Australian Stories matching your query...

Many Australians are directly or indirectly involved in farming. For those Australians not involved with farming, the country's recent rural and agricultural history still has strong links to the heritage and culture of Australia. Wheat and other grain ...

Australia is also recognised as producing the world's highest quality woollen fibre – Australian merino wool. John and Elizabeth Macarthur were married in Devonshire in England in 1788. In 1796, John Macarthur bought his first merino sheep from a ...

Eventually, streams catch more water or join other streams to form a river. The Murray River and its main tributary, the Darling River, are the two main rivers in the Murray-Darling River Basin. The Snowy River is probably Australia's most famous river,...

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...

Three Sisters, Blue Mountains, New South Wales. In March 1812 the Colonial Surveyor George William Evans was sent to explore Jervis Bay, to determine a possible inland route back to Port Jackson. Other explorers, such as Hume and Hovell, Major Mitchell ...

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...

The first train lines in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide spanned only a few kilometres. These early inland rail lines formed the basis for the systems that would eventually become Australia's transcontinental railways. Diesel trains are still used for cou...

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...

Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial: P01065.001. Over 16,000 Australian troops served in the Boer war. Matthews, Australian Light Horse in Boer War uniform. ...

Organisations such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) have been established to bring these important health services to remote and regional Australian communities. The Royal Flying Doctor Service provides free emergency and medical care to people w...

Australian folklore, its traditions, customs and beliefs are based on both Indigenous and also non-Indigenous people's knowledge and experience of history in Australia. Some of Australia's folklore remembers the relationship between Europeans and Aborigi...

Before white settlement, Aboriginal people survived off the native plants and animals of the Australian environment for thousands of years. Bush foods such as berries, roots and nectars were a vital part of the aboriginal diet in many areas. In the late...

Blue Lake, Kosciuszko National Park. Australia has over 500 national parks. Most of our national parks are managed by the States and Territories of Australia; however the Commonwealth of Australia manages six national parks and a further 13 marine parks...

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...

Image courtesy of the Snowy Hydro. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme is by far the largest engineering project ever undertaken in Australia. What is the Snowy Mountains Scheme? ...

As Australia had no native grape varieties suitable for wine-making, grapes were imported from Europe and much of the wine produced was shipped back to the United Kingdom. Early wine production at Lindemans, established in the Hunter Valley (New South Wa...

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...

Unknown photographer, Freda Thompson (1906-1980), Pictured here in 1934 just before take off at Lympne Airport when she became the first Australian woman to fly solo from England to Australia, 1934. Courtesy of National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame. Avia...

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...

Gp Capt Eaton Charles, CO RAAF Station Darwin. Image courtesy of the Charles Eaton Photographic Collection and Peter Dunn's Australia @ War. Eaton entered Australian aviation legend when commanding the air searches for two lost aircraft, the Kookaburra ...