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August 08, 2003

Well Whadya Know?

What do you know about Australia? Most people don't know much and that includes Australians (and me). Let's start out to correct some common misunderstandings and if you feel I have missed something or you really want to know, just bung it in an email (address is over on the right somewhere) or a comment.

OK. When I went to school (back in the DBM - days before metric), every school kid learned two things about Australia. Firstly it is the smallest continent. Secondly it is the largest island. Really useful information. Some of us also learned that you have to remember Tasmania which is another island that isn't attached to the rest of Australia (although for some reason it still has Interstate Highways). I learned that because one of my teachers had been born in Tasmania and he had a ruler which was applied to the knuckles of those who forgot to add it to the map.

What did that really mean? Well in practical terms in means Australia is really, really, big. I mean hugh. I mean like colossal. Think of the USA. Throw away the islands and Alaska. What is left is about the same size as Australia. So what? Well the problem is that only about 10% of Australia is habitable because of a shortage of water. This means that you have lots of land but a small population (18 million or thereabouts). Most of the population live within about 100kms of the coast and most of them on the East Coast (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria).

Before the 2000 Olympics (held in Sydney), there was an advice site on the web where people planning to come to Australia for the Games could ask questions. One gent from Germany worked out that the airfares were a lot cheaper to Perth (on the West Coast) than to Sydney (on the East Coast) and thinking Euro-style, he asked if it would be possible to catch a plane to Perth and then follow the railway tracks to Sydney (assuming that such a railway existed). Well the railway exists all right but there are a few logistical problems. In the end the advice people decided to answer in the negative. They explained that technically you could do what he was proposing but he would have to carry an enourmous amount of water and he should have started some time ago (like 1997) unless he intended to use some camels to cross the desert.

Camels? Yes. They were introduced to Australia as part of building the overland telegraph lines and many were released into the wild. Racing camels are bred and exported to Arab nations from Darwin (Northern Territory).

The other story you often hear with tourists in Sydney is about their ambitious plans. Having arrived on say Wednesday, they inquire about a tour to Ayres Rock (now called some aboriginal name that I can't remember) for the following day. They tend to be quite put out when the travel agent advises them that it is not possible (it takes at least a day to fly there and a day back). Same response from taxi drivers being asked to take them to the Great Barrier Reef (in Queensland).

When in Europe, I found it useful to get locals there to mentally think about the distance from Rome to Edinburgh. This is the approximately the same distance (as the crow flies) as Melbourne (Victoria) to Brisbane (Queensland). You can drive it in two days (obeying the speed limits) but you might not want to try!

On the way through I have mentioned some of the states. Australia is a federated commonwealth which contains 6 states and 2 territories (one of which thinks it is a state) and some other bits (islands) which we protect but don't have representation. The states are New South Wales (capital is Sydney), Victoria (Melbourne), South Australia (Adelaide), Western Australia (Perth), Queensland (Brisbane) and Tasmania (Hobart). The territories are the Northern Territory (Darwin) and the ACT (Canberra). The ACT is a bit of land around Canberra (the capital of Australia) which was deliberately built in the middle of nowhere. The idea of a territory around it was to prevent the host state (New South Wales) from imposing any control over the federal government.

Hope you enjoyed that. I will try and find some more relative distances (e.g. Perth to Sydney)...

Posted by Ozguru at August 8, 2003 05:08 AM

Comments

Australian Capital Territory (ACT) was supposed to be half way between Sydney and Melbourne. If you are from Sydney, then it IS half way. 3 hours to Sydney and 8 hours to Melbourne... I think the Aboriginal name you seek is Uluru

Posted by: Peskie at August 8, 2003 05:08 AM

That's the one. I kept trying to fit a 'h' in there somewhere and it just didn't fit. As for the halfway business, the story (as far as I can recall) was that Sydney (first settlement) and Melbourne (finance center) were duking it out for the position as capital of the country. In the end the compromise was to place it halfway between and the learned gentlemen calculated how many hours south of Sydney that would be, and set out. Their guide was from Sydney and when he got past Goulburn, he went around in circles for the required amount of time and they ended up where Canberra is today. No idea if it was true but it sort of stuffed things up a bit :-) It is worth noting that Slim Dusty has a song with the phrase "putting all the politicians in Canberra was the smartest thing we did" - having them miles from civilization makes the rest of us feel safer. Unfortunately we had to build something nearby to monitor them from. Think of it as an observation bunker. It is called Queanbeyan (and that is where Pete lives!).

Posted by: JayGee at August 8, 2003 05:08 AM

It is also interesting to note that when the States came together to be Federated under the Commonwealth Government and the Constitution was draft - an allowance was made for Australia's far eastern states; the north and south island of New Zealand to be included. Unfortunately for NZ its government decided it wanted to retain its independance whilst its population decided that if this was going to be the case then they'll all immigrate to where cricket, sailing, rugby and football were all obviously played alot better!

Posted by: bpw at August 8, 2003 05:08 AM

Correction: When the North and the Sough got together to make New Zealand they decided to exclude the West Island and Tasmania because of a complete lack of culture. Besides where else could we get someone to BEAT at rugby?

Posted by: Mad Kiwi at August 8, 2003 05:08 AM

lol lol. I could see that one coming. We have to let you win once or twice...

Posted by: Peskie at August 8, 2003 05:08 AM