G'day, Australia
Are you looking for a place to visit that is beautiful, warm and exciting? If so, look no further than the Land Down Under, Australia.
Where is Australia?
Australia got its nickname because of its location in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s far from the United States – more than 5,000 miles from the closest state, Hawaii, and even farther from the continental U.S. Flying there can take 15 hours!
Australia is the world’s largest island and smallest continent and is home to many exotic animals and the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef.
Australian history and residents
On Jan. 26, the country will celebrate Australia Day, the anniversary of the day in 1788 when British ships first arrived there. Like the U.S., it was once a colony of Great Britain, but it became independent in 1901.
Although Australia is far from the U.S., Americans and Australians have some things in common. For example, both speak English and both use the dollar as currency. Also, many early settlers to both places came from England and some not by choice.
Centuries ago, Britain’s prisons were overcrowded, so they began sending convicts (people who broke the law) to other countries. Australia is well known as a place convicts were sent, but the truth is, many convicts also were sent to the British colonies in what became the U.S. and Canada.
Also like the U.S., Australia is home to native people – those who lived there before foreign settlers moved in. And like the Native Americans, Aboriginal Australians were pushed onto reservations to make room for settlers, not being given the right to citizenship for several years.
Other notable residents of Australia are the animals. Many species live there in the wild that can’t be found anywhere else in the world, like the koala, kangaroo and platypus. There are also dangerous animals like venomous snakes and poisonous spiders.
Australian lands
The Australian climate is most comfortable in the south and southeast, so that’s where most of its people live. More than one-third of the country is desert, or “outback,” where the weather is too hot and dry for people to want to stay. But where the weather is nice, people enjoy outdoor activities such as surfing, snorkeling and playing sports. Some areas of the country get snow in the winter, but don’t expect it to snow there anytime soon – because Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are opposite what they are in the U.S. Right now, it is summer!