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Australia. The Land and the People. The Land. Geology basic features; composition; Landscape various views; Great Dividing Range; Great Barrier Reef Flora and fauna platypus, kangaroo, koala & wombat.
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Australia The Land and the People
The Land • Geology basic features; composition; • Landscape various views; Great Dividing Range; Great Barrier Reef • Flora and fauna platypus, kangaroo, koala & wombat
The national flag consists of a dark blue field (background) with the Union Jack in the canton and six white stars. Its width-to-length ratio is 1 to 2.
Platypus The duck-billed platypus, found only in eastern Australia, lives in streams, rivers, and occasionally lakes with year-round water. It feeds mostly on bottom-dwelling aquatic insect larvae, which it finds by probing the streambed with its pliable, sensitive bill. It grows to a maximum size of 1 to 2.4 kg (2.2 to 5.3 lb). One of only a few venomous mammals, the male platypus has a poison gland in the hind leg that opens through a bony spur on the ankle. The spur is used to defend against predators and possibly to defend its territory against other males. The females lack the venom gland and bony spur.
Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroo Tree kangaroos, including the Lumholtz’s tree kangaroo shown here, are among the many diverse types of kangaroo. Tree kangaroos are clumsy on land but nimble in trees. Shy and rarely seen, they live in the dense rainforest regions of Australia.
Red Kangaroo In Australia, the red kangaroo has prospered. Sheep ranchers favor this largest of the continent's native mammals by converting woodlands to grassland, providing sources of permanent water.
Mother Kangaroo and Baby Kangaroos are a type of mammal called a marsupial. Baby marsupials are unable to survive on their own when they are born, so they must live in a pouch on their mother’s belly. A newborn kangaroo, called a joey, stays in its mother’s pouch for about six months, where it feeds on her milk.
Koala Koalas are tree-dwelling, marsupial animals that live only in eastern Australian eucalyptus forests. Koalas thrive on eucalyptus leaves, box leaves, and mistletoe, and they may not leave their treetop dwellings for days at a time. Formerly hunted for their soft fur, they are now protected by law.
Koala Diet A dietary specialist, the koala obtains most of its nourishment from the leaves of about three dozen species of eucalyptus trees in its home forests of eastern Australia. A koala's gut has an enormous caecum, a digestive organ containing microbes that digest the leafy diet. At weaning time, a baby koala acquires these necessary microbes by eating digested leaves, called pap, produced by its mother.
Wombat The wombat is only found in northern Queensland and southeastern and south central Australia, Flinders Island, and Tasmania. It lives in temperate forests, mountainous areas, or open uncultivated rangelands with poor, coarse soils. All wombats live in extensive, complex burrows, which they excavate with their short, powerful legs and strong claws. In some areas of Australia, wombats are considered pests, since their digging damages rabbit-proof fencing.
Great Barrier Reef, Australia The Great Barrier Reef, seen here in an aerial view, is the largest known coral deposit in the world. It extends for about 2010 km (about 1250 mi) off the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. The reef is a major tourist attraction.
Gorgonians, such as these red sea fans off the coast of Australia, are plantlike animals that form an important part of coral reefs in tropical waters. Colonies of gorgonians branch out slowly and may take decades to reach maturity.
The Peoples • People of European descent • The indigenous (the Aboriginals) the Dreaming (Dreamtime) 500 Nations most important peoples
On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip established the first European settlement in Australia at Sydney Cove.
Circular Quay, Sydney Located in Sydney Cove along the Port Jackson waterfront of Sydney, Australia, Circular Quay was the final point of anchorage of the First Fleet, which brought the first European settlers to Australia in 1788. Long the shipping center of Sydney, Circular Quay is now the main dock for ferries traversing Port Jackson. The Circular Quay West walkway on the left leads past the brown sandstone Museum of Contemporary Art.
Dreamtime (Dreaming) the meaning of Dreaming the way of living Europeans’ exploitation of the indigenous a brief historical review
Uluru Uluru, also called Ayers Rock, is one of the largest monoliths, or rock masses, in the world. Located in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in central Australia, the monolith measures about 3.6 km (2.2 mi) long and 348 m (1,142 ft) high. Rock paintings made thousands of years ago by Aboriginal artists cover the walls of many caves in Uluru.
Boomerang A man in an Aboriginal village in Australia throws a boomerang. Aboriginal people use the nonreturn boomerang for hunting and warfare. A powerful weapon, the boomerang’s spinning action makes it strike its target with more force than a nonspinning projectile. Return boomerangs are used mostly for sport.
Aboriginal Painting of the Dreaming This Australian Aboriginal painting is titled Snake and Witchetty Grub Dreaming. The Dreaming in Aboriginal mythology was when life began.
Rock Art, Arnhem Land The earliest known Aboriginal rock art may date back more than 30,000 years. This painting is from western Arnhem Land. Aboriginal people employed a variety of techniques to create rock paintings, including brush painting, finger-painting, stenciling, and painting with dry rocks.
Aboriginal Rock Art This rock painting from Queensland depicts a human figure (probably a woman) and an animal with young (possibly kangaroos). The figures are painted in red ochre. The earliest Aboriginal rock paintings may date back more than 30,000 years. Although their meaning is a matter of debate, they exhibit remarkable consistency in iconography, materials, and technique.
Aboriginal Body Painting Body painting is an essential part of the artistic heritage of Aboriginal Australians. Aboriginal people use ochre, a natural pigment, to create paint for use in traditional rituals and ceremonies. Complex series of symbols convey many different meanings. The images used in body painting recur in Aboriginal rock art and artifact decoration. Contemporary artists also incorporate the symbols in canvas painting.
Dot Painting Dot painting is a well-known technique of contemporary Aboriginal art. The artist uses a stick or brush to paint thousands of dots that form a larger pattern or picture, often related to stories of the Dreaming. In Aboriginal religion, the Dreaming refers to the creation of the world.
Contact and “Terra Nullius” contact of Chinese and other people Europeans’“discovery” and colonization the meaning of “Terra Nullius”
Colonial-Aboriginal Conflict In the 19th century, as British colonists expanded into Australia's interior, conflicts with Aboriginal people became more frequent. Many Aboriginal people died in battles against better-armed colonists, who sought to claim traditional Aboriginal lands for mining, ranching, and farming. This illustration dates from 1852.
