Sydney, Australia

COUNTRY INFORMATION
Australia’s 7,686,850 km2 landmass is situated on the Indo-Australian Plate. The capital, Canberra, is located in the Australian Capital Territory, although Sydney is the largest city, with four million people, or 20 per cent of the population. The majority of the population are located in and around the cities of Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Australia largely consists of desert and semi arid land, making it the driest inhabited continent. The northern part of the country is something of a contrast, with its tropical climate, it is made up of rainforest, woodland and grassland. A result of this varied climate and long-term geographical isolation means that much of Australia’s vegetation and wildlife is diverse and unique to Australia. About 85 per cent of flowering plants, 84 per cent of mammals, 45 per cent of birds and 89 per cent of in-shore fish are native to the country. One of the celebrated national phenomenon’s The Great Barrier Reef, is the world’s largest coral reef and lies off the north coast of Australia and extends for over 2,000km, or 1,250 miles. Australia has been inhabited for over 40,000 years by Indigenous Australians. After traders and explorers discovered more of the country through the seventeenth century, the eastern half of the continent was claimed by the British in 1770 and became the penal colony of New South Wales in 1788. As more and more regions were explored and populated, five more Crown Colonies were established through the nineteenth century. The UK formally claimed the western part of Australia in 1829, while in 1863, the Northern Territory was founded as a free province, not a colony and became a province of South Australia. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the individual colonies set up their own governments, while remaining part of the British Empire. This process continued until the six colonies were federated and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed, as a Dominion of the British Empire in 1901. During this time the indigenous population of Australia began to diminish. Australia’s independence from Great Britain increased further with the Statute of Westminster which ended most of the constitutional links between the two countries and was adopted by Australia in 1942. The final constitutional ties between Australia and Great Britain ended in 1986 with the passing of the Australia Act 1986, which brought to an end any British role in the Australian states. However, Australians rejected a move to become a republic in 1999, when 55 per cent of voters opted to keep Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Australia. Under the constitutional monarchy with its parliamentary system of government, the Queen, under the Constitution of Australia, delegates all her powers to the Governor General. The demographic of Australia began to change after the Second World War as the government actively encouraged immigration from Europe and lifted restrictions on immigration from other countries. Most of the 20.4 million Australian are descended from nineteenth and twentieth century immigrants, the majority from Great Britain and Ireland. The population quadrupled in the post war period as a result of this ambitious immigration programme. This had quite a significant impact on the culture of Australia. Up until the mid twentieth century, the culture was Anglo-Celtic, while in recent years, the environment and indigenous culture have had a large impact. In terms of the economy, Australia has a well developed, western style mixed economy that is heavily reliant on the service sector, including tourism, which makes up 69 per cent of the GDP. The economy is relatively stable and at the beginning of 2006, unemployment stood at 5.3 per cent. Sport is a very important part of culture in Australia, with over 23 per cent of all adults over the age of 15 taking part in organised sporting activities. At an international level, Australia performs well in cricket, hockey, rugby league, rugby union and swimming – and of course – motorsport.

LOCAL INFORMATION
Time zone: GMT + 11
Airport: Sydney International Airport
Currency: Australian Dollar (AUD)
Average January temperature: 71.8F
Average January rainfall: 4.1 inches