Connecting you with Australian culture online
The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutchman, Willem Janszoon. In 1770, Englishman Lieutenant James Cook charted the Australian east coast in his ship HM Barque Endeavour. Coo...
Image courtesy of the National Australia Day Council. On Australia Day - 26 January - each year, the Prime Minister of Australia announces the Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, and Local Heroes Awards. T...
Cable Beach, Broome, north-west Kimberley Coast, Western Australia. Most of Australia's population lives close to the coastline and the beach has long occupied a special place in the Australian identity. Based on this definition, the Coastal Studies Uni...
The bush has an iconic status in Australian life and features strongly in any debate about national identity, especially as expressed in Australian literature, painting, popular music, films and foods. The bush was revered as a source of national ideals b...
NAIDOC originally stood for 'National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee' after a Day of Mourning was held on Australia Day, 1938. In 1991 NADOC became NAIDOC (National Aborigines' and Islanders' Day Observance Committee) to recognise Torr...
Portrait of Slim Dusty at the Australia Day Concert (i.e. Australia Day Live), Sydney Entertainment Centre, 1984, transparency. Country music, a derivative of folk music, originated in southern and western USA and consisted mainly of rural songs accompan...
Marvellous Melbourne Jazz Festival - Bernie McGann Group - Bernie McGann, sax; John Pochee , drum; Chuck Yates, keyboard; Jeff Kluke, bass. An Australian jazz sound has developed through a practice of innovation where performers improvised within particu...
As elsewhere in Australia, European settlement disrupted Aboriginal patterns of land use and movement across the country, and many Aborigines died from European-brought diseases like influenza, smallpox and tuberculosis. The Griffins, Walter Burley and Ma...
Easter commemorates the resurrection (return to life) of Jesus Christ following his death by crucifixion. Easter eggs are traditionally eaten on Easter Sunday, however stores start stocking Easter treats well before the Easter holiday period. Early on Ea...
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bringing them Home report. The first National Sorry Day was held on 26 May 1998 - one year after the tabling of the report Bringing them Home, May 1997. Aborigines Welfare Board, children doing exercises at...
In the early days of the Australian colonies, convict ballads and songs became the foundation of Australia's later day folk music and its first original compositions. Bush songs, ballads and music influenced and defined the folk music of the 1950s. Indi...
Australia experiences a range of 'natural disasters' including bushfires, floods, severe storms, earthquakes and landslides. Fire can often follow drought, and drought can be followed by flood. I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, Of ra...
Even though the four 'official' calendar seasons have the same names as the northern hemisphere seasons, the weather during these seasons is very different to northern hemisphere weather patterns. Indigenous Australians have long had their own seasonal c...
On 25 April every year, Australians commemorate ANZAC Day. During the Second World War, ANZAC Day became a day on which the lives of all Australians lost in war time were remembered. Commemorative services are held at dawn on 25 April, the time of the o...
Military bands have accompanied Australian ceremonies, parades, church services, mess dinners and performed at concerts on innumerable occasions since then. Band musicians and band music owe a great deal to Australia's Salvation Army. Other Australian p...
In 1788 the First Fleet landed at Camp Cove in Port Jackson with the 'cargo' of convicts which helped establish the penal colony of New South Wales. One in five of the convicts to arrive in the penal colony (1788-1823) was female and they made up the lar...
Australia Day Council of New South Wales NSW (more info)
This site provides information about the Australia Day Council of New South Wales including who the council is and what they do, upcoming events, how to get involved and a comprehensive history of Australia Day.
National Australia Day Council (more info)
The National Australia Day Council is the coordinating body for the Australian of the Year Awards and Australia Day celebrations across the nation.
Annual country rodeo and festival held each Australia Day weekend in Taralga, Southern Tablelands of NSW.
ChillOut is the largest GLBTIQ festival in rural Australia held annually over the Victorian Labour Day long weekend in March.
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