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Australian culture is as big and as varied as the landscape. Australia is multicultural and multiracial and this is reflected in our food, our lifestyle and our cultural practices and experience. We have an important heritage from Australia's indigenous people.

This diversity creates a cultural practice which is lively, energised and innovative, and outward looking.

For geographical information you can't beat the summary provided by AUSLIG (Australian Surveying and Land Information Group).
Australia follows a Westminster system of government and law inherited from the British who originally colonised the country. There are two main political parties and a number of minor parties which make up the Federal parliament. Each state and territory also has its own government.

The capital is Canberra, a city of 320,000 situated in the Australian Capital Territory, which is roughly half way between the two largest cities Melbourne and Sydney.

Australia has a population of about 20 million people. It is famous for it's natural heritage areas like the Great Barrier Reef, famous buildings like the Sydney Opera House, its ancient geology, as well as for its high country.
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Australia

Of course the local Aboriginal inhabitants had, over tens of thousands of years, mapped the land their way - through their Dreaming, a complex intertwining of land, culture, language, family relations and spiritual selves. This was to be put under pressure from the first moment of Cook's landing at Botany Bay in 1770. 

On 22 August 1770 on Possession Island, off what is now northern Queensland, Cook claimed all eastern Australia for King George III.
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However, on arrival at Botany Bay on 18 January 1788, Captain Phillip decided the site was not suitable and resolved to look for another. He decided upon Port Jackson, the site of modern day Sydney, and the people of the First Fleet established Australia's first settlement on 26 January 1788.

Captain Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet landed at Port Jackson in the new colony of New South Wales on 26 January 1788. Until the American War of Independence, Britain had sent convicts to America. American independence ended the practice and the British prisons and prison hulks were full to overflowing. The island continent at the end of the world seemed a perfect place to send them.
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The Fleet consisted mainly of convicts with officers to guard them. There were many more men than women - around four men for every woman - and this caused problems in the settlement for many years. 

Few people in the Fleet had any experience of cultivating the land and this, combined with poor soil in the area, lead to the development of farms around Parramatta, but, more seriously, to near starvation in the first years of settlement. Food shortages were severe and the fledgling colony eagerly awaited on the arrival of the Second Fleet in 1790. 

The Second Fleet did provide badly needed food and supplies, but created other problems for the new colony. 48 people had died on the voyage of the First Fleet, this had risen to 278 on the Second Fleet voyage. Sickness and disease were so rife, most of those who survived were barely able to walk, the Fleet has come to be known as the 'Death Fleet'. 

In spite of the problems, however, the settlement grew, and is now the site of Australia's largest city - Sydney.
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Places to see

Uluru, Northern Territory Photo courtesy of AUSLIG, Australian Surveying & Land Information Group

Uluru

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is 9.4km if you walk around it, and about 345 metres high if you climb it (and is thought to be the tip of a mountain which extends kilometres below the surface). It's 3.6km long, 2km wide, and is roughly oval in shape. It's made of arkosic sandstone, and is renowned for the way it changes colour in the light and is particularlyspectacular at sunrise and sunset. 

Uluru is located in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park about 335km to the south-west of Alice Springs in Northern Territory, Australia. The Park is 132,566 hectares in size and is World Heritage listed.

Uluru is the homeland of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people (also known as Anangu) and was returned to their care and ownership in 1985. The area contains carvings and paintings by Aboriginal people and is also the location of a number of sacred sites which are closed to the public. 

The monolith's sandstone has weathered in places to form interesting shapes and caves.

Uluru was named "Ayers Rock" by European explorer William Gosse who sighted it in July 1873. It was named by him for the South Australian premier of the time, Sir Henry Ayers. In 1995 the name of the National Park was changed from Ayers Rock-Mount Olga National Park to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park to acknowledge Anangu ownership and their relationship with the area. 
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Sydney Opera House must be one of the most recognisable images of the modern world - up there with the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building - and one of the most photographed. 

Not only is it recognisable, it has come to represent 'Australia'. 

Although only having been open since 1973, it is as representative of Australia as the pyramids are of Egypt and the Colosseum of Rome. 

The Opera House is situated on Bennelong Point, which reaches out into the harbour. The skyline of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the blue water of the harbour and the Sydney Opera House, viewed from a ferry or from the air, is dramatic and unforgettable. 

Ironic, perhaps, that this Australian icon - the Opera House with a roof evocative of a ship at full sail - was designed by renowned Danish architect - Jørn Utzon.

In the late 1950s the NSW Government established an appeal fund to finance the construction of the Sydney Opera House, and conducted a competition for its design. 

Utzon's design was chosen. The irony was that his design was, arguably, beyond the capabilities of engineering of the time. Utzon spent a couple of years reworking the design and it was 1961 before he had solved the problem of how to build the distinguishing feature - the 'sails' of the roof. 

Sydney Opera House from the harbour, photo courtesy of Andrew Watts

The venture experienced cost blow-outs and there were occasions when the NSW Government was tempted to call a halt. In 1966 the situation - with arguments about cost and the interior design, and the Government withholding progress payments - reached crisis point and Jørn Utzon resigned from the project. The building was eventually completed by others in 1973. 

Sydney Opera House facts and figures

The Sydney Opera house:

• Was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon.
• Was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973.
• Presented, as its first performance, The Australian Opera's production of War and Peace by Prokofiev.
• Cost $AU 102,000,000 to build.
• Conducts 3000 events each year.
• Provides guided tours to 200,000 people each year.
• Has an annual audience of 2 million for its performances.
• Includes 1000 rooms.
• Is 185 metres long and 120 metres wide.
• Has 2194 pre-cast concrete sections as its roof.
• Has roof sections weighing up to 15 tons.
• Has roof sections held together by 350 kms of tensioned steel cable.
• Has over 1 million tiles on the roof.
• Uses 6225 square metres of glass and 645 kilometres of electric cable.

Dunk Island (left), one of more than 600 islands of the Great Barrier Reef.
Photo courtesy Great Barrier Reef Visitors Bureau

The Great Barrier Reef, off Australia's east coast, is one of the wonders of the natural world. It is World Heritage listed and is one of Australia's, and the world's, premier holiday destinations. The combination of glorious weather (be aware that it rains a lot in the wet season!), pristine rainforest, white sandy beaches, and an ocean varying in hue from blue to turquoise to green, ensures it's where the world wants to go to lie on the beach, swim, surf, snorkel, sail, bushwalk and birdwatch. 
 
 

More than 1500 species of fish
Photo courtesy of Great Barrier Reef Visitors Bureau

The coral has, over the years, brought many ships to grief - Cook's own Endeavour hit the reef and almost foundered - if it had, and Cook and his crew had perished - Australian history would be quite a different story. One of the most famous wrecks is that of the HMS Pandora, which foundered in 1791. The Queensland Museum has been leading archaeological digs to the Pandora since 1983 and its most recent was completed in February 1999.

The corals which make up the various reefs and cays, and which are the base for this variety of sea and animal life, consist of individual coral polyps - tiny live creatures which join together to form colonies. Each polyp is a tiny jelly-like blob crowned by tentacles, and looks not unlike an anemone, but much smaller. Each polyp lives inside a shell of aragonite, a type of calcium carbonate which is the hard shell we recognise as coral. The polyps join together to create forests of coloured coral in interesting fan, antler, brain and plate shapes. 

There are many different types of coral, some are slow growing and live to be hundreds of years old, others are faster growing. The colours of coral are created by algae. Only live coral is coloured. Dead coral is white. 

A healthy reef
Photo: courtesy of the Australian Institute of Marine Science

The ideal environment for coral is shallow warm water where there is a lot of water movement, plenty of light, where the water is salty and low in nutrients.

Reefs are sensitive to climate change, to changes in patterns of water movement, and to physical damage - so problems like global warming, El Niño, the building of moorings or breakwaters, any additional nutrients running off land from human habitation, may well have a negative effect on the reef system, and thus on the sea and land animals which depend upon it for survival. 

Tourism may also have a negative impact, with fragile corals broken by reef walking, dropped anchors or by boats dropping fuel and other sorts of pollution. Even the number of people in the water with the associated run-off of sweat and suntan lotions may well have a negative impact on the fragile reef environment.

More than 2 million people visit the reef each year generating more than $AU1 billion in tourism dollars, making tourism a major earner for the north-eastern Australian economy. Tourists are carried to the reef system by more than 500 commercial vessels, and tourism is permitted through nearly all the Park. Most of the Reef is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and various parts of it are protected in certain ways - for example, fishing is restricted in some areas, particular animals - like whales, dolphins, green turtles and dugong - are protected.

But visitors value the reef's beauty and diversity - that's why they visit after all - and there is support from tourism operators and tourists as well as government agencies to develop approaches to tourism sustainable over the longer term.

The Crown of Thorns starfish
Photo: courtesy of the Australian Institute of Marine Science

Disappearance of the coral gardens also has an impact on human activity - as the Great Barrier Reef's visitors are largely drawn to the area to experience the reef. The Australian Federal Government supports a range of research programs to investigate Crown of the Thorns starfish, their impact on the reef system and possible biological and other control mechanisms for them.

The latest scourge of the reef is bleaching, where corals have died in large numbers. This phenomenon is not exclusive to Queensland's Great Barrier Reef, but has been observed on reefs throughout the world. It is thought the bleaching has been caused by rises in water temperature related to the El Niño effect, although the evidence is not conclusive. 

Even with these problems and challenges the Great Barrier Reef is still one of the natural wonders of the world - an environment of extraordinary beauty and richness, with a diversity of plant, animal and sea life which makes it essential we conserve and preserve it, and maintain it as great place to relax and experience part of Australia's natural heritage. 
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The Aborigines moved about to take advantage of seasonal foods, such as bogong moths which arrived in their thousands during the summer months. 

As elsewhere in Australia, European settlement disrupted Aboriginal patterns of land use and movement across the country, and many died from European-brought diseases like influenza, smallpox and tuberculosis. 

At the opening of the Tharwa Bridge in 1895, the guest of honour, Ngunnawal woman Nellie Hamilton, said 

"I no tink much of your law. You come here and take my land, kill my possum, my kangaroo; leave me starve. Only gib me rotten blanket. Me take calf or sheep, you been shoot me, or put me in jail. You bring your bad sickness 'mong us.
(Source: Canberra, the Guide, edited by Ken Taylor and David Headon, page 9)

Subsequent to Federation in 1901, the New South Wales Government commissioned a report suggesting possible locations for the seat of Government for the new Commonwealth of Australia. The report suggested three places, Bombala, Yass-Canberra, and Orange, which made it to a short list, and it suggested others which were rejected - Albury, Tumut, Cooma and Armidale all missed out. 

The decision for the Yass-Canberra option was made in 1908 by the Commonwealth Parliament and shortly afterwards the Commonwealth surveyor, Charles Scrivener, was dispatched to choose a site. His instructions were to choose somewhere picturesque, distinctive, and with views. 

In 1911 an international competition to design the new capital city of Australia was held. More than 130 entries were received in the competition and the winning entry was submitted by American architect Walter Burley Griffin and his partner and wife, Marion Mahony Griffin.

The Australian Capital Territory was declared on 1 January 1911. It became a self-governing territory in 1989. 

Now each year there is a Canberra Day where Canberrans are able to celebrate the physical beauty, and cultural diversity and vibrancy of their city. There is also a three week festival - Canberra Day is celebrated on the third Monday in March each year. The Day commemorates and celebrates the official founding Canberra on 12 March 1913. During the festival the Canberra Citizen of the Year is named.
(Source: Canberra, the Guide, edited by Ken Taylor and David Headon. Ch. 4)
The development of modern Canberra
The Griffins, Walter Burley and Marion Mahony, had both spent considerable time working for Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago. Marion worked for him for 14 years and Walter for five. 

Ceiling light, Capitol Theatre, Melbourne (circa 1924). Coloured glass, wood plaster and lead. The light's sophisticated and complex 'art deco' style indicates the Griffins' awareness of the latest European design trends, well before the style's popularity in Australia in the early 1930s. Powerhouse Museum 97/308/1

Walter Burley Griffin was influenced by the City Beautiful and Garden City movements which influenced town planning during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was also influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright's work, particularly in the development of the Prairie style, which included not just the design of a house, but the interiors as well, including stained glass, fabrics, carpet and other accessories. 

The influence of the City Beautiful and Garden City movements is clear in Griffin's plans for Canberra - green bands surrounding areas of settlement, wide boulevards lined with large buildings, formal parks and water features.

Walter Burley Griffin.
Photo courtesy of the National Library of Australia. 

King O'Malley, who was Minister for Home Affairs at the time, bowed to pressure and a Departmental Board made changes to Griffin's design. Walter Burley Griffin was sent a copy of the changes by the Departmental Board. Griffin wasn't happy with the changes and argued that he should be in Canberra to oversee the building. 

The Griffins came to Australia and Walter was appointed Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction. However, like Jorn Utzon, designer of the Sydney Opera House years later, Burley Griffin had a hard time of it. Delays in construction led to a Royal Commission which, in 1917, supported Burley Griffin's position and his continued appointment supervising the work. But Griffin continued to be criticised and from 1920 he was no longer part of the development of Canberra. 

He continued practising as an architect in Australia and was responsible for the design of the suburb of Castlecrag in Sydney, the towns of Leeton and Griffith in NSW and for other buildings such as Newton College at the University of Melbourne. 

Marion Mahony Griffin's role has long been regarded as secondary. However, it was at her urging that Walter entered the design competition for the city of Canberra and it was she - the world's first licensed female architect - who was responsible for the drawings which won the competition. She was a renowned draughtswoman and a talented architect in her own right. 

In 1935 the Griffins went to India and set up practice. Walter Burley Griffin died there a year later. Marion returned to the USA and lived to be 91. 

World War 1 slowed progress on the development of Canberra as did the depression and World War 2. Griffin originally designed the city for a population of 75,000 people but in the boom following World War 2 Canberra grew and now contains a population of more than 300,000.

Canberra has become a hub for western NSW as well as major tourist destination for Australians wishing to visit the seat of federal government and visit major Australian cultural organisations and important cultural landmarks like the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery of Australia, the High Court, Parliament House, Old Parliament House, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, and the National Library of Australia. 
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While the summer maximum average temperate is only 30^oC, the summer months have some extremely hot days. People with fair skins need to be very wary in midday sunshine which can burn in a few minutes. Hats, cool clothing that protects from the sun, sunscreen and common sense are essentials to enjoying Brisbane summers. 

The winter is mild and very pleasant. Most winter days are sunny with average temperatures of around 15^oC. 

 
If you need help converting these temperatures, try Online Temperature Conversions.
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A convict built windmill, later an observatory, built in 1828 still stands. The attached treadmill made the windmill useful both for grinding corn and for mass punishment. By 1840, all surviving convicts had returned to Sydney and, for white Australians at least, Brisbane became a free settlement.

Another building from this period is open to the public today. Newstead House, built in 1846, for a time served as an unofficial Government House. 

In 1859, Brisbane was separated from New South Wales and Queensland was proclaimed a new colony by its first Governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen. From 1901, Queensland has been a state of the Commonwealth of Australia. 

Two city administrations, six towns, 12 shires and four other authorities amalgamated to form Brisbane City Council on 1 October 1925 (Brisbane Day).

Many British, American and Australian troops were based in Brisbane and Pine Rivers in the Second World War. Visit the BCL Memories of Brisbane at War site for more.

Trams were last used in Brisbane in 1969.

The flood of January 1974, caused by Cyclone Wanda, is remembered by many residents. 14,000 homes had to be evacuated, the Centenary Bridge at Jindalee was severely damaged by a runaway gravel barge and all air, road and rail communication with the outside world was cut off. Saturday 26th was the wettest day in Brisbane since 1887
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Celebrations

For many Indigenous Australians, however, 26 January is not a day of celebration but one of mourning and protest. For indigenous Australians, the founding of the modern Australian nation led to the disruption of their traditional way of life, to death, disease and dispossession. 

In 1988, the year of the bicentenary of European settlement, Aboriginals marked the year with a massive march for 'Freedom, Justice and Hope', named it a Year of Mourning, but also celebrated their survival. 

In 1999 the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, an Aboriginal sacred site, and now part of the National Estate, was the focus of indigenous activity on Australia Day with a Corroboree for Aboriginal Sovereignty.

Today, Australia has come a long way, we now have an advanced Reconciliation movement, in an attempt to heal some of the pain of Australia's past. This has included events such as the People's Walk for Reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 28 May 2000.

Australia Day has a long history. According to the Australia Day Council formal dinners and informal celebrations began to mark the day soon after European settlement. The first official celebrations were held in 1818 for the 30th anniversary of European settlement and during this early period 26 January was called Foundation Day. It wasn't until 1994 that all states and territories celebrated Australia Day on the actual day for the first time.
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What is it Australians commemorate on Anzac Day? 

Australia at war
On 25 April 1915 Australia was at war. With the Allies (Britain, France and Russia, Italy, Japan, and the USA [from 1917]), Australia was fighting against the Central Powers (Germany, Turkey [then known as the Ottoman Empire], Austria-Hungary). 

In response to a request for help from Russia, which was being battered by the Turks in the Caucasus, the Allies decided to begin a campaign which they hoped would distract Turkey from their attack on Russia. 

The plan was for the Allies to attack and take the Gallipoli Peninsula, on Turkey's Aegean coast, from which point the Allies believed they could take control of the Dardanelles - a 67 kilometre (42 mile) strait which connects the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara - and lay seige to Turkey's main city, Istanbul (then Constantinople).

Landing at Gallipoli
As part of the larger British Empire contingent, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps - the ANZACs - were brought in from training in Egypt to participate. The ANZAC comprised the 1st Australian Division and the composite New Zealand and Australian Division. On 25 April, 1915, the ANZACs landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula. 

Instead of finding the flat beach they expected, they found they had been landed at the incorrect position and faced steep cliffs and constant barrages of enemy fire and shelling. Around 20,000 soldiers landed on the beach over the next two days to face a well organised, well armed, large Turkish force determined to defend their country - and led by Mustafa Kemal, who later became Atatürk, the leader of modern Turkey. Thousands of Australian and New Zealand men died in the hours and days that followed the landing at that beach. The beach would eventually come to be known as Anzac Cove.

What followed the landing at Gallipoli is a story of courage and endurance, of death, and despair, of poor leadership from London, and unsuccessful strategies. The ANZACs and the Turks dug in - literally - digging kilometres of trenches, and pinned down each other's forces with sniper fire and shelling. Pinned down with their backs to the water the ANZACs were unable to make much headway against the home-country force. 

A lack of success
In Britain, the lack of success of the campaign was creating arguments amongst the leaders of the time about whether the campaign should be continued. 

While political leaders argued, the Australian and New Zealand soldiers died in battle, from sniper fire and shelling, and those that lived suffered from a range of ailments due to their dreadful living conditions - typhus, lice, gangrene, lack of fresh water, poor quality food, and poor sanitary conditions all took their toll. 

That is surely at the heart of the Anzac story, the Australian legend which emerged from the war. It is a legend not of sweeping military victories so much as triumphs against the odds, of courage and ingenuity in adversity. It is a legend of free and independent spirits whose discipline derived less from military formalities and customs than from the bonds of mateship and the demands of necessity.  Former Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon Mr Paul Keating, at the Entombment of the Unknown Soldier at the Australian War Memorial 1993

The withdrawal
Eventually it was decided that the Allied troops would be withdrawn from the Peninsula; the attempt to control the Dardanelles had failed. The ANZACs were evacuated and returned to the Middle East and the Western Front where they were involved in other battles.

The Gallipoli campaign was an enormous failure, a failure bought at the cost of an enormous number of lives, and the failure led to the resignation of senior politicians in London. Thousands of Australian and New Zealand soldiers had died, and thousands of other Allied troops from France and Britain also died. 

The withdrawal
Eventually it was decided that the Allied troops would be withdrawn from the Peninsula; the attempt to control the Dardanelles had failed. The ANZACs were evacuated and returned to the Middle East and the Western Front where they were involved in other battles.

The Gallipoli campaign was an enormous failure, a failure bought at the cost of an enormous number of lives, and the failure led to the resignation of senior politicians in London. Thousands of Australian and New Zealand soldiers had died, and thousands of other Allied troops from France and Britain also died. 

An Anzac commemorative location has been built at Gallipoli in conjunction with the New Zealand government and with the approval of the Turkish government.

Australians make heroes of noble failures
Dr Frank Bongiorno, ARC Research Fellow at the Australian National University suggests, "Australians are particularly inclined to make heroes of noble failures, such as the defeated Eureka rebels, the suicidal Jolly Swagman in 'Waltzing Matilda', and Ned Kelly. Gallipoli seems to fit this pattern. On the other hand, long before the evacuation - and therefore before the Gallipoli campaign was called a 'failure' - many Australians had come to recognise 25 April 1915 as the day their young Commonwealth had come of age. This notion was fuelled by reports from journalists such as Ellis Ashmead Bartlett, an Englishman who described the Australians as a 'race of athletes', and the Australian war correspondent C.E.W. Bean.

"When Australia went to war in 1914," says Dr Bongiorno, "many white Australians believed that their Commonwealth had no history, that it was not yet a true nation, that its most glorious days still lay ahead of it. 'She is not yet', proclaimed James Brunton Stephens in 1877. In western culture, sacrificial death - blood sacrifice - was widely recognised as the foundation of nationhood, and Gallipoli seemed to fit the bill. 

"At the same time, Gallipoli expressed Australians' sense of a dual loyalty: to Australia and to the Empire, of which Australia was a part. Australians were fighting for their Commonwealth, but they were also fighting for their Empire. They were 'independent Australian Britons'.

"The perception of the Gallipoli campaign as the beginning of true Australian nationhood," says Dr Bongiorno, "was also consistent with Australians' self-image as the Coming Race: the physical superiority of Australian soldiers to their English counterparts was a prominent theme in much of the contemporary writing about the ANZACs. 

"This idea confirmed some popular Australian self-images about masculinity and nationhood: notably, that the typical Australian was a bold white male," says Dr Bongiorno. "The major features of an ANZAC legend were discernible very early in the campaign: Australians were bold and ferocious in battle but were unwilling to bow to military discipline. An ANZAC never flinched in battle - if he died it was with a joke, or a wry smile on his face - yet nor would he salute a superior officer. 

"In the popular imagery, the ANZAC hated military etiquette and held the British officer class, and even the subservient 'Tommy' (English soldier), in contempt. 

"In the legend, the Australian Imperial Force was a democratic organisation, in which there were friendly relations between officers and men, and anyone could rise from the ranks to a commission. This image was able to withstand evidence of contrary behaviour by Australian soldiers, not least because the ANZAC image was an adaptation of the image of the bushman, which had been so popular in nineteenth-century Australia. 

Gallipoli: the defining moment for Australia
"In this sense," argues Dr Bongiorno, "the Gallipoli campaign was a defining moment for Australia as a new nation, but also a key moment in the evolution of a particular image of Australian masculinity."

For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon They shall grow not old, As we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, Nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, And in the morning, We will remember them.

Although perhaps less than heroic, this behaviour too - brawling, drinking, fighting - is part of the Australian construction of masculinity, part of the larrikin element exemplified in C.J. Dennis's characters - characters like Ginger Mick and Digger Smith - created by Dennis during the war years. Dennis's The Sentimental Bloke was published in 1915 and Digger Smith in 1918. The Sentimental Bloke sold more than 60,000 copies in less than 2 years. 

Like it or not, hero and larrikin, ratbag and rebel, the ANZACs, in all their complex iconography, are an inextricable part of the Australian tradition of masculinity. 

At Gallipoli, men from all backgrounds and classes from the newly federated Australia created the essence what it means to be Australian - courage under fire, grace under pressure, giving a hand to a mate.
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Australia has largely adopted the winter-based traditions of the northern hemisphere - but we've added a few unique touches. Most obviously - since our Christmas comes in the middle of summer - many of us don't do the full hot roast dinner. Many families pack up for a picnic or a trip to the beach. If we stay at home, it might be salads and cold meats. But the steaming Christmas pudding with hot custard is still common.

Some interesting local variations on the traditional Christmas dinner have arisen. These include:

• Billy Can Pudding
• Christmas Damper
• Colonial Goose (made from lamb...)
• Drover's Plum Pudding
• Father Christmas Salad
• White Christmas 

In the days leading up to Christmas, many Australian families take advantage of the warm summer evenings to take a rug and some candles to a Carols By Candlelight concert, which attract large crowds to parks and outdoor stadiums across the land. The odd Australian Christmas carol will find its way onto the song-sheet: most often it's John Wheeler's "The Three Drovers". On a lighter note, Australians may join in a chorus of Rolf Harris's "Six White Boomers", or Colin Buchanan's "Aussie Jingle Bells".

On Boxing Day, a couple of uniquely Australian events have come to the fore in recent years, appealing to Australians' love of leisure and sport. In Melbourne, cricket fans flock to the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch the opening day of the "Boxing Day Test". And in Sydney, the beautiful harbour is packed with pleasure craft watching the start of the Sydney-to-Hobart Yacht Race. Elsewhere in Australia, these events are watched live on TV. 

But there is no such thing as a "typical" Australian Christmas. Australia is a diverse society, and the Christmases we celebrate are just a part - albeit a large and significant part - of the range of spiritual and cultural expressions to be found in Australia. That range takes us from the ancient totemic dreamtime of Aboriginal Australians through to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, with many variations and offshoots along the way. It's a rich tapestry, reflective of the variety of our people. Household Christmas celebrations in Australia take many forms, as old, new and various traditions blend.

Indigenous Australians
Although indigenous Australians do not have any traditional cultural celebrations that mark the summer solstice or Christmas, many northern Australian aboriginals will be noting the renewal of their six-season cycle in late December, as their sixth season, Gunumeleng, draws to a close. The streams begin to run and waterbirds disperse as surface water and new growth becomes more widespread. Barramundi move out of the waterholes and downstream to the estuaries. People move camp from the floodplain, to find shelter from the violent storms of the wet season, Gudjeuk. The cycle begins anew...
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Our Easter rituals
Easter eggs delivered by the Easter Bunny are an ubiquitous part of Easter - supermarkets and department stores start stocking Easter chocolate around the end of February and children everywhere love an Easter egg hunt. 

You may wonder what connection Easter eggs have to Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. The simple answer is - none. Easter, the Christian festival, did not begin until some 300 years after the death and resurrection of Christ and overlaid pre-existing festivals celebrating the beginning of Spring. Some even argue that Easter is still a pagan festival and should not be celebrated by Christians. 

Bilbies NOT bunnies courtesy of The Australian Bilby Appreciation Society

The rascally rabbit versus endangered bilby
For obvious reasons the rabbit was also a symbol of fertility and fecundity and became associated with festivals dedicated to celebrating the arrival of Spring. In Australia the rabbit is a pest, and celebrating it in any form denies the reality of Australia's rabbit plague and the damage rabbits do to Australia's fragile environment. The CSIRO estimates rabbit damage costs the Australian economy $AU600 million each year.

Because of this, a strong movement to replace the rascally rabbit at Easter with one of Australia's own - the bilby - has developed. The bilby is a cute-looking creature with big eyes, big ears and a long tail and is a member of the bandicoot family. 

The push for an Easter bilby was begun in 1991 by the Anti-Rabbit Research Foundation of Australia when they registered "Easter bilby" as a business name and began licensing the use of that name for bilby-related products. The sale of the products was to fund research into wildlife conservation - an issue of importance to the bilby.

Bilbies are endangered - largely because of competition from rabbits and loss of habitat. 

So instead of an Easter bunny delivering Easter eggs, they are now often delivered by a bilby, and Australian shops stock chocolate bilbies alongside chocolate eggs and rabbits. 
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At 3.10pm AEST, on the first Tuesday in November, Australians everywhere stop for one of the world's most famous horse races - the Melbourne Cup. 
 

MYER Fashions on the Field Photo courtesy of the Victoria Racing Club

In Melbourne, Cup Day is the peak of the Spring Racing Carnival - when champagne and canapés, huge hats and race track fashions sometimes overshadow the business of the day - horse racing.

Said American writer, Mark Twain, on a visit: "Nowhere in the world have I encountered a festival of people that has such a magnificent appeal to the whole nation. The Cup astonishes me." 

The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861 at Flemington race course and was won by Archer. It has run every year since. Through wars and depression, and the good times too, the Melbourne Cup racing carnival has been one of the stayers of Australian cultural experience.

One of the world's most challenging horse races
 

The Race  Photo courtesy of the Victoria Racing Club

The Melbourne Cup is one of the world's most challenging horse races, and one of the richest (total prize money in 2002 of $AU4.075 million), and the picking of winners an imprecise art at best. The race is run over 3200 metres and is a handicapped race. This means, theoretically, that the better the horse is the more weight it has to carry.

The Cox Plate is considered the race most likely to provide an insight into a horse's form and likely Melbourne Cup performance, but even this is unreliable. 

The distance and the handicap ensure that the Melbourne Cup is a horse race in which the mug punter has as good a chance of picking the winner as those who follow the form.Phar Lap, in his last Melbourne Cup campaign in 1931, carried a 10 stone (68kg) handicap. Even a horse with a heart as big as Phar Lap's couldn't overcome it. The race was won by White Nose. 

Photo of Phar Lap's heart courtesy of the "National Historic Collection" of the National Museum of Australia

Phar Lap: Australia's most famous racehorse
Phar Lap is Australia's most famous racehorse. Foaled in New Zealand in 1926 by Night Raid out of Entreaty he grew to 17 hands and over his career won more than 65 thousand pounds in prize money and won 37 of his 51 starts. From September 1929 he was the favourite in all but one of his races.

Phar Lap died in suspicious circumstances, some believing he was poisoned. After his death his bones were donated to Dominion Museum in New Zealand, his hide was mounted and put on display at the Museum of Victoria, and Phar Lap's big heart resides at the National Museum of Australia.
 

Damien Oliver rides to victory on Media Puzzle, the 2002 Melbourne Cup winner Photo courtesy of the Victoria Racing Club

What about Melbourne Cup 2002?

• First: Media Puzzle
• Second: Mr Prudent
• Third: Beekeeper

Damien Oliver triumphs Photo courtesy of the Victoria Racing Club

The 2002 Melbourne Cup will be remembered not only for the winning horse, Media Puzzle, but for Damian Oliver - the jockey who won the Cup for his brother, Jason Oliver, who died just one week before the Cup in a race trial accident. 

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The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month: Remembrance

The end of the Great War 1918, London, UK
"In Victoria Street a group of Australian 'boys' accompanied by a band and their girls decorated in red, white and blue, were swinging down towards Whitehall to the huge delight of all spectators... In Whitehall we got blocked, but what did it matter? We danced on the buses, we danced on the lorries, we danced on the pavement, we shouted, we sang... the office boys and girls at the War Office yelled to their companions across the way; we cheered and cheered again and again, while the Church bells rang out a peal of jubilation..." (Source: Sir Evelyn Wrench, 'Struggle', 1914-1918 in They Saw it Happen 1897-1940, compiled by Asa Briggs.)

It's no wonder Australian soldiers were dancing in the streets. Armistice Day marked the end of the bloodiest war the world had seen.

Although Australia became a nation in 1901 its loyalties still lay with Britain and so the Australian government had committed itself to supporting the British war effort and Australian men volunteered to fight and die on the battlefields of Europe, Turkey and the Middle East.

Of the Australian population of 5 million, 300,000 young men went to the Great War. Of those 60,000 died and 156,000 were wounded or taken prisoner
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