The Australian Geography and Climate

The Australian nature consists mostly of desert, but there are also tropical rainforests and mountains there. Because of that, Australia is called a megadiverse country. Australia is the country with most reptiles in the whole world. (755).

Compared to other continents, Australia is a very dry place. More than 80 percent of the country got less than 60 centimeters rainfall each year. Antarctica is the only country that got less rainfall than Australia. In the mountains of Australia, it may actually snow. There is a snow season every year and Australia got some good winter athletes. There are also many fishermen in Australia, because of much nutrition from melted Antarctic ice.

Bushfires are quite normal in Australia. Many weeks without rain and if it in these periods strokes a lightening, it can cause a big bushfire. In February 2009, 200 people died and 2000 houses where destroyed during their worst bushfire ever.

All plants and animals at the Great Barrier Reef is supposed to die if Global Warming continues. Some parts in the lower Australia are also threatened by the fact that the sea level is rising.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Australia

http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~jz/travel/aus/climate.html

Made by Tore Gederaas Kanstad.

Our Way Down Under

This travel blog is made by Alexander, Espen and Tore. We are three young boys who has been on a vacation Down Under, that means to Australia. We traveled from Trondheim's airport Gardemoen the 3rd of July 2010, a early Saturday morning, to Oslo's airport Værnes. From Værnes we took a last airplane flying straight to Sydney Airport. At the airport we took a cab to our hotel, in the middle of Sydney city.

We flew back with a lot of new experiences to Gardemoen a week later; 10.07.10. It was a fantastic trip!

Some Australian History

The Aborigines arrived to Australia about 40 000 years ago. They have since then lived at one withe the nature, caring about their homeland. The Spanish captain Luis Zaez de Torres was the first person to explore Australia. In 1787 the First Fleet arrived with settlers from Britain. They made Australia to their colony. More people arrived, but in England it wasn’t popular to go to Australia. England had too many prisoners and orphanage children, so they sent them Down Under. As an result of this the crime rate rose. Emigration did not start for full, until after 1850. The reason for that was because gold got discovered. A lot of people started emigrating from Great Britain after this discovery. 

Australia became an independent nation in 1901. Australia is still a Monarchy, with Queen Elisabeth the second as the ruler.

When the British lords were bored, they decided to import the fox to Australia. Now the fox is dominating the Australian animal life. 

When the Australian population rose, the British settlers needed more land and resources. Therefore they killed and chased the Aborigines.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Australia

http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib/history.html

Made by Tore Gederaas Kanstad

Steve Irwin

Stephen Robert Irwin also known as Steve Irwin and “The crocodile hunter” 

was born in Australia 22.02.1962 and died 04.09.2006. 

He was born in Melbourne in Australia, but moved with his parents at the age of eight years old to Queensland. Steve grew up with crocodiles and reptiles because his parents were both wildlife experts. 

He was an Australian television personality and wildlife expert. His parents opened a small zoo park, which he later got in directed. Steve and Terri took over the small zoo park and changed the name to Australian Zoo.

He had a wife, Terri and together they had two children Bindi Sue Irwin on 12 years and Robert Clarence Irwin on 7 years. 

Steve and Terri worked close to each other and they created wildlife documentary television series together; “The crocodile hunter”. 

The series has been presented on Animal Planet, Discovery Chanel and the Norwegian TV channel “TV Norge”. The series takes Steve into the dangerous adventures in Australia.

4^th September 2006 was Steve Irwin unluckily killed while he was filming a documentary in the Great Barrier Reef by a stingray, which fatally pierced Steve in the chest. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Robert_Irwin

http://www.google.no/imgres?imgurl=http://animal.discovery.com/fish/stingray/pictures/stingray-picture.jpg&imgrefurl=http://animal.discovery.com/fish/stingray/&usg=__Svo6-vHOfRH75S8ah2qkEg4XdgU=&h=450&w=625&sz=52&hl=no&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=r_D8kmf8gYy0EM:&tbnh=149&tbnw=200&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstingray%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dno%26lr%3Dlang_no%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D667%26tbs%3Disch:1,lr:lang_1no0,56&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1060&vpy=226&dur=2094&hovh=190&hovw=265&tx=180&ty=146&ei=QVnITL6kDIvEswapuKjGBg&oei=QVnITL6kDIvEswapuKjGBg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0&biw=1366&bih=667

Here is a film about Steve with alot of snakes :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4_mWRnmWEs

Made by Alexander K.

Culture - Sports in Australia

In Australia it’s common to play cricket, beach cricket, soccer, tennis, rugby and Australian football with Australian rules. Motorsports, swimming and horse racing are other popular activities. Athletics is a rather small sport in Australia. Cricket is Australia’s national sport, and 59 percent of Australia’s inhabitants finds this sport interesting. A wooden bat is used to hit a leather ball. The ball is quite similar to the ball used in baseball. The ball is supposed to hit some wooden stumps. The team who have all their stumps overturned loses.

Softball is also a popular sport. It’s a variant of baseball. It used to be an Olympic game, but since USA always won, the sport was removed from the Olympic Games. 

The game polocrosse is also played in Australia. It is a combination between polo and lacrosse. The player sits on the horseback and is holding a stick with a net at the end. The ball is laying at the ground when the game starts. The goal in this sport is to throw the ball in the other team’s goal with their stick.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polocrosse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_Australia

http://www.howtoplaycricket.org/how-to-play-cricket/how-to-play-cricket-a-beginners-guide

Proudly written by Tore Gederaas Kanstad.

Some Famous Places in Australia

There are a lot of famous places in Australia, and here are some of them :

Uluru/Ayers Rock is a large monolith, probably the second largest monolith on earth. A monolith is a large sandstone-rock-formation and this monolith is located in central Australia/Alice Springs in the Simpson Desert.

The monolith is sacred to the aboriginal people who live in Australia. It is one of the oldest rocks on earth. 

There is a national park surrounding the rock called Uluru national Park. 

The Parliament house of Representatives is one of two houses of the Australian Federal Parliament, which is located in Canberra- the capitol of Australia. The house was opened 9 May 1988, the other one being the Senate. The House has 150 members. The House's central function is to make new laws and change the present laws.

The Sydney Opera house was finish build in 1973 and cost 102 million Australian dollar (AUD) to build. The Sydney Opera house is situated close to the Sidney Harbour Bridge. 

The House exist of about 1000 rooms. The fantastic building presents Australian opera, ballet, symphony orchestra and theater.

Harbour Bridge is a bridge in Sydney. It is one of Australia’s most famous landmarks. The bridge-building started in 1923 and was finished in 1932. It was built to bind together the north and south part of Sidney. The bridge is about 1,1 km. long, and 134 m. high. According to Guinness World Records, it is the world's widest long-span bridge.

http://www.snl.no/Sydney

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Harbour_Bridge

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil:Sydney_Opera_House_Australia.jpg

http://www.collegedownunder.net/aboutaus/photos.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru

http://library.thinkquest.org/J002388/ayersrock.html

http://www.aph.gov.au/house/info/general/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_House,_Australian_Capital_Territory

Made by Alexander K.

Alexsander's Diary

Dear diary

03.07.10 Espen, Tore and me-Alexander went to the airport in Trondheim. We all were excited, but I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the long plane trip. We went off from Værnes and down to Gardermoen where we went on another plane directly to Sidney, Australia.

When we landed in Sidney it was like landing in Norway. The only difference was the contamination, but for Tore it was a big difference. He has lived on Svalbard for some years and he noticed that the temperature was quite warm. After we came comfortable we decided to spilt up for some days and do whatever we wanted to do.

I wasn’t sure what to do with the same, but I decided to do something I never would repent on. I was searching after a guide who could guide me through two days at the aboriginal people in Australia, and with the same get a sight of the Uluru/Ayers Rock.

I found a guide that was very expensive, but he brought me to the aborigine’s people. The aboriginal or the indigenous Australians was the first immigrants to Australia.

Day 1: I met the leader of the indigenous people, but I wasn’t sure about he was happy to see me or not. They don’t like tourists to the monolith because the monolith is sacred for them. I came with the leader to all the other indigenous people and they started asking a lot of questions. I didn’t know what to do.

When it got dark they made a bonfire. They were painted in the face, and even some of them came painting on me- which was very funny. Suddenly I felt that my body was starting shaking. I got a busy feeling of the serology. They started screaming and dancing shaking dances and I got very scared until I fell together.

Day 2: I wake up with headache and couldn’t remember anything, but the memory came slowly back. The men wanted me to come with them, so I did. They showed me how to make a boomerang. I did exactly what they showed me- and then it was time for hunting.

We went off looking after birds. We saw some birds, and one of the indigenous men threw away his boomerang, and hit the bird in the neck. Now it was my turn, and I threw it away. The boomerang didn’t come half that far as the other one did. I tried once more and then I made it. I hit a bird in his wing.

They were celebrating because of I hit one of the birds in front of the rock Uluru. When it almost got dark the guide said that we had to leave. I got one of the boomerangs as a reward from them.

Day 3: When I met Espen and Tore, they could not believe their ears. They didn’t believe on me. As a professional as me I remembered my camera and showed them the pictures of what I had been doing.

Tore's diary

Dear Sam

08.30.10                                                                                   Tore Gederaas Kanstad

Third of July Espen, Alex and me went to the airport at Værnes. We took a plane to Oslo and then to Sydney. When we arrived, I was amazed over the heat. I knew it was supposed to be quite hot in Australia, but I didn’t expect that kind of welcome!

We decided to split up for some days. I was mostly looking forward to see some kangaroos, like the Skippy. Therefore I went to Taronga Zoo. I saw a crocodile, an octopus, many spiders and some snakes. But I couldn’t find any kangaroos. I asked a park supervisor. He told me that I should get a ride with a safari car.

I went up a little hill and got into the safari car. We drove into the jungle on a little path. We saw some small kangaroos. They came towards us and made a strange sound. The sound was not like the sound Skippy used to make. I asked the chauffeur and he told me that no kangaroos make sounds like Skippy. Humans made the sounds during recording.

I went down to the beach, where I looked for the box jellyfish. It is Australia’s most dangerous animal. I saw a TV show in Norway, where some scientists tried to attach a GPS-transmitter onto the jellyfish. It was very hard because Australia’s most dangerous animal is very fragile. I wanted to see the box jellyfish, but I was also very afraid. I’ve heard that it can kill a human in three minutes.

I went home to a hotel in Sydney where I met Espen and Alex. Now we are wondering what to do tomorrow.

Source:

http://www.australianfauna.com/boxjellyfish.php