Portal:Australia
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Introduction
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, tropical savannas in the north, and mountain ranges in the south-east.
The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. This began a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, and culminating in the Australia Act 1986.
Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and ten territories. Australia's population of nearly 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous city and financial centre is Sydney.The next four largest cities are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. It is ethnically diverse and multicultural, the product of large-scale immigration, with almost half of the population having one parent born overseas. Australia's abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy, which generates its income from various sources including services, mining exports, banking, manufacturing, agriculture and international education. Australia ranks amongst the highest in the world for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights.
Featured article -
Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.The Barry Sheene Medal is an annual award honouring the achievements of a driver in the Supercars Championship, an Australian touring car series. Tony Cochrane, the chairman of the championship's organising body Australian Vee Eight Supercar Company (AVESCO), instigated the award in 2003. The medal is named after the two-time Grand Prix motorcycle world champion and motor racing television commentator Barry Sheene. It is presented to the driver adjudged to have displayed "outstanding leadership, media interaction, character, personality, fan appeal and sportsmanship throughout the season". A panel of motor racing journalists individually award three drivers scores of three, two and one points after every event of the season. The results are announced at the series' end-of-season gala in Sydney. (Full article...)
Selected biography -
 Leech at 1956 Olympics |
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Genevieve Beacom became the first woman to pitch in the Australian Baseball League when she made her debut for the Melbourne Aces in 2022?
- ... that the Rhodesia Information Centre spread propaganda about Rhodesia in Australia?
- ... that Australian senator Ben Small had been a ship's officer, bar owner, paramedic, ambulance trainer, and logistician before entering politics?
- ... that Joe the Pigeon was granted a pardon by the Australian government after being sentenced to euthanasia?
- ... that politics in The Simpsons have caused controversy in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, and Japan?
- ... that Daviesia devito and D. schwarzenegger are two Australian peas?
- ... that the memorabilia of Jennie Scott Griffiths, a Texan who died in California, are housed in the National Library of Australia?
- ... that St Mary's Anglican Church, Busselton, Australia, has been a part of six dioceses, namely Canterbury, Calcutta, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Bunbury?
In the news
- 21 April 2023 –
- Wreckage of the Imperial Japanese Navy ship SS Montevideo Maru, sunk during World War II, is found after 81 years in the South China Sea, off the coast of Luzon Island. The ship, which was carrying over 1,000 prisoners of war, including 850 Australian POWs, represented the largest loss of life for the Australian armed forces during the Second World War. (CNN)
- 20 April 2023 – Solar eclipse of April 20, 2023
- A hybrid solar eclipse occurs across the South Pacific in Australia, East Timor, and Indonesia. (The New York Times) (People)
- 17 April 2023 – Recycling in Australia
- Further sites of illicit soft plastic storage are found in Sydney after the collapse of commercial plastic recycler REDcycle. After taking $20 million from Coles and Woolworths to recycle soft plastics at 2,000 locations, the company instead stored 12,000 tonnes of plastics at more than 44 locations across Australia. (9 News) (The Guardian)
- 13 April 2023 – 2022–23 Australian region cyclone season
- Cyclone Ilsa
- Cyclone Ilsa makes landfall between De Grey and Pardoo Roadhouse in Western Australia, Australia, as a category five cyclone. (ABC News Australia)
- 1 April 2023 –
- Professor Alan Jamieson of the University of Western Australia's Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre announces that his team has captured footage of a snailfish species, Pseudoliparis belyaevi, swimming at 8,336 metres (27,349 ft) in the Izu–Ogasawara Trench off Japan's southern coast. This is the lowest depth recorded for any fish, and closest to the estimated maximum depth possible for fish to survive. (BBC News)
Selected pictures -
Photo: JJ HarrisonThe Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is a carnivorous marsupial found in the wild only on the Australian island of Tasmania. It is characterised by its stocky and muscular build, black fur, pungent odour, extremely loud and disturbing screech, keen sense of smell, and ferocity when feeding. Its large head and neck allow it to generate the strongest bite per unit body mass of any living mammal.
Photo credit: Fir0002The Ulysses Butterfly (Papilio ulysses) is a large Australian swallowtail with a wingspan of about 14 cm (5.5 in). The top of the butterfly’s wings are an iridescent electric blue; the underside is a more subdued black and brown coloration. When the butterfly is perched the intense blue of its wings is hidden (as seen here), helping it to blend in with its surroundings.
Photo credit: John O'NeillFuel dumping is a practice used by aircraft that are equipped to jettison fuel in the event of certain types of emergency situations. This RAAF F-111 aircraft is performing a dump-and-burn fuel dump at the Australian International Airshow, a procedure where the fuel is intentionally ignited using the plane's afterburner. This type of fuel dumping is also referred to as "torching" or a "zippo".
Photo credit: Fir0002Two whole Cripps Pink apples and a cross-section of a third. More commonly known by the trademarked name "Pink Lady", this apple cultivar was originally bred by John Cripps by crossing the Australian apple Lady Williams with a Golden Delicious. The apple shape is ellipsoid, it has a distinctive pink hue mixed with a green "background," and taste is tart.
Photo credit: LiquidGhoulThe head of a Coastal Carpet Python, the largest subspecies of Morelia spilota, a non-venomous Australian python, showing its forked tongue, a feature common to many reptiles, who smell using the tip of their tongue. Having a forked tongue allows them to tell which direction a smell is coming from.
The Australian National Botanic Gardens are located in Canberra and are administered by the Commonwealth Government Department of the Environment and Heritage. The botanic gardens are a collection of native Australian flora arrange by taxonomy or natural ecological groupings. The gardens maintains a wide variety of botanical resources for researchers and cultivates native plants threatened in the wild. The concept for a national botanic gardens developed in the 1930s as Canberra was built, with the gardens officially opened in 1970 on a site of 90 hectares astride the Black Mountain
Photo credit: Fir0002
Coffin Bay is a national park in on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, 301 kilometres west of Adelaide, and 46 kilometres west of Port Lincoln. The township of Coffin Bay is near the entrance to the National Park. The National Park features a long peninsula with a sheltered bay, coastal dunes, swamps and a spectacular coastline of islands, reefs, limestone cliffs and white surf beaches.
Photo credit: Takver
Photo credit: Fir0002A female Metallic Ringtail (Austrolestes cingulatus), an Australian damselfly, eating its prey. Each abdominal segment is marked by a pale "ring"; this combined with its glossy metallic coloration give the insect its common name.
Photo credit: John O'NeillA Common Grass Blue (Zizina labradus), a small Australian butterfly. This specimen, perched on a rose, is approximately 10 millimetres (0.4 in) in size. Females generally have a larger wingspan compared to males (23 and 20 mm or 0.9 and 0.8 in respectively).
Luna Park is an amusement park located on the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay in St Kilda, Victoria, which is an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It opened in 1912 and has been operating since. It is the first of two Luna Parks still operating in Australia; the other is on Sydney Harbour.
Photo credit: Stevage
Photo: Fir0002A Eurocopter AS350 "Squirrel" helicopter flown by 723 Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), the section of the Royal Australian Navy responsible for the operation of aircraft. The FAA is currently an all-helicopter force, operating four separate models in the anti-submarine warfare and maritime support roles.
Photo: Sport the LibraryJeremy Doyle (1983–2011) was an Australian wheelchair basketball player. Left paraplegic after a car accident, he was classified as a 1 point player. While representing his country Doyle won two gold medals, first at the 2009 Paralympic World Cup and again at the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship.
Photo credit: Frank HurleyA group of Australian infantry wearing Small Box Respirators (SBRs) at the Third Battle of Ypres in September 1917. After the introduction of poison gas in World War I, countermeasures were developed. SBRs represented the pinnacle of gas mask development during the war, a mouthpiece connected via a hose to a box filter (hanging around the wearer's neck in this picture), which in turn contained granules of chemicals that neutralised the gas. The SBR was the prized possession of the ordinary infantryman; when the British were forced to retreat during the German Spring Offensive of 1918, it was found that while some troops had discarded their rifles, hardly any had left behind their respirators.
Photo credit: Noodle snacksThe Tasmanian Native-hen (Gallinula mortierii) is a flightless rail between 43 to 51 cm (17 to 20 in) in length, one of twelve species of birds endemic to the Australian island of Tasmania. Although flightless, it is capable of running quickly and has been recorded running at speeds up to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h).
Photo credit: Fir0002The Cairns Birdwing (Ornithoptera euphorion) is a birdwing butterfly of the Papilionidae family. It is Australia's largest butterfly, and is native to the tropical north of Queensland.
Photo credit: John O'NeillA panoramic view across the interior of the Australian Synchrotron (a subatomic particle accelerator) in Clayton, Victoria. Dominating the image is the storage ring, showing the optical diagnostic beamline at front right. In the middle of the storage ring is the booster synchrotron and linac. The yellow, green and red magnets on the trolley (front left) are a demonstration of the bending and focusing magnets used in the storage ring to produce the synchrotron radiation and maintain the electron beam.
The Commonwealth Parliament was opened on 9 May 1901 in the Royal Exhibition Building, the only building large enough to house the 14,000 guests. Thereafter, from 1901 to 1927 it met in Parliament House, Melbourne, which it borrowed from the parliament of the state of Victoria (which sat in the Exhibition Building). On 9 May 1927 the Parliament moved to the new national capital at Canberra, where it met in what is now called Old Parliament House. Intended to be temporary, this building in fact housed the Parliament for more than 60 years. The permanent Parliament House, Canberra was opened in 9 May 1988. The scene of the opening of the first Parliament was immortalised in The Big Picture, a painting by Australian artist Tom Roberts.
Photo: JJ HarrisonThe Tasmanian Darner (Austroaeschna tasmanica) is an Australian species of dragonfly in the Aeshnidae family, which includes some of the largest of the dragonflies on the planet. Also referred to as "hawkers", the name "darner" derives from the fact that the female abdomens look like a sewing needle, as they cut into plant stem when they lay their eggs through the ovipositor.
Photo: Benjamint444The Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) is a large species of frogmouth found throughout the Australian mainland, Tasmania, and southern New Guinea. Unlike the owl for which it is often mistaken, the Tawny Frogmouth is not a bird of prey. Instead, it is almost exclusively insectivorous. For defense, it relies on cryptic camouflage, standing still to appear part of a branch.
The Ninety Mile Beach is a sandy stretch of south-eastern coastline of Victoria, Australia which separates the Gippsland Lakes region from Bass Strait.It is believed to be the longest un-interrupted beach in the world — just over 151 kilometres (94 miles) running northeastward from a spit near Port Albert to the man-made channel at Lakes Entrance. For the northern part of its route the beach runs along a sandbar on what amounts to a series of tidal islands and behind which are several large lakes and numerous shallow littoral lagoons. The area comprises the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park.
The Story Bridge is a crossing of the Brisbane River in the Queensland capital of Brisbane. It is a six lane dual-carriageway connecting Fortitude Valley to Kangaroo Point. Designed by John Bradfield, the bridge was opened in 1940 at the height of the Great Depression. It is a Brisbane landmark, and a focus of the Riverfestival.
Photo credit: Stuart Edwards
On this day
- 1829 – Captain Charles Fremantle claims the entire west coast of Australia in the name of George IV of the United Kingdom, establishing the Swan River Colony.
- 1964 – At the 1964 Tasmanian state election, the incumbent Australian Labor Party under Premier Eric Reece maintains its position, winning 19 out of the 35 seats available.
- 1980 – New Zealand-born cricketer Clarrie Grimmett, an inaugural inductee of the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, dies in Adelaide, South Australia.
- 1997 – Neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles (pictured), the winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize for Medicine, dies at his home in Tenero-Contra, Switzerland.
- 2005 – Construction engineer Douglas Wood is kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq.
General images
Convict architecture at Port Arthur, Tasmania (from Culture of Australia)
Birdsville Hotel, an Australian pub in outback Queensland (from Culture of Australia)
The first State of Origin shield (from Culture of Australia)
A typical Queenslander house in Brisbane (from Culture of Australia)
The surf lifesaving movement originated in Australia. (Pictured: surf lifesavers, Bondi Beach, 1930s). (from Culture of Australia)
Governor Arthur Phillip hoists the British flag over the new colony at Sydney in 1788. (from Culture of Australia)
Bush tucker harvested in Alice Springs (from Culture of Australia)
Founded in 1993, Sydney's Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival. (from Culture of Australia)
Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly (from Culture of Australia)
A Luritja man demonstrating method of attack with boomerang under cover of shield (1920) (from Culture of Australia)
Countries of birth of Australian estimated resident population, 2006 (from Culture of Australia)
Phar Lap winning the Melbourne Cup, "the race that stops a nation" (from Culture of Australia)
The Wiggles performing in the United States in 2007 (from Culture of Australia)
St Mary Mackillop established an extensive network of schools and is Australia's first canonised saint of the Catholic Church. (from Culture of Australia)
South Australian suffragette Catherine Helen Spence (1825–1910). The Australian colonies established democratic parliaments from the 1850s and began to grant women the vote in the 1890s. (from Culture of Australia)
A billycan used for heating water (from Culture of Australia)
Noongar traditional dancers, Perth, Australia (from Aboriginal Australians)
Statue in Fremantle of an Australian rules footballer taking a spectacular mark (from Culture of Australia)
Corroboree at Newcastle by convict artist Joseph Lycett, ca. 1818. Aboriginal Australian religious practices associated with the Dreamtime have been practised for tens of thousands of years. (from Culture of Australia)
C. J. Dennis, poetic humorist of Australian English (from Culture of Australia)
Kylie Minogue is hailed as one of Australia's most successful pop musicians (from Culture of Australia)
Anzac Day dawn services are held throughout Australia every April. (from Culture of Australia)
The Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne (from Culture of Australia)
A group of Australian men wearing budgie smugglers. (from Culture of Australia)
Golden Wattle, Australia's floral emblem and the source of Australia's national colors, green and gold (from Culture of Australia)
Actor playing the bushranger Ned Kelly in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), the world's first feature film (from Culture of Australia)
Cover of Old Bush Songs, Banjo Paterson's 1905 collection of bush ballads (from Culture of Australia)
Didgeridoo performers (from Culture of Australia)
The Bulletin, founded by J. F. Archibald (left), nurtured bush poets such as Henry Lawson (right). (from Culture of Australia)
Cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1860s (from Culture of Australia)
Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
The initial human settlement of Oceania is estimated to be between 60 and 40 kya. The archaeogenetic results indicate a colonization of Australia (southern Sahul) before 37 kya and an incubation period in northern Sahul (Papua New Guinea) followed by westward expansions within Australia after ~28 kya. Principal component analysis of ancient and present-day individuals from Eurasian populations. (from Aboriginal Australians)
Skiing in Australia began in Kiandra, a goldmining town in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, in the 1860s. (from Culture of Australia)
Historical image of Aboriginal Australian women and children, Maloga, New South Wales around 1900 (in European dress) (from Aboriginal Australians)
PCA of Orang Asli (Semang) and Andamanese, with worldwide populations in HGDP. (from Aboriginal Australians)
An Aboriginal encampment near the Adelaide foothills in an 1854 painting by Alexander Schramm (from Aboriginal Australians)
Parliament House, Canberra (from Culture of Australia)
Federation Bungalow in Killara, Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
A swagman in bushman's apparel, wearing a brimmed hat and carrying swag, and billy can. (from Culture of Australia)
Aboriginal dwellings in Hermannsburg, Northern Territory, 1923. Image: Herbert Basedow (from Aboriginal Australians)
Dame Edna Everage, a comic creation of Barry Humphries (from Culture of Australia)
Sydney Opera House (foreground) and Sydney Harbor Bridge (from Culture of Australia)
The Princess Theatre in Melbourne (from Culture of Australia)
Men from Bathurst Island, 1939 (from Aboriginal Australians)
Portrait of Madame Melba by Rupert Bunny (from Culture of Australia)
The SBS building in Melbourne's Federation Square. SBS is Australia's multicultural broadcaster. (from Culture of Australia)
The University of Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
Sheep grazing in rural Australia. Early British settlers introduced Western stock and crops and Australian agriculture now produces an abundance of fresh produce. (from Culture of Australia)
Nan Tien Temple, a Buddhist temple in Wollongong. Multicultural immigration has increased Australia's religious diversity. (from Culture of Australia)
Interior of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
A commemorative statue of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a famous stretcher bearer who was killed in the Gallipoli Campaign. (from Culture of Australia)
Victorian era buildings in Collins Street, Melbourne (from Culture of Australia)
Donald Bradman is often cited as statistically the greatest sportsman of any major sport. (from Culture of Australia)
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