Portal:Australia

The AUSTRALIAN Portal Introduction - Australia (/əˈstreɪliə, ɒ-/ ( listen)), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. For about 60,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who in documented times have spoken languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. After the European discovery of the continent by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and initially settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored and an additional five self-governing crown colonies established. On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states and several territories. Australia has the world's 13th-largest economy and tenth-highest per capita income (IMF). With the second-highest human development index globally, the country ranks highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, and civil liberties and political rights. Australia is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, United Nations, G20, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Trade Organization, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the Pacific Islands Forum. The population of 25 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia has the world's 9th largest immigrant population, with immigrants accounting for 26% of the population. Selected article - Waterfall Gully is a small suburb in the South Australian city of Adelaide. It is located in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges around five kilometres east of Adelaide's central business district (CBD). For the most part, the suburb encompasses one long gully with First Creek at its centre and Waterfall Gully Road adjacent to the creek. At one end of the gully is the waterfall for which the suburb was named. Part of the Burnside Council, it is bounded to the north by the suburb of Burnside, to the north-east by Greenhill, to the south-east by Cleland Conservation Park, to the south-west by Leawood Gardens and to the north-west by Mount Osmond. Waterfall Gully is rich in history and has been a popular attraction since Adelaide's early colonists discovered the area in the nineteenth century. Home to a number of residents and increasingly frequented by tourists, Waterfall Gully has undergone extensive developments in recent years. Selected picture - The Royal Exhibition Building is located in Victorian capital of Melbourne. Situated in the Carlton Gardens, at the north-eastern edge of the central business district, it was completed in 1880 for the Melbourne International Exhibition. It was also the site of the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia with the opening of the first Parliament of Australia. Photo credit: Diliff Subportals   New South Wales Queensland Western Australia Northern Territory South Australia Victoria Tasmania Australian Capital Territory Other Australia portals Related portals   Oceania New Zealand Antarctica Commonwealth realms British Empire In the news   7 December 2017 – The Parliament of Australia passes the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017, legalising same sex marriage in Australia. 25 November 2017 – The Queensland state election is held. The Labor Party led by Annastacia Palaszczuk gains enough seats to form a majority government. 12 September – 7 November 2017 – The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, a non-compulsory national postal survey is held to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage. 14 July 2017 – The 2017 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis begins with the resignation of Australian Greens co-deputy leader Scott Ludlam over dual citizenship issues, with the eligibility of Larissa Waters, Matt Canavan, Malcolm Roberts, Barnaby Joyce, Fiona Nash and Nick Xenophon also in doubt. 28 March – 3 April 2017 – Cyclone Debbie makes landfall in Queensland, causing flash flooding in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. 11 March 2017 – The Western Australian state election is held. The Labor Party led by Mark McGowan defeats the Liberal government of Colin Barnett. On this day... - 24 June: 1826 – Birth of George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia. 1856 – Queen Victoria makes Norfolk Island a separate settlement from Tasmania to be administered by the Governor of New South Wales. 1913 – Joseph Cook becomes the sixth Prime Minister of Australia. 1953 – British and Australian governments announced Britain was developing atomic weapons and they would be tested in Australia. 1978 – The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is held to mark International Gay Solidarity Day. 1987 – Christopher Skase buys the Seven Network. 1992 – Nick Greiner resigns as Premier of New South Wales after corruption finding against him. 2010 – Julia Gillard becomes the first female Prime Minister of Australia. More Australian anniversaries Did you know... - ... that Troughman is mythically famous in Sydney, Australia for lying down in urinals? ... that Jordan Rankin, at 16 years and 238 days, is the youngest player to make his first-grade debut in Australian rugby league in over 70 years? ... that Reg Lindsay was an Australian Country and Western singer who won three Golden Guitars Awards and wrote more than five hundred songs in his fifty year music career? ... that the murder of Celia Douty was the first murder in Australia to be solved using DNA profiling, after remaining unsolved for 18 years? ...that the town of Bismarck in Tasmania was renamed Collinsvale due to anti-German sentiment during World War I? ...that Indigenous Australian activist Michael Mansell convinced Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi to officially recognise a separate Aboriginal Australian passport in order to draw international attention to the issue of native land rights? ...that Wally Koochew was the first VFL player of Chinese background? ...that Wing Commander Stanley Goble and Flying Officer Ivor McIntyre, piloting a single-engined seaplane (pictured), became the first men to circumnavigate Australia by air in 1924? ...that a series of storms in south-east Queensland spawned two of the most powerful supercells and tornadoes in recorded Australian history? ...that the lamington cake is believed to have been named after Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, the Governor of Queensland at the time of its invention? ...that during the first seven years of the Australian edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? nobody won the top prize of one million dollars? For a topic outline on this subject, see Outline of Australia. Associated Wikimedia -