2.  The weather in Australia varies. Sometimes it’s hot, warm, and rainy. Around the coastal area of Sydney during the winter time, the temperatures usually range from 50 to go degrees Fahrenheit. In the summer, it’s usually around 80 degrees Fahrenheit and it gets very dry. It’s more likely to be dry in the southern area of Australia rather than the northern area. The weather can be very cool and then all of a sudden switch to extreme heat. They do get a lot of droughts there for a long period of time and not only that but get heat waves. It does snow there but not everywhere. It mainly snows in the Alpine regions of New South Wales and Victoria.

3.  The most common native animal there are the “marsupials.” These are types of animals with pouches. Some animals like that would be: numbat, koalas, and possums. Numbats have long snouts and strong claws for feeding on termites. Koalas have grey furry ears and feed on leaves and bark. Possums are small, grey, and have long tails that feed on fruit, leaves, and other types of various kinds of foods.  There are animals in Australia that aren’t native and some of those are water buffalos and rabbits. Water buffalos have large spreading horns and feed on grass and wheat. Rabbits are a short-tailed mammal and long eared and feed on grass and hay.

4.  The Australian population was initially made up of Aborigines, the British, and the Irish.  Today, only about 2% of Australia’s population is Aboriginal.  When Aboriginal people populated more of Australia they spoke more than 250 different languages.  They live in family groups called “clans.”  Men killed larger animals with spears and boomerangs; Women killed smaller animals and collected plants.  They are granted the right to vote ever since 1972.

5.  The Sydney Opera House is a very busy place with around 3,000 performances per year. The Sydney Opera house also has about 2 million people come a year to tour it.  The Sydney Harbor Bridge is the world’s widest spanning bridge in the world. Also, it is the fifth longest spanning bridge in the world. To people in Australia it is known as “The Coat Hanger” arch design.  Uluru, or Ayer’s Rock is the world’s largest single piece of stone. It’s 348 meters high, and has a circumference of 9.4 kilometers.

6.  The main language that is spoken in Australia is English, however their vocabulary, accent, and slang make it unique, it can also take some getting used to.  In the late18 th century there were about 250 separate aboriginal languages spoken in Australia, only about two thirds of these are spoken today. Only about 20 of them are strong enough to go on to the next century.

7.  Steve Irwin or “The Crocodile Hunter” was a famous Australian wildlife expert and conservationist. Steve had a show called “The Crocodile Hunter” that started in Australia and soon ended up airing throughout North America. Steve Irwin died on September 4, 2006 from after being pierced in the chest from a stingray.  Keith Urban is a very famous country singer and songwriter born in New Zealand, Australia.  Mel Gibson is a famous actor, film director, producer and screen writer born in New York, but raised in Sydney, Australia.

8.  Around 24 percent of the Australian population over the age of fifteen participate in an organized sporting activity.  Cricket has been a very important sport to Australia since the 19 th century.  Australia has a very strong international teams for cricket, field hockey, rugby, and netball  Australia is also powerful in swimming, Australia is the second-most prolific medal winner in the sport in Olympic history.

9.  Australian art is thought to have started with bark and cave paintings of it’s Indigenous people.  The Indigenous people’s arts is thought to be telling ceremonies or dreamtime stories.  During the time of the European settlement the Australian art had started to be more of landscape paintings.  Today the landscape of Australia still seems to be a source of inspiration for the modern artists.

10.  The first European settlers in Australia drank more alcohol per person than any other community in the history of mankind.  One fifth of the land in Australia is deserts.  In Australia pubs occupy more land than mines do.  Australia has more venomous snakes than any other continent.  Tasmania, Australia has the cleanest air in the world.  Australia has about 150 million sheep, and only about 20 million people.