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Introduction
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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. 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. The population of 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
Indigenous Australians inhabited the continent for about 65,000 years prior to European discovery with the arrival of Dutch explorers in the early 17th century, who named it New Holland. In 1770, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain and initially settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788, a date which became Australia's national day. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the time of an 1850s gold rush, 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 ten territories.
More about...Australia, it's history and culture
Featured article -
St James' Church, commonly known as St James', King Street, is an Australian heritage-listed Anglican parish church located at 173 King Street, in the Sydney central business district of the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales. Consecrated in February 1824 and named in honour of St James the Great, it became a parish church in 1835. Designed in the style of a Georgian town church by the transported convict architect Francis Greenway during the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie, St James' is part of the historical precinct of Macquarie Street which includes other early colonial era buildings such as the World Heritage listed Hyde Park Barracks. Read more...
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Featured biography -
Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin "Mark" Oliphant, AC, KBE, FRS, FAA, FTSE (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played an important role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and in the development of nuclear weapons. Read more...
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General images
The Last Post is played at an Anzac Day ceremony in Port Melbourne, Victoria. Similar ceremonies are held in many suburbs and towns.
A map of Australia's states and territories
The Princess Theater in Melbourne
A vineyard in the Barossa Valley, one of Australia's major wine-producing regions. The Australian wine industry is the world's fourth largest exporter of wine.
The Bulletin, founded by J. F. Archibald (left), nurtured bush poets such as Henry Lawson (right).
Donald Bradman is often cited as statistically the greatest sportsman of any major sport.
Aboriginal rock art in the Kimberley region of Western Australia
A Luritja man demonstrating method of attack with boomerang under cover of shield (1920)
Actor playing the bushranger Ned Kelly in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), the world's first feature film
Cover of Old Bush Songs, Banjo Paterson's 1905 collection of bush ballads
The Boddington Gold Mine in Western Australia is the nation's largest open cut mine.
Statue in Fremantle of an Australian rules footballer taking a spectacular mark
Golden Wattle, Australia's floral emblem and the source of Australia's national colors, green and gold
Governor Arthur Phillip hoists the British flag over the new colony at Sydney in 1788
Interior of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Federation Bungalow in Killara, Sydney
Portrait of Madame Melba by Rupert Bunny
The koala and the eucalyptus form an iconic Australian pair.
Cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1860s
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.
The Wiggles performing in the United States in 2007
Portrait of Captain James Cook, the first European to map the eastern coastline of Australia in 1770
Corroboree at Newcastle by convict artist Joseph Lycett, ca. 1818. Aboriginal Australian religious practices associated with the Dreamtime have been practized for tens of thousands of years.
A commemorative statue of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a famous stretcher bearer who was killed in the Gallipoli Campaign.
Countries of birth of Australian estimated resident population, 2006
The surf lifesaving movement originated in Australia. (Pictured: surf lifesavers, Bondi Beach, 1930s).
Tasmania's Port Arthur penal settlement is one of eleven UNESCO World Heritage-listed Australian Convict Sites.
The first State of Origin shield
Anzac Day dawn services are held throughout Australia every April.
Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney
Parliament House, Canberra
Victorian era buildings in Collins Street, Melbourne
A billycan used for heating water
RG Casey House, Canberra, is the headquarters of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Didgeridoo performers
Birdsville Hotel, an Australian pub in outback Queensland
The Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Sidney Nolan's Snake mural (1970), held at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania, is inspired by the Aboriginal creation myth of the Rainbow Serpent, as well as desert flowers in bloom after a drought.
The Great Dividing Range is the third longest land-based range in the world.
Heron Island, a coral cay in the southern Great Barrier Reef
C. J. Dennis, poetic humorist of Australian English
Nan Tien Temple, a Buddhist temple in Wollongong. Multicultural immigration has increased Australia's religious diversity.
The SBS building in Melbourne's Federation Square. SBS is Australia's multicultural broadcaster.
The meringue-based pavlova is generally eaten at Christmas time.
Australia has one of the world's most highly urbanised populations with the majority living in metropolitan cities on the coast. (Pictured: Gold Coast beach and skyline, Queensland.)
Convict architecture at Port Arthur, Tasmania
Parliament House, Canberra
Dame Edna Everage, a comic creation of Barry Humphries
Skiing in Australia began in Kiandra, a goldmining town in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, in the 1860s.
Actor playing the bushranger Ned Kelly in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), the world's first feature film
Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly
Topographic map of Australia. Dark green represents the lowest elevation and dark brown the highest
Köppen climate types of Australia.
Phar Lap winning the Melbourne Cup, "the race that stops a nation"
Sheep grazing in rural Australia. Early British settlers introduced Western stock and crops and Australian agriculture now produces an abundance of fresh produce.
Australian soldiers deployed to Iraq in 2017
A typical Queenslander house in Brisbane
The Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne was the first building in Australia to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.
A swagman in bushman's apparel, wearing a brimmed hat and carrying swag, and billy can.
Founded in 1993, Sydney's Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival.
Five Australian universities rank in the top 50 of the QS World University Rankings, including the Australian National University (19th).
Elle Macpherson, 2011
Kylie Minogue is hailed as one of Australia's most successful pop musicians
A group of Australian men wearing budgie smugglers.
Bush tucker harvested in Alice Springs
Sydney Opera House (foreground) and Sydney Harbor Bridge
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is strongly associated with the history and development of cricket and Australian rules football, Australia's two most popular spectator sports.
St Mary Mackillop established an extensive network of schools and is Australia's first canonized saint of the Catholic Church.
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On this day
- 1880 – Redmond Barry, the judge who sentenced Ned Kelly to be hanged, died just twelve days after Kelly was hanged.
- 1932 – The statue of The Dog on the Tuckerbox is unveiled at Gundagai, New South Wales by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons.
- 1955 – The Cocos Islands come under Australian control.
- 1961 – Cricketer Merv Hughes is born.
In the news
- 19 November 2019 – War in Afghanistan, Afghan peace process
- In Zabul Province, the Taliban releases two foreign hostages, American professor Kevin King and Australian professor Timothy Weeks, who had been held captive since being kidnapped outside the American University of Afghanistan in 2016. Three high-ranking Taliban militants are released in exchange for the hostages. (BBC)
- 18 November 2019 – LGBT rights in Saudi Arabia
- Two Saudi journalists, one of whom worked for CNN and the BBC, are outed as gay, which prompts them to flee and seek asylum in Australia. (Reuters)
- 13 November 2019 – Catholic Church sexual abuse cases
- The Australian High Court agrees to hear a final appeal from ex-Vatican treasurer and convicted child sex offender George Pell, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting three teenage choirboys. (Reuters)
- 9 November 2019 – Bushfires in Australia
- The bodies of three people killed by bushfires in Australia are found – two near Glen Innes, and one at Johns River – as fires that have destroyed at least 150 houses continue to burn in eastern New South Wales and Queensland. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- 30 October 2019 – Murder of Aya Maasarwe
- A court in Australia sentences Maasarwe's confessed killer, Codey Herrmann, to 36 years in prison with parole eligibility after 30 for rape and murder. The case prompted widespread debate about violence against women in Australia. (BBC News)
- 25 October 2019 –
- Hundreds of tourists flock to Uluru in Australia's Northern Territory to climb it for the last time before the park's ban on climbing goes into effect. The ban is being implemented to respect the wishes of the indigenous Aṉangu people, who find Uluru sacred. (Reuters)
Did you know... -
- ... that the Disher Challenge Cup, an annual rowing race, is named after Clive Disher, who rowed for the winning Australian eight in the 1919 Henley Royal Peace Regatta?
- ... that Peter Bonsall-Boone and his partner personally appealed to the Australian prime minister to legalise same-sex marriage?
- ... that Episode 8052 of the Australian soap opera Neighbours concerns the death of series regular Sonya Rebecchi, whose portrayer's contract was not renewed to reduce production costs?
- ... that Macrozamia riedlei, a favoured food plant of southwest Australians, was responsible for the accidental poisoning of some early European explorers?
- ... that the children's book Wombat Divine was written in response to the publisher's request for "a typically Australian Christmas story"?
Topics
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Consider joining WikiProject Australia, a WikiProject dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of topics related to Australia. The project page and its subpages contain suggestions on formatting and style of articles, which can be discussed at the project's notice board. To participate, simply add your name to the project members page.
As of 22 November 2019, there are 172,525 articles within the scope of WikiProject Australia. Including non-article pages, such as talk pages, redirects, categories, etcetera, there are 424,082 pages in the project.
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