Australia

Commonwealth of Australia
Flag
Arms
Capital	Canberra
Government	Constitutional monarchy
Monarch	Queen Elizabeth II
Official Language	English
Governor General	Quentin Bryce
Prime Minister	Kevin Rudd
Area	2,988,888 sq miles
Population (2007 estimate)	21,100,000
GDP (2007 estimate)	US$718.4 billion
GDP per capita (2007 estimate)	US$34,359

The Commonwealth of Australia is an independent nation that occupies the continent of Australia, with its west coast on the Indian Ocean, east coast on the Pacific Ocean facing New Zealand, southern coast on the Southern Ocean facing Antarctica, and northern coast bordering Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Australia is considered geographically as part of Oceania, but has been establishing its place politically and commercially in South East Asia.

Australia is the only country to occupy an entire continent, the smallest of the planet's seven continents. It is 2,400 miles, (3,860 km) from east to west and 2,000 miles (3,220 km) from north to south. It covers an area of 2,967,877 sq miles (7,686,810 sq km). The Australian coastline is 22,812 miles long (36,735 kilometers). The mainland of Australia is about the same size as the mainland 48 states of the USA.

Australia has six states and two internal territories. The states are New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. The internal territories are the Northern Territory (responsible government since 1978) and the Australian Capital Territory (responsible government since 1988) which is the location of Australia's capital city, Canberra. External territories include Christmas Island and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

History

Pre European Contact

Aboriginal art, Adelaide Museum, South Australia

Prior to European settlement, Australia was inhabited by people who are commonly known as Aborigines although they come from over 700 smaller nations each with their own tribal name and language. Over time, many of these nations and tribes lost their identity or were decimated by disease, poor nutrition, massacres by white settlers and the forced removal of children from their parents into white families or mission stations. Nevertheless, many Aboriginal languages and traditions have survived the more than 200 years of white settlement. Under recent legislation recognising native title, Aboriginal communities now have the right to claim back land dispossessed from them where they can prove that lasting cultural links still persist and where the native title has not been extinguished by freehold or leasehold title.

The original inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands and far northern Queensland are different and are known as Torres Strait Islanders. These people are more closely related to Melanesians than to Aborigines. The term usually used to include all indigenous Australians is "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders".

Post European Contact

European discovery of the mainland of Australia was by Dutch sailors heading to the spice isles of what is now Indonesia, in the 16th Century. Most of their descriptions of Australia are based on the exploration of the North West coast which is very rugged and inhospitable.

In 1770 the English navigator, Lieutenant James Cook, Captain of the Royal Navy bark, HMS Endeavour, discovered the east coast of Australia which is much more capable of maintaining life and settlers. In 1788 the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove, New South Wales - comprising officers, Marines, convicts and a very few free settlers. Later fleets brought more convicts who were dispersed also to Tasmania and other remote settlements. Over time, when freed, the former convicts settled areas beyond Sydney Harbour.

As the 18th century came to a close convicts were given land packages and more free settlers came to the land in the hope of setting up farms and businesses. A number of colonies started to be formed - the most populated being New South Wales (whose capital city is Sydney). These colonies later became the states.

The 1850s saw the discovery of gold and large number of people moved to Australia to find new wealth. Most of these people were British, although there were also many dispossessed by the "land clearings" in Scotland and the Irish potato famine, and there was a significant number of Chinese immigrants during this rush. "Americans were drawn to Australia to participate in various enterprises such as the gold fields"

System of Government

Australia became a federated country on 1 January 1901 under the Constitution of Australia, and all former British colonies became states. The declaration of federation was made in Sydney. The parliament met in Melbourne, Victoria, until the infrastructure was built for the capital city, Canberra.

Australia has a parliamentary system of government based on the British system with a bicameral system meeting as the Parliament of Australia, consisting of the Australian House of Representatives and the Australian Senate. Each state and territory also has its own parliament.

The two other branches of government under the Constitution are the Executive (Governor-General of Australia taking advice from the Ministers) and the High Court of Australia.

Australia is a democracy which has allowed men of European descent to vote since federation, with non-Aboriginal women gaining the vote in 1902 and Aboriginal men and women gaining suffrage in 1962. Voting is compulsory for all citizens who are 18 years old and over (with a few exceptions.)

Australia's Head of Government is the Prime Minister of Australia. The current Prime Minister is Kevin Rudd, the leader of the parliamentary wing of the Australian Labor Party which won the federal election on 24 November 2007. The Deputy Prime Minister is Julia Gillard, the first woman to hold the position, and the first woman to be Acting Prime Minister (during the temporary absence of Rudd on his first overseas trip.)

The Head of State is Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen of Australia (who is the same person, but a different title, as the Queen of Great Britain.) Under the Constitution, and in practice, the authority of the Head of State is vested in the Governor-General of Australia, currently Quentin Bryce AC, Previously Governor of Queensland, who assents to acts of parliament, is the Commander in Chief of the military forces, and appoints all Ministers of the Government; all these various powers are normally exercised on advice from the Prime Minister.

The Government of Australia is exercised, day-to-day, by the Ministers through their various Departments of State.

Voting

For a more detailed treatment, see Voting in Australia.

Australia has preferential voting, and voting is compulsory for most people. Preferential voting encourages a multiplicity of parties and independent candidates, and counting the votes and allocating preferences can take some time where the results are close.

Terms

There is no limit on the time a person can be a Member of Parliament (MP) (elected, notionally, for 3 years, but the timing of elections is decided by the Prime Minister) or a Senator (elected for two cycles of the House of representatives.) The Prime Minister is normally a member of the House of Representatives, and the tenure is not limited by statute. Ministers may continue to serve for up to three months when not a Member or Senator, but must in that time be elected in order to continue. (John Gorton was a Senator when appointed leader of his party after the death of his predecessor. He immediately resigned from the Senate and stood for election to the House of Representatives, while remaining Prime Minister throughout.)

Parliamentary political parties

Currently, the main political parties in Australia are:

• Australian Greens
• Australian Labor Party
• Family First Party
• Liberal Party of Australia
• National Party of Australia

Despite the US connotation associated with the name, the Liberal Party is conservative in political stance. Robert Menzies helped found the Liberal Party in 1944 and was the Prime Minister from 1939 until 1941 and then again from 1949 until 1966. The term "liberal" refers to the party's predominantly-free-market approach to economic management.

The party currently in power is the Australian Labor Party. The Labor Party is also in government in all of the states and territories. The Prime Minister is Kevin Rudd.

Though the Labor party is "social democratic" and the Liberals are "liberal conservatives", some of the smaller parties are more left leaning or more conservative than Labor and Liberal respectively.

See also a list of Prime Ministers of Australia.

The Prime Minister of Australia is the most senior elected person in the country. The role is normally filled by the parliamentary leader of the party which forms the government.

Geography

Sydney opera house

Australia relies a great deal on industry, agriculture and tourism to foster its economy. It has a thriving film industry and very advanced technology. Most tourists visit places such as Sydney Harbour, Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Central Australia and the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. Other favourite destinations are the wine making areas of South Australia and northern Victoria, the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, the natural wonders of Tasmania and the huge outback expanses of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Some cattle stations in Australia rival Texas in size and the distance between towns in some areas is enormous.

80% of Australia's population, of just over 20,000,000 people, live on the coast line. It is one of the world's most sparsely populated countries (2.7 people per square kilometre). Water is scarce and some cities have some form of water restrictions in place.

Weather extremes are common in Australia with temperatures sometimes measured into the high 40s Celsius (45 degrees Celsius = 113 degrees Fahrenheit). The city of Darwin was destroyed by Cyclone Tracey in 1974 and bush fires often ravage the southern states - one of the worst occurring on Ash Wednesday in 1983 when over 2,000 homes were destroyed and over 70 people lost their lives in Victoria and South Australia.

Australia is noted for its unique biodiversity. Many animals are found only in Australia, the most well known examples are the group of marsupials (kangaroos, wombats, wallabies and koalas), and the only two monotremes, the platypus and the echidna. Examples of plants that are native to Australia are the banksia, yellow wattle and gum tree.

Studies indicate that Australia's unique wildlife is the result of Australia becoming an island, being cut off from the Asian land bridge between 40,000–250,000 years ago on the uniformitarian timescale.

Sport

Australia is often known as a sporting nation with success worldwide in swimming, tennis, rugby union, cricket, netball,and basketball. Australians are very keen horse racers with the Melbourne Cup attracting up to 120,000 spectators at Flemington Race Course on the first Tuesday in November. There is a public holiday for the cup race in Melbourne, while the remainder of the country virtually pauses during the running of the cup race. Because the mandated US Election Day is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the Melbourne Cup also coincides (mostly) every second year with the American Congressional elections and every four years with the Presidential election.

Unique to Australia is a game known as Australian rules football or Aussie Rules, which is played on a cricket oval in winter. Australian rules football is the sport most attended in the states of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and most attended overall in Australia; in 2006 2.5 million people had attended at least one Aussie Rules game in the preceding 12 months.[1] Australian Rules Football was written by persons educated at the Rugby School in England and Cambridge University before the organisation of uniform football codes. It is not as popular in New South Wales and Queensland although premiership teams are based in these two states.

The other national football code is rugby league. Rugby league football is the most attended sport in New South Wales and Queensland with its premier club competition being the National Rugby League.

Religion

Australia is a secular nation, in that it has no established religion associated with the Government. Of Australia's population of around 21 million, approximately 1.5 million attend weekly religious services . The Australian public school system is described as "free, secular and compulsory" with the secular meaning without favour to any particular religion - most primary schools, however, do offer some form of non-compulsory religious education according to the parents' wishes. The state systems of a number of states offer studies in religion at the senior level.

There is a large Catholic school system in Australia with most parishes having their own primary school and many hundreds of Catholic High Schools across the country. There are also a large number of independent schools founded by various religions or denominations of the Christian faith - some hold that religious background to be more important than others.

Comparing Australian and U.S. Economic and Health statistics

Whilst the Australian society is similar in many aspects to those of the U.S., a comparison of key economic (in $U.S.) and health indicators highlights some interesting fundamental differences:

	Australia	U.S.
GDP Per Capita	$32,900.00	$43,500.00
Budget Deficit/Surplus Per capita	$444.00 surplus. Australia has had budget surpluses every year since 2001	$841.00 deficit
Public Debt	14.1% of GDP	64.7% of GDP
Military Expenditure	2.5 % of GDP	4.06% of GDP
Life Expectancy at Birth (combined male and female)	80.5 years	77.85 years
Infant Mortality Rates deaths/1,000 live births	4.63	6.43
HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rates	0.1% of population	0.6% of population

Australia has a universal health scheme and significant subsidies on most prescription medications.

Bibliography

References

• Bambrick, Susan ed. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Australia (1994)
• Davison, Graeme, John Hirst, and Stuart Macintyre, eds. The Oxford Companion to Australian History (2001) online at many academic libraries; also excerpt and text search
• O'Shane, Pat et al. Australia: The Complete Encyclopedia (2001)
• Shaw, John, ed. Collins Australian Encyclopedia (1984)
• Serle. Percival, ed. Dictionary of Australian Biography (1949)online edition
• Vaisutis, Justine et al. Lonely Planet Sydney & New South Wales (2007) excerpt and text search

Economics

• Kelly, Paul. The End of Certainty: Power, Politics and Business in Australia, Allen & Unwin, 1994,
• McLean, Ian W. "Consumer Prices and Expenditure Patterns in Australia 1850-1914." Australian Economic History Review(1999) 39(1): 1-28; includes a consumer price index (CPI) for the period 1850 to 1914. Issn: 0004-8992 Fulltext: Ebsco
• Moran, Anthony. Australia: Nation, Belonging, and Globalization Routledge, 2004 online edition

Environment and Geography

• Appleton, Richard, and Barbara Appleton. The Cambridge Dictionary of Australian Places (1993)
• Dovers, Stephen. Australian Environmental History: Essays & Cases (1995) excerpt and text search
• Garden, Don. Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific: An Environmental Hisory. ABC-CLIO, 2005. 398 pp.
• Hutton, Drew, and Libby Connors. History of the Australian Environment Movement (1999) excerpt and text search
• Lines, William. Taming the Great South Land: A History of the Conquest of Nature in Australia (1992)

History

• Alomes, Stephen. A Nation at Last? The Changing Character of Australian Nationalism (1988)
• Atkinson, Alan. The Europeans in Australia: A History. Vol. 2: Democracy. Oxford U. Pr., 2005. 440 pp.
• Barker, Anthony. What Happened When: A Chronology of Australia from 1788. Allen & Unwin. 2000. online edition
• Basset, Jan. The Oxford Illustrated Dictionary of Australian History (1998)
• Bolton, Geoffrey. The Oxford History of Australia: Volume 5: 1942-1995. The Middle Way (2005)
• Clark, Manning. A History of Australia 6 vol (Melbourne University Press, 1962, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1981, and 1987)
• Clarke, Frank G. The History of Australia 2002. online edition
• Crowley; F. K. Australia's Western Third: A History of Western Australia from the First Settlements to Modern Times 1960 online edition
• Davison, Graeme, John Hirst, and Stuart Macintyre, eds. The Oxford Companion to Australian History (2001) online at many academic libraries; also excerpt and text search
• Day, Alan. Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia. Scarecrow, 2003. 321 pp.
• Day, David. Claiming a Continent: A New History of Australia (2001);
• Day, David. Reluctant Nation: Australia and the Allied Defeat of Japan 1942-45 (1992),
• Goodall, Heather. Invasion to Embassy: Land in Aboriginal Politics in New South Wales, 1770–1972 (Allen&Unwin, 1996)
• Davison, Graeme, John Hirst, and Stuart Macintyre, eds. The Oxford Companion to Australian History, (2001) excerpt and text search
• Edwards, John. Curtin's Gift: Reinterpreting Australia's Greatest Prime Minister, (2005) online edition
• Hearn, Mark, Harry Knowles, and Ian Cambridge. One Big Union: A History of the Australian Workers Union 1886-1994 (1998)
• Hughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding (1988). excerpt and text search
• Kemp, Rod, and Marion Stanton, eds. Speaking for Australia: Parliamentary Speeches That Shaped Our Nation Allen & Unwin, 2004 online edition
• Kingston, Beverley. The Oxford History of Australia: Volume 3: 1860-1900 Glad, Confident Morning (1993)
• Kociumbas, Jan. The Oxford History of Australia: Volume 2: 1770-1860 Possessions (1995)
• Lowe, David. Menzies and the 'Great World Struggle': Australia's Cold War 1948-54 (1999) online edition
• Macintyre, Stuart. The Oxford History of Australia: Volume 4: 1901-42, the Succeeding Age (1993)
• Macintyre, Stuart. A Concise History of Australia (2004) excerpt and text search
• McLachlan, Noel. Waiting for the Revolution: A History of Australian Nationalism (1989)
• Martin, A. W. Robert Menzies: A Life (2 vol 1993-99), online at ACLS e-books
• Reynolds, Henry. The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal Resistance to the European Invasion of Australia (1990).
• Schreuder, Deryck, and Stuart Ward, eds. Australia's Empire (Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series) (2008) excerpt and text search
• Serle. Percival, ed. Dictionary of Australian Biography (1949)online edition
• Taylor, Peter. The Atlas of Australian History (1991)
• Ward, Smart. Australia and the British Embrace: The Demise of the Imperial Ideal (2001)

Historiography

• Attwood, Bain, and Fiona Magowan. Telling Stories: Indigenous History and Memory in Australia and New Zealand (2001) online edition
• Davison, Graeme. The Use and Abuse of Australian History (2000) online edition
• McLean, David. "Australia in the Cold War: A Historiographical Review", The International History Review, Vol. 23, 2 (June 2001)
• McQueen, Humphrey. Gallipoli to Petrov: Arguing with Australian History (1984),
• Meaney, Neville. "Britishness and Australian Identity: The Problem of Nationalism in Australian History and Historiography", Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 32, 116 (April 2001),
• Nugent, Maria. Botany Bay: Where Histories Meet (2005) online edition

International Relations and Military

• Bridge, Carl ed., Munich to Vietnam: Australia's Relations with Britain and the United States since the 1930s, Melbourne University Press 1991
• Dennis, Peter, Jeffrey Grey, Ewan Morris, and Robin Prior. The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History. 1996)
• Firth, Stewart. Australia in International Politics: An Introduction to Australian Foreign Policy (2005) online edition
• Grant, Ian. A Dictionary of Australian Military History - from Colonial Times to the Gulf War (1992)
• Lee, David. Search for Security: The Political Economy of Australia's Postwar Foreign and Defence Policy (1995)
• McLean, David. "From British Colony to American Satellite? Australia and the USA during the Cold War," Australian Journal of Politics & History" (2006) 52 (1), 64–79. Rejects satellite model. online at Blackwell-Synergy
• McLean, David. "Australia in the Cold War: a Historiographical Review." International History Review (2001) 23(2): 299-321. Issn: 0707-5332
• Murphy, John. Harvest of Fear: A History of Australia's Vietnam War (1993)
• Watt, Alan. The Evolution of Australian Foreign Policy 1938–1965, Cambridge University Press, 1967

Culture and society

• Bebbington, Warren. A Dictionary of Australian Music (1999)
• Bennett, Bruce et al. The Oxford Literary History of Australia (1999)
• Bennett, Tony, and David Carter. Culture in Australia: Policies, Publics and Programs (2001) excerpt and text search
• Breward, Ian. A History of the Churches in Australasia. (2002). 474 pp.
• Carey, Hilary. Believing in Australia: A Cultural History of Religions (1996)
• Horton, David. The Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History, Society and Culture (2001)
• Huggan Graham. Postcolonialism, Racism, Transnationalism (Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures) (2007) excerpt and text search
• Jupp, James, ed. The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins (2nd ed. 2002) 960pp excerpt and text search
• Jupp, James. The English in Australia (2004) excerpt and text search
• Kleinert, Sylvia. and Margo Neale. The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture (2001)
• Leitner, Gerhard. Australia's Many Voices: Australian English--the National Language (2004) excerpt and text search
• Love, J.W. ed. Australia and the Pacific Islands (Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 9) (1998) excerpt and text search
• McAllister, Ian, Steve Dowrick, Riaz Hassan; The Cambridge Handbook of the Social Sciences in Australia Cambridge University Press, 2003 online edition
• McCulloch, Alan. Encyclopedia of Australian Art 2 vol (1984)
• McDonald, John. Federation: Australian Art and Society, 1901-2001. Natl. Gallery of Australia, 2002. 264 pp.
• Moran, Albert. Historical Dictionary of Australian Radio and Television (2007)
• Nile, Richard. The Making of the Australian Literary Imagination. (2002). 315 pp.
• Rickard, John, Australia: A Cultural History (1988)
• Webby, Elizabeth. The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature (2000) excerpt and text search
• Wilde, William H. et al eds. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (1995) online at OUP excerpt and text search
• The Oxford Literary History of Australia.
• Samuels, Selina, ed. Australian Writers, 1915-50. (2002). 510 pp.
• Sayers, Andrew. Australian Art (2001) excerpt and text search
• Webby, Elizabeth, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature (2006)
• Wannan, Bill. A Dictionary of Australian Folklore: Lore, Legends, Myths and Traditions (1988)

Primary sources

• Australia: Literature and History 136 e-books

External links

• Australian Government portal
• Australian Parliament House (Reps & Senate) portal
• Governor-General of Australia
• Australia and Oceania