Australia

In Australia the term 'station' is used eg. a sheep station or a cattle station. The term is equivalent to 'ranch' which is used in other parts of the English speaking word.

These stations can cover thousands of square kilometres.

To send a postcard or greeting card from Australia to Japan the airmail price is $1.60.

the great barrier reef gets almost no light when it reaches and when at the top of the water gets a lot

Many consider that the longest river in Victoria is the Murray, but the Murray River does not actually lie in Victoria. The border of NSW is the southern bank of the Murray.

The longest river in Victoria is the Goulburn River, at 654km long.

Many sources state that a referendum to change the Australian Constitution in 1967 gave indigenous people the vote, and even many Aborigines themselves are of this belief. This referendum actually removed a provision from the constitution that excluded Aboriginal people from census figures which in turn were used to calculate the distribution and boundaries of electorates. This constitutional revision was required to correct the anomaly that while Aboriginal people already had the vote they were not included in the calculations used to make for electorates with approximately equal numbers of voters.

Australian Aboriginals' right to vote varied from territory to territory with some (including women) having the right to vote (though rarely exercised) from the 19th century. Federal legislation in 1949 and 1962 formalized voting qualifications for Aboriginal people and with the State of Queensland introducing legislation in 1965, all Australians of Aboriginal descent then had full voting rights in all parts of the country and were able to vote in the referendum that supposedly 'gave them the vote'.

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Cauze I am gamed

In essence, Hargraves started the gold rush. Edward Hargraves had carefully studied the geology of the Bathurst area and, convinced that it was similar to that of the California goldfields, from where he had just returned, went prospecting. He asked for assistance from John Lister, a man who had already found gold in the region. Lister led Hargraves directly to where gold was found, at Summerhill Creek, at a site which Hargraves named "Ophir". After reporting his discovery, he was appointed a 'Commissioner of Land', receiving a reward of £10,000 plus a life pension. The New South Wales government made the official announcement of the discovery of gold on 22 May 1851.

The Swan River is fed by the Avon River, which has a catchment area of over 120 000 sq km. Another source of the Swan is the Mounts Bay Drain, part of a system which connects Lake Monger to the Swan River at Mounts Bay, near Perth. The Mounts Bay Drain was constructed in 1909 to allow regulation of water levels in Lake Monger.

Australian Labor Party with Julia Gillard as Prime Minister is the dominant party at present it depends however on the backing of several independents to hold its position as the government. 2011

Australia's rivers are generally not dangerous, but some along the northern coast would be dangerous as they are prime crocodile country. These rivers include the Alligator River (misnamed because of the resemblance of crocodiles to alligators), Adelaide, Mary and Daly Rivers.

Yes.

It depends on the species.

Two marsupials share the shortest gestation period. The Virginian opossum and the yapok (an unusual, rare water opossum) have a gestation period period of 12-13 days. On the other end of the scale, tree kangaroos have the longest gestation period, being 39-45 days. Most other marsupials range between 21 and 33 days.

In the floods which occurred in Queensland, Australia in 2011, current figures are 22 dead and several still missing, as of 24 January.

Indigenous Australians have swum around the Great Barrier Reef for around 40,000 years, so we don't know.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world. It is about 2300 kilometres in length, which is the equivalent of about 1,430 miles. Its northern end just south of Papua New Guinea, and its southern end near Lady Elliott Island, northeast of the city of Bundaberg.

The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, which comprises more than just the coral reefs, atolls and islands of the Great Barrier Reef, covers around 348,000 sq km (134,363 sq miles) while the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park itself covers around 344,400 sq km.

When the white settlers came, the Aborigines were dispossessed of their land and, much later, "encouraged" onto reserves, supposedly for their protection. They were forced off their traditional hunting grounds, and certainly herded away from the fertile coastal areas where there was plenty of food. White settlers wrecked the very effective native fishing traps, cleared native habitats and reduced the native food supplies, as well as polluting their water.

Massacres of the indigenous people occurred on a regular basis. The Coniston massacre, the massacre at Myall Creek, the "Battle of Risdon" in Tasmania and many others, all were perpetrated against the Aborigines by the Europeans. There were years of conflict between Tasmanian Aborigines and white settlers which eventually resulted in the loss of the purebred aboriginal race from Tasmania - virtually genocide.

The Europeans also introduced foods and diseases, all of which were perfectly harmless to the white settlers, but lowered the life expectancy of the aboriginal people. Simple diseases like Measles and Influenza had devastating effects on Aborigines. Foods containing wheat and sugar resulted in Heart disease and obesity among the indigenous Australians. Europeans introduced new flora and fauna which took over native habitat, leading to the extinction of many plants and animals on which the Aborigines relied.

When the aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their families, this directly led to a loss of culture, language, customs and traditions among the Aborigines. When the Europeans first came to Australia, there were around 250 different aboriginal languages in Australia. There is just a fraction of that number now. Many stories from the aboriginal Dreaming (creation legends) have disappeared forever.

Brisbane is the capital of Queensland. It is located in the southeast of the state, where the Brisbane River meets Moreton Bay.

The colony of the Moreton Bay District was founded in 1824, but abandoned less than a year later when the main settlement was moved 30km away, to the Brisbane River. On 4 May 1842, Moreton Bay was declared a free settlement. On 6 June 1859, the former Moreton Bay District was granted separation from New South Wales, and given the name of Queensland, with Brisbane as its capital city. Brisbane is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the Governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825.

There are a dozen or more deserts in Australia, ranging in size from hundreds of thousands of square kilometre to just thousands of square kilometres. Basically, the deserts extend right through central Australia, to parts of the western coast, and south through the Nullarbor Plain to the Great Australian Bight. There are no deserts along the eastern coast.

The largest cities on the Murray River are Albury-Wodonga and Murray Bridge.

There are also numerous large and small towns along the river. These include Yarrawonga, Howlong, Echuca/Moama, Deniliquin, Mildura, Swan Hill, Wentworth, Robinvale, Kerang, Morgan, Waikerie, Renmark, Loxton, Berri, Barmera and others.

The colour of Uluru/Ayers Rock, at close range, is an orange-red ochre colour. In the normal light of day, from a distance, it takes on a browner hue. Its different colours are quite remarkable. At sunrise, it has a more orange-yellow appearance. During tain, it has a silver-grey appearance.

There are several factors which contribute to the appearance of different colour changes for Uluru at different times of day.

The different angles of morning sun and late afternoon sun reflect differently off the surface of the Rock, and interact with the different soil colours surrounding the Rock, to also alter its appearance from the brilliant orange-red of early morning to the deeper, dusky-red of later afternoon. On an overcast day, the Rock's colour is also more subdued, turning to an orange-brown colour. It is largely a matter of the atmospheric conditions, and how the moisture levels in the air and any clouds reflect the surrounding desert colours back onto Uluru.

They call it Christmas