Geography Lesson
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 25 January 2005 10:48:48
Tomorrow, January 26th is a day off from work... for the purpose of celebrating Australia Day... I figured our International Readers (love you all) may be interested to know why it is quiet in the neighbourhood... the cockatoos are all out slinging shrimp on barbies and drinking VB or Tooheys...
Or they could be going to Harry Connick Jr concerts. *insert - happy deeleea dance*
- Australia's national day, Australia Day, on 26 January, marks the date in 1788 when Captain Arthur Phillip, of the British Royal Navy, commanding a fleet of 11 ships, sailed into Port Jackson (Sydney Cove). Phillip formally took possession of the eastern part of the continent for England and established a settlement, now Australia's largest city, Sydney.
- Australia is the only nation to occupy an entire continent. Its land mass of nearly 7.7 million km2 is the flattest and (after Antarctica) driest of continents.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people totalled 265 378 at the last census, nearly 1.5 per cent of the population.
- Australia is an independent Western democracy with a population of more than 17.6 million.
- Four out of 10 Australians are migrants or the first-generation children of migrants, half of them from non-English speaking backgrounds. In 1991-92, East Asia contributed 41 per cent of settler arrivals.
- Australia's national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, is a revised version of a late 19th-century patriotic song. It was declared the national anthem in April 1984, replacing God Save the Queen, which was designated the royal anthem. In the same year, Australia officially adopted green and gold as its national colours.
- The flag of Australia is the only one to fly over a whole continent. The small Union Jack represents the historical link with Britain, the large seven-pointed star represents the six States and the Territories, and the small stars form the Southern Cross - a prominent feature of the southern hemisphere night sky.
Shamelessly filched from here!