island at Tuggeranong. The first European settlement occurred in 1824 and other settlers followed.

The Canberra Valley has been transformed from rolling sheep pastures to a great National Capital city in one person's lifetime. Where the National Capital now stands was originally savannah woodlands with dry schlerophyll forests on the slopes of Black Mountain and other hills, seriously depleted by over-grazing of stock, ringbarking of trees and the destruction wrought by a plague of rabbits, droughts and bushfires.

In 1911 an international design competition for the capital was launched by the Federal Government. Prizes of 1750, 750 and 500 pounds for the best three entries were announced. A model of the site was put on display in all Australian capital cities and in London, Washington, New York, Chicago, Ottawa, Paris, Berlin, Cape Town, Pretoria and Wellington. The origin of today's landscape is in the prize-winning plan for the city prepared by Walter Burley Griffin, an architect from Chicago. From a landscape viewpoint, one of Griffin's most important insights was his use of topographic elements to form and structure the city. Griffin recognised particularly the importance of the surrounding and distant hills and the Molonglo River landscapes as features capable of providing a basis for the design of the City and a starting point for modifications to the landscape that urban development would bring.

Selecting the site for the National Capital:The Commonwealth of Australia came into existence on 1 January 1901 and at the first meeting of the Federal Cabinet, the problem of finding a site for the National Capital was discussed. The Constitution provided that the 'Seat of Government' would be determined by the Parliament and be within a Territory acquired by or granted to the Commonwealth, not closer than 100 miles from Sydney. The reason for this was the failure of delegates to the Federal Convention in 1898 to agree on a site for the capital due to jealousy between Sydney and Melbourne. The compromise solution was to find a new site for an ideal city in NSW.

Various sites were chosen with much discussion and disagreement until finally the Senate voted in favour of Canberra in 1908.

Australia's Parliament HouseParliament House was designed by Mitchell/Giorgola and Thorp Architects. Their design was chosen from 329 entries from 28 countries. The first sod was turned on the site in late 1980 and it was officially opened on 9 May, 1988. Parliament commenced its first sitting in the building on 22 August, 1988.

Parliament House was built by 10,000 workers from 50 different ethnic backgrounds. It has 4,500 rooms with a gross floor area of more than 250,000 square metres.

The building is made of 300,000 cubic metres of concrete - enough to build 25 Sydney Opera Houses and is one of the largest buildings in the Southern Hemisphere. Ninety per cent of the materials used in the construction is Australian. The total cost of the building was approximately $1.1 billion.

The two Chambers have large central roof skylights which act as glass prisms allowing natural light in during the day. At night the skylights emit a glow indicating Parliament is sitting. The colours in the Senate and the House of Representatives Chambers are representative of the Australian bush and landscape. The Senate Chamber has 396 seats in the Public Galleries, compared to 536 seats in the House of Representatives.

The flagmast is 81 metres high and weighs 220 tonnes and the Australian flag flown from the flagmast is 12.8 metres by 6.4 metres.

Planning for the Art Program began 6 years before the opening of Parliament House. Over 3000 works were purchased or commissioned for the collection.

The centrepiece of the Great Hall is a tapestry based on a painting by Australian artist, Arthur Boyd, of a eucalyptus forest in the Shoalhaven area of New South Wales. It measures 20 metres x 9 metres and is one of largest tapestries in the world. A team of 13 master weavers from the Victorian Tapestry Workshop took just under 2½years to complete the work.

The embroidery is a Bicentennial gift to the nation from embroiderers' guilds throughout Australia. It is 16 metres long by 6.5 cm high. It is made from cotton, linen, wool and some synthetic fibres.

Australian War MemorialThe Australian War Memorial is an historic national landmark containing the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and is the national focus for commemoration of Australia's war dead.There are twenty museum galleries and film-video theatres which give access to a national collection of war relics and works of art that present the history and personal stories of the Australian experience of war.

ShoppingCity Centre: Gathered around City Walk and Northbourne Avenue are several travel businesses and the main post office. Across the road in the City Markets you'll find fresh food stores, cafes and restaurants and specialty shops.

Canberra Centre: Located in the heart of Canberra's CBD, this large shopping mall includes the major department stores David Jones and Myer, various fashion outlets including Sportsgirl, Cue, Witchery and Country Road, ample parking. Open daily. Alinga Street.

Manuka: Upmarket fashion labels, homewares and a street of alfresco cafes make this the epicentre of Canberra. Manuka Plaza, open daily, has a 24-hour supermarket, specialty shops and food outlets. Manuka Plaza, Corner Franklin Street and Flinders Way, Manuka

Westfield Belconnen: Myer, Kmart, Woolworths, Coles, Toys R Us, Hoyts, The Reject Shop, Best n Less, Rebel, Dan Murphys Liquor Intencity, over 200 specialty stores, an 820 seat food court, free parking.Benjamin Way, Belconnen 

Woden Plaza Recently redeveloped at a cost of $120 million, this is the most comprehensive shopping and leisure experience in the ACT. David Jones, Big W, Dick Smith Electronics Powerhouse and Hoyts 8 cinemas are just some of the attractions. A wide array of delicious dining options. Open 7 days, Keltie Street, Phillip 

Socialising/Eating/DrinkingRecommended venues for a Friday night are the Irish pub King O’Malley’s and Mooseheads nightclub which now has 4 floors including 2 pub floors and 2 club floors. Also great to visit on a Friday are the Green Square in Kingston (Eyre Street) where there are four great pubs: Filthys (highly recommended); The Durham; the Holy Grail and the Belgian Beer Cafe (also highly recommended). These pubs have a great 'friday after work' atmosphere and are generally pretty packed out from 7pm onwards. There are also two bars (B Bar and Lot 33) in Kingston just around the back of the green square. B Bar (also highly recommended) has a great chilled out atmosphere with DJs that play funky fresh beats. Lot 33 usually has a $10 cover charge as they have more renowned DJs. A must for overseas visitors coming in the warmer months is OPH. The Ginger Room at OPH is a part of old parliament house which has basically been turned into a beer garden and is packed out with public servants and the general public on Fridays after work. Offering very cheap drinks from 5-7pm (including delicious cocktails), and funky music and a buzzing atmosphere this is the best way to wind down on a Friday. (Though OPH is not as popular in the winter months because its too cold). On a Saturday night, as well as King O’Malley’s and Mooseheads, try Hippo Bar (for a great chill out lounge and good cocktails), and Academy (for techno/ house).

Manuka (10min walk from Kingston) is another area with a lot of great cafes and restaurants and a few good bars, including Minque. 

Restaurants

Ardeche delivers one of the best value for money dining experiences with a la carte or blackboard specials showcasing traditional French cuisine. Licensed and BYO L & D Mon-Sat; 222 City Walk, Canberra City 6230 4800Axis Stunning lake views and exceptional service, combined with high-quality food and an extensive wine list. $$ B Sat-Sun, L 7 days, D 7 days; National Museum of Australia, Acton Peninsula, Acton  6208 5176 A Foreign Affair Mostly modern Italian dishes served in elegant surrounds. BYO. $ L Tue-Fri, D Mon-Sat; 8 Franklin Street, Manuka 6239 5060The Ginger Room a great location, cutting edge cuisine and an outstanding wine list.  $   D  Wed-Sat Old Parliament House, enter via Queen Victoria Terrace Parkes   6270 8262Grapefoodwine  Award-winning restaurant set in a vineyard where you can sample the latest vintage. Contemporary dishes are linked to seasonal produce. $ L & D Fri-Sat, B & L Sun; Madew Wines, Federal Highway, Lake George  4848 0165 Fri-Sun, 6269 8901 Mon-Thur.The Hermitage Sophisticated yet relaxed ambience for casual or celebrative dining. This award winning restaurant features prime beef and seafood on its menu in addition to a range of light meals.   $ L & D: 170 London Circuit, Civic  6230 0857La Scala Traditional Italian menu with a innovative specials menu. Set and special menu at lunch, al la carte for evenings. $  L  Mon-Fri & D daily: Centre Cinema  Building, Bunda Street, Canberra City 6248 8338The Lobby Set in the National Rose Garden, with views to Parliament House, the Canberra institution offers fine dining. The menu changes with the seasons, drawing on the finest, freshest produce from the land and the sea. $ L Mon-Fri D Tue-Sat: King George Terrace, Parkes 6273 1563

Montezumas Fully licenced a la carte Mexican restaurants with Aztec trimmings. Varied menu with vegetarian and kid choices. Try the famous Margaritas.  $  L & D 197 London Circuit, Civic  6248 0062The Palette Cafe Tasty contemporary Australian dishes including several brunch specialities. Cakes and pastries baked daily. $ B & L daily; Beaver Galleries,   81 Denison Street, Deakin  6282 8416 Poachers Pantry & The Smokehouse Cafe Gourmet smoked meat producer located on a farm close to Hall. Try their succulent smoked duck breast or emu and kangaroo prosciutto. Cafe features in SMH Good Food Guide 2004. Marakei, Nanima Road, Hall: Open Tastings & sales 10am-5pm daily Cafe 10am-5pm Fri, weekends & public holidays 6230 2487The Promenade Cafe Casual dining in stylish surroundings of the Hyatt Hotel. Buffet or a la carte. $ B, L  & D daily; Hyatt Hotel Canberra, Commonwealth Ave, Yarralumla   6269 8810 Rocksalt Winners of the Best New Restaurant at the 2001 Restaurant and Catering Awards. BYO  $  L Tues-Sun, D Tues-Sat; Shop 4, Hawker Shopping Centre, Hawker  6254 7865Silo  Canberra's most popular bakery where sumptuous breakfasts and lunches are a specialty. Wines by the glass, cheese room featuring interesting Australian and imported cheeses. Arguably Australia's best bread. $ B & L Tue-Sat (closed Dec 25-Jan 20); 36 Giles Street, Kingston  6260 6060 Closed 24 December - 27 January.Teatro Vivaldi  Fine dining on the ANU Campus! Modern Mediterranean a la carte cuisine. Prix Fix linch available: 2 courses with beverage for $19. Live evening entertainment $ L Mon-Fri D Mon-Sat; ANU University Arts Centre 6257 2718The Tea Lounge  Enjoy a traditional afternoon high tea at the Hyatt Hotel with freshly baked scones and selection of cakes. $ Open daily; Hyatt Hotel Canberra, Commonwealth Ave, Yarralumla  6269 8815 Waters Edge  Modern French style cuisine, try the prawn ravioli. Spectacular lakeside setting with outdoor dining with views over Lake Burley Griffin. Licensed. $  L  daily except Sat & Mon D Tue-Sun; 40 Parkes Place North, Parkes  6273 5066 Windows on the Park  Located in Canberra Casino, this award-winning restaurant is priced to suit all budgets from snacks to a-la-carte. $ L  & D daily; Fri-Sat till 2am; 21 Binara Street, Canberra  6257 7074

BRISBANE

Accommodation:Toowong Villas 9 Ascog Tce, Toowong, Brisbane QLD 4066 Phone: 07 3371 4855 Fax: 07 3371 4661www.toowongvillas.com.au Toowong Villas serviced apartments offers quality, comfortable accommodation 4kms from the city centre, yet far enough away from the rat race. Each apartment is air-conditioned and has a balcony or courtyard, and features a fully self-contained kitchen and laundry. Enjoy the comfort and style of the apartment, or relax by one of the pools. Not only is the vibrant city centre so close by, but a major shopping centre, restaurants and public transport are within walking distance from Toowong Villas.

Attractions & Entertainment

South Bank ParklandsOriginally the meeting place for indigenous groups, Southbank Parklands was transformed and the eyes of the world focused on South Bank when it became the site for the hugely successful World Expo 88. In 1992 the parklands opened and today they are Brisbane's favourite recreational destination and playground. The 17-hectare public park stretches for more than a kilometre along the bank of the Brisbane River, looking out across Brisbane's modern city skyline. Over 5.5 million people each year enjoy the recreation, entertainment and dining pleasures the parklands have to offer including a man-made beach that is open to the public (free) and is even patrolled by lifesavers.

Mt Coot-tha & Botanical GardensMt Coot-tha offers wonderful views of the city and surrounding areas from its lookout located 8km from the city. You can see as far as the Glass House Mountains to the North, Gold Coast hinterland to the South and Moreton and Stradbroke Islands to the East. Mt Coot-tha is also a great place for walking. There are various trails giving spectacular vies of the scenery, and an Aboriginal art Trail where you can see tree carvings and rock paintings.

At the foot of the mountain are the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, containing around 20,000 species of plants. You can visit the gardens everyday from 8.30am - 5.30pm and join a tour at 11.00am or 1.00pm (except Sunday). You can get to Mt Coot-tha on bus number 471 which leaves from the corner of Adelaide and Albert Streets. The bus drops you at the base of the mountain so be prepared for an uphill trek. Alternatively hop on the City Heights Tour leaving at 2.00pm from Adelaide Street in the city.

Brisbane Powerhouse - Centre for Arts A unique mid-sized venue featuring cutting-edge performances from Australia and overseas, the Brisbane Powerhouse has been created within a historic old powerhouse situated on the banks of the Brisbane River.An initiative of Brisbane City Council, the Powerhouse exposes and celebrates the diversity of contemporary arts in Brisbane and connects it to the rest of the country and the world.

Bold industrial structures, raw textures and graffitied walls combine with well-equipped performance spaces, meeting and rehearsal rooms, outdoor areas and a glorious riverside location make the Powerhouse a remarkable feature of Brisbane city.

Located on Lamington Street, New Farm, Brisbane Powerhouse is easily accessible by all forms of public transport (or a combination of them). See www.brisbanepowerhouse.org for more information.

Queensland Art Gallery Located next to Southbank Parklands on Melbourne Street, the Queensland Art Gallery is Queensland's premier visual arts institution and a leading art museum nationally. The Gallery's driving philosophy is to connect art and people. The Gallery was established in 1895 as the Queensland National Art Gallery. Throughout its early history the Gallery was housed in a series of temporary premises, and did not have a permanent home until the opening of its current architecturally-acclaimed building on Brisbane's south bank in 1982.Since opening, the Gallery's Collection, exhibitions, audiences and programs have grown in size, complexity and diversity. To cater for the community's future needs, a second building, The Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, which will open at Kurilpa Point in late 2006. See www.qag.qld.gov.au for exhibitions and more information.

Sports

Rugby Union www.qru.com.au & www.rugby.com.au Ballymore is the home ground of Rugby in Queensland, and also of the mighty Queensland Reds team. It's the place where fierce battles have been wagered against sporting foes from across the border and across the seas.Great as this sporting pedigree is, Ballymore, perhaps more so than any other ground in the world, is more than just a football park. Tucked into a leafy green inner-suburban pocket of Brisbane, bordered by a meandering creek, it has gradually evolved into an oasis of casual style, conviviality and relaxed entertainment. Buy your tickets online at www.ticketmaster7.com For the latest information on the Wallabies, Test matches, International touring matches, Bledisloe Cup, Tri Nations Series, Match draws, Scores, Players, and all Australian rugby related stories visit www.rugby.com.au

Rugby League www.qrl.com.au The home of rugby league, Suncorp Stadium has recently had a AUD$280million makeover - nicknamed 'The Cauldron' it was designed specifically for rugby. Suncorp Stadium has hosted rugby league and rugby union Test matches, including Rugby World Cup 2003 as well as Youth World Cup soccer, but is best known as the home of the Brisbane Broncos NRL and Queensland State of Origin rugby league teams.Before its re-development, Suncorp Stadium was known as Lang Park, named after the Reverend John Dunmore Lang who was an influential figure in colonial Brisbane and who established a cemetery on the site in 1840. The graves and headstones were later moved and the land converted to recreational use at the beginning of the 20th century.

Suncorp Stadium is located in Milton. Pedestrians can enter the stadium from Milton Road, Castlemaine Street or Caxton Street. Public transport is the best way to go.

Ticket holders are entitled to free travel on all regular network wide Brisbane Transport bus and QR city train services on the day of the event. Free shuttle buses will run from the city and South Bank before and after Suncorp Stadium games.

An elevated walkway gives pedestrians access to Milton Rail Station and a 12 bay bus station offers shuttle services to the CBD for events. Buy your tickets online at www.ticketek.com.au

Australian Rules Football (AFL) www.afl.com.au & Cricket www.cricket.com.au Formally known as the Brisbane Cricket Ground but called ‘The Gabba’ by everyone, this venue is the spiritual home of cricket in Queensland. During the summer months, the Gabba hosts the Queensland Bulls and the Australian cricket team. In winter, the Gabba becomes the home of Aussie Rules in Brisbane and is the home ground to the Brisbane Lions Football Club.

The Gabba is located between Vulture and Stanley Streets, Woolloongabba. Ticket holders (excluding domestic cricket matches) are entitled to free travel on all regular network wide Brisbane Transport bus and QR city train services on the day of the event. Free shuttle buses will run from the city and South Bank before and after the Gabba games. Transinfo provides full public transport information for Gabba matches.

Tickets for AFL matches are available from ticketek three weeks before the game. Book early as Brisbane Lions games are extremely popular and often sell out. Tickets for international cricket matches are available from ticketmaster7. Tickets to domestic cricket matches can be bought from the Gabba box office on the day of play.

Shopping

There are a wide range of shops in Brisbane for you to browse around. The heart of shopping in Brisbane, Queen Street Mall, is lined with a colourful mix of heritage facades, historic arcades and modern shopping galleries with the extra pizzazz of bold new architecture in canopies and pavement cafes. From your accommodation you can get to Queen Street mall which is the centre of the city by train or bus easily. Queen Street Mall has over 500 shops to explore. Some of Australia’s most stylish shopping arcades and galleries lead off from the Mall, the largest being the Myer Centre with a department store, food court, cinemas and more than 200 specialty stores. Opposite, the Queen Adelaide Building houses up-market boutiques and stylish designer stores. At Broadway on the Mall and the Wintergarden, you’ll find fashion, food and a range of home goods and gift stores. For new labels and the hottest gear on the street, check out the Brisbane Arcade where the city’s best designers continue to showcase their latest ranges.

Shopping CentresFor a one-stop-shop, Toowong Shopping Village is your nearest centre. This shopping centre has a Coles Variety store which is a grocery store, fruit and vegetable store, newsagency, food outlets, David Jones, shoe stores, clothing stores etc. Also try Westfield Indooroopilly, or further out at Garden City (in Mt Gravatt) and Carindale.

Stones Corner is the place for bargains with the precinct around Logan Road home to seconds and samples stores for big-name brands and imported shoe specialists. You can get there by train or bus from the city.

The Valley (Fortitude Valley), is a short bus ride or single-stop train trip from the CBD. This area has emerged as a hipster's heaven with the junction of Ann and Brunswick Streets as the place to head for Doc Martens, local designs, and funky street wear. On Saturdays there are the Valley markets in the Brunswick Street Mall.

Inner City SuburbsFor designer boutiques stroll along Milton's Park Road, or Paddington’s La Trobe Terrace, and for fantastic galleries visit New Farm. If you want to browse around some wonderful antiques then head to Paddington, which offers great variety. West End is full of coffee shops, restaurants and bars that are interesting to visit and also a variety of clothing, book and health stores.

MarketsBrisbane also holds various markets. There are 3 weekend art and craft markets. if you want a wonderful and rather special market then head to the Friday Lantern Village along South Bank which is very pretty and open from 5.00pm - 10.00pm. Along South Bank you can also visit the Crafts Village which is open from 11.00am - 5.00pm on Saturday and from 9.00am - 5.00pm on Sunday.

The Fortitude Valley Market is in Brunswick Street Mall and hosts entertainment as well as market stalls to keep you occupied, every Saturday from 9.00am - 5.00pm. On Sunday you can head over to the Eagle Street where there are two markets. The Eagle Street Pier market is open from 8.00am - 4.00pm and the Riverside Market is open from 7.00am - 4.00pm

Socialising/Eating/DrinkingPeople often travel for great food and visitors to Brisbane are no exception. The locals have watched and tasted the food scene steadily evolve into one of the most innovative in the country. Here's a guide to the latest and greatest, the affordable, and the simply delicious foodie experiences Brisbane serves up. www.ourbrisbane.com.au Search for restaurant/ venue contact info on www.yellowpages.com.au

Its fairly challenging to get anything in a restaurant for $20 these days, so discovering fabulous places that leave you with spare change is a rare gem. You can't go past the Gun Shop Cafe in West End for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Most of the menu hovers between $12-$20 with the exquisite Merlo Coffee just $2.50 a cup!

Mondo Organics on Hargrave Rd, Highgate Hill does a tasty, cheap and cheerful organic continental breakfast for sidewalk diners on the weekends. While you're there stock up on their house made organic pasta sauces and icecreams.

Lazy Sunday mornings just got better at Bar Merlo on Market Street, the City, with the introduction of Brunch from 8am until 2pm. For a great atmosphere, try Salt on Nash Road, Rosalie. The food is worth it, and it certainly the place to be seen on a Friday or Saturday, and Sunday morning.

If you're one of those who would happily skip the business end of eating and head straight for desert, make for Freestyle Tout at Rosalie. Freestyle is heaven on a stick for sugar fiends. They do ice cream, sorbets all manner of cakes and tarts and sticky date pudding and bread and butter pudding that your grandmother couldn't

fault for under $15! Be sure to check out the ever-changing local artwork that adorns the walls. www.freestyle-online.com

If you're after great food with water views book a table at Watt Modern Dining beside the Brisbane River at New Farm. www.watt.net.au

Celebrated Melbourne chef Cath Claringbold has just opened her Middle Eastern inspired Mecca Bah at the new Emporium in Fortitude Valley. You can't go past the Tunisian carrot salad or the roast pumpkin, fetta and pomegranate jam Turkish Pizza. The food is designed to share, making it a great spot for informal group get togethers.

Close to Toowong VillasAsian Fusion a stroll away from Toowong Villas: try Jackpot Noodles, Sherwood Road, Toowong. Meals are cheap ($5.50 - $12) and they’ll deliver for an extra $3. Ph. 3870 0488.If you feel like Chinese, try The Bamboo Shoot, 58 High Street Toowong. Dishes range from $9 to $15.Like Thai? Try Renu Thai, 52 High Street Toowong, a meal here won’t cost you more than $15. Or Raun Thai on Sherwood Road. Feel like something different? Try Jaz Bar & Restaurant, Jephson Street Toowong. www.jazbar.com.au

DIY DiningLearning to work magic in the kitchen is a passion for some and a challenge for others! One of the best ways to follow your culinary dream is to give yourself over to innovative chefs who offer hands-on instruction and their most important trade secrets. www.jamesstcookingschool.com.au

PubsBrisbane's famous Story Bridge Hotel has undergone an impressive refurbishment and pub food has never tasted so good. Try the Guinness pie with braised beef, salad and mash for $ 9.90 or a 400g rump steak with your choice of sauce for just $21.

The Breakfast Creek Hotel is arguably the most famous watering hole in Queensland and probably one of the top two or three in the country. The menu is great, and they do a mean steak. It’s more than just a venue – it’s a major destination in Brisbane, one of the best-loved in the city. www.breakfastcreekhotel.com

Nightspots

The Family on Maclachlin Street, Fortitude Valley is a huge nightclub set over 4 levels. FAMILY is the most dynamic, versatile and beautifully decorated entertainment venue ever to grace Brisbane's entertainment scene. They’re open Friday to Sunday nights, and have regular events. Take a look at www.thefamily.com.au for more info.

If you want to be seen with the beautiful people, sit back and relax on the couches at The Press Club, Brunswick Street Fortitude Valley.

For a drink with a view, visit Jade Buddah, Eagle Street Pier, Brisbane City www.jadebuddha.com.au

The Regatta has recently been renovated and is situated on Coronation Drive in Toowong. This is a bar and also has a restaurant but is a popular hangout for University students from UQ and local Toowong residents. Across the road is a recently installed City Cat stop. This is the place to be on a Sunday evening. Be sure to check out the décor in the bathrooms. www.regattahotel.com.au

The Royal Exchange Hotel (the RE) is the original University/local hangout. It also has been upgraded and you will find local musicians playing there on a Friday night. Traditionally overflows with UQ students on a Thursday night. Has a great atmosphere and cheap beer and is close to your accommodation. They also serve cheap meals.

Caxton Street – Paddington Generally a football crowd hangout and a more conservative alternative to the Valley depending on your taste. There are a variety of restaurants and clubs along this street to investigate.

Fortitude Valley (also known as Chinatown)The Valley as it is known to Brisbane residents is situated in Fortitude Valley. The Valley area is situated in the Wickham/Ann Street/Brunswick street precinct. The valley has a long history in Brisbane, in the early years it had a reputation as a rough area, full of prostitution, strip clubs and gay nightclubs and various underground goings on. Alternative nightclubs and live music venues were concentrated in this area and only a minority of Brisbane residents ventured into this area. Nowadays the Valley has cleaned up its image, and as a result, its level of popularity has soared. It is now a popular area for young people to reside and to go out, and a preferred alternative to the city. There are restaurants, clubs, pubs and cafes, some interesting shops exist along the Ann Street strip.

A lot of our popular bands started performing in venues in the valley such as the Arena, The Zoo and The Empire. There is a thriving club scene at places like the Zoo, The Beat (formally and still primarily a gay club but it has a lot of straight clientele) The Empire and The Family and Ric’s café in the Brunswick street mall has various live music events throughout the week and on the weekend. The Valley can get extremely busy on a Friday and Saturday night. Most of these clubs have odd dress rules so don't be offended if you are turned away at the door. This policy has formed a fair bit of controversy with locals as well. Just don't dress too casually. Shorts and t-shirts will most likely not get you into the family and the Empire. However the Zoo does not care and nor does Ric’s really.

Public Transport

Public Transport in Brisbane is generally very good. The following brochures are designed to provide you with information on the different tickets available, as well as the zones that determine fares. Be sure to catch the City Cat ferry for a pleasant trip along the Brisbane River.

For students staying at Toowong Villas, it’s best for them to purchase a 2 Zone weekly ticket, which allows unlimited travel within 2 zones, on buses, ferries and trains for one week from the date of issue. It includes key destinations like St Lucia, Brisbane City & Southbank. If students wish to travel beyond the 2 zones, they simply need to pay the extra fare separately on the day of travel. The cost is $19.20 for an adult.

For more information go to www.translink.com.au or phone 13 12 30.

Stradbroke IslandPicturesque North Stradbroke Island is an enticing blend of rugged coastal landscape, tranquil inland lakes, and pristine beaches just one hour from Brisbane.

One of the world's largest sand islands, it is situated at the southern end of Moreton Bay and is easily accessible by vehicle ferry ("barge") and water taxi from Cleveland.

North Stradbroke Island has some of the most spectacular scenery found in Queensland. White sandy beaches stretch into an endless horizon fringed by the aqua blue ocean, while a system of freshwater lakes in the island's centre provides beautiful picnic and swimming spots.

Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort - Moreton IslandFringed on three sides by Moreton Island National Park, Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort is subtly nestled amongst landscaped gardens and natural bushland. A highlight of any stay at Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort will be the opportunity to interact closely with our native wild life.  Each evening the Tangalooma in-shore dolphins eagerly swim up to the beach, adjacent to the well lit jetty, where they are rewarded with fresh fish hand fed to them by our Dolphin Care staff and Resort Guests.  Whether you are actually participating in the feeding or simply watching from the jetty, you will be overwhelmed by these beautiful creatures.

As well as our world renowned wild dolphins, Tangalooma offers a wide range of activities such as: tennis, squash, archery, snorkelling, fishing, sailing, scuba diving, bush walking, golf driving net, putting green and wilderness Four Wheel Drive escorted tours to many National Park highlights.  These include visiting Queensland's oldest lighthouse at Cape Moreton, the Ocean Beach and the "Blue Lagoon" or enjoy a short trip to the "Desert" for the exhilarating sport of "Sand Tobogganing".See www.tangalooma.com for more information

THE GOLD COAST

Famous for its sun, surf and sand, Gold Coast City stretches along 57 kilometres of coastline. Located one hours’ drive south of Brisbane, the Gold Coast is a dynamic city with an average of 300 days of sunshine in the year. The region hosted 9.8 million visitors in 2003/4. Domestic visitors numbered 3.5 million (16.1 million nights) and international visitors at 752,900 (6.4 million nights). Leading international markets include Japan, New Zealand, UK, China, Europe, Korea, Singapore. In 2003 domestic expenditure (excluding airfares and long distance transport) totalled $2.6 billion.

www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au or www.goldcoasttourism.com.au will provide you with more information on the area.

Surfers Paradise is the tourist heart of the Gold Coast. Countless restaurants, nightspots and duty free shops line the streets, and the beach is never empty (even in winter). Despite the name, the better surf beaches can actually be found further south, and include the renowned Kirra Beach. See www.surfersparadise.com.au for events and information.

Theme ParksDreamworldSo many worlds in one, Dreamworld is an action-packed adventure with some of the wildest rides and attractions in Australia, braved by millions of visitors every year. Why not try some of the tallest fastest thrill rides

in the world including the Giant Drop, the Tower of Terror, the Cyclone, the Claw, and lots more. Don’t miss the park’s rare Bengal Tigers at Tiger Island or venture into the Australian Wildlife Experience to cuddle a Koala, pat a Kangaroo, feed native birds and maybe even shear a sheep. Dreamworld is also the official home of the Australian Big Brother

television series, filmed and produced live from Dreamworld studios. Entry is $60, read more about Dreamworld at www.dreamworld.com.au

Sea WorldAt Sea World you can make contact with marine life wonders and experience a whole world of amazing rides, shows and attractions at a Gold Coast theme park favourite! More than just a theme park, Sea World is committed to educating guests about the marine environment, and playing an active role in Australian marine research and rescue. See dolphins perform with their trainers at Dolphin Cove, watch Polar Bears play in Polar Bear Shores, visit the new Shark Bay and lots more. Entry is $60, tickets can be purchased cheaper online at www.seaworld.com.au

Movie WorldVisit Warner Bros. Movie World on Australia’s Gold Coast - where movie magic happens every day! As the only Australian movie related theme park, you will experience a fun-filled, Gold Coast theme park family adventure with all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Meet your favourite stars and enjoy all the behind-the-scenes action, comedy stunts and exhilarating

rides, shows and attractions! Entry is $60, tickets can be purchased at a discount online: www.movieworld.com.au

Wet‘n’Wild Water WorldWet'n'Wild Water World combines all the fun and excitement of the world's latest water slides and leisure pools with a shaded twenty acre subtropical garden. Whether you choose to laze in the shallows of the Wave Pool or plunge down a seven-story high Speed Coaster, at Wet'n'Wild Water World we are committed to providing a full day of splashtacular fun and relaxation for everyone! Entry is $38 see www.wetnwild.com.au for details.

Shopping & marketsEndless shopping choices including resort, unique lifestyle centres, malls and retails centres. Some include:

Pacific Fair  (Broadbeach) www.pacificfair.com.au Chevron Renaissance (Surfers Paradise) www.chevronrenaissance.com/village Australia Fair  (Southport) www.australiafair.com.au Main Beach (Tedder Avenue and The Spit) Harbour Town (Biggera Waters) www.harbourtownshopping.com.au Sanctuary Cove www.sanctuarycove.com.au Oasis Shopping Centre (Broadbeach)

THE SUNSHINE COAST

Located just over one hour’s drive north of Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast is a great alternative to the touristy Gold Coast. National Parks and majestic mountain ranges make for great scenic drives, and the beaches are pristine. There's a huge range of surf beaches on the Sunshine Coast from the rolling open waters of Rainbow Beach through to the sheltered King's Beach at Caloundra. Other popular beaches include Noosa, Mooloolaba, Alexandra Headlands and Coolum. For sea-based adventures, cruise the Pumicestone Passage in a canoe or see the glassy tannin-filled water reflections at the Noosa Everglades. Snorkel in rock pools or take in one of the Sunshine Coast's major events including surfing and triathlon carnivals.

Travel west within an easy drive of Caloundra, Mooloolaba or Noosa to pretty hinterland areas such as Maleny and Montville. There's shopping, dining, art galleries, interesting crafts and walking options. Explore one of Queensland's oldest and best-preserved subtropical rainforests at Mary Cairncross Park, Maleny or climb the stunning Glass House Mountains, remarkable volcanic crags that rise from the coastal plains. Captain Cook named these mountains and they remain a vivid silhouette on the skyline. Cooloola National Park covers 56,000ha from everglades through to dramatic coloured sand cliffs. There are many freshwater rivers and lakes and tracks suitable for 4WD. Noosa National Park has some of south-east Queensland's most stunning coastal scenery. You can view Fraser Island from Inskip Point at Rainbow Beach.

From high fashion to fine art, local craft to casual clothing, gorgeous gifts to fresh produce, you'll find it all here. All top quality and at a reasonable price. From antiques to appetising gourmet foods, tasteful trinkets to traditional bric-a-brac, jewelery to jam, there's something for everyone. Shopping precincts are located at Noosa, Mooloolaba, Maroochydore, and Caloundra. There's handcrafted jewellery and woodwork at Gympie, Cooroy, Kenilworth, Montville, Maleny and Mapleton. And

don't miss the markets, there's a market most days including the famous Eumundi markets on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

See www.queenslandholidays.com.au/sunshine_coast for details.

Australia Zoo

Australia Zoo is the home of world-famous Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, located at Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast, an hour north of Brisbane. At Australia Zoo, you can encounter Australian native animals, and other animals like cheetahs, tigers, and of course – crocodiles. See www.australiazoo.com.au for more information.

CAIRNS

Cairns is the international gateway into Tropical North Queensland, and carries with pride the mantle of safest tropical city in the world. Residents of the area are also proud to be custodians of two of the world’s greatest natural treasures - the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Rainforests. Both of these wonderful attractions are World Heritage listed, and there are very few places on Earth where two such treasures rest side by side.

Cairns International Airport is the nation’s sixth busiest in terms of international and domestic passenger movements, and the city also is rated the third most popular tourist destination in the country after Sydney and Brisbane.

The city is a vital, cosmopolitan centre and its residents enjoy an enviable tropical lifestyle. Palms line many streets, and parks and gardens are a riot of colour from bougainvillea, hibiscus, poinciana and other tropical blossoms. The Esplanade provides a charming frontage on to the bay and a 5 km stroll under tamarinds, figs and Indian almonds is a must during your time in Cairns. A three-legged spire on the Esplanade is a memorial to two RAAF Catalina squadrons based here during World War II.

Discover the delights of the region, from the magnificent Great Barrier Reef and the World Heritage listed Rainforests, the diverse attractions of the tropical Atherton Tablelands, and west to the outback plains and gorges of the Gulf Savannah. The scenic beauty of the Bellenden Ker ranges extend south of Cairns to Mission Beach, and the long white beaches north link to Port Douglas, Daintree and Cape Tribulation, which lead further into the Cape York Peninsula wilderness.See www.tropicalaustralia.com.au for more tourist ideas.

Accommodation:Gilligan’s Backpackers Hotel & Resort57-89 Grafton Street, Cairns QLD 4870 Phone: (07) 4041 6566Fax: (07) 4041 6577www.gilligansbackpackers.com.au Gilligan's is Cairns' newest and most up-market budget accommodation, offering a blend of traditional backpacker accommodation (with a few added comforts) plus three and a half star hotel rooms.

No matter what your age, if you're a traveller on a budget (or a traveller who just wants value for money), this is your ultimate one-stop holiday venue … a superb Far North Queensland holiday experience at an affordable price.

Gilligan's offers stylish and comfortable rooms set over four-stories, complemented by a ground floor packed with more leisure activities and facilities than you'd find in your average five-star resort.

As a Gilligan's guest you can play soccer or beach volleyball, laze in the pool, sample local cuisine, sip cocktails, shop, browse over local produce markets, use the

internet cafe, cook a barbecue, or dance the night away - all without leaving this holiday haven.And when it's time to explore further afield, the absolute CBD location means you're just a few minutes walk to Cairns' waterfront lagoon, shopping centres, galleries, restaurants and nightclubs. Holidaying has never looked so good!

Cairns Plaza HotelCnr The Esplanade & Minnie St, Cairns QLD 4870Phone: (07) 4051 4688 Fax: (07) 4051 8129www.cairnsplaza.com.au Cairns Plaza Hotel is located close to the city centre and offers spectacular views across Trinity Bay. The hotel has a mix of hotel rooms and apartments which all provide comfortable accommodation whether you come to Cairns for Business or Leisure.  Located at the start of the strand the property is one of the better located Cairns hotels and surrounded by parklands and set among lush tropical gardens this is your ideal home away from home. Relax over drinks by the hotels swimming pool or laze luxuriously in the spa, sip a cocktail in the bar or enjoy the casual dining atmosphere of the Waterside Restaurant.

Local Attractions

The Cairns Esplanade

Just a short stroll from your accommodation, you’ll find the newly redeveloped Cairns Esplanade known fondly as “the Nard” to locals. This is an exceptional recreational area positively buzzing with fun excitement and energy. A place where visitors and residents alike can kick back and relax…swim…. play and laugh… exercise…dine…shop…picnic and enjoy life to the fullest in their very own piece of tropical paradise!

The Lagoon

The works, which were undertaken in several stages, include the amazing 4800 sq metre saltwater swimming lagoon, state of the art barbeque facilities, work out and exercise areas, functional modern seating and picnic areas, all of which are set amidst landscaped gardens with plenty of shade trees and heaps of open space. The vast triangular lagoon with it’s dramatic steel fish sculptures is the focal point, providing a water to water view from Shields St in the CBD across the

lagoon and out across Trinity Bay.

3.8 million litres of seawater is continually filtered through four huge sand filters and through state of the art filtration and chlorination processes to ensure the safe disinfection of the lagoon for the many families and visitors who come here every day to cool off, soak up the sun and relax by the lagoon on it’s sandy beaches.Trained lifeguards patrol the lagoon from 6 am to 10 pm through summer and from 7 am to 9 pm in winter.

The kiosk in the amenities building adjacent to the Lagoon supplies food items, ice creams and drinks along with bathroom facilities.

The Foreshore Promenade (Boardwalk)Suspended over the mudflats at the water’s edge is the Foreshore Promenade or the “Boardwalk” as locals like to call it. The boardwalk provides a pedestrian access-way from Upward Street in the north… right around past the Pier Marketplace in the south.

There are lots of activities offered every day of the year in the early hours of each morning at the Esplanade…including Tai Chi, Yoga, Just Walk It, Pilates, Aqua Aerobics, and Sahaja Yoga Meditation. Start times 6.30am (in summer) and 7 am (in winter)The Esplanade provides an exciting venue for a wide variety of entertainment and events. Come along on Friday night to see Fire By The Sea…watch the fire dancers perform between roughly 8.00 pm and 9.30 pm. It’s spectacular! You will find them on the sand beach off the boardwalk at the end of Florence Street right opposite Villa Romana.

Dotted along the Esplanade (and across the street from the Boardwalk and park areas) are an exciting array of restaurants offering a wide variety of differing cuisines. It’s great fun to walk “down” the boardwalk and “back” through the myriad of Esplanade restaurants and shops. While you’re there…don’t forget to check out the Night Markets which operate every night (and day) of the year.

Great Barrier ReefThe Great Barrier Reef is the world's greatest reef system, stretching more than 2000km along Queensland's north-east coast. As the world's largest and most complex reef system, it has thousands of individual coral reefs and hundreds of continental islands, reef islands and cays, small bare sand cays, and permanent vegetated cays.Exploring the Great Barrier Reef is both exhilarating and easy. You can snorkel or scuba dive with equipment provided and a trained crew on hand to assist, or view the reef from the comfort of a semi-submersible or underwater observatory. Swimmers and non-swimmers are catered for or take a scenic flight in a plane or helicopter. There is easy access to the outer reef and islands from points all along the coast, to suit your style or budget.

Ocean Spirit Cruise to Michaelmas Cay www.oceanspirit.com.au This Cruise offers a wide range of activities including snorkelling, scuba diving (both certified and first time beginner), semi-submersible coral viewing, coral cay scientific tours, nature walks among a bird sanctuary, live musical entertainment and a glass of champagne on the homeward sail.  Michaelmas Cay is a small vegetated coral cay (1.5 ha in area and 3.5 m high) lying 43 km north-east of Cairns. The cay sits on the western tip of Michaelmas Reef, a

mid-shelf reef formed by living coral animals, polyps which secret a limestone skeleton.

Snorkelling on the cruise is free, Scuba Dive rates are:

The cay itself was formed when fragments of the reef (coral, algae and shells) were washed to the leeward side of the reef by wave action and prevailing winds, to form a single bank. In the sheltered areas behind the sand bank, seeds deposited by birds and waves are able to establish, stabilising the cay and encouraging seabirds to roost and nest.  Their droppings fertilise the sand and more plants are able to grow. Vegetation covers the centre of the cay.

Michaelmas Cay is a major seabird nesting island in the northern Great Barrier Reef, and one of the most accessible along the entire reef for day visitors. 38 species of birds have been recorded on Michaelmas Cay (3 woodland species and 35 seabirds). The main breeding species are sooty terns, crested terns, common noddies and lesser crested terns.  Occasional  breeders include silver gulls, black-naped terns, bridled terns, black noddies, roseate terns and ruddy turnstones.  Breeding activity and care of young occurs throughout the year, with sooty terns breeding every 8.5 months and others breeding annually. Vegetation on the cay consists of a few low-growing plants (pioneer species) such as grasses, herbs, succulents and creepers.  The plants cover an area of approximately 300 x 60 metres.  Common species include: hairy spinifex (Spinifex hirsutus), stalky grass (Lepturus repens), sea purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum).  The vegetation dries out during winter but the summer wet season usually results in plant regrowth.Michaelmas Cay is monitored monthly by the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage and works directly with the staff of tourist operations that visit the cay and utilise the waters around the reef to educate visitors not to disturb the natural history of the area, but still allow total enjoyment of this spectacular pristine environment.

Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural ParkTjapukai is a stunning theatrical interpretation of Aboriginal culture from the beginning of time into the future. Seven separate arenas allow visitors to experience every facet of the rainforest people’s culture - from the provocative History Theatre to the inspiring Creation Theatre, and the original Dance Theatre and the interactive Camp Village, where visitors can learn didgeridoo playing and boomerang throwing. www.tjapukai.com.au

SkyrailThe Skyrail experience, spanning 7.5kms over pristine rainforest, allows you to explore the wonders of an ancient tropical rainforests and learn about one of the most botanically fascinating and diverse areas on earth. Gliding just metres above the rainforest canopy in comfortable 6-person gondola cabins the Skyrail journey immerses you in an intimate rainforest experience where you’ll see, hear, smell and become part of the tropical rainforest environment. Relax and enjoy the stunning rainforest scenery, panoramic views of the Cairns’ tropical region and the glittering waters of

the Coral Sea. Alight at Skyrail’s two rainforest mid-stations, Red Peak and Barron Falls, where you’ll explore this amazing environment from the forest floor on boardwalks, scenic look-outs and in the state-of-the-art Rainforest Interpretive Centre. www.skyrail.com.au

Kuranda Scenic RailwayFor one and a half fabulous hours, you'll travel on board historical carriages through some of the lushest rainforest, pass deep gorges, rugged mountains and the spectacular waterfalls. It's a view that was originally captured 100 years ago by teams of railway men armed only with picks and shovels. Today, that 34km track still winds its way through 15 hand made tunnels up to Kuranda Station - a Station which looks more like a beautiful botanical garden. Sun to Fri from Cairns at 8.30am & 9.30am.- Return 2.00pm & 3.30pm. Saturday 8.30am only return at 3.30pm.

White Water Rafting Raging Thunder Adventures pioneered rafting in Queensland, Australia in 1984 with our first commercial trip consisting of three nervous passengers on the Tully River. Even today we still raft the Mighty Tully River, because is regarded as the best rafting river across Australia and New Zealand. This awesome adventure is located in spectacular surroundings only 2 hours south of Cairns, with departures from Port Douglas, Cairns, Northern Beaches and Mission Beach.

Plus we also raft the Barron River located just outside Cairns, with a half day raft perfectly suited for first time adventurer or those who want to cram more into their Adventure Holiday. Tours and prices are on www.ragingthunder.com.au

Skydiving / ParachutingIf you want to try skydiving, this is the place to do it. The views of the reef and rainforest are out of this world. There are a number of companies around that offer packages, check with the tour desk at your accommodation.Take a look at www.paulsparachuting.com.au or www.jumpthebeach.com.au, If you’ve just been scuba diving, check the regulations

Shopping

Cairns Central is a one-stop shopping centre in the heart of Cairns City, on the corner of McLeod & Spence Streets. The Pier is nice and touristy, and just a stroll from the Esplanade.Browse in the funky stalls at the Cairns Night Markets on the Esplanade that operate every night of the year.Buy local fruits and goodies at Rusty’s Markets on Sheridan Street.

Eating/ Drinking / Socialising

There are many world class restaurants in Cairns City and its surrounding regions, and they reflect the cosmopolitan nature of both its residents and visitors, with nearly all making a special point of presenting their own variation of Tropical specialities such as succulent prawns, delicate barramundi, mud crabs, reef species like the famed coral trout and red emperor, along with the subtle indigenous flavours of kangaroo, emu and crocodile.  Be adventurous and you'll be rewarded by the very special experience that is 'a taste of the tropics'!

The Red Ochre Grill has brought Australian cuisine out of the outback and within reach of lovers of fine food along the way earning a reputation for truly capturing the taste of Australia. 43 Shield Street, Cairns. www.redochregrill.com.au

Be sure to try some fresh local seafood at Barnacle Bill’s or Skippers Fish and Chip Café on the Esplanade in Cairns. www.barnaclebills.com.au

Have a drink in a former government building at the Courthouse Hotel 38 Abbott St, Cairns. For Blues and Rock, go to Johno’s Nightclub & Bar, Corner of Abbott & Aplin Streets.The young and high-energy dance crowd go to Tropos Nightclub, located on the Corner of Lake & Spence Streets. www.troposnightclub.com.au For an Irish-style pub, drop by Shenanigans, 48 Spence Street.Fox & Firkin is an English-style Pub with live music, located on Level 1, Corner Lake & Spence Streets.If you’re cruising along the Esplanade, try Rattle ‘n’ Hum for Pizza and Beer, or the Chapel Café for a relaxed drink. The Wool Shed Char Grill & Saloon Bar is always full of locals and backpackers, 24 Shields St Cairns.The Cairns Casino is probably the most well known entertainment venue, having a mix of restaurants, live entertainment and gaming available every day until the early hours.

Public Transport

Public transport is readily available in the CBD. The main mall in the CBD is also the transit terminal for public transport (blue buses). Taxi ranks are located throughout the City itself. Ask the staff at your accommodation for more information.

HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA

© Copyright. The University of Queensland and Clive Moore, 1993

ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIA

Aborigines, the first Australians, have lived in this country for at least 60 000 years, and archaeological research keeps extending the period of time for which evidence of human occupation of Australia can be unearthed.

The challenge in dealing with the history of a non-literate society such as those of Aboriginal Australia or the societies of the surrounding peoples of the Pacific Islands is to give it depth over time. Aborigines have not just been here 200 years; they have been here 50,000 to 60,000 years.

Aborigines did alter their environment over thousands of years. Along with climatic changes, their hunting of the large marsupials probably ensured the extinction of the latter. They entered Australia from the north, at a time when sea levels were lower and land masses larger; but there never was a time when they could have walked from Asia to Australia, so they were the earliest humans to use sea-going craft of some type. For the first several thousand years of their occupation the Australian environment was much more hospitable than today, with many inland rivers and lakes, which enabled them to spread out through the now barren centre of Australia. Gradually, as Australia became drier they moved more towards the coast and the permanent river systems.

Their use of fire helped create the Australian environment that existed in 1788. They created grasslands where they wanted them by lighting fires in strategic places. Aboriginal technology altered over time. Heavier stone tools were replaced by lighter tools. There is evidence of artificial drainage systems, the remains of permanent dwellings in large communities, and of specialised fishing practices. This does not fit our generally accepted picture of Aborigines since 1788. Exactly why changes occurred can only be conjectured. Changes in climate may have led to intensified use of resources. Remember that the population may have been much larger once: in excess of one million. And perhaps alliance systems through kinship networks built up elaborate social systems and ceremonies that required more efficient management of resources. But when European settlers first arrived, Aborigines were linked to the natural world by totems creating a symbiotic bond of land and people.

The Great Australian Silence

Until recently most Australians paid little heed to Aborigines, and until 1967 they did not even have the basic rights of Australian citizenship. This neglect applies to historians just as much as to ordinary citizens. When eminent anthropologist Professor W.E.H. Stanner presented the ABC Boyer Lectures (a famous annual lecture series on national radio) in 1968, his second lecture was entitled 'The Great Australian Silence'. Stanner criticised Australian historians for their ethnocentrism and 'silence on all things aboriginal'. If Aborigines appeared in books on Australian history they were seldom more than a 'melancholy anthropological footnote', as one historian lamented.

Aboriginal Australians have lived here for upwards of 60,000 years, in a highly developed society that was closely linked to nature. But they were ill-prepared to face the onslaught of European weapons, technology, diseases, laws and ways. The conflict that developed between Aboriginal society and immigrant European society was immense and destructive. There is ongoing debate over how many Aboriginal inhabitants of Australia there were in 1788. For decades, books have stated boldly that there were about 300,000, an estimate that has now been proved far too low. Professor N.G. Butlin renewed the debate with his Our Original Aggression: Aboriginal population of southeast Australia, 1788-1850 (1983) in which he argued that the population had been much larger and that hundreds of thousands were probably killed off very early by disease epidemics, mainly smallpox. Fatality rates possibly reached 75 per cent in virgin areas and even 45 per cent in areas where there was a second outbreak decades later. Smallpox may have come from the north through Macassan fisherman and from the east through European settlers, the disease spreading like a bushfire far in advance of the settler frontier. We now think that the Aboriginal population of the east coast may have been around 300,000 but for the whole of Australia the number was probably more like 750,000 to one million. Immigrant Australians have always been uncomfortably aware of the almost complete genocide of the Aboriginal Tasmanians but become even more embarrassed by the thought that their arrival may have caused the deaths of close to a million Aborigines, even if inadvertently, because Aborigines lacked any immunity to diseases from other parts of the globe. The Aboriginal society our forebears observed may have already been operating on only 25 percent of its original strength.

Torres Strait Islanders

Queensland has a group of Aboriginal inhabitants unique to Australia, the Melanesian people of Torres Strait. Their presence serves to remind us that it was only 8,000 to 10,000 years ago that New Guinea and Australia were one land mass, separated after the end of the last ice age when ocean levels rose. No one knows when the Torres Strait Islanders first settled in the Strait, but it was probably at least 3,000 years ago. Their physical appearance and culture suggest that they came from the southern part of New Guinea, the large island separated from Cape York in far northern Queensland by the narrow Strait. Their languages have Aboriginal as well as New Guinea features, which probably means that Melanesian settlers intermarried with an earlier Aboriginal population.

When Europeans first visited Torres Strait there were several thousand Islanders living there, and today they number some 15,000, but more than half of the population has migrated to the cities and towns of the Australian mainland, particularly in north Queensland. They retain a heritage quite distinct from the other Aboriginal people of Australia and Tasmania.

Undeclared War

Another fascinating point that has been long ignored, but has recently begun to be documented beyond doubt, is that Australia was not peacefully settled and pioneered. It was invaded and conquered, but the invaders have never acknowledged that there was in fact an unrecorded war between themselves and the Aborigines. Henry Reynolds and other historians have documented the frontier wars. They were not just skirmishes with treacherous blacks, they were wars and the Aborigines resisted the invasion forcefully, using a classic guerilla mode of warfare, though they could never compete equally against the technology of Europeans' weaponry. Europeans isolated on a vast frontier, often far outnumbered by neighbouring Aboriginal clans, suffered from periods of acute anxiety. Frontier society bristled with guns. Men and women carried guns when they went outdoors and slept with guns under their pillows. Settlers felt no qualms about wiping out whole clans of Aborigines who threatened their lives and stood in the way of their possession of land on the frontier. How many died in these wars? Probably about 50,000 Aborigines, Europeans and Chinese, approximately the same number of Australians that were killed fighting for their country in each of the World Wars this century. We carefully commemorate Armistice day (11th November, the final day of World War I) and Anzac day, (25th April, a national holiday to remember our citizens who have died in wars) lest we forget; but we prefer not to remember the unrecorded battlefields on the frontier.

Terra nullius

The doctrine underlying the traditional view of settlement was that before 1788 Australia was terra nullius, a land belonging to no-one. European powers chose to adopt the view that countries without a large scale political organisation, recognisable systems of authority or legal codes could legitimately be annexed and regarded as sovereign territory of the European power. It was a very convenient legal fiction for the invaders, and means that until 1992 Aboriginal Australians have been unable to establish legally that they were the prior `owners' of the continent of Australia and Tasmania.

1992 saw an important change in the law. The High Court of Australia made a path-breaking judgement in the Mabo Case, brought by several Murray Islanders against the government of Queensland, claiming that they had prior ownership rights to their small island in Torres Strait. This is the first time that indigenous land rights have been recognised. There are enormous ramifications in terms of future land claims, and the negotiation of a treaty of reconciliation between indigenous and immigrant Australians.

Aboriginal Australians from 1788 had enormous disadvantages: denied land rights, decimated by imported diseases, and slaughtered like kangaroos, they only just survived into the twentieth century as a people. Only tens of thousands survived into early this century and it was widely believed that the Aborigines would die out and that as long as we provided minimal comforts - a blanket a year - immigrant Australians only had to wait a few decades to be the inheritors of the new land. But this did not occur and the Aboriginal population, even with continuing severe health problems, has steadily increased until today it stands at around 300,000, the number that even the most conservative estimates gives as the lowest population in 1788. The current life expectancy is still twenty years below that of the rest of the population, and their rate of imprisonment fifteen times higher than that of other Australians. They are also much poorer than the average Australian and about four times more likely to be unemployed. Yet they have survived and can boast considerable recent accomplishments as leaders within communities, in politics, in professions, and in sport.

Aboriginal Australia is fundamental to the future harmony of Australia and it is important that all Australians come to terms with each other. Eighteen million Australians of immigrant descent are not planning to leave, but they must understand the rights of prior ownership and acknowledge the truth of the destruction of Aboriginal society. Angry Aboriginal Australians also have to make their way in modern Australia and learn to live with immigrant Australians.

ATTITUDES TO LAND

European Settlement

Aborigines and Europeans view land and their relationship to the environment in totally different ways. Aborigines saw - and still see - themselves as inseparable from their environment and the land. They are guardians of the land, responsible custodians. Europeans imported their concept of land with them. They were incorporating new land into the British empire and were quite willing to reshape the environment when it did not suit their purposes.

From a European point of view Australia was a resource to be used. European settlers believed in their own destiny and their total right to the resources they discovered. Europeans brought ideas about private property, individual ownership of areas of land and the enclosure of land. Forests were cleared for pasture land for the imported sheep and cattle. After twenty years of settlement, deforestation was so severe that in the first decade of the 19th century Governor King had to forbid tree-felling along rivers and watercourses. The huge expanses of open country on the coastal fringe of south-eastern Australia are the result of large scale tree-felling. Europeans not only demolished the old environment, they tried to mould Australia to their own vision, importing flora and fauna. The rabbit is the classic example; by the late 19th century there were hundreds of millions of rabbits in the wild in NSW and Victoria. Sheep, the backbone of the Australian economy in the colonial period, also destroyed large areas; over grazing thus turned pastures into wastelands.

One of the main points of contention between Aboriginal Australians and immigrant Australians is the ownership of land. Europeans have persisted in believing the fiction that Australia was an empty continent in 1788. But Aborigines had distinct concepts of land tenure and associated rituals that bound the people to the land. Dispossession from their land had dramatic effects on the Aborigines that we must try to comprehend. Leading historian Henry Reynold in Frontier: Aborigines, Settlers and Land, and The Law of the Land challenges the legal and moral assumptions underlying the European occupation of Aboriginal Australia. International law of the late 18th century did allow the British to claim sovereignty over eastern Australia by right of discovery. If an indigenous society had not developed in such a way as to enclose and cultivate land, develop large scale political organisation and recognisable systems of authority, then they were not recognised as owners of the land. In 1788 the British designated Australia as terra nullius, waste and uncultivated land without owners, and claimed sovereignty over it.

Immigrant Australians have generally concluded that while British actions in 1788 might be difficult to justify by modern standards, they were fully legal by the theory and practice of European colonisation of the time. Reynolds challenges this by pointing out that the early settlers were very selective in their study of international law. Sovereignty gave the nation the sole right of acquiring the soil from the natives and establishing settlements upon it. It did not of itself deliver up, unencumbered, all land held by the indigenes. The question of native land rights had to be resolved afterwards. And further, Henry Reynolds has proved conclusively that in the 18th

century and in the early decades of the 19th century, the vast areas under pastoral leases came under the aegis of an imperial land act which provided for Aboriginal rights to continue to use and occupy the land. What happened then, asks Reynolds, to the rights to occupy and enjoy traditional lands? For the most part, Europeans ignored them, and from the 1850's onwards with the advent of colonial legislatures, the humanitarian intentions of British legislation went under to the greed for land alienation and development. But were the rights extinguished? Only the courts can determine that, and up until 1992, court decisions have been based totally on the legality of the concept of terra nullius. The 1992 Mabo judgement has destroyed the legal basis of European settlement over the last two centuries. The possible ramifications are enormous.

Agricultural and Pastoral Use of the Land

The early years were a struggle for survival against what settlers saw as a hostile environment, and a struggle for power by the authorities over the convicts in the open air prison and over the New South Wales Corps, which eventually rebelled against Governor Bligh in 1808. Bligh was replaced by Macquarie who governed New South Wales in a more established period, although settlement was still limited to New South Wales (the area of the modern state), Norfolk Island and Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania). In the years up to 1830 colonial society was taking shape and exploration was opening up wider areas, making enforcement of the limits of settlement impossible.

Although there had been an early attempt at settlement at Port Phillip in 1803, the main thrust of settlement came from Van Diemen's Land much later in the early 1830s. Moreton Bay (Brisbane) was settled as a penal colony in 1824. In the same year primitive forts were established on Melville Island and near the present site of Darwin in the Northern Territory; Swan River settlement in Western Australia was established in the late 1820s. The secure tenure of the whole land mass was ensured by the 1820s, blocking other European nations from establishing colonies. Although it seems normal to us now, Australia is the only continent settled by one nation; you have only to think about the many European colonies established in North and South America to realise that the Australian situation is unusual.

Sheep fitted into the environment well, and the pastoral industry spread with settlement. Europeans needed secure tenure to the land they used and thus came into head-on confrontation with the Aborigines, who opposed white expansion but did not have the technological advantage and soon went under to the white invasion.

Agricultural and pastoral activities have played a central part in Australian history, and these pursuits required the alienation of large areas of land. Crown land could be disposed of in three ways. The land could be alienated, which meant it passed from government to private hands. There were two methods of alienation: grants and sales. Another alternative was for land to be held by individuals or companies under lease, which allowed large areas of Crown land to be used, but with the provision that the land could be reclaimed by the Crown.

The granting of land was introduced in 1788 at the discretion of the governor. Land was granted extensively in New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land and Western Australia until 1831. Most of it went to wealthy settlers. Land was also sold and from 1831 was sold at public auction at not less than five shillings an acre, the proceeds being used to bring immigrants to the colonies. Provision was also made for lease of Crown land at a low annual charge. Squatters used vacant crown land as pasture for their sheep and cattle within and beyond the boundaries of settlement. Though 'squatter' was originally a derogatory word, as time went on the 'squatters'

became the respectable landed class, and battled the governors, and in the legislatures, to keep control of vast areas of land.

In 1842 the price of land was raised to not less than one pound ($2) per acre. In 1847 another change provided generous leases and opportunities for purchase by squatters. Then from the early 1850's, new regulations were introduced, following the flood of immigration after the discovery of gold. The newly self-governing colonies were faced with demands to unlock the land, challenging the squatters' control Colonial legislators endeavoured to break up the squatters' holdings in the 1860s. The principle of the new Land Acts was the right to the free selection of land leased by the squatters. Legislation began in New South Wales in 1861 with the Robertson Act which remained in force with minor revisions over the next twenty years. Land could be selected before survey and any selector could acquire from 40 to 320 acres (16 to 130 ha) by residing on the land, paying a quarter of its cost and the balance within three years. There were problems: 'dummying' was a common practice, whereby large holders used others to select land for them; and 'peacocking' occurred, picking out the best sections of land (for instance, water frontages), and leaving the surrounding land useless.

Later colonies, particularly South Australia and Queensland, stressed the actual occupation of land rather than just its alienation. And Queensland introduced 'agricultural homestead' to encourage closer settlement. From the 1880s selection was replaced by closer settlement to break up the large estates. Laws in the 1890s and 1900s promoted closer settlement, as did the returned soldier settlement schemes of the 1920s and the various irrigation schemes after 1945. Pastoral enterprises depended on cheap land. Pastoral expansion began in the 1820s. By 1850 livestock had spread from the main points of European settlement across the inland plains of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. In South Australia pastoral occupation spread across natural grasslands. Western Australia lagged behind the other early colonies. Pastoral expansion into Queensland remained in the south until the 1860s when the whole coast began to be opened up for pastoral and agricultural enterprises. By 1890 many pastoralists had begun to seek new grazing lands in the tropical north and the dry interior.

The agricultural potential of Australia was actually quite limited because of transport and climatic restraints. From the 1820s wheat became Australia's most important crop. After 1860 wheat growing was seen as the best means of promoting closer settlement and as the mainstay of family farms. By 1860 there was the beginning of a crescent shaped wheat belt in south-eastern Australia, scattered through pastoral areas. Barley was always cultivated but it was never a major crop. A sugar industry grew up in Queensland from the 1860s. Early orchards were located near major cities and towns, as were dairy farms; however, after 1880, the dairy industry was transformed by new technology which included refrigeration and mechanical cream separation, and by co-operative factories. Irrigation systems were constructed from the 1880s, making it possible to settle large areas of the Murray basin. Agriculture was more than an economic activity: it represented an alternate way of life to that of the urban or rural wage worker.

MIGRANTS, CAPITAL AND POLITICS IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES

Immigration has always been by far the most important way of increasing Australia's population, but immigrants came in waves, in particularly large numbers when the economy was booming. Capital investment from overseas has always been the

governing factor in the growth of our economy since 1788. And the 19th century was a period of rapid political change as representative government was established.

Immigration 1788-1850

We are inclined to think only in terms of the European population in Australia, slowly building up from the initial 1,000 or so convicts and warders, but at the same time there was an Aboriginal population of perhaps one million; so until there were significant numbers of European immigrants the population level was actually falling constantly as Aborigines died from introduced diseases and violent confrontations with the settlers.

More than most countries, Australia has depended on immigration for existence and growth. Between 1788 and 1868 about 137,000 males and 25,000 female convicts were transported to Australia. But free immigrants also arrived in small numbers from 1793. Initially, policy was to attract capitalists wishing to take up land, rather than labourers, as the convicts provided the labour to run the colonies. But the emphasis changed from the 1830s. The decision was made to assist immigrants, using the income from land sales and government bounties. The proportion of free immigrants to convicts rose from 56 per cent in the 1830s to 77 per cent in the 1840s. Most of the early free immigrants were English but about one-quarter were Irish and one-seventh Scottish. By 1850 about 146,000 convicts and 187,000 free settlers had arrived. The gold rushes dramatically increased the number of immigrants, attracting an influx of 601,000 between 1851 and 1860, mainly from Britain but also from Continental Europe, as well as some 38,000 Chinese. 1861, with a population of 1,151,000 immigrants and their off-spring, was probably the first time that the total population level equalled the supposed Aboriginal population of 1788.

Convicts

Much has been written about the convict era, which is often viewed as a separate period in Australian history. There has been a great deal of argument over whether Australia was founded primarily as a penal settlement to relieve overcrowding in English goals, or whether the British government had more far-reaching imperial aims and the Australian settlements were part of a grand tactical plan. There is still no clear answer and there probably never will be. Another issue of real interest is the convicts themselves - were they really hardened criminals or were many transported for minor crimes that today would only rate a fine? Most of the prisoners were young men. Most came from towns, especially London. Most often their offence was theft, and in many cases transportation was imposed in lieu of the death penalty which, until the 1830s, was the punishment for a wide range of offences. Political prisoners formed only a small minority: no more than about 1,000 of the total number.

The convicts were a product of rapid industrialisation, particularly in England, with its tendency to uproot people and resettle them in the larger urban areas, which intensified the potential for crime. Most were serving seven year sentences and most stayed in the Australian colonies at the end of their time. Convicts were used for public works and also assigned to work for settlers. Some also received a 'ticket-of-leave' which allowed them to work for themselves before their sentence was up. Some settlements were purely for convicts. Newcastle, Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay (Brisbane) were founded as places of severe punishment; and Tasmania and Norfolk Island were notorious as places catering for harsher treatment.

As the number of free settlers increased, so did agitation to bring an end to transportation. A combination of factors, improvements in prison accommodation in Britain, the discovery of gold in Australia, and a new Secretary of State for the Colonies, finally brought an end to the first phase of European migration to Australia.

The convicts brought economic benefits to Australia, supplying labour and a market for colonial produce.

Free Immigrants

The first free migrants arrived in the early 1790s, but large scale free migration did not begin until the 1830s. After the 1850s gold rushes, Australian immigration assumed its characteristic wavelike pattern, with crests in the 1850s and the 1880s, immediately before World War I, again in the 1920s, between 1949 and 1951, and again between 1969 and 1971. These high points correspond with periods of economic prosperity and of government assistance. Between 1860 and the end of the 19th century, close to three-quarters of a million immigrants arrived in Australia, the majority were from Britain and Ireland but pockets of migrants from Continental Europe were also to be found. Queensland attracted many Scandinavians during the 1870s and 1880s, their descendants still to be found in towns like Mackay and Rockhampton today; and South Australia attracted German settlers. In North Queensland a significant proportion of the settlers in the first half of this century came from Italy.

Each colony pursued a different policy, influenced by land legislation, labour markets, the development of trade unions and racial attitudes. Attempts were made to maintain a balance of English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish immigrants in roughly the same proportion as existed in the British Isles. Queensland imported Melanesian indentured labourers to work in its sugar industry. Legislation was introduced to limit Asian and 'coloured' immigration in most colonies, which led eventually to what was called the 'White Australia' policy in Federal politics from 1901. Between 1861 and 1900, the net population gain through immigration was 766,000.

In 1901 Australia had a population of 3,773,801, 77 per cent of whom were Australian-born. Almost 80 per cent of the immigrants were British or Irish, so Australia entered the twentieth century as a predominantly white nation. The only substantial minority racial groups were the Chinese, immigrant Melanesians, and of course the Aborigines and indigenous Melanesians, the Torres Strait Islanders.

Economic Development in the 19th Century

So far we have dealt with land and labour. The missing component is capital, associated economic development and the formation of the colonial state. The convict settlements and the mercantile and pastoral economy that grew up in 19th century Australia were an extension of British capitalism. The social relations, operation of labour markets, and class boundaries which developed in Australia were in part an inheritance from Britain and to some extent from wider Europe, and in part an indigenous product of colonial Australia.

By the first decades of the 19th century Europeans in Australia had established complex economies with a wide range of service and manufacturing industries. By

the middle of the century the general standard of living was better than in many areas of Europe. The most important factors in the early economy were the great influx of convict and free immigrants, large scale British government investment of capital followed by substantial private British investment in the colonies, and the opportunity for large-scale ownership of property and resources. From a very early stage private enterprise and decision making were basic to the economy. Even the convicts were allowed to use their free time to work for wages. Officers in the government usually also involved themselves in private business ventures. A great deal of the economic development of the colonies was beyond the control of the governors or the British government. Professor N.G. Butlin, Australia's leading economic historian, considers that by the 1820s Australia was well on the way to assuming the form of capitalism that we have today.

1840s Depression

In this period the Australian economy was purely rural, and predominantly pastoral. Increasing wool production had lowered the export price. Finance for expanding pastoral production was easily available and many squatters had overextended themselves. Then drought cut back production and profits, and the poor transport system of the time added costs to production. British investors, understandably, were not impressed when pastoralists defaulted on their loan repayments and cut back their investments. Urban business closed as the depression spread from rural to urban areas. The worst years were 1841-1843; the economy recovered slowly over the second half of the 1840s, but recovery was not complete until the gold boom of the 1850s.

Early economic growth was blighted by the depression in the 1840s, but the discovery of gold in the 1850s set Australia back on the path of rapid development. The gold rushes encouraged large scale immigration which greatly increased the scale of the Australian economy and in turn encouraged large scale investment. British capital and technology was available to exploit and develop Australia's natural and human resources. British capital was always heavily invested in the pastoral industry. In the 1870s and 1880s Anglo-Australian business houses were lending English capital for a wide range of pastoral, agricultural, mining and urban investments in Australia. The years 1860-1890 were the high point in Australian productivity during the 19th century. Rural production was not labour intensive and Australians increasingly clustered in the towns and cities, to produce one of the most urbanised societies in the world.

The crunch came in the early 1890s. The investment boom became increasingly unstable, and our export earnings failed to keep pace with our foreign debts. The 1890s were depressed years and there was no real recovery until the early 20th century when the rural economy was diversified and manufacturing of rural products developed.

1890s Depression

With the gold rushes came a long boom, which lasted until 1890. The Australian economy was transformed. The population of Australia in 1890 was nine times higher than that in 1851. The higher level of population enabled an increase in local manufacturing. The number of factories increased by 149 per cent from 1871 to 1891, and the factory employment by almost 175 per cent. Agricultural production expanded but technological innovations (wire fences, agricultural machinery, refrigeration and irrigation) meant that less labour was needed in rural industries. Two associated developments significantly altered Australia. First, legislation was passed to unlock the land, enabling closer rural settlement so that yeoman-type

farmers could take up land rather than just the squatters of the earlier period. Second, urbanisation proceeded rapidly. By 1891 two thirds of the population lived in the towns and cities; and there was a speculative boom in urban property and construction. These developments accentuated the decline when it came.

Severe drought in 1888 reduced rural production. Grazing and cropping had reached economic limits; too much marginal land was in use and much of the land was overstocked. Australia was riding high on the sheep's back but increases in world wool production lowered prices. This with poor seasons was enough to undermine the Australian economy. British investors withdrew their funds. Urban land speculators crashed and many banks went under. The rich lost fortunes and many small investors lost their jobs and their life's savings.

Rural properties and businesses laid off employees, urban factories and businesses closed. Unemployment was about 25 per cent for skilled workers and much higher for the unskilled. There were no comprehensive social welfare services so the unemployed had to survive by charity and their wits. As a consequence people travelled long distances to find work. Trade unions were still in their infancy and although there were several long-running strikes during the 1890s depression (the 1890 Maritime Strike which drew in a wide range of workers, the Queensland shearers' strikes of 1891 and 1894, and the Broken Hill miners' strike of 1892), all were lost by the unions.

The 1890s had a complex effect on Australian society. Already high unemployment was made worse by sackings after the strikes. Class divisions heightened. The average working person was bitter and disillusioned. Some people uprooted their lives in the eastern states and headed off to the Western Australian goldfields. Brisbane-based socialist William Lane took a party of his followers off to found a utopian colony in Paraguay. The labour movement altered direction as trade unions went into decline and the first colonial Labor parties were formed, shifting the employee-employer contest from workplace to parliament. And arbitration and wage-setting mechanisms were set up in most of the Australian colonies.

Geoffrey Serle has suggested that even in the 1880s between a quarter and a third of Melbourne's population remained only marginally above the breadline. During the 1890s the urban poor suffered most. Brian de Garis outlines the rigours of the depression for all levels of society, in his '1890-1900' chapter in A New History of Australia (1974):

"The respectable folk, especially the elderly and the widowed, who had invested their all in defunct companies, were left in a desperate predicament, and some starved rather than accept charity. Young middle class families who had been living beyond their means in heavily mortgaged villas in the new outer-suburban housing areas were in trouble. Some were put out into the streets for failure to keep up their repayments; others sold their furniture to raise cash and camped in cold and empty houses. In a few Melbourne suburbs there were streets and streets of deserted houses. Those lucky members of the working class who kept their jobs were not too badly off at first for although wage cuts were universal, prices fell further and faster, but later in the decade when the cost of living began to rise again wages did not keep in step and wage-earners, particularly the unskilled, found it hard to make ends meet. However the greatest privations were experienced by the tens of thousands of unemployed."

There are no firm statistics for unemployment during the 1890s, but as indicated above it has been estimated that during the worst of the depression 25 to 30 per cent of skilled workers and a much higher proportion of unskilled workers, were out of

work. Wendy Lowenstein suggests that at the height of the Great Depression unemployment was running as high as fifty per cent. Today we are too used to the dole and the benefits of the welfare state to appreciate how grim life was for the unemployed. If a man had savings (not very likely given the estimate that one quarter to one third of the urban population was only just managing to survive during the 1880s), he spent them. Then he and his family were totally dependent on private charity. The colonial governments refused to accept responsibility for the bulk of the unemployed, though there were a few schemes to help those out of work. Thousands of the urban unemployed had no option but to leave the cities and try to find employment in rural areas.

The history of the Australian capitalist state in the 19th century contains three divergent trends. The colonial business class, pastoralists and urban business men, moved into the newly established parliaments and controlled the legislation. Second, there was growth in the autonomy of the state, as the bureaucracy and separate public sector of the economy developed, often in response to ever-increasing urbanisation. Third, a labour movement developed which eventually formed a counter to employer-dominance in industry and politics.

Political Development

When Australia was changing from a series of penal settlements to colonies of free settlement, there were also dramatic changes to the style of government. Initially the Governors ruled like a combination of King and Prime Minister. They had total power over life and death and administered all aspects of administration. Then gradually as the population increased the settlers demanded that they have a role in government; their cry was no taxation without representation, much as the American settlers demanded from Britain before the wars of independence there. From the 1820s to the 1850s changes came slowly, as Governors first introduced advisory councils, then representative parliaments. The citizens of the Australian colonies began to take part in the process of government. All of the colonies ended up with two houses of parliament: a lower house that was elected by adult males with property; and an upper house of review, partly elected and partly appointed.

Beyond the demand for representation there was a second tension, between the big pastoral landholders and the settlers who wanted to see Australia divided into smaller holdings. Initially, parliaments were dominated by the 'squatters', the large-scale pastoralists, who tried to ensure that land legislation favoured their interests, but onwards from the 1850s and 1860s their power was broken and land legislation favoured the concept of 'yeoman' farmers, allowing settlers to establish agricultural farms in the fertile coastal areas, and eroding the pastoral properties.

The Labour Movement

The labour market is always the focus of class struggle between the possessors of capital and the possessors of labour. The second half of the 19th century is a fascinating period in Australian history, with the development of a labour movement and the entry of labour into the political arena. There had been a few trade unions since the 1840s, mostly urban craft guilds. Labour shortages during the gold rushes enabled labour to make some gains in wage negotiation and the length of the working day, but these gains proved difficult to maintain into the 1860s. In the buoyant economic climate of the 1880s the labour movement made further advances, but the

poor economic conditions of the 1890s decreased union power. In the face of declining union membership, the labour movement moved to create political labour parties which were successful in colonial and later state and federal politics. Trade union penetration of the workforce was not really successful until the early 20th century. Labour history has become an important component of Australian history. The working class was neglected in historical writing from the 19th and early 20th century, but since the 1960s has been part of the movement to write the history of the majority of the people of Australia - a people's history - not just the history of the company and the governors.

MIGRANTS, CAPITAL AND POLITICS IN THE 20TH CENTURY

Economic Development in the 20th Century

The discovery of gold in Australia in the 1850s was the first great resources boom. Because of the gold boom, immigration rose substantially, which increased the scale of the economy and made investment in Australia attractive. Early texts on Australian history often talk about the 'gold revolution', but recent assessments by economic historians suggest that despite the expansion of both the population and the economy there was no great increase in the standard of living, and there was a reduction in local manufacturing. Nevertheless, the mineral wealth and expanding wool industry, the larger population, the availability of British capital, and new technology provided the necessary ingredients for a long period of economic expansion until 1890.

Much of the following is based on the work of N.G. Butlin, Australia's leading economic historian.

Butlin suggests that the 1860-1890 period was the high point of Australian productivity and real income relative to the rest of the world. Rural production and mining produced great wealth but did not require large amounts of labour. The consequence was that the population concentrated increasingly in urban areas, setting the scene for the 20th century.

Exploitation of resources may not have required large amounts of labour but it did require large scale investment. Investment went into pastoral expansion and rural diversification. Large mistakes were made which damaged the environment: areas were overstocked, and rabbits became a rural pest of enormous proportions. Governments also spent too much borrowed money on building up urban infrastructure. Australia's export earnings failed to keep pace with the foreign debt. Private and government investment depended on British capital which was no longer freely available.

A general depression occurred in the 1890s and it was not until 1905 that the economy was again expanding. After 1914 the First World War isolated Australia, which was forced to rely more on its own resources. Cut off from British shipping and manufactured goods, Australia began to build up its own manufacturing industries. After 1918 Australia erected a high and ever rising tariff wall to protect local industry. Urban centres expanded even further. New technology in the form of artificial fertilisers and farm machinery increased rural production and reduced the need for labour. Rural people moved to cities and urban manufacturing and service industries expanded.

From 1914 Australia had begun to be cut off from overseas competition. This trend was strengthened by the Great Depression. By the early 20th century Australia's birthrate was declining, to a level where Australians were no longer producing

enough off-spring to maintain the population. The government encouraged assisted immigrants to expand the size of the population, so increasing the scale of the domestic market. With a bolstered domestic market, Australia was also able to sustain foreign borrowing and increased investment in urban infrastructure.

1930s Depression

The 1930s depression is regarded as the worst ever experienced. Part of the intensity came from vulnerability of the Australian economy to shifts in the world economy. As pointed out in the previous topic Australian exports came from a few rural products. A fall in world prices meant an economic downturn in Australia. But what did it all mean to the average worker?

Male unemployment rose from 19 per cent in 1930 to 32 per cent in 1932. People had no option but to depend on 'susso' (sustenance - the dole), and handouts of soup and bread. Work could not be found and many people remained unemployed for years. Imagine the desperation of having a wife and family and being unable to find work for years. Imagine being a temporarily or permanently deserted wife with six children having to fend for yourself for years. The older generation today has very bitter memories of the Great Depression.

The Second World War stimulated economic growth and changed gender relations irreparably. Though expenditure on civilian production was drastically reduced, the extra defence manufacturing, which involved large-scale production using new technology, expanded the economy. And, importantly, the total war situation made it necessary for large numbers of women to enter the workforce, thus acquiring new skills and new status. After 1945 restrictions on imports grew even stronger, remaining in place until the 1960s. The restrictions on imports and the rapid expansion of the economy attracted foreign capital to invest in the Australian manufacturing industry. The size of the manufacturing industry and the domestic market encouraged the use of more new technology. As N.G. Butlin explains:

Australians adapted to foreign technology and world tastes, particularly in the mass consumption of consumer durables. These, with related base industries, were the springboard for a postwar boom in manufacturing. The growth of population was accelerated by large-scale assisted immigration; the domestic market expanded and the domestic workforce grew and diversified. But manufacturing was not the only major sector to be rejuvenated. The rural industries also experienced vital technical change. Myxomatosis wiped out rabbits, lifting the limits of the output capacity of the rural sector; pasture improvements, fertilisers and farm equipment added further to productivity. Until the mid-1960's, it seemed as if Australia was entering another golden age.

The prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s did not last. The expansion of the European Economic Community narrowed markets for Australian rural production. Although Australian manufacturing had been modernised it could not keep pace with world technical developments, and in comparison with competitors with low wages and costs, Australian manufactured goods were, and remain, expensive. The mineral boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s did bolster the economy but Butlin judges it to have been as much a disruption as a boom to the Australian economy. Increasingly from the 1960s, foreign investment in Australia's manufacturing and mining industries has come from multinational companies, whose decisions are calculated to enhance the profits of the parent companies. Australian manufacturing has been declining since 1970, and from the 1970s rising oil prices caused inflation which persists today.

There is no doubt that the Australian economy will have to be restructured to enable it to compete with more efficient world producers. Public policy has stressed regulation of economic activity and provision of capital. Butlin suggests that Australia will have to develop its human capital more efficiently to lower youth unemployment and to retain workers and develop skills.

As well, he suggests that the future economics focus of Australia will be the Pacific basin, which will increasingly become the focus of the world economy. By comparison with its Asian neighbours Australia has a small population and a high standard of living, both of which make it difficult to compete for markets. The Hawke government in the 1980s advocated increased privatisation of the economy and selling off of large government assets in banking and transport, which were built up many decades ago when the economy was much smaller. It is ironic that a Labour government sees deregulation and privatisation of the economy as the means to securing Australia's future. Whatever happens, Australians cannot afford to be complacent about the nation's economy during the 1990s.

Immigration

In 1901 the population of Australia was 3,773,801: 77 per cent were Australian born; of the remaining 23 per cent, the vast majority came from Britain and Ireland. In 1981, the date of the last Commonwealth census, the population of Australia was 14,576,000. In 1989 the population exceeds sixteen million, but the 1981 figures on the birthplaces of the population are still fairly accurate. Seventy-nine per cent are Australian born, and of the remaining 21 per cent only 8 per cent were born in Britain and Ireland.

From 1901 the recruitment of migrants came under Commonwealth control. In the early decades of the 20th century immigrants to Australia were predominantly from Britain and were part of wider Empire settlement schemes. Assisted immigration schemes to the various colonies were common in the 19th century; they were revived as the Australian economy recovered from the 1890s depression in the early 20th century, but lapsed in the Great Depression. One notable development was the migration of southern Europeans in the 1920s and 1930s. They came without assisted passages and often as part of chain-migrations where whole families, even whole villages, migrated over a number of years. They settled in ethnic groups, mainly in rural areas. The only other significant non-British migrants before 1945 were Jewish settlers, refugees from central and eastern Europe, and they mainly stayed in Sydney and Melbourne.

The largest immigration in Australia's history commenced in 1945. Upwards of 3,500,000 migrants entered Australia between 1945 and 1978, the majority with assisted passages. Slightly under half were from Britain, the next largest numbers coming from Italy and Greece. In the 1950s and 1960s many western European countries began to recruit 'guest workers' from southern Europe, which left fewer southern Europeans willing to migrate to Australia. From 1956 Australia began slowly to allow non-European migrants. Since then, Asia - particularly southeast Asia - has provided many migrants: from 1966 to 1970 Australia received an average of 6,500 Asian migrants each year; between 1969 and 1971 this increased to 10,000 each year. In 1973 the government ceased to discriminate between familial, migrants on ground of race, nationality or religion, relying on educational and work qualifications as deciding factors.

Several points need to be made here. Notice that immigration policies are linked closely to economic policies. First, when Australia needed to increase its population

the government purposely sought certain types of migrants. Government policies on immigration are not humanitarian, except in the case of fairly limited refugee groups. Second, the result of post-war immigration has been a considerable diversification of the Australian population. The basic national character of Australia was formed in the late 19th century, of British and Irish stock. Three-quarters of Australia's population is still Anglo-Celtic, so there has not been any massive change in socio-cultural origins. Third, official policy has changed from absorption of all migrants into the mainstream Anglo-Celtic culture, to one of multiculturalism, which encourages ethnic groups to maintain their cultural identity. Australia will develop into a much less 'British' nation, presuming that this policy continues.

REGION AND RACISM

The Region

This topic views the European settlement of Australia within the perspective of the wider Pacific region. Australian history is too often viewed in isolation from Aboriginal Australia, Southeast Asia, the Asian mainland, and the Pacific islands and archipelagos, even though the indigenous peoples of the region spread across the recent - and mainly European-sponsored - national boundaries. Over the last two hundred years of settlement Australia has always had economic and political interests connecting the colonies and the Commonwealth of Australia to the wider region. During the 18th and 19th centuries the Australian colonies had trading links with Asian and Pacific ports. Right from the earliest days of settlement at Sydney, merchants traded with the Pacific islands. During the 19th century, ships sought whale and seal oil, sandalwood, pearl and turtle shell, sea slugs and other commodities as far east as Hawaii, south to New Zealand, and north into Melanesia and Micronesia. Queensland recruited Melanesian labourers to work in its sugar industry during the second half of the 19th century, and all of the east coast colonies were vitally interested in persuading Britain to annex Fiji and New Guinea.

Australian colonies were not just an imperial outpost; they had expansionist ambitions of their own. We are inclined to think of the Australian colonies as merely an extension of Britain. In foreign policy they were, as was the early Commonwealth of Australia, but in other ways they developed an independent relationship with the region. Australian capital was crucial to much of the early European economic development of the Pacific islands; Australian churches assisted missionaries to spread Christianity to the Islanders; and the Australian colonies had territorial ambitions in the Pacific. Before the carving up of the Pacific Islands into European colonies and areas of influence, the governors of the Australian colonies had authority over British citizens in the islands; a power that lessened in the 1870s with the British annexation of Fiji in 1874 and the creation of the Western Pacific High Commission based in Fiji in 1877. During the 1880s when the Germans and French became active in the Pacific, the Australian colonies wanted Britain to intervene and annex more islands. In 1883 the colony of Queensland went as far as to annex southern New Guinea on behalf of Britain; though Britain refused to support its audacious annexation bid, the next year Britain was forced to annex an almost identical area when north Melanesia was divided between Britain and Germany.

The Australian company, Colonial Sugar Refining (CSR), invested heavily in Fiji in the 1880s. Burns Philp, originally a Queensland company but later trading mainly out of Sydney, became one of the largest shipping companies in the South Pacific. Queensland had no formal control over the neighbouring Melanesian islands but used

them as a labour reserve, importing 62,000 Melanesian labourers to work in the Queensland sugar industry between 1863 and 1904.

From the 1890s, with the economic downturn, interest in the Pacific waned. The price for tropical products was reduced and investors were short of funds, though gold discoveries in Papua stimulated interest, and new techniques for copra processing improved the economic potential of coconut plantations. After federation, Australian interests were mainly channelled through its companies, CSR and Burns Philp. CSR extended its sugar growing and milling operations in Fiji, and Burns Philp bought into plantations while maintaining its shipping line. From 1901 Australia formally took over the administration of Papua, though no real change occurred until 1906. Then in 1914 Australia seized German New Guinea on behalf of the allies and installed a military government there until 1921 when Australia was granted the area as a 'C' class mandate from the League of Nations. This eventually became a Trust territory of the United Nations, which Australia administered jointly with Papua until Papua New Guinea was granted internal self-government in 1972 and independence in 1975. Australians are inclined to regard control of Papua and New Guinea as an act of benign protection, but actually Australia was one of the last of the colonial powers in the Pacific.

After the Second World War Australia attempted to fill the gap left by the departing British. Internationally, through pacts with New Zealand and the United States, Australia sought to increase its influence in the region. The South Pacific Commission was established in 1947 as the principal authority for development in the islands, and Australian companies CSR, W.R. Carpenters, Steamships and Burns Philp dominated the economies of Papua and New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Fiji. Since the 1970s, with the independence of most of the island states, Australian influence is no longer as powerful, though perhaps it is just that Australia has to be less direct in the post-colonial Pacific states. Certainly Australian financial aid and the possibility of the use of Australian military power as a peace-keeping force are factors to be considered in our future relationship with the region.

Racism

All of this sits uneasily beside Australian racist attitudes towards indigenous people in Australia and neighbours in the wider Pacific region. But first, to define race, and racism, and racialism. A race is a group of related intermarrying individuals, a population which differs from other populations in a relative commonness of certain hereditary traits. From the root word race, come two terms closely allied and often used interchangeably - racism and racialism. Racism assumes inherent racial superiority or the purity and superiority of certain races. It also denotes any doctrine or program of racial domination based on such an assumption. More generally it also refers to race hatred and discrimination. Racialism assumes similar ideas, but describes especially race hatred and racial prejudice. Race is a biological division of human kind, but the idea of racism goes far beyond the biological sense of race. In racialism, the word is used pseudo-scientifically for particular political and economic purposes and is mixed with myth.

Up until recent decades almost all Australian immigrants were of European origin, and the vast majority from the British Isles. Right from the early period of British occupation of Australia, racist ideas were common. Many early explorers and settlers regarded Aborigines as savages closer to the animal kingdom than to humankind. This played a useful part in justifying the European invasion of Australia. It was easier to justify the dispossession and often extermination of the Aborigines if they were depicted as less than human. There were early settlers who drew their views more from Christian principles and the traditions of the enlightenment who believed

in the 'noble savage' and believed that Aborigines were fully human and had the capacity to develop, but they were always a small minority. Belief in racial equality dwindled in colonial Australia with persistent conflict on the frontier and the increasing destitution of the surviving Aborigines.

But Aboriginal Australians were not the only people to face racial discrimination from the European settlers. Chinese goldminers suffered violence at the hands of individuals and mobs. The governments of the Australian colonies chose to deal with this race hatred through discriminatory legislation, limiting the entry of Chinese until the 1880s and totally prohibiting the entry of a wide range of races after that time. Non-European residents in Australia also faced restrictions on their rights. The thousands of Melanesian immigrants brought to Australia in the 19th century faced deportation at the turn of the century, or, if they stayed, restrictions on their opportunities to earn a living. By the early twentieth century the remnants of the once large Aboriginal population were controlled by discriminatory legislation, denying them basic human rights such as free movement, control of their own assets and citizenship.

Part of all this is the 'White Australia' policy, formally adopted by all political parties in the first federal parliament, but something that had grown out of racialism and discriminatory legislation during the 19th century. The 1901 Immigration Restriction Act included a dictation test whereby unwanted immigrants could be subjected to a written test in any European language. From 1905 this was broadened to any language to deal with Japanese opposition to the racial connotation of the requirement. Also in 1901 the Federal parliament passed the Pacific Islands Labourers Act, which ordered the deportation of all Pacific Islands labourers. The 'White Australia' policy lasted through until the 1960s when it became easier for non-European migrants to enter Australia.

From the late 19th century until at least the Second World War, racist ideas occupied a dominant, rarely questioned position in Australian society. Ideas of biological determinism were gradually replaced by a belief in the assimilability of diverse peoples. Discriminatory legislation was removed and from about the same time Aboriginal Australians were incorporated into wider Australian society. By the 1970s Federal legislation was passed to specifically outlaw discrimination based on race and it is now possible to prosecute anyone who can be proved to have behaved in a racist manner. But legislation does not change long-held personal beliefs; many Australians, particularly amongst the older generation, still have racist ideas. Only education over a couple of generations can eradicate racist ideology and practice.

There is no simple answer to why people behave in a racist manner. Attitudes to Aborigines probably relate to early competition over land. The different economy of the Aborigines, with their hunter-gatherer lifestyle was in direct opposition to the needs of the settlers, and the Aborigines showed no interest in adopting European ways. But it is more difficult to explain discrimination against non-European immigrants. Andrew Markus suggests that discrimination against Chinese miners resulted from the threat that their numbers posed to the success of the European miners. A contrary argument holds that racist ideas were a necessary precondition for the attacks on the Chinese. Raymond Evans' analysis of Australian racism conflicts with the view of Markus. Markus in his book Fear and Hatred: purifying Australia and California, 1850-1901 (1979) has argued that there was initially no presumption that non-Europeans would occupy a subservient position in the Australian colonies and that a strong body of opinion was in favour of equal rights for all.

Australians have nothing of which to be proud in their racist ideology and legislation. Although changes have now been made for the better it will be a long time before the rest of the world, particularly the Third World nations, forgets the two centuries of discrimination. And how much has changing the laws actually changed the attitudes of the average Australian? Australia's relationship with the region and racialism are two very important problem areas in Australian history. You can not ignore them if you are trying to come to grips with what makes Australia.

DAILY LIVING, GENDER, THE FAMILY AND WELFARE

It is impossible to understand any society without knowing how people kept themselves fed, clothed and housed, how they got around from place to place, how they bore and cared for their children, and how they worked to provide for themselves and their families. Yet Australian historians have often passed over these questions as too basic, too mundane, too 'obvious', to be taken seriously.

The emergence of women's history has brought to the fore issues concerning the home. After all, many women still spend most of their lives at home; and most of us spend more hours at home than out in the public domain. Historians have been preoccupied with what happens in public and have taken the structure of households for granted. The four issues that we will explore are food, clothes, housing and transport.

Food

The Aborigines lived quite comfortably in Australia for tens of thousands of years by hunting animals, birds, reptiles, shell and scale fish and crustaceans, and gathering grubs and caterpillars, eggs, roots, berries, vegetation and fungi. They practised rudimentary food processing in grinding nuts and seeds. The first fleet in 1788 introduced the foods and technology of 18th century England to Australia, which seem as strange and quaint to us as the Aborigines' food habits seemed to the first settlers.

Imagine the predicament of the early settlers, when stores ran out and they eagerly awaited supplies of wheat from India and the Cape, and salted pork from Norfolk Island and Tahiti. They investigated edible local vegetation to ward off scurvy, turned their hand to fishing and hunting, and eyed off the stock of sheep, pigs, goats, ducks etc which had been brought out for breeding purposes. The first five years were hungry years. By the beginning of the 19th century there was plenty of food, but it was boring and lacked variety, consisting mainly of salt meat and flour. Fresh meat was a luxury in early decades. And one problem was lack of skill in preparing food. The frontier pioneers were predominantly male and few men know much about cooking. The typical 19th century convict, rural worker or landed gentleman in the back blocks lived on boiled meat, damper (a type of bread) and tea, fortified by strong drink if he could get hold of any. Vegetables and fruit were rare. Women battling in the bush were more adventurous but cooks but had very limited ingredients.

Conditions improved in the second half of the 19th century. The population was larger and more diverse; it included Chinese and continental Europeans who brought 'exotic' food tastes with them. Transport to Australia and around Australia had improved. Metal stoves became common. Industrialisation allowed food manufacturing and refrigeration made it possible to preserve dairy products and store meat and vegetables. But Coolgardie safes (screened food boxes that hung in cool places) and kerosene refrigerators were still in use in isolated areas until reticulated electricity or generators became widely available from the 1950s

onwards. In the 20th century, homes have become better and better equipped with food storage and preparation equipment, and since the Second World War immigrants from diverse countries have changed the pattern of eating in Australia. There was a time not so long ago when exotic (non-British!) food could only be obtained from the local Chinese restaurant or the Greek cafe in the main street. Now we have an enormous range of imported foods in our local stores and can wander down to the delicatessen to buy luxury foods.

Clothes

From 1788 until well into the 19th century Australian fashion was British in origin. The ruling class paraded in fine clothes from England and occasionally France, which were often quite unsuitable for the Australian climate and conditions. Have you ever tried to get over a barbed-wire fence wearing a long dress and copious petticoats? Or been forced by etiquette to wear a waistcoat, coat and tie in the height of an Australian summer? Gentlemen wore breeches, not trousers, in the early days of the colony. Convict and working class clothes were simpler. The practical working clothes of the convicts became the accepted dress for emancipists, free immigrants and the Australian-born.

Australians followed overseas fashions in the 19th century, just as they do today. In the mid-19th century women's clothes became heavier and more constricting, with full skirts and masses of petticoats, and men took to wearing three piece suits. Working class people dressed more simply and sensibly, mainly because they had less to spend, but they mimicked the rich with their 'Sunday best' outfits. Women of any class were expected to dress 'as women should', modestly, wearing a long dress even on horseback, or riding a bicycle.

The effect on clothes of the introduction of the bicycle as a means of mass transport for work and social occasion is very interesting. Bloomers were introduced for women in the 1890s, and by the 1920s hemlines had risen to the calves. Women even wore slacks and shorts! Women's legs emerged from centuries of shrouding. The ideal feminine form altered. Tightly-laced small waists went out of fashion. The main feature of clothing during the 20th century has been the increase in mass production. As the century progressed male dress became more colourful and female dress became more 'masculine'. Fox makes it clear that part of the liberation of women has involved changing fashions in clothes.

Housing

The majority of Australia's first European settlers lived in tents, calico houses, simple earth-floor huts, and small two-room cottages made from whatever local materials were easily available. In new areas such as goldfields whole tent cities grew up, with little attempt at sanitation. Permanent housing was difficult to finance and tumble-down shacks were common in rural areas.

The increased population after the discovery of gold in 1851 created a housing shortage in rural and urban areas. Australian cities expanded rapidly from the 1880s and by the turn of the century most Australians lived in the inner suburbs of cities. Rental and tenancy agreements became the dominant feature of their lives. In Sydney you will see the terrace houses and sub-standard dwellings crammed close to factories and warehouses where the people worked last century; many of which have now become fashionable residences today. Urban health and sanitation have always been problems in the working class suburbs of our cities. Visit the back lanes of

Collingwood in Melbourne or Redfern in Sydney today and you will see that not all that much has changed in a century. The houses are much the same but the 'night-soil' cart no longer calls, replaced by a sewerage system. And the landlord is still an exploitative spectre in many lives.

Transport

Changing transport technology has been vital in European settlement and development of the continent. Public transport has often been run by private enterprise oriented to making a profit not providing a service, and politics has played an important part in decisions about transport networks. In the 18th century the first settlers either walked or used sail-craft on water. Until the colonies were well established there were not enough horses, bullocks, donkeys etc to use for transport. In the first half of the 19th century people used coaches, drays and wagons drawn by horses and bullocks. As was noted above, the bicycle revolutionised transport for the working class in the second half of the century. Motor cars have had the same effect for all Australians in the 20th century.

The first railways were built in the 1850s. They multiplied through the rest of the century and created a transport network for most of Australia, though they were primarily oriented to moving goods from the ports to the hinterland and back, not to moving people. Tramways were built in the big cities from the 1860s: first horse powered, then powered by cable, and from the 1890s by electricity. Before railways, cities were built so that people could walk to work and to leisure activities. Trams, trains and later motor cars have allowed an enormous expansion of our cities.

Urbanisation

One fact of interest that emerges from any study of Australia is the degree of urbanisation in Australian society, and the degree to which Australian historians have concentrated on the development of urban society in the southeast corner of the continent. By comparison with most other countries, a high proportion of our population has always lived in urban areas, particularly in the capital cities. In 1861, 41 per cent of the combined population of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland lived in urban areas. By 1901 this had increased to 64 per cent. All over Australia the percentage of the population living in centres with more than 1,000 inhabitants increased from 62 per cent in 1921 to 86 per cent in 1976. Measure this urban existence against the 'Australian legend', the term Russel Ward used to analyse the Australian mystique. In his The Australian Legend (1958) Ward identified our national characteristics as mateship, independence, egalitarianism, adaptability and anti-authoritarianism and secularism. Ward traced these values back through the pastoral workers to the convicts, stressing the contribution of the Irish and the native born. Critics have argued that the legend underplays other key elements, particularly the rapid urbanisation, capitalism, free settlement and the role of women in developing national characteristics.

Gender and the Family

Regardless of all other elements in the mythical Australian national character there is one constant factor: the legend is male. Women have always been trivialised, dominated and made invisible in Australian history. Family history was seen as too mundane to be interesting. The emergence of women's history in Australia during the 1970s was a side-product of the growing women's movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. In questioning their place in contemporary society, women realised that they had to answer many questions historically.

Two the major works on women's history came out in the mid-1970s. Anne Summers' Damned Whores and God's Police and Miriam Dixson's The Real Matilda used known historical materials to provide new insights on historical questions. They examined Australian history from the convict period through to 19th century colonial life and into the 20th century, looking at the contribution of women in the public and private domain. Their approach and sources were conventional, but their subject, women in Australian history, was not. A third key work in women's history, also published in 1975, is Beverley Kingston's My Wife, My Daughter and Poor Mary Ann. Kingston deals with women's work, accepting within her definition both paid and unpaid work.

In 1977 a review appeared in Historical Studies which commented on women in Australian history, and altered the terms of the debate. Maya Tucker identified Summers, Dixson and Kingston as the dominant group of 'left-feminist historians', who wrote primarily for other feminists. Tucker pointed out that this approach was equally as one-sided as the old male hegemony. Summers, Dixson and Kingston placed stress on convict and working class women, ignoring the upwardly mobile nature of Australian society in the 19th century and the inescapable fact that middle-class women instigated the feminist movement in the Australian colonies. Tucker went on to say:

This raised the question why the history of Australian women should only be written by feminists for other feminists, when feminists at all times in our history have been a minority amongst women... The kinds of areas looked at by historians must be expanded to include social history, the role of the family in suburban life, the effect of contraception upon early 20th century Australian life, the role of both men and women in raising children, the development of the Australian nuclear family, and the effect of large-scale migration from areas other than the British Isles on attitudes towards women and acceptance of the idea of the working women and wife.

Tucker foreshadowed a major shift in the Australian debate about women's history. In 1979 Historical Studies also carried an important review of The Real Matilda by Patricia Grimshaw. She argued that there was an over-emphasis on women in the public sphere and the changing economic and political position of women outside of the family. Grimshaw suggested that changing patterns of family relationships have played an important role in changing the status of women. Grimshaw's publications since then have been part of the reassertion of the centrality of middle class women to the debate on women's history in Australia, and study of the family. Other historians have also placed emphasis on the importance of the family. Portia Robinson certainly does in her seminal Hatch and Brood of Time, a study of the first generation of native born Australians.

Kay Daniels in 'Women's History' gives a good outline of the complex nature of the historiography of women in Australia up to the early 1980s.

Like Australian women, historians of women's history do not form a homogeneous group and the history they produce is various and conflicting, full of disagreement and diverse views on feminism, capitalism and the nature of Australian society. While all would hope that the history of women becomes an integral part of the 1970s and will be louder in the 1980s and more clearly defined.

This forecast has proved correct. Mature studies in women's history have appeared in the last few years. Three important books were published in 1984 and 1985: Jill J. Matthews, Good and Mad Women: The Historical Construction of Femininity in Twentieth-Century Australia, Katrina Alford's Production or Reproduction?: An Economic History of Women in Australia, 1788-1850, and Kerren M. Reiger's The Disenchantment of the Home: Modernising the Australian Family, 1880-1940. With

these came valuable collections of chapters, such as So Much Hard Work: Women and Prostitution in Australian History (1984), edited by Kay Daniels, and regional studies such as Helen Jones' In Her Own Name: Women in South Australian History (1986). In 1992 Kay Saunders and Raymond Evans edited Gender Relations in Australia, a superb overview which will remain the standard text for many years.

The burgeoning study of the history of women and the family in Australia is one of the liveliest and most important areas of Australian history. In examining relations between the sexes, and entering the private domain of the bedroom and the nursery, rather than just the public domain of the living room, the street and the work place, we are getting closer to understanding the national character of Australia. If, at the same time, we consider the place of race, ethnicity and racism in Australian society the picture becomes even more complex. As the writing of Australian history enters the 1990s it is clear that the product will concentrate less on the bourgeois white male bread-winner.

Australian men and women inhabited different cultures: theirs was the intimacy of strangers. Much of this came from the social organisation of production. For most of the last two hundred years in Australia, women have been confined to unpaid labour at home and until better methods of birth control and rising health care and hospital standards in this century, women have had to contend with frequent pregnancies, miscarriages and births. Within the home, violence was quite common and there was little that a wife could do to free herself and children from an unpleasant marriage. When women enter the workforce they earn less than males - on average about two-thirds of the male wage. The trade union movement is actually a men's movement and has never been interested in obtaining equality for women in the workforce. Women's participation in paid work and the equal integration of men in reproduction and child care are necessary for the emancipation of women.

On small farms and selections it was mostly women and their families that maintained production. Husbands frequently had to work elsewhere on seasonal work, in the same district or in neighbouring districts, to provide extra income for a family to survive. Often it was the presence of women and their families which ensured that the residence clause in selection leases was satisfied. Their ingenuity in making repairs, producing their own food and making clothes was as important in the function of any household as the income of the male bread-winner. In the 20th century there has been an industrialisation of women's work, which has left more free time to spend on other pursuits, particularly paid work. Times are changing and it is no longer common for a daughter to stay at home working at unpaid domestic duties until she marries and performs the same unpaid chores for a husband.

The family emerged as the central social unit from the 1860s, though it has changed considerably over time, as the structure of the family unit reacted to economic and social circumstances. The colonial state had little function in sustaining families broken by death, desertion or poverty. Women married young and had large families. Changes in the demographic profile of the colonial family were obvious from the 1870s. Between the 1870s and the 1930s the rate of childbearing declined until it was lower than the level needed for the long-term replacement of the population. In the early 20th century more emphasis was placed on child-rearing practices. Labour-saving devices enabled women to give more attention to their children. Between 1940 and 1970 the pattern of marital behaviour again changed. Women married younger than they had early in the century, and with many children living at home, marriage came to mean independence from their parents. More recently women have been better educated, have participated more in the paid work force and have been influenced by the feminist movement. Age at marriage has increased; 20 to 25

per cent of this generation will never marry; and 40 per cent of marriages end in divorce.

Childhood

The type of childhood you have depends on whether you are black or white, male or female and whether your parents are rich or poor. Over the last 200 years it also depended on whether you were the child of a convict, a native-born or recent settler, and whether you were born in a rural or urban area. Aboriginal children suffer astoundingly poor health of a magnitude difficult to comprehend in such a rich nation.

Health and Social Welfare

Although major epidemics, such as scarlet fever, influenza and polio, have struck Australia at various times, the most serious health problems in colonial Australia were actually common gut and respiratory illnesses. Early settlers were usually in healthier surroundings than those they had lived in before migrating to Australia. Sanitary reforms and the development of urban services during the 19th century were part of local, colonial, state and federal efforts to control diseases. Aboriginal infant mortality is three or four times higher than in the rest of the community, and that death rates for Aborigines around the age of forty are about fifteen times higher than for other Australians.

Welfare is the most important state-sponsored activity in the 20th century, except for wars. Welfare services are provided by the various levels of government, private charities and benevolent services and range from child care and unemployment benefits to meals-on-wheels. Welfare acts as an agent of social control. The free enterprise capitalist system is based on the assumption of differential rewards, which produces inequality and socially-dependent members of the population. Wealth and income are far from equally distributed in Australia. A million Australians live below the poverty line. The worst off are women, children, non-English speaking migrants and blacks.

'Charity', a 19th century term, concentrated on relief to the deserving poor, usually through volunteers from agencies of a religious or moral nature. 'Social welfare' is the equivalent phrase used today. Since the 1950s welfare workers increasingly have been professionally trained. Social welfare is seen by most people as a necessary part of community activity, largely paid for by taxes. We often forget how much of the resources of the modern state are tied up in welfare services.

WAR AND FOREIGN POLICY

Unrecorded Battlefields

Warfare began as soon as European settlers invaded the continent. We have usually confined our thinking to declared wars between nations, but in doing this we neatly sweep under the mat an unpleasant part of our history. As mentioned briefly, an unrecorded and largely forgotten war was fought between the Aborigines and the settlers. The initial Aboriginal response to the invasion was usually avoidance and distant observation, followed by signs of fear and fright. Then they returned and the men, backed by the women, tried to defend their land and their families. They were usually the losers and had to establish an uneasy peace, with breaks for further fighting.

The Aborigines fought mainly as specific groups, defending particular clan territories. They used guerilla tactics, raiding settlements and flocks then disappearing again. On the occasions that they chose to confront Europeans directly in a pitched battles they lost badly. From 1788 until the middle of the 19th century European guns, known as muskets, were actually cumbersome affairs that were slow to reload and inaccurate. Aborigines had a good chance against them. But after the mid-1860s breach-loading and repeating rifles were introduced, as well as revolvers. These new weapons were more deadly and the frontier battles of the second half of the 19th century and into the early 20th century were all European victories. We do not know how many died in this unrecorded warfare. Even the most conservative sources suggest that 2,000 Europeans and 20,000 Aborigines died on undeclared battlefields. The figure for European deaths is probably reasonably accurate but many Aboriginal deaths went unrecorded and it is reasonable to presume that 40,000 may be closer to the truth.

We must also add to this the deaths of Melanesians in Australian territory in the Torres Strait and in what became Papua New Guinea, where the frontier was still extending through the New Guinea highlands during the early 1950s. To this should be added deaths caused by Australian adventurers in the Pacific, early traders and the labour recruiters who worked through the New Hebrides, the Solomons and the islands off eastern New Guinea onwards from the 1860s. We know even less about the numbers killed here but the figure certainly amounts to several thousands. Thus around 50,000 Europeans, Aborigines and Melanesians were killed on unrecorded battlefields, an equivalent number to Australian troops killed in each of the world wars this century.

Recorded Battlefields

Fear of invasion has been a continuing theme in Australian history. Yet, as Burgmann and Lee point out in their introduction to the 'Australians at War' section of A Most Valuable Acquisition, the double irony is lost on most Australians. First, modern Australia was created by the European invasion of Aboriginal Australia and almost a century and a half of undeclared war on the frontier. Second, compared with other areas of the world, Australia has remained virtually untouched by 'foreign' invaders. Yet Australians have invaded the Sudan, South Africa, Somaliland, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, many European countries, several Pacific Islands, Korea and Vietnam. Occasional scares of war and rumours of war occupied the public mind almost from 1788. European wars spilled over into European colonial possessions; and Britain as a major power was often at war. The Crimean war (1853-1856) was fought between Russia and the allied powers of Turkey, England, France and Sardinia. During the Crimean war the people of both Sydney and Melbourne were alarmed lest Russian cruisers should raid their ports. Gun emplacements were built to guard ports and channels. In the 1870s Colonel Scratchley, a British defence expert, was employed by the various colonies to advise on fortifications. But Australia escaped direct attack or invasion until the Japanese attempts in the early 1940s.

The colonies were an integral part of the British empire. Their actions and the actions of the federation of states in the early decades of the 20th century were an extension of British actions. When Britain went to war, so did Australia.

The Maori Wars (1845, 1860)

Imperial troops were sent from Australia in 1845 to help in the first Maori war. In the second, which began in 1860, in addition to Imperial units, some 2600 colonial

volunteers and the Victorian colonial navy's steam corvette Victoria crossed the Tasman.

Sudan Campaign (1885)

In March 1885, 770 soldiers sailed from Sydney to the Red Sea to join an imperial force fighting against the followers of a Sudanese leader known as Mahdi, or the Messiah. After the massacre of General Gordon at Khartoum, the Premier of New South Wales offered Britain a contingent to avenge the death. The offer was accepted though similar later offers from the other colonies were refused. These men were the first volunteers sent by a self-governing British colony to an imperial war. They saw little action. Eight died from illness and several were slightly wounded.

Boer War (1899-1901)

The Boer war arose out of tensions between Britain and the independent Boer (Afrikaaner) republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. When the war broke out in 1899 the Australian colonies immediately offered troops. Eventually 16,000 Australian troops, mostly mounted riflemen, served in the Boer War, 500 died in South Africa, about half from disease. Although the campaign was at first enthusiastically supported by the Australian colonists, as the war dragged on, and British actions such as their 'concentration camps' became known, support drained away.

Boxer Rebellion (1900)

A contingent of 451 naval volunteers from New South Wales and Victoria was sent to China with troops from several European nations to help put down the Boxer rebellion. They were employed in police duties in Peking and Tientsin for nine months.

World War I (1914-1918)

When Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, Australia was automatically at war. Thousands joined up immediately and support was widespread. Australia sent a small force to occupy Rabaul, the capital of German New Guinea, and established a military government there on behalf of the allies. Further afield ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915. Their sojourn there and the evacuation in December, a defeat, have become a cause of celebration for Australians. Australian forces also fought in many other parts of Europe and the Middle East. The trench warfare in central Europe was horrific. At Pozieres and Monquet Farm, the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) sustained 23,000 casualties over a three kilometre front. Of the 331,000 Australians who served overseas, about 60,000 died. The AIF played a significant part in the defeat of Germany and Australians felt proud to have been 'blooded' so magnificently on the world military stage. The ANZAC tradition, a proud military tradition, was established.

World War II (1939-1945)

When Britain declared war on Germany in 1939 Prime Minister Menzies announced to the Australian people that they were at war. A significant change came in 1942 after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and brought the war into the Pacific. Prime Minister Curtin declared that Australia was at war against Japan without consulting Britain. Clearly something was different in Australian attitudes, and many argue that Australia came of age not in 1901 with the federation of the Australian colonies, but in December 1941 when Curtin made Australia's first important independent foreign policy decision.

Australia was much more involved in World War II, than in the earlier Great War. More than 900,000 Australians served in the forces during the war, almost three times as many as in the 1914-18 war. They fought on a much wider front; from Europe and the Mediterranean basin through Africa and Asia and the Pacific Islands. There were more than 37,000 war-related deaths, including the deaths of 8,000 prisoners in Japanese prison camps. As well, from 1942, it was a total war, on the home front as well as overseas. For the first time Australia faced a real threat of invasion and people at home were rationed and mobilised for the war effort.

Malayan Emergency (1950-1960)

In 1948 a communist insurgency broke out in the Malay states. In the atmosphere of the Cold War after World War II the 1949 Menzies government committed RAAF aircraft for use in dropping supplies. In 1955, to satisfy the United States which feared the spread of communist activity in the region, because of our commitments under the South East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) and in response to British requests, Australia committed ground troops and fighter and bomber aircraft to the Emergency. Malaya achieved independence in 1957 and the Emergency was declared over in 1960, but Australian troops remained in the area until 1971, and a squadron of Australian planes, remained based in Malaysia until recently.

Korean War (1950-1953)

During the Cold War between the eastern and western bloc nations, North Korea invaded South Korea. Australia committed troops, aircraft and naval support to the United Nations peace-keeping forces. The United States made the largest commitment and led the effort. After bitter fighting an armistice was signed in 1953, dividing Korea. Three hundred and thirty-nine Australian service personnel died in Korea, 1,216 were wounded and 29 made prisoners-of-war.

Vietnam War (1965-1971)

Once more at the request of the United States, Australia entered the Vietnam war in 1965 when Prime Minister Menzies announced that Australia was sending 1,000 combat troops, supposedly at the request of the South Vietnam government. There had been no such request. Over years the Australian commitment was increased. In 1967 it reached its peak of 8,000 and by the end of 1971 all Australian troops were withdrawn. In 1975 Vietnam was reunified when the government of the communist north overran the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon. Almost 500 Australians died and 2,500 were wounded. The war was a humiliating disaster for Australia and the

United States. They had chosen to ignore the experience of the French in Vietnam - that the war could not be won.

Issues Related to War

Conscription

An issue associated with war and defence from war is conscription for military service. This issue has always been one of the most divisive in Australian society. None of the Australian colonies had conscription, but in 1903 the Australian government introduced a provision for conscription for military service in time of war, but only volunteers were to be sent overseas. In 1911 compulsory military training was introduced for all males aged between twelve and twenty-six. Large numbers of exemptions were granted and in the end the regulation was seldom applied outside urban areas and was never totally enforced.

In 1916 and 1917 Prime Minister Hughes went to the Australian people in referendums asking to introduce conscription for overseas service. The request was rejected and the Labor Party was wrecked in the subsequent bitter social and political conflict. In 1939 Prime Minister Menzies announced three months' conscription for all unmarried twenty-one year old males. After some dissent this was also supported by the Labor party. Because of the gravity of the war situation in the Pacific in 1943, Prime Minister Curtin amended the act to allow conscripts to be sent into the Southwest Pacific battle zone for the duration of the war. In 1951 a compulsory military training system was reintroduced but this was abandoned in 1960. The last group of conscripts served in the army over these years, many in Vietnam. Defiance to conscription grew strong during the late 1960s and again divided Australian society.

NationalismHard to define, but related to the jingoism of war and the development of a distinctly Australian character, is nationalism. Histories of Australians at war usually stress the virtues of Australian manhood. Australia, as a new nation, was searching for an identity of its own. Just as the virtues of the bushman were put forward as typical of Australians (rather strange really, when you think that most Australians have always lived in urban areas), so too were the military virtues typified by the ANZACs and the Australian Digger (soldier). Australian participation in wars not of our making has always been seen as patriotic (as subjects of Britain), and nationalist, in proving the manhood (and in World War II, the womanhood) of Australia.

Foreign PolicyAustralia was slow to experience formal relations with the rest of the world because from 1788 until 1901 the inhabitants of Australia lived in British colonies, and after 1901 Australians remained in an internally self-governing colonial federation within the British empire. British foreign policy remained Australian foreign policy. During the inter-war years the arrangement of the empire altered. From the early 1920s the dominions could engage in separate diplomatic dealings with foreign powers, but Australia took no immediate advantage of this. During World War II obvious changes occurred in the relationship with Britain. Australia began to open its own diplomatic missions overseas, and by 1941 Australia had declared war on Japan quite independently of any British action. Our strengthening relationship with the USA during the war also widened the gap, and by the time the United Nations was formed in 1945, Australia saw itself, and was seen by other nations, as a fully independent sovereign state. Since then Australia has pursued an independent foreign policy although it is closely allied to Britain, the British Commonwealth of Nations and the USA.

LABOUR, TRADE UNIONS AND POLITICS

Over the last 200 years most Australians have spent a large part of their lives selling their labour for wages. The individual's relationship with the state and agencies of the state has become increasingly complex during the 20th century, as have our relationships with employers and fellow workers. Certainly labour relations are an important theme in Australian history, as they involve conflict between labour and capital.

Selling Our Labour

The first non-Aboriginal workers in Australia were convicts, who were there at the pleasure of the state and not in a position to sell their labour. But as the system of assigning convicts to work for free settlers developed, so did bargaining over the value of their services. The labour market grew much more complex from the 1820s with the influx of free immigrants, some of them skilled workers. The Masters and Servants Acts and the laws of conspiracy discouraged collective action over conditions of employment, and instead workers united around specific issues such as the cessation of transportation and an extension of the franchise. By the middle of the 19th century a limited amount of collective action had taken place, but no real progress in collective bargaining with employers was made until after the 1850s gold rushes enlarged the population and changed the nature of the Australian economy, society and political institutions. Workers who remained in cities and did not run off to make their fortunes on the goldfields were in a far stronger bargaining position, and it is significant that the first award of an eight hour day came to building workers in Melbourne in 1856 during the goldrushes.

Craft unions have existed for much longer than wide-based industrial unions. Craft unions were established in Sydney and Melbourne by the 1840s. New kinds of unions emerged from the 1870s, based on industries rather than a craft. Miners, shearers, waterside workers and seamen united across colonial boundaries. They were inclined towards militant industrial action coupled with a radical political outlook. But the majority of workers, unskilled, had to struggle to build industrial strength, and little was done to organise women in the workforce. Parallel to this ran a movement towards closer unionism and the formation of trades and Labour Councils. Initially created by the craft unions, they were intended to be mechanisms for settling industrial disputes and coordinating the affairs of small unions. Many of the issues that they raised - the need for factory acts, legal status for trade unions, conciliation and arbitration - could only be solved at a government level. Union leaders began to realise that to influence governments, unions needed to enter colonial politics.

The depression of the 1890s speeded this realisation to fruition. During the strikes of the early 1890s the pastoralists and shipowners battled with their workers, and won, because they enlisted the power of the state on their side. The parliaments and the courts, backed by police and troops, inflicted a humiliating defeat on the unions. As a result Labor parties were established to gain direct access to the machinery of the state. The Australian labour movement of today grew out of that struggle between labour and capital. By the beginning of the 20th century the unions had begun to recover their strength, aided by federal and state compulsory arbitration systems, and made progress on industrial issues such as establishing wages boards, factory acts, and improving safety standards in the workplace. By world standards,

Australian colonial regulation of conditions of labour was quite advanced. However, the federation of the colonies in 1901 and the formation of the Federal Labor Party widened the gap between the party and the unions. Labor tended to present itself as a nationalist rather than a class-based party.

In 1904 the Commonwealth established a Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. Its jurisdiction was confined to interstate disputes, but its powers to conduct compulsory hearings and make legally binding awards set the standard for all industrial negotiations in Australia. In 1907 this was very clear when Mr Justice Higgins handed down his historic decision in the Harvester case, introducing the concept of a 'basic wage', set at a level considered sufficient to support a worker and his family in 'frugal comfort', with a supplement for skill where appropriate. Unionism expanded now that workers had the incentive of achieving such an award, particularly unions which crossed state boundaries.

Workers were frustrated by the lack of progress in bettering working conditions and felt that the Labor party was reluctant to help them. In the 1910s workers who wanted to pursue class politics joined socialist groups such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The IWW popularised the formation of One Big Union, the unification of the working class by a single militant industrial organisation. The movement was widespread but was opposed by the Labor party and Australian Workers' Union (AWU). The movement failed and the IWW was declared illegal in 1917. However, an Australian Communist party was formed in 1920 and its members were prominent in several unions over the next few decades. Communist officials in unions were largely replaced in the 1950s by Labor Party candidates backed by Catholic political activists.

The level of industrial disputes has varied with economic circumstances, and has tended to fall during periods of high unemployment but rise with the level of prosperity. The highest levels of disputes occurred in the years 1917-19, 1928-29, 1947-50 and 1974. Each of these periods was the closing years of an economic boom period, and usually also a time of rising inflation.

The union movement expanded considerably after World War II with increased local manufacturing and a larger population. Apart from a few short-term recessions there was virtually full employment up until the early 1970s. Since the late 1970s inflation and declining overseas mineral markets has brought high unemployment, often aggravated by the high rate of technological changes, which have left many workers insufficiently trained to handle the new machines and techniques. The workers have made gains in negotiations with employers but there has not been any greater equality achieved.

The Political Parties

Australia has three major political parties and many smaller parties. The Labor Party as described above and two others comprise the three major parties. The other two major parties are the Liberal Party and the National Party. Any study of politics must pay attention to all sides of the debate.

Liberal Party

The Liberal Party was formed in 1944 when Robert Menzies invited representatives of various conservative political bodies to a conference in Canberra. The party which emerged from the conference was officially inaugurated in 1945. It claimed to be a new party, but in fact it was built on the tradition set by Alfred Deakin's earlier

Liberal Party and carried on by the National Party under W.M. Hughes in 1917 and the United Australia Party in 1931.

The major principles, as outlined by Menzies at the formation of the party, included individual freedom and choice, support for the family, encouragement of effort and excellence, economic growth through competitive private enterprise, constitutional monarchy and the rule of law, and the decentralisation of government power. These values remain reflected in its policies today.

National Country Party

The National Country Party was originally the Country Party, the name which makes clear the interest group it represents - the rural electorate. From the mid-nineteenth century, Australian farmers tried to establish pressure groups that would pursue their collective interests. Slowly pressure groups formed into regional associations, and by the 1890s relatively permanent groupings had formed. In the years at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century farmers joined together in unions for protection against unions of employees, and in some States rural 'blocs' existed among members of parliament. The Country Party finally emerged as an independent parliamentary force when the first elected members entered the parliament of Western Australia in 1914. Similar parliamentary groups appeared in Queensland in 1915, in Victoria in 1917, and in South Australia in 1918. The Federal Country Party was formed in 1920, and the New South Wales Country Party in 1921.

Although the Country/National Party has held power in its own right more often at both State and federal levels it has been the junior partner in a coalition with the Liberal Party and its predecessors. The party was renamed at State and federal levels in the early 1970s and the first convention of the National Country Party was held in 1975.

Minor Parties

There has also been a series of minor political parties over recent decades - the Democratic Labor Party (DLP); the Australia Party; the Liberal Movement; the Workers Party; the Australian Democrats; the New State party; the Progressive Party; the Australian Conservative Party; the Party in Defence of Government Schools; and several others. Today 'Green' political parties, which give high priority to safeguarding the environment are the most important of the minor parties, and control a significant proportion of the vote. While few minor parties hope to govern in their own right, they can form governing coalitions with the major parties. Alternatively they can act as advisers, watchdogs or pressure groups, and have done this remarkably well.

There is not a clear-cut division that makes the Liberal/National Parties the defenders of capitalism, and the Labor Party the defender of the rights of workers. Individual rural workers may feel that the National Party represents them just as much as it does their employers; and the federal Labor Party has adopted more and more policies once the preserve of the Liberals. The smaller parties further complicate the picture. But Australian politics does divide roughly into two interest groups of

roughly equivalent size, one protecting the interests of wage earners and the other the advocates of free enterprise business interests. The efficient operation of modern parliamentary democracy owes much to political parties, and they are certainly key elements in the Australian political system.

Aboriginal Policy

We began with Aboriginal Australia 60,000 years, so it is fitting that we end with them in the 1990s. The government and people of Australia have tried to make up for two centuries of neglect. The process is one of reconciliation, from trying to give Aboriginal people a voice in the administration of their own affairs, to trying to negotiate some form of treaty between black and white Australians. The problem is that despite government goodwill all governments fear an electoral backlash if they are seen giving extra rights to one quarter of a million descendants of indigenous Australians, which disadvantage the other seventeen million in any way. Many Australians still harbour racist attitudes to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and see no reason why, in these hard economic times, they should be given any more assistance than the average Australian. This is why the 1992 Mabo judgement of the High Court of Australia, mentioned in Topic One, is so important. No significant change will come from government legislation; all sides of politics have been reticent to make substantial changes. And the attitudes of citizens will take generations to change.

The High Court has taken upon itself the right to re-write the basic legal system of Australia, in recognising indigenous land tenure. While the concept of terra nullius stood at the base of our legal system there was a permanent impediment to reconciliation. There was no reason for any government should try to reform the way Australians of immigrant origins deal with indigenous Australians. Now the change has begun from the highest court in the land, overriding the constitution and two hundred years of legal precedent. Undoubtedly change will flow from this, and governments will be forced to negotiate more readily than before. Given time, the changing ethnic structure of immigrant Australia, and the gradual incorporation of indigenous Australians into mainstream Australia, the people will also slowly change their way of thinking.

Conclusion

Historians seldom predict the future, except to say that there will be recurring patterns from the past; but the brave sometimes try. Australia of the year 2000 will most probably be a republic, having cut its ties with Britain, and be far more ethnically mixed than today. The proportion of people of Asian origin will be quite high, probably about five per cent, and our British origins will recede into the past, just as they have in America. Indigenous Australian will have been absorbed even more into society, and most special government assistance for them will have ended. Trade unions, so important and powerful for a century, will no longer dominate the work place, and industry will become increasingly high-tech. Australia will remain highly urbanised but the days of the average person being able to dream of owning a house and a quarter acre of land will have gone, as we move into higher density accommodation. There will be more equality between the sexes in jobs, education and families; and gender and sexual roles will be more flexible. Christianity will continue to decline as a religious force, replaced by more secular concerns but still based on Christian moral concepts. Culture will become increasingly global and the revolution in communications will continue, making the world one unit. Where this all leaves the legend of the typical Australian as an egalitarian rural-based male with his loyal wife and family is any ones guess.

GOVERNMENT

Australia is a constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state, and her representative in Australia is the Governor-General.

Australia is a federation. The constitution defines the powers of the Australian government and other powers remain with the states.

Australia has a parliamentary system. The parliament has two houses: the Senate has equal representatives from the states and the House of Representatives has members elected from electorates with equal numbers of voters.

In some systems of government, there is a clear separation of powers between the making of laws (the legislature), the administration of laws (the executive) and the determination of violations of the law (the judicature). In Australia there is a clear distinction between the judicature and the legislature. The High Court has the power to interpret the constitution.

There is no such clear separation of the legislature from the executive. The executive (the Prime Minister and the Ministers) are members of parliament. The executive brings most bills to parliament, steers them through the parliament and then administers them.

The two parties that have dominated federal politics since 1945 are the Australian Labor Party (now led by Kevin Rudd) and the Liberal Party (led by Brendan Nelso. Of the minor parties (the Australian Democrats, the National Party and the Greens), the National Party, essentially representative of rural Australia and normally allied with the Liberals, is the most important. The fact that the balance of power in the Senate between the Labor and Liberal-National parties is sometimes held by the minor parties, gives them unusual power.

Some differences in Government with the USA:

1. The head of state, the Queen/Governor-General, is normally outside the processes of policy formation, legislation and administration.

2. Basic human rights are not in the constitution.3. The head of the executive, the Prime Minister, is the leader of the party or

group of parties, able to command a majority in the House of Representatives.4. The executive (the Prime Minister and Ministers) is in the parliament.5. The parties have stronger discipline, so party members, especially in the Labor

Party, rarely vote against party policy.6. In Australia, it is easier for people without personal wealth to demonstrate

capacity within the party and gain selection to stand for a seat. The party funds the campaign.

7. In Australia, party loyalties are less regional and more connected to socio-economic factors (some poorer suburbs consistently vote labor and some wealthier suburbs vote liberal) and to city versus country.

8. The rhetoric of Australia politics is different. It is obvious in the term 'liberal'.

AUSTRALIA'S BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

As a large island continent with a coastline of some 37,000 kilometres, an area of 771 million hectares and a Australian Fishing Zone of 894 million hectares, Australia contains a diverse range of biogeographic regions. The arid interior occupies approximately 70% of the continent with tropical monsoons to the north and a Mediterranean and temperate climate to the south. Several mountain regions in the south-east are snow clad in winter and the external territories extend to subantarctic and antarctic regions. Australia's marine habitats are just as diverse, ranging from extensive coral reefs to seagrass plains, giant kelp forests and the sand-bottomed habitats that cover much of the continental shelf.

Australia's biological diversity has great scientific value, and many elements of it are unique. This results, in part, from the tectonic history of the continent and its relative isolation for more than 20 million years following the breakup of the ancient Gondwanan landmass, a period that saw extensive evolutionary divergence of its plants, animals and microorganisms. Australian marsupials have evolved into a great diversity of species filling an extraordinary range of niches, that in other countries are largely occupied by placental mammals.

Of particular significance is the high percentage of Australian species that occur nowhere else (that is, endemic species). Six families of mammals, four of birds and fourteen of flowering plants are endemic - far more families than in any other country. Further, at the species level about 82% of our mammals, about 45% of our land birds, about 89% of our reptiles and about 93% of our frogs occur nowhere else. These high levels of endemism are not restricted to terrestrial Australia. Of the estimated 600 inshore fish species in the southern temperate zone, about 85% are found only in Australia. Australia contains eight endemic families of fish, and more than half of the shark and ray species are confined to Australian waters. The high levels of endemism in the Australian biota are primarily why Australia is considered one of the world's 12 'megadiverse' countries.

Australia's biota contains a number of groups of very high species richness. Victoria alone has around 270 species of orchid: on the other hand, the North American continent has only 165 and Europe 116 species. Australian deserts have a greater number of species of lizard per locality than do either the Kalahari or American deserts. With an estimated 4,000 species, Australian ants are also highly diverse compared with elsewhere. Britain, for example, has only 41 species of native ants, a number well exceeded by 452 hectare Black Mountain Nature Reserve in Canberra alone, which has more than 100 species. There are probably many other groups of invertebrates and microorganisms that exhibit similar species richness but have not yet been adequately studied.