Australia

A document about Australia, its history and its fauna and flora; an audio version is available.

The capital of Australia is Canberra but the largest city is Sydney with 3.4 million inhabitants in 1999. This federal parliamentary nation counts 18 million inhabitants and 7.7 million square kilometres. It was declared an independent nation on January 1^st, 1901.

Australia comprises 6 states and 2 main mainland territories:

Western Australia, whose capital is Perth.
The Northern Territory, whose capital is Darwin.
Queensland, whose capital is Brisbane.
South Australia, whose capital is Adelaide.
New South Wales, whose capital is Sydney.
Victoria, whose capital is Melbourne.
Tasmania, whose capital is Hobart.

Australia was discovered by the Aborigines around 60 000 B.C. and was mapped by James Cook in 1770.

The climate in Australia is very hot: in the North, the dry and hot season lasts 8 months. In the South, there is a mild and a little more humid winter. So, the best time of the year to go surfing is Christmas!

A flying doctor is a doctor who goes to visit his patients by airplane or helicopter because some people live very far from cities and planes go faster than cars. The flying doctors say they can arrive at any place in 90 minutes! There are 13 flying doctor bases in Australia with 38 aeroplanes and helicopters. They visit 150 000 people every year in the Outback, on farms and in mines.

Probably, Aborigines arrived in Australia by raft about 40 000 years B.C. Today, they are about 250 000. Before colonialism, Aborigines were divided into 500 tribes and had 700 languages and dialects. They were hunters and semi-nomadic according to the seasons and built huts. Their weapons were lances, javelins and boomerangs. Their art is constituted by various objects, painted bark depicting animals, embossed pictures and rock paintings. In their mythology, people are in constant communion with nature. Ayers Rock, in the centre of the country, was a holy mountain for them. They called this 348-metre-high mountain "Uluru".

The main resources are the mining industry (with diamonds, zinc and iron), agriculture and livestock farming: the "sheep station" (stock farming of sheep) is widely practiced. Australians export their very good wines and scare French winemakers because Australian wines are cheaper for the same quality.

That's why Australia is often referred to as the country of "Sun, Sheep and Spirits": because the climate is very hot and sunny, there are a lot of farms and the Aborigines' religion takes an important place in Australian culture which is characterised by identity issues: differences between Aborigines and the rest of the population are still very important.

Another strange phenomenon is gambling: more than 80% of Australians gamble, half of them at least once a week. It's a sort of disease that might be a way of expressing the feeling of being ill at ease...

Animals and plants

The most famous birds of Australia are:

Emu
Cassowary
Kookaburra

Other famous animals are:

Platypus
Rainbow snake
Kangaroo
Koala
Sheep

And the most famous plants are:

Wattle (Acacia)
Eucalyptus

Personal reflexion

What does particularly appeal to you about Australia and how would you benefit from your studies there?

Since I am keen on biology, I find Australia particularly interesting for its diversity. On the one hand, it is a very large territory which hosts a huge number of species that have stood out among all others for ages and have become quite different and unique in the world. On the other hand, the landscapes you can admire there are more beautiful than anywhere else, from the Outback, the giant desert in the centre of the country, to the Bush and its eucalyptus forests and endemic birds. But to me, the most wonderful place is the Great Barrier Reef, that I wish to visit, as every scuba diver does.

As far as my studies are concerned, I know that the University of Western Australia, in Perth, has faculties of Natural and Life Sciences. If I were to go to Australia, I would stay there one year and follow courses in a double degree program in that University to graduate in biology. This would leave me enough time to visit the main cities and a lot of remarkable places in that country. Thus, studying in Australia would allow me to improve my skills both in English and in biology, not only with the courses, but also by living in an English-speaking country with extraordinary flora and fauna. Finally, such an experience would be consistent with my aim of becoming an engineer in biotechnology.

Audio version

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Cette page en anglais a été créée par Peter à partir de sources multiples et d'un exposé scolaire, 15 juin 2001 et modifiée pour la dernière fois 1 septembre 2026. Son avancement est noté 2/3.