Australia

The country code for the Republic of Ireland is +353. The plus sign means "insert your international access prefix here"; the prefix from Australia is 0011 for voice calls, or 0014 for fax calls, but if you're calling from a mobile you may be able to program in the number in international format with +353 (including the plus sign). In any case, you follow the country code with the Irish number, dropping the leading 0 from the area code. For example, Dublin (01) 1234567 becomes +353 1 1234567.

Kangaroo Island lies off the coast of South Australia, just off the southern tips of the Yorke and Fleurieu Peninsulas.

Strictly speaking, Canberra is neither in New South Wales nor Victoria. It lies within the Australian Capital Territory, a quite separate territory from any of the states. However, the ACT is a territory completely encompassed by NSW, utilising territory ceded by NSW for the purpose of a federal capital in 1911.

We govern ourselves by mostly trying to do the right thing, either by not doing what we think is illegal or using judgement.

Politically, Australia votes our parliamentarians in at free, fair and regular elections. The parliamentarians are those who we trust to write our laws.

not a good idea to do that. Could cause major problems for your heart etc. If you need to lose weight and are otherwise healthy drink lots and lots of water (not juice or soda), eat one daily main meal of lots of veggies/fruit and some protein and complex carbs like whole grain bread. Then eat 2 daily mini-meals using nutritious meal replacement bars or meal shakes. Best thing to do is see a nutritionist.

An Aussie salute is an Australian slang term for waving a hand in front of the face in order to scare away flies.

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A long time ago when people in England were bad or murdered someone or something like that they would be banished from England and sent off to Australia. This is how most Australians started out. Pom stands for Prisoner of her Majesty. It is what the people in Autralia would call English people.

The bilby has become Australia's new symbol of Easter. In Australia, the development of the Easter Bilby has been a protracted campaign by many groups concerned with preserving the critically endangered bilby. The idea of an Easter bilby has actually been around since the 1970s. One of its sources may be a book entitled Billy the Aussie Easter Bilby being launched by author Rose-Marie Dusting, in Adelaide in 1979. Dusting donated a percentage of the sales of her book to conservation of the bilby. there are other claims of small groups implementing the concept of an Easter bilby, all around the same time, i.e. late 1970s to early 1980s.

Sydney, Australia is directly south of Papua New Guinea!

The capital of Western Australia is Perth.
The capital city is Perth.

Australians exchange the same variety of gifts as those given and received in other countries. The main difference is the lack of recreational equipment for snow: Australian gift-giving will often comprise items that can be used in pools or at the beach.

No town in South Australia lies on the border with Victoria. The closest is probably Frances, a small township with a population of about 50, between Bordertown and Naracoorte on the now disused railway line. It is about 1 kilometre west of the border.

yes

No.

Astronaut Andy Thomas became the first Australian citizen in space, while Paul Scully-Powers was the first Australian-born astronaut to enter space.

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is a famous rock (or more correctly, inselberg) in central Australia.

Its circumference is just over 9km, and it rises 349 metres above the surrounding plain. Only one-seventh of the rock is visible above the ground. The rest lies beneath the ground. It is located in Kata Tjuta National Park 450 km southwest of Alice Springs.

The world's favorite sport is undoubtedly soccer

In July 2012 Australia had 1.7 gigawatts (GW) of rooftop solar PV capacity throughout the country. In total, over 750,000 homes (about 10% of those in the country) have installed solar panels to date. This number is still growing, with total installed capacity expected to hit 2.3Gw by the end of 2012.

Figures from Australia's Clean Energy Regulator (link below).

There is an enormous Buddhist temple just outside Wollongong, the second city of the state of New South Wales. This not only serves the Chinese and Vietnamese religious population, but is a tourist magnet even for mainstream Australians. There are also many small Taoist and Chinese Buddhist temples all over the main cities of Australia.

China is not the only source for Buddhism in Australia, but it is noteworthy that Professor Maddox of the Macquarie University says that in Australia, Buddhism is the most attractive religion for Western converts. She says that the growth in Muslim numbers could be explained by immigration and natural increase, but the increase in the number of Buddhists could only be explained by conversion.

If you are leaving Asia off the tip of India (by Sri Lanka) then you would cross the Indian Ocean to get to Australia. If you are leaving Asia off of China (below Japan) then you would cross the North Pacific Ocean and the Phillipine Sea.

Perth was founded in 1829, and initially it was called the Swan River settlement.

In 1829, Captain Charles Fremantle was sent to take formal possession of the remainder of New Holland which had not already been claimed for Britain under the territory of New South Wales. On 2 May 1829, Captain Fremantle raised the Union Jack on the south head of the Swan River, thereby claiming the territory for Britain. The Swan River was the logical choice because it was a good port for ships.

The country of Vietnam (which includes the North and South of 40 years ago) today is approximately a little smaller than the state of Montana (by about 20,000 square miles). However, terrain wise, having a long coastline, Vietnam (counting N & S together) would more resemble California or Florida.