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Even a few days here are worth it; a month would be great. Australia -Terra Australis or the Southern Land, is not a place that can be explored thoroughly in a few weeks. Australia is HUGE, the distances are massive and every part of the country has mind-blowing sights that you'd be crazy to miss. Take your pick-bushwalk in the vast Australian outback, ski in the Australian Alps or go walkabout along the Gold Coast. Enthusiasts can snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef, hike in the Blue Mountains, bungee-jump into gorges, party at one of Melbourne's numerous festivals or just hop along with the kangaroos.

It's a whole new world packed into one continent, packed into one country.In the Aborigines, an indigenous people with its distinctive culture; in its countryside, a natural beauty that leaves visitors gasping and in its wildlife, creatures that defy the imagination! To top it all, Australia is a safe country with laid-back people and endless tourism opportunities.

So leave your worries behind and dive down under.

The Great Barrier Reef runs over 2015 km and is the longest coral reef in the world.

It is interesting to note that there are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, and only some 20 million people!

Watch out for the stingers (jellyfish) November to May whilst swimming in the sea off Cairns

Historically Speaking

Seems a little unfair but the history of Australians will always bring to mind their convict origin. The history of Australia actually dates back to many thousands of years before the European explorers first arrived in the 1600s. The Australian Aborigine (literally meaning 'indigenous') inhabited the continent for the last 35,000 to 40,000 years. Then more hospitable, the terrain was wetter, had large forests and many inland lakes teeming with fish.

The 'discovery' of Australia by European colonizers happened in the early 1500s. The Portuguese were the first, soon followed by the Dutch. In the 1640s, Abel Tasman made two expeditions to Australia and discovered the region, now known as Tasmania. But the most enterprising explorer of Australia was a pirate, William Dampier, who 40 years after Abel Tasman, made the first explorations inshore, on the west coast. Based on his findings, the Europeans formed their mental image of Australia as a dismal and godforsaken land.

When the British sent Captain James Cook to Tahiti in 1768, a serious search for the Southern Land began. Cook sailed into Botany Bay, 15

km from what is now Sydney, and thus began the colonization of Australia. The normally uncommunicative aborigines sent out clear signals that they wanted the visitors gone but Cook raised the Union Jack, renamed the continent New South Wales and claimed it for the British in the name of King George III, before he sailed off home to England.

Colonization & Convict Transportation: This is where the more interesting part of Australian history begins, (also the one they'd most like to forget!). The Americans declared independence from British Rule; and with one colony short, the British search for new colonies began. British prisons were bursting at the seams and with no solution in sight, until in 1779, it was suggested that New South Wales become a colony of thieves. Never mind that Australia had been inhabited for the past 40000 years, and the rightful inhabitants would have to live alongside British criminals.

The conditions were harsh, the prison guards cruel and the convicts (some convicted for petty crimes) had almost no hope of returning to Britain. The colony grew began growing its own food and gradually its dependence on England diminished. Social schisms arose between convicts and officers, free settlers and freed convicts (who’d stayed on to earn a living). As officers, freed convicts and others acquired land, New South Wales grew and became an important part of the trade route.

The introduction of sheep brought about vast profits in sheep-farming. Whaling and sealing boomed and generally life in the colony improved. The gold rush in the 1850s made Australia a very attractive destination for many immigrants and really boosted the population. Transportation of convicts was finally abolished in 1868. But by that time, more than 168,000 convicts had been shipped to Australia.

The next forty years were the years of discovery. Those who dared to venture into the unknown outback explored various parts of Australia. Many explorers risked their lives, in the process discovering the natural wonders of Australia.

The 1850s Gold Rush:

It was the gold rush that made Australia an economic power at the time. People realized the enormous amounts of raw material and mineral resources available for England’s growing industrial market. Potential miners arrived in droves from all parts of the world, America, Britain, China and Europe. They brought with them their music, culture, stories and folklore. Towns grew to accommodate them. New roads were built. Non-aboriginal Australian culture germinated and new folk heroes were born. The economy boomed as more gold reserves were discovered.

Birth of Australia:

As Australia grew in economic power, it consolidated itself. Demand in the 1890s for a federation of the separate colonies led to Australia becoming a nation on 1st January, 1901 It adopted a constitution and each state of Australia, regardless of the size and population was given equal representation in the senate (or upper house). It still retained its cultural and legal ties with Britain, the Queen of England remained the Queen of Australia, with a Governor General appointed by as her representative.

Australia sent troops to Europe to fight alongside the Allies in WWI. Ditto for WWII, except that when the Japanese attacked Australian shores, it was the Yankees who came to their rescue and from then onwards there was a perceptible shift in allegiance towards the Americans. Post world wars, Aussies displayed extreme xenophobic tendencies. Whether it was the threat of the Japanese attacking or the threat of immigrants taking over their jobs, or even the sense of being a European colony surrounded by Asia, the Australians came up with the Immigration Restriction Bill of 1901. Also known as the White Australia policy, it made immigration extremely difficult (for non- Europeans). Entrants had to pass a dictation in a European language, which could be Polish, Danish or even Icelandic. The objective was to keep immigrants out and the policy was continued till 1958.

The Depression hit Australia pretty hard, but by 1933 the economy had begun to recover. The 30s also saw the rise of Robert Gordon Menzies of the Liberal Party, who was to spend 18 years of his life as Prime Minister of Australia.

Post 1970, Australia went through a period of civil unrest because of conscription introduced in 1964. The unrest led to the rise of the Labour Party, which withdrew Australian troops from Vietnam, abolished national service and higher-education fees, introduced free health care and supported land rights for the Aboriginal people. When the Governor General dismissed the Labour Government in November 1975, it was seen as direct intervention by the British Representative and led to large numbers of Australians wanting an Australian Republic rather than a constitutional monarchy.

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Habitat

Geographically, Australia is one of the most stunning places in the world. It is an island continent, which broke away from Gondwanaland (a super continent formed 600 million years ago) about 100 million years ago and has been drifting ever since. Right now it’s drifting at about 55mm per year. One wonders how they measure that!

Australia is the world’s sixth largest country. It constitutes 5% of the earth's land surface, 4000 km from east to west and 3200 km from north to south, and has a 25, 760 km long coastline. The amazing Great Barrier Reef, a natural underwater wonder curves alongside the eastern coastline, off Queensland. Truly a traveller’s paradise.

The terrain is basically low plateau with deserts; the fertile plains lie in the southeast. The eastern coast of Australia has a fertile strip concentrated with population. Further inland comes the Great Australian Divide beyond which starts the famous Outback. The West Coast has similar fertile strip but only in the south. The north receives erratic rainfall, which makes farming difficult. The rest of Australia is extremely inhospitable, mainly dry

hot plains and harsh deserts. It’s here, though that you find some of the most stunning sites like the Uluru or Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta (Olga). Australia is virtually sprinkled with geographical wonders.

Highest point: Mt. Kosciuszko

Lowest point: Lake Eyre

Australia is one of the 12 most biologically diverse countries in the world, because of its size and different climatic conditions and is home to many unique animals and plants, which evolved to survive the climate. A few years ago a unique species of tree was found that goes back to the dinosaur age!

Eco Alert! The environment in Australia has been severely damaged over the past 200 years, largely due to over-grazing, poor farming practices, soil erosion and increasing levels of soil salinity. Almost 70% of all native vegetation has been destroyed, and more than 600,000 hectares of land is cleared annually for farming and timber. The Great Barrier Reef, a unique eco-system, is itself under threat from increased shipping and excessive tourism. Many unique native species of birds, fish and animals have disappeared. On a positive note, as people are become more aware, things are getting better with organizations trying to make a change in Australia's environmental policies sprouting up.

Flora & Fauna: Australia has evolved from a continent covered with rainforests to a continent with both deserts and snowy peaks. The legendary and fascinating marsupials - Kangaroo, Possums, Koala (which means ‘no water’ in aborigine referring to the Koala's ability to get all the moisture it needs from gum leaves), Echidnas, Platypus, Wombats, Wallabies, – birds like the laughing kookaburra, galahs and emus, magpies (they attacked the Olympic cyclists), fish, whales, sharks and seals, reptiles and lizards, salt and fresh water crocodiles and thousands of other species are the original inhabitants of Australia. Many of them are now extinct and still others endangered due to land clearing and the introduction of foreign species.

Forests cover 5% of the land but fascinating plants are found in the arid center. There are more than 700 native Australian grasses growing across the country, amongst them the sturdy and drought resistant Mitchell grass – fodder for cattle, and spinifex – home to large numbers of reptiles. Shrubs and flowers, cycads and ferns, trees including the fascinating Boab (grows only in Victoria and stores water in its bloated trunk); the ubiquitous gum trees (95% of the world’s 700 species grow in Australia) and flowering trees like banksias, acacias and wattles, the list of native flora is as interesting as it is long. The dry arid semi desert regions transform themselves into a veritable carpet of flowers at the first shower of rain, a sight that has to be experienced.

The nation’s floral emblem, the Golden Wattle covers all of Australia in a gold coloured cloud.

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