1.

Geography

2.

Climate

3.

Animals

4.

People

5.	Political system

6.

Industry

7.	Towns, places

7.1	Western Australia

7.2	The Northern Territory

7.3	South Australia

7.4	Queensland

7.5	New South Wales

7.6

Sydney

7.7

Victoria

7.8

Canberra

7.9

Tasmania

“People

The population of Australia is some 16 million. About 90% of inhabitants live along the south-east coast. Deserts and the tropical northern part are almost inhabited. White people have lived in Australia for just over 200 years. The majority of people are of British origin, the native people are called the Aborigines that came from Indonesia. The Aborigines have been there for about 4000 years. They have many traditions and legends which they pass on from generation to generation by telling stories and singing songs. They didn´t have a written language so they had to rely on their memories to keep their stories alive. Many of their stories are about making of the earth and the coming of man to live there. They believe in a great snake which travelled over the land, settled hollows in which it collected water so that people could drink it. The arrival of white people brought an end to the traditional Aboriginal way of life. The Aborigines had lead a simple life, made tools from stone, clothes from plant fibres. They had never seen money before. They did all their trading by bartering with valuable axes, shell ornaments. They lived in tribes and clans. The head of the clan was called the Big Man. Their source of food was hunting and gathering. Men used to catch birds, snakes, crocodiles, and women with children used to pick fruits, caterpillars, ants, eggs. The dingo wild dog was the only animal that became domesticated. The Australians were divided into about 650 tribes that spoke about 500 different languages. Each tribe usually had its own dialect, name and customs, its own territory and hunting grounds.
Today the Aborigines have become civilised, discovered beer, money, Rugby. They are part of the international economy thanks to cofee bean farming. They haven´t abandoned their traditions. They still have special wooden shields. These were used in fights, but today they include writing and they are used as advertisement very often. They still use body paint and shell or bird feather decorations for special celebrations. Today specialised galleries display aboriginal art, tools, musical instruments and artefacts.
Now there are people from almost every country. Each of these groups have brought their own traditions from their land, but mostly people follow the English traditions of Christmas and Easter. Christmas is in summer and it can be very hot. Most Australians celebrate Christmas on December 25. They open their presents around the Christmas tree, then at midday eat roast turkey or chicken with vegetables and Christmas pudding. Their Christmas pudding is like a dark fruit cake with ice- cream or sauce. In the afternoon they go to the beach and have a barbecue evening meal.
Towns are often hundred kilometres away from each other in central Australia. There areń any schools, hospitals, ships. That´s why people who live on farms own often a plane in order to be able to go to towns. They can talk to doctors by radio. In emergency doctors come to them by a plane and take them to a hospital. These doctors are called Flying doctors. If somebody is sick or injured, people can call the base station of the Flying doctors and talk to a doctor. He will listen to a patient´s problem and decide what to do. Sometimes doctors fly to the patient, or just give help and say what to do. Children living in distant places don´t go to school. They are educated through correspondence school. That means they get homework through radio or TV and have to mail it to be grated.
The ordinary school year begins at the end of January or in February and finishes in the middle of December. December is one of the hottest months of the year. The daily temperature is somewhere between 36 and 45 degrees. During the night it´s nearly impossible to sleep, the temperature stays around 30 degrees.
Christmas activities usually start in the second week of December. Most shops and streets are decorated with coloured lights and ribbons. Mothers are very busy, because they bake cakes and biscuits. Men prepare garden and Christmas trees. The tree is made of plastic because it is too hot for a real tree. December 26th is Boxing Day. There are processions, people wear costumes and have a lot of fun.
There are some famous people to come from Australia: Kylie Minogue, members of INXS, singer Nick Cave and an actor Mel Gibson. Allen Marshall was a favourite novelist. He wrote a novel I can Jump Puddles. Patrick White was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Thomas Keneally won the Booker Prize for Schindler´s Ark."