Connecting you with Australian culture online
Australian weather and the seasons European discovery and the colonisation of Australia Great Barrier Reef The Australian Gold Rush Australian Indigenous cultural heritage Melbourne Cup Convicts and the British colonies in Australia Australian food and drink Sydney Opera House The Great Depression
Many Australians are directly or indirectly involved in farming. For those Australians not involved with farming, the country's recent rural and agricultural history still has strong links to the heritage and culture of Australia. Wheat and other grain ...
Australia is also recognised as producing the world's highest quality woollen fibre – Australian merino wool. John and Elizabeth Macarthur were married in Devonshire in England in 1788. In 1796, John Macarthur bought his first merino sheep from a ...
Australia experiences a range of 'natural disasters' including bushfires, floods, severe storms, earthquakes and landslides. Fire can often follow drought, and drought can be followed by flood. I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, Of ra...
Image courtesy of the National Trust of Queensland, Hou Wang Temple. The businesses in Chinatowns offered accommodation, medicinal herbs, fresh food grown by Chinese market gardeners and groceries. A Chinese school, a language and culture centre and a Ch...
Even though the four 'official' calendar seasons have the same names as the northern hemisphere seasons, the weather during these seasons is very different to northern hemisphere weather patterns. Indigenous Australians have long had their own seasonal c...
And nowhere is this more apparent than in the actions of our front-line troops—soldiers or nurses—whether in the trenches, as prisoners of war or on leave. The significance of sport for Australian soldiers, from the First World War through to...
The bush has an iconic status in Australian life and features strongly in any debate about national identity, especially as expressed in Australian literature, painting, popular music, films and foods. The bush was revered as a source of national ideals b...
Observations of Australia's unique fauna and flora, combined with considerations of the continent's geographical isolation, contributed toward Charles Darwin (1809–1882) developing his theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin's theory of ev...
Easter commemorates the resurrection (return to life) of Jesus Christ following his death by crucifixion. Easter eggs are traditionally eaten on Easter Sunday, however stores start stocking Easter treats well before the Easter holiday period. Early on Ea...
J. C. Armytage, Return of Burke and Wills to Coopers Creek, engraving, in Australia by Edwin Carton Booth, opp. Explorers set out to discover rivers and land suitable for agriculture as well as to survey the land. A major expedition usually produced a p...
Image courtesy of Australian Network for Arts and Technology and Samstag Museum of Modern Art. Wearing textiles and jewellery with embedded technology has undergone a fashionable renaissance with creative designers working across art, fashion, design and...
Ernest Revell, Three Sisters, Blue Mountains, New South Wales, c. In March 1812, the Colonial Surveyor George William Evans was sent to explore Jervis Bay, to determine a possible inland route back to Port Jackson. Other explorers, such as Hume and Hove...
It also contains links to sites that may use images of Aboriginal and Islander people now deceased. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are complex and diverse. In Australia, Indigenous communities keep their cultural heritage alive by passin...
Image courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald. Lawrence Hargrave, who achieved the first powered flight in 1894 with four box kites, was said to be symbolic of many Australian inventors and Australian innovation; 'He was interested in the invention, not th...
But as Peter Biskup points out in his book Libraries in Australia, the most important thing brought to Australia in the First Fleet which impacted on the development of libraries was the 'idea' of libraries. In Australia, the term Mechanics' Institutes wa...
The Sydney Gazette, first published by ex-convict George Howe in 1803. George Howe was also permitted to print Australia's first newspaper from a humble shed located at the rear of Government House. The Sydney Gazette was the only newspaper circulated i...
The first train lines in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide spanned only a few kilometres. These early inland rail lines formed the basis for the systems that would eventually become Australia's transcontinental railways. Diesel trains are still used for cou...
Eventually, streams catch more water or join other streams to form a river. The Murray River and its main tributary, the Darling River, are the two main rivers in the Murray-Darling River Basin. The Snowy River is probably Australia's most famous river,...
Other rock structures in Australia, like Uluru, Mount Augustus and Bald Rock, have been described as monoliths. Uluru is located in the National Heritage Listed Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park about 335km to the south-west of Alice Springs in Northern Ter...
Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales NSW (more info)
The Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales' site displays information on the society's primary role within the farming community as well as the Sydney Royal Easter Show, Homebush Bay and the Sydney Showground and Exhibition Complex.
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