Australia is the only continent that is also a country and an island.

Canberra is the capital of Australia. This is the Parliament house in Canberra.

Australia’s flag has the British Union Flag, five

stars for the Southern Cross

constellation, and a large star for

the commonwealth.

Australia’s Coats of Arm

It has a kangaroo and an emu; wattle blossoms; a shield with coats of arms of

the six states; and a star for the Commonwealth.

The Five States in Australia

Western Australia

Northern Territory

Queensland

New South Wales

South Australia

Tasmania

The Look of the Land

These hills are considered mountains in Australia.

The Great Western Plateau

The plants here are mostly drought-resistant mulga scrub.

The Gibber Desert

This desert gets about 5 inches of rain a year.It is covered with wind polished

stones. Gibber is the aboriginal word for stones.

The Eastern Highlands

This is one of the many

water falls in Southern

Queensland that pours

into a mossy canyon.

City Life

This is a busy railroad station in Perth. Perth is a city on the southwest coast in Australia.

This is the city of

Melbourne. Almost

All of Australia’s people live in cities.

These cities have

shops, restaurants, and tall buildings just like those in the U.S.

This is the Sydney Opera House. It is one of the most famous buildings in Sydney.

Life on the Cattle and Sheep Station

The best-known job in Australia is farming. The wide, open spaces of the countryside are the perfect place for

raising animals such as cattle and sheep.

The Outback

It is mainly deserts and grasslands on which cattle and sheep graze.

Sheep and cows are raised by the ranchers in Australia.

This man has a sheep station in the Outback. A station is like a ranch. He has thousands of sheep on his station. His workers uses dogs to find his

sheep, and they often ride motorcycles to round up the sheep.

Aborigines have lived in Australia for thousands of years. Some of them work in the Outback and

have their own cattle stations.

Much of south and central Australia is very hot and dry. It is called the “Outback.” Alice Spring is the biggest town in the Outback.

Aborigines are descendants of Australia's first settlers. They

came to Australia thousands of

years ago. Their history is similar to the American

Indians. Most Aborigines live in rural areas. But recently more

young people are moving to the

cities.

Aborigine boys playing at corroborees just as you play at doing grown-up things. Corroborees are special tribal dances where the aborigines retell stories. The dancers chant and stamp their feet to the sound of pipes called didjeridooos.

Long ago, aborigines believe the earth was flat and empty. Then, their world of light and dark, rocks and plants, birds and animals was formed by the deeds of a race of mysterious creatures. This was the creation of Dreamtime. They drew these pictures on bark and cave walls.

A Bark Painting

This painting was done on the inside of the bark of a Eucalyptus

tree.

Can you find two

kangaroos, a marsupial rat, a goanna, an emu, a long

neck turtle,and a straw bag?

Aboriginal Bark Painting

The Ayer’s Rock belongs to the Aborigines. Their name for it is Uluru. The cave painting done by the Aborigines in the caves at Uluru are very famous.

The Ayers Rock is the largest one-piece rock in the world.

This is one of the cave drawing on the cave wall at Uluru (or Ayer’s Rock.)

Work

In

Australia The wool and meat from these animals will be

sold to people all over the world.

Cowboys from

Victoria

This is an opal miner in Cober

Pedy.

Barbeque in Australia-(Salad, steak, drink)

How does it compare to our cookouts?

Cattleman cooks outdoors in Victoria.

Australians eat many of the

same foods we do. Meat,

potatoes, and bread are all

favorite dishes. Fresh

vegetables and fruit are

popular, too. They also like

foods from other

countries.

Cooking Noodles at a market

in Darwin.

Pastimes

Yacht Race

Camel Race at Alice Springs

Lifeguards

Team sports are very popular. Rugby is very rough and dangerous. Cricket is a little like American baseball.The men below are playing football.

School in Australia

Australian

children start

school when

they are about five

years old. They learn math,

reading, science,

and writing just as you do.

Students in the outback live to far away to attend regular

schools. Instead,

they learn through

schools of the air. Students

receive and turn in their homework by mail. Teachers

and students

talk to each other on two–way radios.

Animals in

Australia

Marsupials give birth to tiny,

underdeveloped young. The young

continue to develop, often in

pouches, or folds of skin , on their

mother’s belly. Many of Australian mammals belong to

this group. Marsupials feed at

night.Mountain Possum

The Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves and sleep in the branches of eucalyptus trees.

With her baby safe in her lap,

the mother koala reaches for food. The

marsupials eat only the leaves

of the eucalyptus trees. The leaves give them all the water they need. They live in the

treetops of the eucalyptus

tree.

The “Wallaby

”

is part of the

kangaroo family,

but smaller.

This wallaby

is unusual. Do you know why?

During a quarrel –real

or just in play- one kangaroo uses it tail as a prop

while it tries to kick the

other. Kangaroos

usually lives together

peacefully.

The baby joey returns to its

mother’s pouch for food and

protection.

Kangaroos often get hit by cars on the roads, so cars have “roo” bars in front of their engines. This bar protects the engines and lights if a kangaroos

suddenly hop into the road.

Patches of white mark the thick woolly coat of a spotted cuscus. This round-faced

animal has a yellowish nose

and bulging yellow eyes. He

uses his tail as an extra hand. A

cuscus is a marsupial about the size of a cat.

Some people mistake them for

monkeys.

Built for burrowing, the wombat waddles on short, powerful legs. Wombats use

mostly their strong front legs to dig tunnels. The wombat is a marsupials.

The glider is a member of the

possum family. A glider stretches out flaps of skin that catch the air

the way wings do. It can travel the length of a

football field. It feeds at night on leaves, fruit, sap

and insects.

Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs. Platypuses and

echidnas are the only monotremes.

A platypus,

is a strange animal

that has a bill and webbed

feet like a duck,fur

like a otter, and a tail like a beaver. It hatches it babies

from eggs.

A young echidna lies curled in a

flap of skin on its mother’s belly. It won’t be there much longer. Its

spines have begun to appear. Once they start

poking the mother, she will

put the your echidna in a hollow log or

among rocks and care for it there.

A flock of emus race through a field. These huge birds run fast- as fast as 30 miles an hour- and far. But they can’t

fly.

Moving gently, a male emu

tends a nest full of green eggs. After the female emu lays the eggs, the male

takes over. He hatches them and takes care

of the chicks

The female bowerbird watches the male. He decorates the nest with bits of

colored materials.

The

frilled lizard strikes a

scary pose atop a termite mound.

This reptile may grow

up to 3 feet long.

An angry frill-necked lizard ruffles its frills to frighten an enemy.

This is the Tasmanian devil. A disturbed Tasmanian devil snarls and will freeze in a threatening posture and stay that way

until the enemy goes away. They eat mostly dead animals.

The Great Barrier ReefIt is the world’s

largest coral reef. The

reef is about 1,250 miles.

Its beauty attracts many skin divers.

-Great Barrier Reef: This is what you might see

through a glass-bottom boat.

A female weedy sea dragon and her young drift through the water, pushed along by transparent fins.

Bye! I hope you liked your visit to Australia.