Australia: the story on HearLore

Australia

Australia is the world's flattest inhabited continent, a geological reality that has shaped its history, its economy, and the very rhythm of life for its people. This vast landmass, covering 7.69 million square kilometers, is so flat that its average elevation is just 330 meters above sea level, a stark contrast to the rugged mountain ranges found on other continents. The Great Dividing Range runs along the eastern coast, but even these mountains are modest compared to the Himalayas or the Andes. This flatness has led to slow-moving rivers that struggle to drain the interior, resulting in the build-up of salt on the land and creating the arid conditions that define much of the country. The Australian mainland is the world's smallest continent, yet it is often called the island continent because it is surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans. The coastline stretches for 25,760 kilometers, excluding all offshore islands, and the country claims an exclusive economic zone of 8.1 million square kilometers. This vastness has allowed for a wide variety of landscapes, from the tropical rainforests of the northeast to the deserts of the interior, all within a single nation. The flatness of the land has also influenced the distribution of its population, with 95% of Australians living within 100 kilometers of the coast, leaving the vast interior largely uninhabited. This concentration has created a unique demographic pattern, with major cities like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane dominating the national landscape. The flatness of the continent has also made it a haven for unique wildlife, with marsupials and other species evolving in isolation for millions of years. The Australian tectonic plate is moving north-northeast at a rate of about 6 to 7 centimeters a year, but the mainland is relatively stable geologically, with no major mountain building, active volcanoes, or tectonic faults. This stability has allowed for the development of ancient landscapes, with some of the oldest surface rocks on Earth dating back 3.7 billion years. The oldest zircon crystals on Earth, dating back 4.4 billion years, have been found in Western Australia, providing a glimpse into the planet's distant past. Despite this stability, the Australian plate is currently in collision with the Eurasian plate and the Pacific plate, leading to relatively high seismic activity for a geologically stable landmass. There were 18 earthquakes with a moment magnitude of greater than 6 between 1901 and 2017, with the Newcastle earthquake of 1989 being the deadliest, killing 13 people. Active volcanoes existed on the eastern mainland as recently as 4,600 years ago, a fact reflected in Aboriginal place names and creation stories. Currently, volcanism occurs only in the remote Heard Island and McDonald Islands. The flatness of the continent has also influenced its climate, with the Australian mainland being the driest inhabited continent, with an average annual rainfall of 495 millimeters. About 70% of the country is arid or semi-arid, and about 18% is desert. The climate is influenced by various systems such as the El Niño, Southern Oscillation, the Indian Ocean Dipole, and the Southern Annular Mode. Australia has unusual variability in rainfall within years and between years, leading to frequent droughts and flooding. Cyclones and rain depressions are common in tropical Australia. The summer monsoon brings significant rainfall to northern Australia, and low pressure cells bring winter rainfall in the south. The hottest regions are in the northwest of the country, and the coolest in the southeast. Bushfire conditions are common in southern Australia. Climate change from increased greenhouse gas emissions has led to a 1.5 °C rise in Australian temperatures since 1910 and an increase in extreme heat and heavy rainfall events. There has been a reduction in rainfall from April to October in southern Australia since 1970 and a longer bushfire season since the 1950s. Rainfall has increased in northern Australia since the 1970s. The number of tropical cyclones has fallen since 1982, and alpine snow has decreased since the late 1950s. Sea levels are rising around Australia, and the surrounding oceans are becoming more acidic.

What is the average elevation of Australia?

Australia has an average elevation of 330 meters above sea level, making it the world's flattest inhabited continent. This geological reality has shaped the country's history, economy, and the rhythm of life for its people.

When did the First Fleet arrive in Australia?

The First Fleet commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Sydney Cove on the 26th of January 1788. This date later became Australia's national day and marked the establishment of a camp with the raising of the Union Flag.

How many people died in the Newcastle earthquake of 1989?

The Newcastle earthquake of 1989 was the deadliest earthquake in Australian history, killing 13 people. It occurred between 1901 and 2017 when there were 18 earthquakes with a moment magnitude of greater than 6.

What percentage of Australians live within 100 kilometers of the coast?

95% of Australians live within 100 kilometers of the coast, leaving the vast interior largely uninhabited. This concentration has created a unique demographic pattern with major cities like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane dominating the national landscape.

When did the colonies of Australia federate to form the Commonwealth of Australia?

Federation of the colonies was achieved on the 1st of January 1901 after a decade of planning, constitutional conventions, and referendums. This event resulted in the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia as a nation under the new Australian Constitution.

The Oldest Living Culture

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from Southeast Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, making their culture one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth. The Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land is possibly the oldest site showing the presence of humans in Australia, and the oldest human remains found are the Lake Mungo remains, which have been dated to around 42,000 years ago. At the time of first European contact, Aboriginal Australians belonged to a wide range of societies, with diverse economies spread across at least 250 different language groups. Estimates of the Aboriginal population before British settlement range from 300,000 to 3 million. Aboriginal Australian cultures were (and remain) deeply connected with the land and the environment, with stories of The Dreaming maintained through oral tradition, songs, dance, and paintings. Certain groups engaged in fire-stick farming, fish farming, and built semi-permanent shelters. These practices have variously been characterized as hunter-gatherer, agricultural, natural cultivation, and intensification. Torres Strait Islander people first settled their islands at least 2,500 years ago. Culturally and linguistically distinct from mainland Aboriginal peoples, they were seafarers and obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas. Agriculture also developed on some islands, and villages appeared by the 1300s. By the mid-18th century in northern Australia, contact, trade, and cross-cultural engagement had been established between local Aboriginal groups and Makassan trepangers, visiting from present-day Indonesia. The Dutch East India Company ship, Duyfken, captained by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing in Australia in 1606. Later that year, Luís Vaz de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through Torres Strait, along New Guinea's southern coast. Abel Tasman's voyage of 1642 was the first known European expedition to reach Van Diemen's Land. On his second voyage of 1644, he mapped the north coast of Australia south of New Guinea. Following Tasman's voyages, the Dutch were able to make almost complete maps of Australia's northern and western coasts and much of its southern and south-eastern Tasmanian coasts. They named the continent New Holland. In 1770, Captain James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. In 1786, the British government announced its intention to establish a penal colony in New South Wales. On the 26th of January 1788, the First Fleet commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson. A camp was established, and the Union Flag raised. The date later became Australia's national day. Most early settlers were convicts, transported for petty crimes and assigned as laborers or servants to free settlers. Once emancipated, convicts tended to integrate into colonial society. Aboriginal resistance, convict rebellions, and bushranging were sometimes suppressed under martial law. The 1808 Rum Rebellion, carried out by officers of the New South Wales Corp, led to a temporary military junta. During the next two decades, social and economic reforms, together with the establishment of a Legislative Council and Supreme Court, saw the penal colony transition to a civil society. The indigenous population declined for 150 years following European settlement, mainly due to infectious disease. British colonial authorities did not sign any treaties with Aboriginal groups. As settlement expanded, tens of thousands of Indigenous people and thousands of settlers were killed in frontier conflicts, which many historians argue included acts of genocide by settlers. Settlers dispossessed surviving Indigenous peoples of most of their land. In 1803, a settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land, present-day Tasmania, and in 1813, Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson, and William Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, opening the interior to European settlement. The British claim was extended to the whole Australian continent in 1827 when Major Edmund Lockyer established a settlement on King George Sound, modern-day Albany. The Swan River Colony, present-day Perth, was established in 1829, evolving into the largest Australian colony by area, Western Australia. Separate colonies were carved from New South Wales: Tasmania in 1825, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, and Queensland in 1859. South Australia and Victoria were founded as free colonies, they never accepted transported convicts. Growing opposition to the convict system culminated in its abolition in the eastern colonies by the 1850s. Initially a free colony, Western Australia accepted convicts from 1850 to 1868. The six colonies individually gained responsible government between 1855 and 1890, managing most of their own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire. The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs. The colonial parliaments progressively extended voting rights to adult men from 1856, with women's suffrage on equal terms following between the 1890s and 1900s. Some colonies introduced racial restrictions on voting from 1885. In the mid-19th century, explorers such as Burke and Wills charted Australia's interior. A series of gold rushes beginning in the early 1850s led to an influx of new migrants from China, North America, and continental Europe, as well as outbreaks of bushranging and civil unrest; the latter peaked in 1854 when Ballarat miners launched the Eureka Rebellion against gold license fees. The 1860s saw the rise of blackbirding, where South Sea Islanders were coerced or abducted into indentured labor, mainly by Queensland colonists. From 1886, Australian colonial governments began removing many Aboriginal children from their families and communities, justified on the grounds of child protection and forced assimilation policies.

The Birth Of A Nation

On the 1st of January 1901, federation of the colonies was achieved after a decade of planning, constitutional conventions, and referendums, resulting in the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia as a nation under the new Australian Constitution. From 1901, Australia was a self-governing dominion within the British Empire. It was one of the founding members of the League of Nations in 1920, and the United Nations in 1945. The Statute of Westminster 1931 ended the ability of the UK to legislate for Australia at the federal level without Australia's consent. Australia adopted it in 1942, but it was backdated to 1939 to confirm the validity of legislation passed during World War II. The Australian Capital Territory was formed in 1911 as the location for the future federal capital of Canberra. While it was being constructed, Melbourne served as the temporary capital from 1901 to 1927. The Northern Territory was transferred from the control of South Australia to the Commonwealth in 1911. Australia took over the administration of the Territory of Papua, which had previously been a British colony, in 1905, and of the Territory of New Guinea, formerly German New Guinea, in 1920. The two were unified as the Territory of Papua and New Guinea in 1949 and gained independence from Australia in 1975. In 1914, Australia joined the Allies in the First World War, and took part in the fighting on several fronts. Of the 324,000 men who served overseas, about 60,000 were killed and another 152,000 were wounded. Many Australians regard the defeat of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli in 1915 as the baptism of fire that forged the new nation's identity. The beginning of the campaign is commemorated annually on Anzac Day, a date which rivals Australia Day as the nation's most important. From 1939 to 1945, Australia joined the Allies in fighting the Second World War. Australia's armed forces fought in the Pacific, European, and Mediterranean and Middle East theatres. The shock of Britain's defeat in Singapore in 1942, followed soon after by the bombing of Darwin and other Japanese attacks on Australian soil, led to a widespread belief in Australia that a Japanese invasion was imminent, and a shift from the United Kingdom to the United States as Australia's principal ally and security partner. Since 1951, Australia has been allied with the United States under the ANZUS treaty. In the three decades following World War II, Australia experienced significant increases in living standards, leisure time, and suburban development. Governments encouraged a large wave of immigration from across Europe and called these migrants New Australians. High immigration was justified to Australians using the slogan populate or perish, and from the 1960s the white Australia policy was gradually relaxed. A member of the Western Bloc during the Cold War, Australia participated in the Korean War and the Malayan Emergency during the 1950s and the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1973. Tensions over communist influence in society led to unsuccessful attempts by the Menzies Government to ban the Communist Party of Australia, and a bitter split in the Labor Party in 1955. As a result of a 1967 referendum, the federal government gained the power to legislate with regard to Aboriginal Australians, and Aboriginal Australians were fully included in the census. Pre-colonial land interests, referred to as native title in Australia, was recognized in law for the first time when the High Court of Australia held in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) that Australia was not terra nullius at the time of European settlement. Following the abolition of the last vestiges of the White Australia policy in 1973, Australia's demography and culture transformed as a result of a large and ongoing wave of non-European immigration, mostly from Asia. The late 20th century also saw an increasing focus on foreign policy ties with other Asia-Pacific nations. The Australia Acts of 1986 severed the remaining constitutional ties between Australia and the United Kingdom while maintaining the monarch in her independent capacity as Queen of Australia. In a 1999 constitutional referendum, 55% of voters rejected abolishing the monarchy and becoming a republic. Following the September 11 attacks on the United States, Australia joined the United States in fighting the Afghanistan War from 2001 to 2021 and the Iraq War from 2003 to 2009. The nation's trade relations also became increasingly oriented towards East Asia in the 21st century, with China becoming the nation's largest trading partner by a large margin. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020 lockdowns and other restrictions on public gatherings and movement across the national and state borders were implemented by the Federal, state, and territory governments. Following the rollout of vaccines in 2021, these restrictions were gradually eased. In October 2023, Australia declared that COVID-19 was no longer a communicable disease incident of national significance.

The Megadiverse Island

Australia's mixed-market economy is highly developed and rich in natural resources. It is the world's 14th-largest by nominal terms, and the 18th-largest by PPP. Australia has the second-highest amount of wealth per adult, after Luxembourg, and the 13th-highest financial assets per capita, as well as one of the highest per capita incomes globally. It has a labor force of some 13.5 million, with an unemployment rate of 3.5% as of June 2022. According to the Australian Council of Social Service, the poverty rate of Australia exceeds 13.6% of the population, encompassing over 3.2 million. It also estimated that there were 774,000, 17.7%, children under the age of 15 living in relative poverty. The Australian dollar is the national currency, which is also used by three island states in the Pacific: Kiribati, Nauru, and Tuvalu. Australian government debt, about $963 billion in June 2022, exceeds 45.1% of the country's total GDP, and is the world's 8th-highest. Australia had the 2nd-highest level of household debt in the world in 2020, after Switzerland. Its house prices are among the highest in the world, especially in the large urban areas. The large service sector accounts for about 71.2% of total GDP, followed by the industrial sector, 25.3%, while its agriculture sector makes up 3.6% of total GDP. Australia is the world's 21st-largest exporter and 24th-largest importer. China is Australia's largest trading partner, accounting for roughly 40% of the country's exports and 17.6% of its imports. Other major export markets include Japan, the United States, and South Korea. Australia has high levels of competitiveness and economic freedom, and was ranked 10th in the Human Development Index in 2022. It is ranked 12th in the Index of Economic Freedom. It attracted 9.5 million international tourists in 2019, and was ranked 13th among the countries of Asia-Pacific in 2019 for inbound tourism. The 2021 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report ranked Australia 7th-highest in the world out of 117 countries. Its international tourism receipts in 2019 amounted to $45.7 billion. In 2021, 22, Australia's generation of electricity was sourced from black coal, 37.2%, brown coal, 12%, natural gas, 18.8%, hydro, 6.5%, wind, 11.1%, solar, 13.3%, bio-energy, 1.2%, and others, 1.7%. Total consumption of energy in this period was sourced from coal, 28.4%, oil, 37.3%, gas, 27.4%, and renewables, 7%. From 2012 to 2022, the energy sourced from renewables has increased 5.7%, while energy sourced from coal has decreased 2.6%. The use of gas also increased by 1.5%, and the use of oil stayed relatively stable with a reduction of only 0.2%. In 2020, Australia produced 27.7% of its electricity from renewable sources, exceeding the target set by the Commonwealth government in 2009 of 20% renewable energy by 2020. A new target of 82% per cent renewable energy by 2030 was set in 2022, and a target for net zero emissions by 2050 was set in 2021. In 2019, Australia spent $35.6 billion on research and development, allocating about 1.79% of GDP. A 2022 study by the industry lobby group, The Tech Council of Australia, stated that the Australian technology sector combined contributes $167 billion a year to the economy and employs 861,000 people. In 2022, startup ecosystems in Sydney and Melbourne were valued at $34 billion. Australia ranked 22nd in the Global Innovation Index 2025. With only 0.3% of the world's population, Australia contributed over 4% of the world's published research in 2020, making it one of the top 10 research contributors in the world. CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, contributes 10% of all research in the country, while the rest is carried out by universities. Australian achievements include the invention of atomic absorption spectroscopy, the essential components of Wi-Fi technology, and the development of the first commercially successful polymer banknote. 13 Australian scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, or medicine, and two have been awarded the Fields Medal. Facilities

The Hybrid Democracy

supporting space exploration include the Square Kilometre Array and Australia Telescope Compact Array radio telescopes, telescopes such as the Siding Spring Observatory, and ground stations such as the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. The population of Australia is estimated to be as of 2025. It is the 54th most populous country in the world and the most populous Oceanian country. Australia has a population density of 3.4 persons per square kilometer of total land area, which makes it one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. The population is heavily concentrated on the east coast, and in particular in the south-eastern region between South East Queensland to the north-east and Adelaide to the south-west. Australia is also highly urbanized, with 67% of the population living in the Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, metropolitan areas of the state and mainland territorial capital cities, in 2018. Metropolitan areas with more than one million inhabitants are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. In common with many other developed countries, Australia is experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population, with more retirees and fewer people of working age. In 2021, the average age of the population was 39 years. Australia has five cities, including their suburbs, that have populations larger than one million people. The majority of Australia's population lives near coastlines. Between 1788 and the Second World War, the vast majority of settlers and immigrants came from the British Isles, principally England, Ireland, and Scotland, although Australia had significant immigration from China and Germany during the 19th century. Following Federation in 1901, the white Australia policy was strengthened, restricting further migration from these areas. However, this policy was relaxed following WW2, and in the decades following, Australia received a large wave of immigration from across Europe, with many more immigrants arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe than in previous decades. All overt racial discrimination ended in 1973, with multiculturalism becoming official policy. Subsequently, there has been a large and continuing wave of immigration from across the world, with Asia being the largest source of immigrants in the 21st century. Today, Australia has the world's 8th-largest immigrant population, with immigrants accounting for 30% of the population, the highest proportion among major Western nations. In 2022, 23, 212,789 permanent migrants were admitted to Australia, with a net migration population gain of 518,000 people inclusive of non-permanent residents. Most entered on skilled visas, however the immigration program also offers visas for family members and refugees. The Australian Bureau of Statistics asks each Australian resident to nominate up to two ancestries each census, and the responses are classified into broad ancestry groups. At the 2021 census, the most commonly nominated ancestry groups as a proportion of the total population were 57.2% European, including 46% North-West European and 11.2% Southern and Eastern European, 33.8% Oceanian, 17.4% Asian, including 6.5% Southern and Central Asian, 6.4% North-East Asian, and 4.5% South-East Asian, 3.2% North African and Middle Eastern, 1.4% Peoples of the Americas, and 1.3% Sub-Saharan African. At the 2021 census, the most commonly nominated individual ancestries as a proportion of the total population were English, Australian, Irish, Scottish, Chinese, Italian, German, Indian, and Vietnamese. At the 2021 census, 3.8% of the Australian population identified as being Indigenous, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. English has no legal status in Australia but it is the de facto official and national language due to its widespread established use. English has no de jure status but it is so entrenched as the common language that it is de facto the official language as well as the national language. Australian English is a major variety of the language with a distinctive accent and lexicon, and differs slightly from other varieties of English in grammar and spelling. The Macquarie Dictionary, Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005. General Australian serves as the standard dialect. The Australian sign language known as Auslan was used at home by 16,242 people at the time of the 2021 census. At the 2021 census, English was the only language spoken in the home for 72% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home were Mandarin, 2.7%, Arabic, 1.4%, Vietnamese, 1.3%, Cantonese, 1.2%, and Punjabi, 0.9%. More than 250 Australian Aboriginal languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact. The National Indigenous Languages Survey, NILS, for 2018, 19 found that more than 120 Indigenous language varieties were in use or being revived, although 70 of those in use were endangered. The 2021 census found that 167 Indigenous languages were spoken at home by 76,978 Indigenous Australians, Yumplatok, Torres Strait Creole, Djambarrpuyngu, a Yolngu language, and Pitjantjatjara, a Western Desert language, were among the most widely spoken. NILS and the Australian Bureau of Statistics use different classifications for Indigenous Australian languages. Australia has no state religion; section 116 of the Australian Constitution prohibits federal legislation that would establish any religion, impose any religious observance, or prohibit the free exercise of any religion. However, the states still retain the power to pass religiously discriminatory laws. At the 2021 census, 38.9% of the population identified as having no religion, up from 15.5% in 2001. The largest religion is Christianity, 43.9% of the population. The largest Christian denominations are the Catholic Church, 20% of the population, and the Anglican Church of Australia, 9.8%. Non-British immigration since the Second World War has led to the growth of non-Christian religions, the largest of which are Islam, 3.2%, Hinduism, 2.7%, Buddhism, 2.4%, Sikhism, 0.8%, and Judaism, 0.4%. In 2021, just under 8,000 people declared an affiliation with traditional Aboriginal religions. In Australian Aboriginal mythology and the animist framework developed in Aboriginal Australia, the Dreaming is a sacred era in which ancestral totemic spirit beings formed The Creation. The Dreaming established the laws and structures of society and the ceremonies performed to ensure continuity of life and land. Australia's life expectancy of 83 years, 81 years for males and 85 years for females, is the 5th-highest in the world. It has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, while cigarette smoking is the largest preventable cause of death and disease, responsible for 7.8% of the total mortality and disease. Ranked 2nd in preventable causes is hypertension, 7.6%,

The Pacific Power

with obesity 3rd, 7.5%. Australia ranked 35th in the world in 2012 for its proportion of obese women and near the top of developed nations for its proportion of obese adults; 63% of its adult population is either overweight or obese. Australia spent around 9.91% of its total GDP to health care in 2021. It introduced a national insurance scheme in 1975. Following a period in which access to the scheme was restricted, the scheme became universal once more in 1981 under the name of Medicare. The program is nominally funded by an income tax surcharge known as the Medicare levy, currently at 2%. The states manage hospitals and attached outpatient services, while the Commonwealth funds the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, subsidizing the costs of medicines, and general practice. School attendance, or registration for home schooling, is compulsory throughout Australia. Education is primarily the responsibility of the individual states and territories; however, the Commonwealth has significant influence through funding agreements. Since 2014, a national curriculum developed by the Commonwealth has been implemented by the states and territories. Attendance rules vary between states, but in general, children are required to attend school from the age of about 5 until about 16. In some states, Western Australia, Northern Territory, and New South Wales, children aged 16, 17 are required to either attend school or participate in vocational training, such as an apprenticeship. According to the 2022 PISA evaluations, Australian 15-year-olds ranked 9th in the OECD for reading and science and 10th for math. However, less than 60% of Australian students achieved the National Proficiency Standard, 51% in math, 58% in science, and 57% in reading. Australia has an adult literacy rate that was estimated to be 99% in 2003. However, a 2011, 2012 report for the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 44% of the population does not have high literary and numeracy competence levels, interpreted by others as suggesting that they do not have the skills needed for everyday life. Australia has 37 government-funded universities and three private universities, as well as a number of other specialist institutions that provide approved courses at the higher education level. The OECD places Australia among the most expensive nations to attend university. There is a state-based system of vocational training, known as TAFE, and many trades conduct apprenticeships for training new tradespeople. About 58% of Australians aged from 25 to 64 have vocational or tertiary qualifications, and the tertiary graduation rate of 49% is the highest among OECD countries. 38% of Australia's population has attained a higher education qualification, which is among the highest percentages in the world. Australia has the highest ratio of international students per head of population in the world by a large margin, with 812,000 international students enrolled in the nation's universities and vocational institutions in 2019. Accordingly, in 2019, international students represented on average 26.7% of the student bodies of Australian universities. International education therefore represents one of the country's largest exports and has a pronounced influence on the country's demographics, with a significant proportion of international students remaining in Australia after graduation on various skill and employment visas. Education is Australia's 3rd-largest export, after iron ore and coal, and contributed more than $28 billion to the economy in the 2016, 17 financial year. Contemporary Australian culture is diverse and reflects the country's Indigenous traditions, British and Irish heritage, and post-1945 history of multicultural immigration. The culture of the United States has also been influential. The evolution of Australian culture since British colonization has given rise to distinctive cultural traits. Many Australians identify egalitarianism, mateship, irreverence, and a lack of formality as part of their national identity. These find expression in Australian slang, as well as Australian humor, which is often characterized as dry, irreverent, and ironic. New citizens and visa holders are required to commit to Australian values, which are identified by the Department of Home Affairs as including: a respect for the freedom of the individual; recognition of the rule of law; opposition to racial, gender, and religious discrimination; and an understanding of the fair go, which is said to encompass the equality of opportunity for all and compassion for those in need. What these values mean, and whether Australians uphold them, has been debated since before Federation. Australia has more than 100,000 Aboriginal rock art sites, and traditional designs, patterns, and stories infuse contemporary Indigenous Australian art, the last great art movement of the 20th century, according to critic Robert Hughes; its exponents include Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Early colonial artists showed a fascination with the unfamiliar land. The impressionistic works of Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts, and other members of the 19th-century Heidelberg School, the first distinctly Australian movement in Western art, gave expression to nationalist sentiments in the lead-up to Federation. While the school remained influential into the 1900s, modernists such as Margaret Preston and Clarice Beckett, and, later, Sidney Nolan, explored new artistic trends. The landscape remained central to the work of Aboriginal watercolorist Albert Namatjira, as well as Fred Williams, Brett Whiteley, and other post-war artists whose works, eclectic in style yet uniquely Australian, moved between the figurative and the abstract. Australian literature

The Wealthy Nation

grew slowly in the decades following European settlement, though Indigenous oral traditions, many of which have since been recorded in writing, are much older. In the 19th century, Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson captured the experience of the bush using a distinctive Australian vocabulary. Their works are still popular; Paterson's bush poem Waltzing Matilda, 1895, is regarded as Australia's unofficial national anthem. Miles Franklin is the namesake of Australia's most prestigious literary prize, awarded annually to the best novel about Australian life. Its first recipient, Patrick White, went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973. Australian Booker Prize winners include Peter Carey, Thomas Keneally, and Richard Flanagan. Australian public intellectuals have also written seminal works in their respective fields, including feminist Germaine Greer and philosopher Peter Singer. At the beginning of the 20th century, Nellie Melba was one of the world's leading opera singers, and later popular music acts such as the Bee Gees, AC/DC, INXS, and Kylie Minogue achieved international recognition. Many of Australia's performing arts companies receive funding through the Australian government's Australia Council. There is a symphony orchestra in each state, and a national opera company, Opera Australia, well known for its famous soprano Joan Sutherland. Ballet and dance are represented by The Australian Ballet and various state companies. Each state has a publicly funded theatre company. The Story of the Kelly Gang, 1906, the world's first feature-length narrative film, spurred a boom in Australian cinema during the silent film era. After World War I, Hollywood monopolized the industry, and by the 1960s, Australian film production had effectively ceased. With the benefit of government support, the Australian New Wave of the 1970s brought provocative and successful films, many exploring themes of national identity, such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, Wake in Fright, and Gallipoli, while Crocodile Dundee and the Ozploitation movement's Mad Max series became international blockbusters. In a film market flooded with foreign content, Australian films delivered a 7.7% share of the local box office in 2015. The AACTAs are Australia's premier film and television awards, and notable Academy Award winners from Australia include Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, and Heath Ledger. Australia has two public broadcasters, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the multicultural Special Broadcasting Service, three commercial television networks, several pay-TV services, and numerous public, non-profit television and radio stations. Each major city has at least one daily newspaper, and there are two national daily newspapers, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review. In 2024, Reporters Without Borders placed Australia 39th on a list of 180 countries ranked by press freedom, behind New Zealand, 19th, and the United Kingdom, 23rd, but ahead of the United States, 55th. This relatively low ranking is primarily because of the limited diversity of commercial media ownership in Australia; most print media are under the control of News Corp Australia, 59%, and Nine Entertainment, 23%. Most Indigenous Australian groups subsisted on a diet of native fauna and flora, otherwise called bush tucker. It has increased in popularity among non-Indigenous Australians since the 1970s, with examples such as lemon myrtle, the macadamia nut, and kangaroo meat now widely available. The first colonists introduced British and Irish cuisine to the continent. This influence is seen in dishes such as fish and chips, and in the Australian meat pie, which is related to the British steak pie. Also during the colonial period, Chinese migrants paved the way for a distinctive Australian Chinese cuisine. Post-war migrants transformed Australian cuisine, bringing with them their culinary traditions and contributing to new fusion dishes.