Australia 2010 - 1st post

G’day mates!

Well, I’ve finally arrived in The Great Down Under. After a 38 hour long trip, including changing of planes in both London and Singapore and all the waiting it included, I’m exhausted. However, it’s completely worth it when it’s incredibly 34°C outside and you can’t spot a single cloud on the sky no matter how far you look.

I read a lot about Australia before I came, and now I’m going to give you a short résumé:

Australia is a land in Oceania with approximately 21,3 million habitants and its situated south for Indonesia and Papua New Guinea separated by the Arafura Sea. It’s a huge country covering more than 7,5 millions square kilometers, or almost twenty-four times the area of Norway, which makes it 6^th biggest country in the world in area.

The Great Down Under is also the flattest continent in the world and it has the oldest and least fertile soils. Only the south-east and south-west corner of Australia has a temperate and sub tropic climate, and the major part of the population lives here. The Northern part of Australia has a tropical climate and consists of rainforests, forests, plains, deserts and mangrove sumps.

Let’s go over to the history of this magnificent country in short moves:

After decades of research scientists believes that the first habitants came to Australia from Indonesia for over 50 000 years ago and spread over the whole continent. Thousands of thousands years later the first Europeans started to explore the coasts of Australia. In 1770 the English explorer and navigator James Cook settled in Botany Bay (a bay in what’s Sydney today) and claimed it as a part of Great Britain.

This was the beginning of the colonization that exploded in 1787 when eleven ships full of prisoners left Great Britain heading southwards against Australia. A member of James Cooks crew said that this huge country would’ve been a great place to keep prisoners as the jails in England where crowded. Later on others came to Australia as well, and when they found gold in 1850 it started to flock in with immigrants. In 1868 the transport of prisoners ended and by then more 

than 160 000 criminals and lots of other people had settled down in The Land Down Under.   

Since Australia was so far away from England and it was such a huge country, the habitants wanted their own government. One by one the different colonies (regions) got their own self-government. January the 1^st in 1901 all the colonies became one and Australia was now an own nation. It was still a part of the Commonwealth of Nations but it was now and own independent country with its own self-government.

I’m pretty tired right now so I think I’ll go to bed within a few minutes. Tomorrow, I’m going to spend a day on my own wandering around Sydney. I promise that I’ll post some pictures!

Australia 2010 - 4th post

Hey guys!

This will most likely be the last post on my travel blog before I head back home to Norway. Here it goes:

 

I spent my last full day at Australia Zoo which is located in Queensland, the north-eastern part of Australia. And man they had lots of animals: Cheetahs, dingoes, kangaroos, koalas, red pandas, Tasmanian devils, crocodiles, lizards and a load of exotic birds. And many of them are endemic to Australia. Since they were gathered in one place I didn’t have to hackle the whole country to see them.

The area where the park is standing was bought in 1970 by Lyn and Bob Irwin, the parents of the famous Australian television personality Steve Irwin. 

Steve Irwin, also known as “The Crocodile Hunter”, was a wildlife expert and conservationist. You’ve probably seen him on TV channels like Animal Planet, Discovery and TV Norge. I would say that he’s Australia’s most famous person, at least he’s the one of things I think of when someone says “Australia”. Unfortunately he died on the 4th of September 2006 after being stabbed by a stingray while filming an underwater documentary in the Great Barrier Reef.

Oh no, I forgot something! My mom isn’t very with computers and stuff, and since she visited Australia some years ago she has wanted to get an explanation of the Australian flag. She doesn’t know how to search for something at the internet, and she’s kind of lazy so she hasn’t bothered asking someone for it either. So this is for you mom, here it goes:

The Australian flag is blue and it has three elements in it: the Union Jack, the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross. The Union Jack, in the upper right corner, represents Australia’s history as six British colonies. It also demonstrates their respect for the British Empire. Below the Union Jack you’ll find the Commonwealth Star. This represents the seven British colonies that federated and became one country. On the right side of the flag we can see the Southern Cross, a constellation which consists of five stars. This can be seen from all of Australia’s states and territories.

That was it, right now I’m sitting on the balcony watching the beautiful sunset while thinking back on all the wonderful days I’ve had her in Oz. It has been an experience I’ll never forget, a memory for life. I have to shed a tear. I really hope that I’ll get another opportunity to come back to this terrific country. I’ll tell you more when I’m home in Norway…

See you later, alligator!

Australia 2010 - 3rd post

G’day!

Today I’ve had the best experience of my life, no doubt about that! I’ve been diving in The Great Barrier Reef. It was so beautiful I can’t describe it with words. The Great Barrier Reef is situated off the coast of Queensland at the north-east of Australia, and it’s the worlds largest reef system stretching over a distance of incredibly 2 600 km. The reef has got a diversity of life, among them many vulnerable and endangered species. More than 1500 species of fish, 30 species of whales and dolphins and 215 species of birds is a part of the wildlife here. So if you have the opportunity to visit The Great Barrier Reef during a stay in Australia, do it! I promise you won’t regret.

But when I arrived back at my hotel and read the newspaper I forgot this morning, I was a bit surprised.

“Federal Government approves coal seam gas projects in central Queensland”

The government in Australia has given a green flag to two major coal seam gas projects in central Queensland worth $16 billion dollars. "We must protect the Great Artesian Basin, our threatened species, our waterways and the Great Barrier Reef," the environment minister said.

To be honest I’m a bit skeptical about this. First of all the danger with projects like that, I’m thinking of the disaster in Mexico some months ago when 185 million gallons of oil was released into the ocean. Of course the engineers said it was safe and things like that would never happen. But you never know! And you saw what this disaster resulted in. Big parts of the sea life in the Gulf Coast were completely ruined. And all this goes into a bad circle. What I try to say is that, in worst case, similar accidents, like a gas explosion, could happen with the gas-projects in Queensland as well. Can you imagine what would happen then? The marine life on the Great Barrier Reef could be seriously damaged, people could be killed, and not forget The Great Artesian Basin could be ruined which is the only reliable source of freshwater through much of inland Australia. I don’t dare to think about what would happen if the whole population in Australia had lost all of their freshwater.

And it’s not only me that’s skeptical about this. Several “Green Groups” and farmers have raised concerns about coal seam gas development. This week four toxic chemicals were discovered in eight of the gas wells.

In addition to this I read that indigenous groups have to leave their homes in advantage of gas development. The Australian Aboriginals has been driven away from their homes since “The White Man” settled in Australia. If this continues, we may have lost one of the oldest native people in the whole world within a few years. What a disaster that would’ve been!

Furthermore gas production isn’t very eco-friendly. And if we want to reduce the effect of the global warming and what it brings, gas development is not the right way to go.

The only positive thing I see about this project is that it makes jobs, about 5000 construction jobs and 1000 jobs on a permanent basis.

But that’s it for today mates! Time to go to bed…

Australia 2010 - 2nd post

I woke up by the sun shining through my window. I jumped out of my bed and rushed out on my balcony with panorama view. The sky was clear, the temperature was just perfect and the city had woken up from its sleep and had just started to move. This was sure going to be a beautiful day. I ate an extraordinary breakfast at the hotel, went back to my room and brushed my teeth, made sure that I’d got my money, camera and all that other stuff, and I was ready to go.

Because this city, with almost as many inhabitants as Norway itself, has so much to offer you don’t have time to visit all the attractions or do all the things you want to. Therefore, I decided to visit the market at the dockside and visit the world famous Sydney Opera House. 

I walked down to the market at the dockside, The Bondi Beach Market, since it was just a 15 min. walk from the hotel I’m staying at. When I came down at the market I was overwhelmed over how huge it was! It was stands everywhere where they sold everything you could imagine and cooked delicious food. I could easily have spent a whole day here.

I was walking around at the market for about three hours I think. Both locals and tourists seem to visit the market, and today it was crowded. However, I had a great time.  I ate kangaroo and crocodile meat and different kind’s Australian food and at 11 o’clock a group of aboriginals was playing indigenous Australian music. I was told that one of them was Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, a well known indigenous performer who sings in the Yolŋu Matha languages, which is a language used by some aboriginals.

After I’d walked through the whole market and had a look at and tasted some of the food, I realized that Australia hasn’t got their “own” food since those who settled here brought the food they used to eat in their own countries.

For about 40 000 years ago, before the Europeans came to Australia, they natives ate what we can call bush food (food you can find in the nature; meat, berries, plants etc.).  Later, in the 18^th century, Australia was introduced to food from the British Isles. In the 19^th and 20^th century the Australian cuisine was influenced by Mediterranean and Asian cuisine, brought by immigrants to Australia. In brief we can say that the Australian cuisine is a product of the colonization and the globalization.

As I mentioned, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was performing at the market. People gathered around them, and I must confess that I’ve never heard such lively music in my entire life. They were singing on their original language and they were playing on instruments like the didgeridoo, a hollow log who’s between 60 and 240 cm long. I couldn’t resist, and actually bought one myself. They’re so awesome!

I also visited the Sydney Opera House, but it wasn’t that great. Of course the construction is pretty cool, but there were way too many tourists there for me, so I didn’t stay long.

See you later guys!