AUSTRALIA (DOWN UNDER)

Australia is a continent comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous small islands. Its name comes from the Latin "australis", meaning southern. It has over 23.000 million inhabitants and English is the de facto national language. The most important cities are its capital, Camberra, Sydney (the largest one), Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. Its currency is the Australian dollar and people drive on the left. Aussie is the slang word for the country or for its people.

When we speak about the history of Australia we refer to the history of the area and people of the Commonwalth of Australia and its preceding indigenous and colonial societies. Aboriginal Australians are believed to have first arrived on the Australian mainland by boat from Maritime Southeast Asia between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago. The artistic, musical and spiritual traditions they established are among the longest surviving traditions in human history.

There are accounts of Dutch explorers setting foot on the island before 1770, when James Cook charted the Esastern Coast of Australia for Britain. A first fleet of British ships arrived at Botany Bay in January 1778 to establish a penal colony;  trying to alleviate pressure on their overburdened correctional facilities.

In the century that followed, the British established other colonies on the continent, and European explorers ventured into its interior. Indigenous Australians were greatly weakened and their numbers diminished by introduced diseases and conflict with the colonists during this period. The 1960s of the last century was a key decade for indigenous rights

Gold rushes and agricultural industries brought prosperity. Autonomous Parliamentry democrcies began to be established throughout the six British colonies from the mid-19th century. The colonies voted by referendum to unite in a federation in 1901, and modern Australia came into being. Australia fought on the side of Britain in the two world wars and became a long-standing ally of the USA when threatened by Japan during World War II. Trade with Asia increased and a post-war multicultural immigration programme received more than 6.5 million migrants from every continent.

The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush" which, colloquially, can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. Mount Uluru is a sacred place for the Aborigines.

Apart from kangaroos, koalas and Sydney's Opera House, other Australian celebrities are singer Kylie Minogue, actresses Naomi Watts, Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman, actors Mel Gibson, Simon Baker (The Mentalist) and Hugh Jackman, model Elle Mcpherson, and writers David Malouf and Nobel Prize winner Patrick White. Famous movies set in Australia are Muriel's Wedding or Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Advance Australia Fair is the official anthem, but most popular is Waltzing Matilda, the "unofficial" national anthem.
Soccer, cricket and rugby are the favourite sports.
To finish with, here is a video where you can appreciate the beauty of Australia's most populated city, Sydney.