Australia

[Akhenaten]

Australia is a large country occupying a continent of the same name, situated between the South Pacific, Southern and Indian Oceans.

To the North lie New Guinea, Timor and Indonesia; to the East is New Zealand. Far to the South and West are Antarctica and Africa respectively.

The flora and fauna include many unique and fascinating examples of a land long separated from Gondwana.

Human settlement began approximately forty thousand (40 000) years ago with the arrival of the Aborigines, now generally and respectfully known as the Koori.

British settlement began in the form of a penal colony in 1788, following the discovery and mapping of the East coast in 1770 by Captain James Cook, RN.

Ausralia has a long and varied history, which ranges from the dreamtime tales of the Koori to the development of cutting-edge technology, cast on the rich tapestry of an ancient landscape.

It is a land of legend.



Please discuss.

[Monketi Ghost]

Lame.

[Akhenaten]

Lame

[Shrike]

Australia was discovered again* by Dutchman Willem Janszoon in 1606 on the Duyfken.
The then local inhabitants didn't produce anything of value for the Dutch, so they left again.
Abel Tasman also didn't find anything of value.
In that time, Australia was known as Nieuw-Holland (New Holland). Most ships stranded on the sandy western coast on their way to Indonesia.
At the end of the 18th century, the British (under James Cook) 'discovered' Australia yet again and started colonization.

*Again, after the Koori.

[Monketi Ghost]

Akhenaten, I love you, and your big (probably) hydrocephalic head. Your wife is lovely (probably) and I love the opera devoted to you by P. Glass.

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by Shrike

Australia was discovered again* by Dutchman Willem Janszoon in 1606 on the Duyfken.
The then local inhabitants didn't produce anything of value for the Dutch, so they left again.
Abel Tasman also didn't find anything of value.
In that time, Australia was known as Nieuw-Holland (New Holland). Most ships stranded on the sandy western coast on their way to Indonesia.
At the end of the 18th century, the British (under James Cook) 'discovered' Australia yet again and started colonization.

*Again, after the Koori.

The West coast has a long history, much of it the story of great fortitude displayed by Dutch seamen. Tales of triumph and tragedy abound.


Abel Tasman gives his name to our southernmost state, Tasmania, home of the Tasmanian Devil. Tasman origiinally named the island Van Diemen's Land, in honour of Anthony van Diemen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.


We owe many thanks to those brave Dutchmen.

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by Magnifico2.0

Akhenaten, I love you, and your big (probably) hydrocephalic head. Your wife is lovely (probably) and I love the opera devoted to you by P. Glass.

Thank you. It's just big, mostly empty. She is gorgeous. All things devoted to Pharoah will reap their reward tenfold, eventually.

[Monketi Ghost]

BTW I love Michigan. You may laugh... you may say, "Horrible unemployment! ...all the problems associated with it! etc..."

But the entire five years I've been here, I have not met one single Australian, and that makes me feel safe.

Crime Island is what I call Australia.

[Wildy]

Speaking of the Dutch I might as well point out that they were also the first to look around what is now South Australia, originally calling the area "Pieter Nuyts Land".

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by Magnifico2.0

BTW I love Michigan. You may laugh... you may say, "Horrible unemployment! ...all the problems associated with it! etc..."

But the entire five years I've been here, I have not met one single Australian, and that makes me feel safe.

Crime Island is what I call Australia.

Detroit, Michigan is 6531 kilometres (3919 miles) from Sydney, New South Wales.

[MG1962]

Australia is a very hard place to describe to others. It is a tired land, yet at the same exude an almost primal energy that's infectious.

It is a land that will embrace you and nuture you. While at the same time reminding you it can beak your heart in an instant. The recent events in Victoria and Queensland are testiment to this.

Yet even amid such heartbreak Australians showed a unity of purpose to get behind the survivers, remind them they are not alone, helping to dust them off and get their lives restarted for another round of existence in a Sunburnt Country

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by Wildy

Speaking of the Dutch I might as well point out that they were also the first to look around what is now South Australia, originally calling the area "Pieter Nuyts Land".

I'm afraid I have to confess little knowledge of South Australian history, other than Colonel Light's contributions, and some bits and pieces about the Coorong,

I thank you for your generous offer to flesh out what I am sure will be a rollicking tale of adventure in a Wild enviornment, particularly The Heroic Journey of John McDouall Stuart.

[Monketi Ghost]

I want to dive the reefs once before I die.

[HarryKeogh]

Bands of marauding platypusses, platypii, platypussies, plat... koalas roam the Australian countryside killing all who dare to cross their path.

[Cainkane1]

Clont the thyacine and I'll really be impressed.

[Cainkane1]

Originally Posted by Cainkane1

Clont the thyacine and I'll really be impressed.

Clone.

[Akhenaten]

I seem to have started something here.

I thank you all for doing exactly what I had hoped for. Billions and billions of topics.

I shall STFU for a bit, and see where we go.



Cheers Cobbers,

Dave

[proudnonbbeliever]

Australia, known as Straya (pronounced stray-ya) in the native tongue is a country, a continent and an island, all in one. Beat that.

Oh yeah, more marsupials than anywhere else. Even our animals are to lazy to gestate properly....

[MG1962]

Originally Posted by proudnonbbeliever

Australia, known as Straya (pronounced stray-ya) in the native tongue is a country, a continent and an island, all in one. Beat that.

Oh yeah, more marsupials than anywhere else. Even our animals are to lazy to gestate properly....

LOL - yes and a country that can not even pronounce the name of the capital city properly, and eats its national emblem

[Giraffe107]

It's all a vicious lie.

Also, hoop snakes.

[Sideroxylon]

Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you, amen!

ETA: I was a Kiwi once but I got better.

[Old Bob]

Shrike mention the Duyfken, so happens we met a tradesman who made parts of the replica. He was making the stern light in Winton and trying to flatten cow horns for the lens of the light(flattened horns polished are transparent and tough) I had the right gear with me so over a few drinks we did the job. That little ship started the modern day exploring of Australia. Captan Cook came here with maps to est. a military out post and got rid of the Spanish huts that were there (about 400) don't know if anybody was home at the time. Just more stuff that they don't teach in our schools. Why sail all the way down the coast to land? My reasoning would be is Cook was a Mason and tried to get as close to 33% lat. as possible. No doubt England had it all planned to open up Australia by jailing a huge work(slave) force. The USA has a large stock of prisoners now, have they a plan? As for Australia being the crime country?? we don't lock much and have little trouble. Some city areas can be a bit rough but on the whole not too bad. Usually a good reason for murder especially tribal.

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by Akhenaten

I shall STFU for a bit, and see where we go.

This is an outright lie.

Originally Posted by MG1962

Australia is a very hard place to describe to others. It is a tired land, yet at the same exude an almost primal energy that's infectious.


It is a land that will embrace you and nuture you. While at the same time reminding you it can beak your heart in an instant. The recent events in Victoria and Queensland are testiment to this.

Yet even amid such heartbreak Australians showed a unity of purpose to get behind the survivers, remind them they are not alone, helping to dust them off and get their lives restarted for another round of existence in a Sunburnt Country

Moving words my friend, and I thank you for sharing them.

I hope this thread will be able to convey the spirit that you describe so well.


The Victorian Government announced yesterday that people who had lost homes in the Black Saturday fires of 7 February 2009 would receive up to AU$40 000 which is in addition to AU$50 000 already allocated from the AU$301 000 000 so far donated to the relief fund.

I am crying and my heart is full.

Read the full story from the Australian Broadcasting Commission

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by Magnifico2.0

I want to dive the reefs once before I die.

Here is how my Government presents it to you

Quote:

The Great Barrier Reef is the only living organic collective visible from Earth's orbit. The Great Barrier Reef, off the east coast of Australia, is one of the wonders of the natural world - it is the world's largest coral reef ecosystem. It was declared a World Heritage area in 1981 and added to the National Heritage List in 2007.

Not only is the Great Barrier Reef magnificent, it'is extremely accessible.

There are dozens of resorts located on some of the thousands of islands, as well as many more on the mainland.

This is a photo taken through the front door of my hotel room on Hamilton Island in October, 2006.

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by HarryKeogh

Bands of marauding platypusses, platypii, platypussies, plat... koalas roam the Australian countryside killing all who dare to cross their path.

Originally Posted by Akhenaten

Venomous Mammals

<snip that rubbish>

Platypus Ornithorhynchus anatinus*

The calcaneous spur found on the male platypus's hind limb is used to deliver venom. Echidnas, the other monotremes, have spurs but no functional venom glands.


<and that too>

* My wife and I used to have mock arguments about this name. She preferred the old name of Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, because that's what it's called in Dot and the Kangaroo. I mostly had to let her win because she had a reference and I didn't.

Don't worry, you didn't miss this qote quoat quoth post. It's from another thread.


The Koala is a terrifying and deadly beast.

[arthwollipot]

Originally Posted by MG1962

LOL - yes and a country that can not even pronounce the name of the capital city properly, and eats its national emblem

I dispute.

CAN-bra

not

can-BE-ra

Like

MEL-burn

not

mel-BORN

and

BRIS-bn

not

bris-BAYN

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by Cainkane1

Clont the thyacine and I'll really be impressed.

Efforts have been made toward clonting the Thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, Thylacinus cynocephalusdo but were abandoned in 2005, due to the poor quality of the available DNA.

Here is the good news, and here is the bad news.

Originally Posted by Cainkane1

Clone.

Oh, CLONE . . . I'm sorry but I am unfamiliar with this procedure.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

In the Australian language, "Fosters" means beer.

[arthwollipot]

Originally Posted by The Central Scrutinizer

In the Australian language, "Fosters" means beer.

And in the Australian language, "The Central Scrutinizer" means "beaten with cricket bats, stomped upon with Doc Martens and left bleeding and bloody in the gutter outside a Kings Cross brothel".

[MG1962]

Originally Posted by Akhenaten

Moving words my friend, and I thank you for sharing them.

I hope this thread will be able to convey the spirit that you describe so well.

The pleasure is all mine. But it is sometimes amazing to consider what a rag tag bunch of sea sick ruffians managed to carve out of the landscape.

I would often sit down by the harbour at night and enjoy the lights of the city and ponder if Arthur Phillip, ever quiet realised what helped to start would become this.

For anyone visiting Sydney as a tourist. I would highly reccomend taking the Manly ferry trip around sunset. As the light dulls and city lights come on, it is an almost magical and calming sensation

[tomwaits]

Speaker: The member from North Sydney with a point of order.

Joe Hockey: Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is a complete twit and-

Speaker: THE MEMBER WILL RESUME HIS SEAT! THERE IS NO POINT OF ORDER!



Ahhh, I love question time.

[MG1962]

Originally Posted by The Central Scrutinizer

In the Australian language, "Fosters" means beer.

Made funnier by the fact that the crap has been brewed in Canada for years, and will be soon manufactured in the USA

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by proudnonbbeliever

Australia, known as Straya (pronounced stray-ya) in the native tongue is a country, a continent and an island, all in one. Beat that.

Two islands actually. Your omission likely resulted from my error in the OP in failing to acknowledge our Southern Gem, the beautiful island state of Tasmania.

Originally Posted by proudnonbbeliever

Oh yeah, more marsupials than anywhere else. Even our animals are to lazy to gestate properly....

If I recall correctly, Robert Heinlen wrote a short story within his larger work, Time Enough for Love titled The Man Who Was Too Lazy To Fail

Why yes, I do recall correctly:


The Man Who Was Too Lazy To Fail

Quote:

Robert Heinlein in his “Time Enough for Love” tells the story of the man who was too lazy to fail. The basic idea behind this story is that if you fail in something you want to do, you have to do it over again - double the work - thus not the right thing for a truly lazy person

The main character in the book, Lazarus Long, eventually became a time-traveller. It is clear to me that he travelled back in time and left the story with the proto-marsupials as a guide book.



ETA: I haven't checked yet, but I believe the lazy, non-failing man was named Dave.


Cheers,

Dave

[Zax63]

I'd love to visit Australia if it wasn't for the drop bears.

[TX50]

It should be Lieutenant Cook. He wasn't made post until 1775. The king
personally handed him his commission. If you insist on his later rank then
you'll have to add his scientific credentials too; Captain James Cook FRS RN

[Greg44]

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Please, just, don't

I spent two weeks in 2000 with some sort of cringe reflex contorting my torso intermittently.

[ZirconBlue]

I don't know where you people get your information, but everything posted so far is wrong, wrong, wrong.

First, it's spelled "Austria".

Second, it's not an island; it's a landlocked country in Central Europe.

Seriously. Can't you people do a little bit of research before posting?

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by MG1962

LOL - yes and a country that can not even pronounce the name of the capital city properly, and eats its national emblem

It gets even worse !!eleven!


This is Australia's coat of arms, commonly observed in Canbra. Many people call our nation's capital home, and some of them have swords. Arthwollipot may have information on this phenomenon.




As can be seen, Australia appears to have TWO faunal emblems, the Kangaroo - Macropodidae (or macropod, meaning 'large foot') and the Emu - Dromaius novaehollandiae, however, we must note this:

Australian Government - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Quote:

Australia has never adopted any official faunal or bird emblem, but, by popular tradition, the kangaroo and emu are widely accepted as such.

Official or not, both are yummy. Unfortunately the best evidence for this assessment is in the form of recipes, which should not be posted here.

Originally Posted by chillzero

It is still expected, it is just not enforced. Rule 11 was mainly introduced to prevent kittening of threads when members weren't happy with responses from others. That is a bigger problem in the public forums where discussions are often more heated between believers versus no-beleivers; each side of political or ethical issues, etc.

The Membership Agreement makes it clearer in that regard, and that's where we send people for clear direction as to what would be moderated.

The Membership Agreement


There's no point in pushing the limits of the MA, so I will provide links to the affomentioned yumminess.

Kangaroo

Emu


Why stop there? All's fair in love and lunch.

Crocodile


The last one is dependent on the chef-du-jour not becoming the opening course.

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by Giraffe107

It's all a vicious lie.

Also, hoop snakes.

A fearsome creature frequently found in populated areas. It's main victims are children.


Won't somebody please think of the children?

[Akhenaten]

Originally Posted by Sideroxylon

Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you, amen!

ETA: I was a Kiwi once but I got better.

You mean you moved to the West Island, my Anzac brother.





ETA: In typical Australian fashion, the Turks, against whom we once fought many fierce battles, are now our good mates.

Greetings to you; you are also my brothers-in-arms and it was a bloody good stoush. A draw, I believe.


A Turkish memorial to their fallen opponents

More of the same


That is respect.