The prison island of Australia

The year is 1835, another ship has just arrived at Port Jackson, Sydney with the so far biggest amount of prisoners on bout. The prison general said that some of them were to come and help us with building up the the Harbour of Port Phillips. But I don't know. He also said that last time a convict ship arrived here to the prison Island. I’ve only got approximately one and a half year left as a prisoner and after I’m a free man. I can move back to England, but I probably just stay here and join the other settlers.  - Charles May set to jail (7 years) for stealing.

Australia the land of beauty, extreme nature, big coast cities and animals as nowhere else. Actually have a more than less dark past. From 1788 - 1868 roughly 165.000 convicts were transported from overflowed english prisons to Australia, the UK’s answer to Alcatraz. The reason were that you in the UK would be sent to prison, for just about nothing. Instead of being handed a fine you got sent to prison.

The convicts got transported in big convict ships to Australia. But unfortunately a lot of the criminals were already dead when they arrived at the harbours in Australia.

The criminals wasn’t to be sitting on their ass all day in some Australian super prison. No, they were to work hard all day to build up a colony for England in Australia. The way criminal stood out from non criminals,b  were their black and yellow uniforms and with a fetter so that they couldn’t escape.

This utilization of the criminals resulted in a fast growing country and society. The prisoners normally stayed in Australia to join the newborn settlement instead of going back to England or where they came from.

Today if you go to Australia and ask people “Why do you live in Australia?” you will frequently get the answer “Because my forefathers were by some how criminals”.  

Heritage of Sydney

In New South Wales, Sydney,  an architectural icon is placed, mentioned at the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage Site. 233 individual suggestions, but the visuals of the mind of Danish Jørn Utzon attracted the most attention. Inspired by the simple act of peeling an orange, but still defined as genius.

But both the engineers and Jørn himself met lots of difficulties, realizing the vision. Constructing parts of one great sphere was not easy – but the solution of one problem only led to another. During the period, Australia had a new government with a new minister, David Huges, with no heart for architecture, design or art in general. The minister refused to pay for finishing the up-coming opera – which had already cost Australia round 23 mio. $. The rebuff made Jørn leave the project and close his office in Australia, to travel back home.

Yet the vision became reality, and was dedicated by the British queen Elisabeth in 1973. Jørn was not a part of the ceremony, and wasn’t mentioned that day either. However some appreciated the work of Jørn Utzon, and in the end, the mind of the founder was needed to re-design the inside furniture. Once more the trip went back to Sydney for the turbulent architect.

In addition to be a sensation in architectural history The Opera House is also the place for new ideas and modernity to bloom. Latest is the 18-day lasting Vivid event; for spectacular light, music and new ideas, part of the program.

The mountain in the desert

Ayers rock or Uluru as known by locals, is a huge sandstone rock located in a desert in the middle of Australia. The rock formation is about 348 m tall. Earlier it was known to be the largest stand alone rock in the entire world, but today we know that it actually goes about 6 km below ground. Making it a an astonishing sight, but not quite a world record, since it doesn't count as a rock. The rock is a holy place for the natives (aborigines), and you can find many drawings and scriptures from rituals, in caves that were dug out by wind and weather.

Today tourist infrastructure has been built next to the base of the rock since it is a very popular sightseeing destination for tourists on vacation.  Since the park was listed as a World Heritage Site, annual visitor numbers rose to over 400,000 visitors by the year 2000. Increased tourism provides regional and national economic benefits. It also presents an ongoing challenge to balance conservation, of cultural values and visitor needs. For example the native community has requested that tourists do not take photographs in certain parts of the cave system in the rock, because they view these places as holy.

An unexpected experience in Australia

When I was 7 years old, I went to Australia with my family in 3 months. It was so amazing, but sadly I don’t remember so much from the Trip, because of my ages. But something I clearly remember, was the day when, I experience to be really close to a typhoon. My mom and dad told me, we had to sleep in a cabin that night, because they were afraid our camper van would tip over. We arrived to a camping site in Cairns. I wasn't afraid or anything, I just didn't understand, what was going on. We met another danish family with a boy at my age. We played together, with his little figures of animals that lives in Australia. He borrowed me a figure of a Tasmanian Devil.

At night I could hear the storm outside, and I couldn't sleep. When we went out again the next morning, was everything destroyed. All the tress was fallen over, and everybody was so shocked, to see how it looked outside. In the News we heard about, how the rooftops was fallen of houses, in the city we were in before. I thought, I had to find the boy and give the figure back to him. But my mom told me, that they already had left, so I couldn't give it back to him. I kept the little figure, and I still have it today.

Long distance school

Australia is a very big country, and many of the Australian people live lots of kilometers from the nearest store, hospital and school. The children who live far away from everything of course also have to go to school. Children who live these places maybe has to drive two or three hours to get to school every day, the whole year around. Thats why the long distance schooling was invented.

When you are in a long distance school, you get teached over the webcam on a computer, through Skype for an example. Tests and other examinations is sent to her or him over the computer by email. Ones in a while the children need to go and see the teacher for real, to make sure that curtain skills and knowledge is being communicated in the right way. So the teaching requires some face to face contact. Distance learning in Australia covers most academic areas. So this mean, that no matter how long apart from a school people are, they will always have the chance of an education like anybody else. If this kind of teaching wasn’t invented lots of children would have a problem today, but thanks to our highly loved technology, this is possible.

The Aboriginals of Australia

What is the Aboriginals of Australia?
There are about 500 different Aboriginal people in Australia, each with their very own language and territory. These people are usually made up of a large number of separate clans. Aboriginal Australians are defined as people who are members "of the Aboriginal race of Australia". Archaeologists thinks that the Aboriginals first came to the Australian continent around 45.000 years ago. They used to live along the coasts, but today more than half of all Aboriginals actually live in towns, often on the outer parts in terrible conditions. Many others are workers for cattle ranches that have taken over their land. The Aboriginals’ land was invaded from the end of the 18th century onwards, with awful consequences for them. Most of the Aboriginal people have had their land stolen from them or destroyed. Children have been taken away from their families and culture, and the invasions also lead to diseases that killed thousands of people – many others were massacred. In a little more than a hundred years from the first invasion of their land, the numbers of Aboriginal people left in Australia were reduced from up to one million to only 60,000.

Storytelling, Art, and the Didgeridoo
Many people know the Aboriginals of Australia for their storytelling, art and didgeridoos. Their storytelling informs about the aboriginals' vibrant cultural life. Their songs illustrate the Dreamtime and all the other tales of the land, while dances and diagrams drawn in the sand play together as one big kind of stage play. The Aboriginal music is often recognized for its most famous instrument, the didgeridoo. The Aboriginals use their didgeridoos in formal ceremonies at events like sunsets, circumcisions, and funerals.

Conclusion
With an overall view, we can conclude that Australia wouldn’t be the same without the Aboriginal people. The Aboriginals were known as the first people in the country, and they bring a sort of originality to Australia. With their many different cultures, languages, traditions, beliefs, arts and musical instruments they give us an glimpse of what Australia once were. Even though they have gone through many difficulties and disasters, they’ve still kept true to themselves and their beliefs. It’s interesting to see the modern culture of Australia stand side by side with the old Aboriginals'.

The real life Tarzan

Steve Irwin, the famous movie star, lived and died in the dangerous animal world. He was the Australian Tarzan. Steve was, and still is, very famous for his many documentaries about the wildlife. He even became a wildlife expert. A lot of people called him a genius because they thought that he had some kind of animal spirit in him. The way he talked, moved and felt with the animals was something beyond human.  

Despite his dedication to the animal world, he still fell in love with a human. It was love at first sight when the couple, Steve Irwin and Terri Raines, met each other. They even got 2 children. So not only was Steve like the wild Tarzan fighting all kind of dangerous animals in the jungle, but he was also a family man. A very kind and sweet dad. The children even got to star in one of his documentaries.

But when things have a start, they’ll always have an end. Steve eventually died in the dangerous animal world. The world that he as a child was born in. Under the filming of “Ocean’s Deadliest”- one of his documentaries, he got pierced in the chest by a stingray. Steve Irwin died on the 4th of september 2006.

Steve managed to do a lot of things before his death. He of course got to make a lot of documentaries and films, but another thing that you still can see today, is the Australian zoo that he and his wife owned. Steve Irwin did indeed touch the world with many things.

Mile Jedinak (The Australian captain)

Michael John "Mile" Jedinak is a professional australian soccer player. He is known as one of the best soccer players in Australia.

Michael was born in Sydney 3 August 1984. In his young soccer years, he played for Sydney United, before he became professional. Then he began to play senior soccer in Sydney United, and in that time, he got loaned out to other clubs like South Coast United and Varazdin before his first official transfer, which was to Central Coast Mariners.

In 2011 he got transferred from Gençlerbirliği S.K. in Turkey to an English team called Crystal Palace which is the club he is playing in today where he is the captain, and his position there is central defensive midfielder.

Today he is also playing on the Australian national team, where he is the captain, and have played 58 matches, and scored 8 goals as a central midfielder.

My opinion about Jedinak, is I think he is a really good player. I like the way he plays, and he is a good leader for Crystal Palace and the national team.

The Tasmanian beauty

The Tasmanian beauty is actually the Danish crown princess Mary. Mary was born 5 February 1972 in Tasmania.

Crown princess Mary is the wife of the Danish crown prince Frederik. The couple met at a pub in Sydney when Frederik was visiting Australia under the 2000 summer Olympics.

Their engagement went officiel in 2003. The wedding was in the following year. The European media called the marriage a modern “fairytale” romance between a prince and a commoner.

The couple had their first child in 2005, the little boy named Christian is today 9 years old. Christian is second in the Danish line of succession, after his father, Frederik. Their second child was a little girl named Isabella. In 2011 the couple got twins, a boy, Vincent, and a girl, Josephine.

Today the royal family is very happy, and enjoying life.

Nick Vujicic

Nick Vujicic is a man born without legs and arms, and he’s a man there is positive about almost everything. He goes out to talk to a lot of people and make a great presentation, about there is no limits for yourself and you can do everything. He talks much about we don't have to lose hope and we just have to move on. A lot of people think he can't do anything but he can do all what we can, maybe more then we can. He has a message to the world, many is think they just have to give up but he says, don't give up, just because your fat or thin, black or white, your not defined, nobody can make you to another person, you are the one you are an thats what it is, so do lose hope, don't go out and kill yourself, you are what you are. Nick Vujicic has make a organisation that is call Life Without Limbs for does people there think they are not good enough. Nick was also nominated to the Young Australian of the Year.

Our Australian princess

Australia is a big country, with a lot of great people, that is known all around the world. One of them is our very own crown princess Mary. The future queen of Denmark is originally from Tasmania, Australia, and her birth name is Mary Elizabeth. When she lived in Tasmania she studied law, commerce and marketing.

In 2000 Mary Donaldson was at the olympic games in Australia. This was when she meet the man of her dreams, and besides that, also her very own crown prince of Denmark. Crown prince Frederik and Mary got married four years later in Denmark, at a big ceremony in Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen. In 2005 only a year later Frederik and Marys first child prince Christian was born. Today Crown princess Mary is 43 years old and she got four children with Crown prince Frederik: Christian, Isabella, Vincent and Josephine.

The Quokka [kwo-ka]

“The name "quokka" comes from the name given to the animal by the Aboriginal people living in the Augusta and King George Sound area of the south-west of Western Australia.”

“ the females suckle their young in a pouch. They give birth in late summer, after a gestation period of twenty-seven days, and the young quokka remains in the pouch until August or September, and is then suckled for a further two months.

The quokka reaches maturity at about one-and-a-half to two years of age, and lives to be ten years old.”

Quokka´s are ruminants, which means they swallow their food and then later throw it up and then chews on it, just like a cow.

Funny enough the quokka and various other animals in australia are in the same family as the kangaroo. But please dont touch or feed the quokkas, they are dangerous!

Didgeridoo

In the previously millennium, before any modern instruments were invented, were the Aborigines using the didgeridoo as a way to play music. Back then, men mostly used it at ceremonial occasions, but now it’s widely used all over the world. And that’s also understandable, because it’s a pretty amazing instrument.

Construction and decoration:

The didgeridoos are usually made from special picked hardwoods, especially the eucalyptus species that are rooted to the region. Once the tree is found, it’s cut down and cleaned out, the bark is taken off, the ends trimmed, and the exterior is shaped nicely; this results in a finished wind instrument.

A modern didgeridoo is usually cylindrical or conical, and can measure anywhere from 1 to 3 m long. Most of them are around 1.2 m long. Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower its pitch or key. However, instruments that bendts play a higher pitch than the unflared instruments of the same length.

After the base instrument are created it may be painted or left undecorated, but that isn’t the essential part. Mostly the didgeridoos are beautifully painted and decorated with traditional or modern paints. Either the maker of the base instrument or a dedicated artist paint this.

Playing the didgeridoo and gender prohibition:

The didgeridoo is played by using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. This requires breathing in through the nose while constantly exhale air out of the mouth, where the lips constantly vibrating, and then it’s possible to create the drone sound into the didgeridoo. This is a really hard technique to learn, but a skilled player, who using this, can replenish the air in their lungs, and with practice can sustain a note for as long as desired. This means that there’s now recordings of modern didgeridoo players, who can play continuously for more than 45 minutes.

Traditionally, only men play didgeridoo and sing during ceremonial occasions, although both men and women may dance. Female didgeridoo players do exist, but their playing takes place in an informal context and is not approved by Aboriginal elders.

History and origin:

It was first used by the Aborigines in Northern Australia. No one know didgeridoos exact  age, but potentially it’s about 1000 to 1500 years old. This theory are based on paintings on cave walls, where the didgeridoo appear, in this period. But in other rock and cave paintings there’s signs that show, that the didgeridoo wasn’t used until less than 1000 years ago. What’s really true isn’t confirmed or proved yet.

Names and meaning:

The Didgeridoo has dozens of names in cultures and nation. Besides “didgeridoo” it’s mostly known as “didjeridu”. But some of the names also has none common at all with the original “didgeridoo”. Even though there are numerous names just in the Aboriginal culture, mostly of the Aborigines will just use “didgeridoo” in everyday conversation.

The name “didgeridoo” either means a sound imitative thing, or then it’s a corruption of the Irish language phrase dúidire dúth, that means a native long-necked person, who listen.

All in all the didgeridoo is a wind instrument, which the Aborigines of the Northern part of Australian made. It’s mostly sculptured in hardwood eucalyptus species, and usually nicely decorated. It’s very difficult to play, but if you’re good at it, it will sound amazing.

The Tasmanian devil

What animals live exclusively in Australia? One of them is the Tasmanian devil.

The Tasmanian devil is an animal that lives exclusively on the island of Tasmania in Australia. The Tasmanian devil mostly eats birds, snakes, fish and insects, and it eats everything from the animal, even the bones, hair, organs and muscles. The devils also have very big jaws that they need for crushing bones. It is a small animal, it has fur and it looks a bit like a giant rat. It weights up to 12kg and it is 50 to 80 cm long, and then the tail is about half that length. The Tasmanian devil is really endangered because many of them get cancer in their face, which is called devil facial tumour disease, and it prevents them from eating and eventually within a few months they will either die from starvation or from the cancer itself.

The Tasmanian devil lives on the island of

Tasmania, which is right under Australia.

  

The Tasmanian devil hunts in the night and it is believed that it does that to avoid getting caught by eagles and humans. The tasmanian devil can even take down small kangaroos, but often they eat carrion instead of hunting food itself.

The Sugar Glider

I’ve seen pictures of a funny animal from australia. It looks like something between a squirrel and  a bunny. I’ve never heard of anything like it, and would like to know what it is.

In Australia it’s a very common animal known as The sugar glider because of it’s sweet tooth and it’s ability to glide through the air in long distances, up to fifty metres. The sugar glider has a membrane between the front paws and rear paws, which it uses to glide through the air from tree to tree. Its fur can differ from blue-grey to brown-grey and it has a dark stripe from its forehead and down the middle of its back. Their bodies is about 16 - 20 cm and their tails just as long. Some of them has white or black tipped tails.

It’s a very light animal or it wouldn’t be able to glide through the air because it was too heavy. The females only weight about 120g an the males 20g more. The glider is a marsupial, which means that the female has a pouch where it has its young ones. They often live in small family units with about eight gliders and has their nests in tree holes hidden by leaves.

It eats a kind of gum produced by Acacias and saps of certain Eucalyptus, but it wouldn’t object to fruit and other things as long as it’s sweet. It can eat insects and small birds too. The little animal lives in open places in rainforest in Australia.

Some people also have it as a pet in their homes. But if you want to have it as a pet you have to have enough space to a pretty big cage, because of its need for space to run and glide around. For a Sugar glider its most important that the cage is high and have things like branches and ropes so it can climb around. But it is not everywhere that its legally to  have which is one of the reasons that the sugar glider isn’t common as a pet.

The little amount of koalas in Australia

Koalas is the first thing that comes in to my mind when someone mention Australia. I think they’re the cutest animals of all time.

A lot of people believe that Koala is a bear, but that isn’t true! Actually koalas aren’t even related to bears, they are related to kangaroo and the wombat. Koala’s are different depending where they’re from. A koala from the southern Australia will most likely have longer and shaggier fur in order to keep them warm in the cold winters. The koalas from the north has less and more fine fur to help them from the subtropical weather.

We’ve all heard about the koalas, but how many are there?

Only less than a decade the population of Koalas in Australia has fallen with 90%. Now there are only 7000 koalas in the wild, this is caused by the destruction of the natural habitat by the koalas. The natural habitat has been taking away from the koalas, this causes logging, city development and diseases. Today the koalas habitat is near the road which has resulted a lot of road kills.But luckily these species hasn’t become extinct - But we just got to be more careful and take more responsibility to the all animals in the world.

“Look! A kangaroo”

The kangaroo is a really strange and strong animal. It has really long legs and a really long tail. Their tail helps the kangaroos to hold the balance. The long legs are there so it can jump high long and fast.

Because of the kangaroos feet a kangaroo can’t walk normally.

Kangaroos are the largest living animals in Australia. In 2011, there were about 33,4 million. There are four famous species of kangaroos, there is: The red kangaroo, the Eastern grey kangaroo, the Western grey kangaroo, and the antiloperne kangaroo.

If you talk about Australia and animals people always think of the kangaroo. The kangaroo is an unofficial symbol of Australia.

The largest kangaroo is the red kangaroo, it is between 3.25 to 5.25 feet(1 to 1.6 meter)

The tail is between 35.5 to 43.5 inches (90 to 110 centimeters) and it weighs around 200 lbs.(90 kilograms).

The smallest kangaroo is the kangaroo called musky rat-kangaroo. It is only 6-8 inches high (15 to 20 cm) and it only weighs 12 ounces.(340 grams.)

I think the kangaroo is a really cute and funny animal, and I would like to see one daily if I lived in Australia.  

Lake Hillier

Lake Hillier is a Pink-coloured lake on Middle Island, north-eastern Australia. No-one fully knows why the lake is pink, but there are many who have tried to explain why the Lake is pink.  

The explanation why the Lake Hillier is Pink

Some think that it’s organisms called dunaliella salina and halobacteria which are the reason why the lake is pink. And others thinks that it’s the salt that makes the pink colour. The water in Lake Hillier is 10 times more salty than the ocean. The third opinion is that scientists speculate that the colour comes from a dye created by bacteria that live in the salt crusts.

Lake Hillier is perfectly safe to swim in, so if you are in Australia you’re welcome to take a dip! But remember DON’T drink it. It’s very salty.  

Are there fish in the lake?   

No. The only living organisms in the lake is dunaliella salina. Fish will die if they were in it, because of the high salt contents.

Other things

In the right weather, the lake turns a soft shade of pink due to high concentration of algae in the water. Lake Hillier is 600 meters long and surrounded by white sand.

Are there other Pink Lakes?

Yes, there is one in Retba and then there is the ponds of San Francisco Bay.

                                                       

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Port Jackson, also called Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, in Australia. The harbour, is the largest natural harbour in the world,it is an inlet of the Tasman Sea. The Harbour is 12 miles long with a total area of 21 square miles, which is one of the world’s finest natural harbours and the principal port of New South Wales, Australia. It has minimum and maximum depths of 30 feet and 155 feet at low water, and its irregular foreshores extend more than 150 miles, affording extensive docking facilities.  Many recreational events are based on or around the harbour itself particularly the Sydney New Years eve celebrations. The land around Port Jackson was taken at the time of the European invasion and colonisation by various tribes. The first recorded European discovery of Sydney Harbour, was by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770, Cook named the inlet after Sir George Jackson.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of Australia’s most well known and photographed landmarks. By the locals it’s called the ‘Coathanger’ because of it’s design.

The construction started in 1924. It took 1400 men and eight years to build the bridge. The total cost of the bridge was 4,2 millions. More than 50.000 tons of steel were used in the construction.

If you are ever planning on going to Australia, here is something you have to try out: Bridge climbing. You may have heard of it already, but you can actually climb the monument and the bridge is standing 134 metres above the harbour! So it may not be for everyone.

Bridge climbing is said to be a fantastic experience and it’s in groups of 12, so you can go with your friends and get an awesome memory. I would definitely like to try it, if I’m ever going to Australia.

Koalas in the wild

The koalas nickname is native bear, even though koalas and bears aren’t related.The koala is related to the kangaroo and the wombat. Just like the kangaroo the koala also has a pouch, where the little koala cub stays for 5 months after the mother has breed in summer. A koala cub is the baby of an koala btw.

The reason the koala is called a koala bear is because the koala looks like a teddy bear. The koala has a very thick fur and even though the koala looks cute and cuddly it has very sharp teeth and claws.

The koala is a marsupial mammal and they are warm-blooded. Their lifespan is about 20 years.

An adult koala generally grows to 60-75 cm long. A cub is after 1  month about 1 cm. They live and sleep in the eucalyptus trees. It's hot, light and dry here.

Koalas are mostly nocturnal, that means that they are mostly active at night and asleep at day. They sleep for up to 19 hours.

In the wild live only around 2000 to 8000 koalas. The population has dropped by about 90% in less than a decade. This is due to diseases, danger around them like road kills and attacks from for example dogs and the destruction of their habitat, a narrow crescent around the eastern coast of Australia.