The last post

Hi!

    This is my last blogpost! Kind of sad actually, because I really enjoyed this project way more than I thought I would. This whole project has not exactly stopped any prejudices from my point of view. It's rather going in the opposite direction; I was right about the kangaroos, the barrier-reef and so on. My preconception of that I watch a lot of new movies that take place about a hundred years ago in Australia, is probably more of a fact.

Overall I'm kind of satisfied that I chose to blog about Australia. It's been interesting. I honestly did not know that much about the aborigines and thought that the culture was extinct. Great to be wrong in this case!

Thanks for reading! Bye!

   /Hanna

PS. Great that you've been voting at my quiz! The right answer is... The US! (You find the answer in the second blogpost called “Who”.) 

Why you should move to Australia

Hi!

    Now when I know some about the country I kind of want to go there and experience it myself. I don't know if I would want to move there, but I understand those who does. If I were to live there and got to decide exactly where and how, I would want to own a little cottage, close to the beach, somewhere in a village. Not in a huge city like Sydney. Perhaps I would live close to Sydney so I could go there on day trip for shopping or go to the operahouse for a concert in the evening.

    The reason I want to live out of town is because of the peace it brings. Not hectical (but still not isolated from people!).

    Here are some reason YOU should move to Australia:

* The climate

* The outdoor life 

* The beaches 

* The various ways of living (just look at Crocodile Dundee...)

* The dialect 

Bye!

When?

Hi!
This time we are suppose to write about something that has happened historical. Unfortunately I've already written about the most important; the aborigines and how other men came to Australia. But I thought I could write some more about the culture of the aborigines.
    The Aborigonal religion is based on a creation story called The Dreaming. They believe that the world was just a shapless mass at the beginning of time. The ancestors came to Australia. They could be transformed into different shapes and as they went across the landscape they created new life.

The Australians have got prejudices about aborigines. That's sad, because they do not have the same rights as an ordinary australian. Recently an aboriginal woman was voted into the parliament of Australia. Some progress but still a long way to go...

Here is some art made by the aborigines.

What?

Hi! Did you know that the capital of Australia is called Canberra? Though Sydney is the largest city and is located in the eastern south. It has about 4,5 million inhabitants.

    Perhaps you've also heard about the opera house in Sydney? At least I have. It's got a lot of different halls for various purposes. For example one hall for the best acoustic experience and another for the best views while watching theatre, and so on.

Australia is divided into six states. Everyone with its own capital. One state is called Victoria. Its capital is Melbourne.
   Melbourne is the second most populated city with its four million inhabitants. It's an important city because it is the reason the Western world came to Australia. I was actually here all the gold-diggers came to earn a fortune.

Sources:
http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/homepage.aspx
Wikipedia – different pages

Where?

Hello!
There are a lot of great things in and about Australia. Did you know the island itself is 19 times larger than Sweden? That makes it the sixth biggest country in the world meanwhile it's the smallest continent.
    The Barrier-reef is the greatest system of reefs on earth. It's actually “built” by nearly 3000 reefs and 900 islands. The total system is located along the coastline (many kilometres from the shore) in an extent of  2000 kilometres. 1500 different types of fish and 400 different species of coral can be found here.


The largest rock on earth can also be gazed in Australia. It's not a mountain but a monolith. I'm having a hard time understanding exactly what it is, so I'm not going to explain it because I might be wrong. (If you scroll down you find a link in case you want to know more about it.) Anyway the greatest monolith is existing in the northern west of Australia and is called Mount Augustus.

Another monolith called Ayers rock or Uluru lies in the centre of Australia and is a holy place for the aborigines. Yet today it's a place for ceremonies.


Sources:
http://www.nimade.info/varlden/2010/11/Vad-ar-en-monolit.html
http://www.ayersrock.se/

Who?

Hi again! The updating is not on top but... Now I'm here! Today I'm going to tell a bit about the aborigines. Probably the most famous ethnical group in Australia.

    For about 40 000 years, the aborigines lived in Australia all by themselves. They had their beliefs and knew how to survive. They were unaware of any other existents except their own until 17^th and 18^th centuries when other humans arrived. Offenders were shipped from England to Australia for a prison you'd built there as a punishment.

    In the middle of the 19^th century it was discovered that the land of Australia was hiding a lot of gold, so people raced there from all over the world. Especially from the US where the gold in California recently had run out. Back then the population raised up to 2 million people. Twice as much than before. Today the population in Australia is around 21 million people of which 400 000 are aborigines.

I've also found some information about the well known kangaroos (and got my suspicions about them confirmed). It actually exists more kangaroos today than 200 years ago. By estimate about 25 million. That's a lot of kangaroos! And they can all jump up to 9 metres!

Sources:

http://www.destinationdownunder.se/australia/facts.htm

http://www.australienguiden.se/aborigin.php

Why I chose to blog about Australia

Hello readers! This is my first blogpost ever! Kind of exciting... I'm just an ordinary 15 year old schoolgirl. It's because of my englishclass I'm sitting here, creating a blog about an English-speaking country. I thought it would be fun to know more about the lovely Australia. I've never been there myself, but I want to go there sometime.
    As a TV-lover, you notice there are a lot of shows coming from Australia; movies, scenery-documentaries, cooking-competitions... you name it. Their dialect, in my opinion, just gives everything character and makes it non-american.
    Australia is such a thrilling and exotic country in my eyes. The perhaps first thing I think of when I hear about Australia is kangaroos, the barrier-reef and old movies. I'll see if this project will change my mind about things. That remains to be seen...