It is 5,614 km long. It was built to keep dingoes out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent (where they had largely been exterminated) and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo_Fence
http://en.wikipedia.org
www.australia.com
2. Which world's largest reptile can be found in Australia? Give the details of the species and illustrate.
Saltwater crocodile. The Saltwater Crocodile can grow to lengths of 7 metres.Saltwater crocodiles are extremely dangerous animals, but data on attacks is limited outside of Australia, and estimates of human fatalities vary wildly between dozens to thousands annually.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltwater_Crocodile#Diet_and_behaviour
http://www.australianfauna.com/largestreptile.php
http://www.australianfauna.com
3.What kind of goverment does Australia have? Who is the present Prime Minister?
Australia has a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Prime Minister is Kevin Rudd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Australia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Australia
http://www.about-australia.com
4. Which lake is the deepest lake in Australia and which is the longest river there?
The longest river is The River Murray(2520 kilometres) and the deepest lake is Lake St Clair.
http://www.australianexplorer.com/interesting_facts.htm
http://www.australianexplorer.com
5.Provide the name of Australian national anthem.Who is the composer of the anthem and how did the anthem become official in Australia?
"Advance Australia Fair". The composer is Peter Dodds McCormick.
The official anthem was ‘God Save the Queen’ (or ‘King’) from 1788 to 1974, although numerous commercial and official competitions were held over the years to find a substitute. The first was held in 1840.
John Dunmore Lang, who published an ‘Australian Anthem’ and an ‘Australian Hymn’ in 1826, was an early advocate of a distinctively Australian anthem. Carl Linger of South Australia wrote ‘The Song of Australia’ in 1860, and it was suggested to the Prime Minister in 1929 as a possible national anthem.
The issue of a truly national anthem was raised persistently before the 1956 Olympic Games, which were held in Melbourne. ‘Advance Australia Fair’ and ‘Waltzing Matilda’ were the two songs most strongly favoured then as the new anthem. ‘Waltzing Matilda’ was composed in 1895, with lyrics by one of Australia’s best known poets, AB ‘Banjo’ Paterson.
On Australia Day, 26 January, in 1972, the number of entries (more than 400) received in an Australia-wide national anthem quest gave an indication of the interest in a new anthem.
Exactly a year later a government-sponsored competition was announced, which drew 2500 entries for the words and 1300 for the music. The judges selected six entries for the words, but rejected all the musical entries.
The polls and what followed
The quest for an Australian national anthem continued. In 1974 a public opinion poll sampled an estimated 60 000 people to select from three possible anthems: ‘Advance Australia Fair’, ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘Song of Australia’. ‘Advance Australia Fair’ polled 51.4 per cent. Following this result the then Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, announced that ‘Advance Australia Fair’ would be the national anthem, except on specifically Royal occasions, when both it and ‘God Save the Queen’ would be played.
In 1976, after a change of government, ‘God Save the Queen’ was reinstated for Royal, vice-regal, defence and loyal toast occasions, with ‘Advance Australia Fair’ to be played on all other official occasions.
In May 1977, however, a national poll was conducted to ascertain the public choice of a national song. This time more than seven million people were issued with ballot papers. The results were: ‘Advance Australia Fair’ 43.2 per cent, ‘Waltzing Matilda’ 28.3 per cent, ‘God Save the Queen’ 18.7 per cent and ‘Song of Australia’ 9.6 per cent. Despite the poll results, adoption of the new national anthem met widespread opposition.
It was not until April 1984 that the Governor-General issued a proclamation that ‘God Save the Queen’ was designated the Royal Anthem, to be played at public engagements in Australia attended by the members of the Royal family. ‘Advance Australia Fair’ was finally declared to be the Australian national anthem.
Usually ‘God Save the Queen’ is played at the start of Royal functions and ‘Advance Australia Fair’ at the end, unless it is more appropriate to play both anthems at the start. ‘Advance Australia Fair’ is played at all other official functions.
http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/nat_anthem.html
http://www.dfat.gov.au
6.Describe the history and design of Australian national flag. What symbols are used in the design and why?
The flag is a defaced Blue Ensign: a blue field with the Union Flag in the canton (upper hoist quarter), and a large white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Star in the lower hoist quarter. The fly contains a representation of the Southern Cross constellation, made up of five white stars – one small five-pointed star and four, larger, seven-pointed stars. The Australian flag uses three prominent symbols: the Union Jack, the Commonwealth Star (also the Federation Star) and the Southern Cross (or Crux).
The Union Flag is thought locally to symbolise Australia's history as six British colonies and the principles upon which the Australian Federation is based,[1][2] although a more historic view sees its inclusion in the design as demonstrating loyalty to the British Empire.
The Commonwealth Star originally had only six points, representing the six federating colonies. However, this changed in 1908 when a seventh point was added to symbolise the Territory of Papua and any future territories. The Commonwealth Star does not have any relation to Beta Centauri, despite that star's coincidental location in the sky and its brightness.
The Southern Cross is one of the most distinctive constellations visible in the Southern Hemisphere, and has been used to represent Australia since the early days of British settlement. Ivor Evans, one of the flag's designers, intended the Southern Cross to refer also to the four moral virtues ascribed to the four main stars by Dante: justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude. The number of points on the stars of the Southern Cross on today's Australian flag differs from the original competition-winning design, on which they ranged between five and nine points each, representing their relative brightness in the night sky. In order to simplify manufacture, the British Admiralty standardised the four larger outer stars at seven points each, leaving the smaller middle star with five points.
A complete specification for the current design was published in the Commonwealth Gazette in 1934. Before 1901, Australia was a collection of six British colonies. The Union Flag, as the flag of the British Empire, was often used to represent them collectively, and each colony also had its own flag based on the Union Flag. Two attempts were made throughout the nineteenth century to design a national flag. The first such attempt was the National Colonial Flag created in 1823–1824 by Captain John Nicholson and Captain John Bingle. The most popular "national" flag of the period was the 1831 Federation Flag, also designed by Nicholson. These flags, and many others such as the Eureka Flag (which came into use at the Eureka Stockade in 1854), featured stars representing the Southern Cross. The oldest known flag to show the stars arranged as they are seen in the sky is the Anti-Transportation League Flag, which is similar in design to the present National Flag. As Federation approached, thoughts turned to an official federal flag. In 1900, the Melbourne Herald conducted a design competition in which entries were required to include the Union Flag and Southern Cross, resulting in a British Ensign style flag. The competition conducted by the Review of Reviews for Australasia later that year thought such a restriction seemed unwise, despite observing that a design without these emblems were unlikely to be successful. After Federation on 1 January 1901, the new Commonwealth Government held an official competition for a new federal flag in April. The competition attracted over 32,000 entries, including many originally sent to the Review of Reviews. The designs were judged on seven criteria: loyalty to the Empire, Federation, history, heraldry, distinctiveness, utility and cost of manufacture. The majority of designs incorporated the Union Flag and the Southern Cross, but native animals were also popular. Five almost identical entries were chosen as the winning design, and their designers shared the 200 pounds prize money. They were Ivor Evans, a fourteen-year-old schoolboy from Melbourne; Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager apprenticed to an optician from Sydney; Egbert John Nuttall, an architect from Melbourne; Annie Dorrington, an artist from Perth; and William Stevens, a ship's officer from Auckland, New Zealand. The five winners received 40 pounds each.
The flag's initial reception was mixed. As the design was basically the Victorian flag with a star added, many critics in both the Federal Government and the New South Wales government objected to the chosen flag for being "too Victorian". They wanted the Australian Federation Flag, and Prime Minister Barton, who had been promoting the Federation Flag, submitted this flag along with that chosen by the judges to the Admiralty for final approval. The Admiralty chose the Red for private vessels and Blue Ensigns for government ships. The Commonwealth government regarded both the Blue and Red Ensigns as colonial maritime flags.
On 3 September 1901, the new Australian flag flew for the first time atop the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. The names of the joint winners of the design competition were announced by Hersey, Countess of Hopetoun (the wife of the Governor-General, the 7th Earl of Hopetoun) and she unfurled the flag for the first time.
A simplified version of the competition-winning design was officially approved as the Flag of Australia by King Edward VII in 1902.
It replaced the Union Flag at the Olympic Games at St Louis in 1904. In the same year, due to lobbying by Senator Richard Crouch, it had the same status as the Union Flag in the UK, when the House of Representatives proclaimed that the Blue Ensign "should be flown upon all forts, vessels, saluting places and public buildings of the Commonwealth upon all occasions when flags are used". The government agreed to fly the Blue Ensign on special flag days, but not if it meant additional expense, which undermined the motion. The Blue Ensign could only be flown on a state government building if a state flag was not available.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_flag
http://en.wikipedia.org
7.Describe the history of the name"Australia". Where does it come from and when was it first used in English?
The name Australia is derived from the Latin australis, meaning "southern". Legends of an "unknown land of the south" (terra australis incognita) date back to Roman times and were commonplace in medieval geography but were not based on any documented knowledge of the continent. The first recorded use of the word Australia in English was in 1625 in "A note of Australia del Espíritu Santo, written by Master Hakluyt" and published by Samuel Purchas in Hakluytus Posthumus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia#Etymology
http://en.wikipedia.org
8.Why is the plant 'golden wattle' so significant in Australia? What do Australians celebrate on the 1-st of September?
Australia's national floral emblem is the golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha Benth.).
When in flower, the golden wattle displays the national colours, green and gold.
As one species of a large genus of flora growing across Australia, the golden wattle is a symbol of unity.
Wattle is ideally suited to withstand Australia's droughts, winds and bushfires. The resilience of wattle represents the spirit of the Australian people.
In recent times, the golden wattle has been used as a symbol of remembrance and reflection. On national days of mourning, for example, Australians are invited to wear a sprig of wattle.
The golden wattle has been used in the design of Australian stamps and many awards in the Australian honours system. A single wattle flower is the emblem of the Order of Australia. The first day of September is National Wattle Day. It builds on a long unofficial tradition of wearing the wattle blossom on 1 September. The day was introduced in 1913 by an association called the Wattle Day League and formally recognised on 23 June 1992.
Australians can celebrate their floral heritage each Wattle Day by planting wattles.
http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/symbols/flora.cfm
http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/
9.What kind of pet is 'litoria caerulea' in Australia? Where does it live? Characterize and illustrate the species.
Tree frog. There are some species (of this family) that are terrestrial or semi-aquatic. However, most tree frogs (of both families) inhabit trees and tall shrubs located near still-water sources. These frogs come in many colors, that range between green, brown or a mix of bright colors and it should be noted that the bright ones can be toxic. Some of them have the ability to change the body color as per the surroundings. Some of them have lines, spots and designs on their back. This skin color of tree frogs act as a camouflage, as they live among green leaves, brown bark, etc. They have a body length that varies from 1.5 centimeter as in the case of Hyla ocularis to 10 centimeters (Hyla vasta). Tree frogs are well adapted to arboreal life, as they have strong and long legs that enable them to jump, climb, etc. Apart from the legs, tree frog adaptations include their adhesive toe pads, that are used to cling to the stems, branches and leaves. Their eyes are big, round and protruding and provides binocular vision. Tree frogs have long and sticky tongues, that are stuck out of the mouth to catch prey.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-do-tree-frogs-eat.html
http://www.buzzle.com/
10.What is the name of the famous Australian rock band, which was founded in 1973 and is still successfully performing? Illustrate.
AC/DC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC/DC
http://en.wikipedia.org
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