Australian Stories matching your query...

Observations of Australia's unique fauna and flora, combined with considerations of the continent's geographical isolation, contributed toward Charles Darwin (1809–1882) developing his theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin's theory of ev...

Almost all of Australia's native mammals are marsupials. There are only two types of monotreme in the world - the platypus and the echidna - and both of them are found in Australia. Platypuses are found all along the eastern coast of Australia, from Tas...

However, the first zoo in Australia, Melbourne Zoo, wasn't established until 1862. Taronga Zoo and Western Plains Zoo are jointly administered New South Wales public zoos. The zoo features both Australian native species and exotic species of mammals, bi...

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...

Australian designers, by their very nature, look for simple and elegant solutions for challenges in often ordinary situations, balancing creativity with cost-effectiveness and innovative construction. Inspiration comes not only from historical and interna...

While Australia has no single uniform national costume, an Australian national dress style, based on specific local dress styles, has emerged in response to climate, lifestyle and identity. An Australian style can be seen clearly in the main types of loc...

Employing dream imagery, poetry and precarious juxtapositions, Australian artists in the 1930s and early 1940s responded to European surrealists and were part of an international surrealist movement - 'in all its clarity'. Many of Australia's best known a...

Heritage walks and tours in Melbourne offer a range of guided and self guided tours including the Golden Mile Heritage Trail, and the National Trust conducts walking tours of the city which 'take you down the hidden laneways and tell the stories of the in...

Internationally recognised Australian icons include buildings like the Sydney Opera House (architect Jørn Utzon) and the new Parliament House in Canberra (architect Romaldo Giurgola). Distinctive Australian architecture is also recognisable in the rural ...

Protestant and Roman Catholic churches hold Christmas Day services on 25 December. The Eastern churches - the Ethiopian Orthodox church, Russian Orthodox church and the Armenian church - celebrate Christmas on 6 or 7 January. Christmas is the celebratio...

A wide variety of Australian fashion textiles - hand-coloured, printed and painted silks, woven wool, dyed discharge and devore prints, ground velvets, and ochred designs based on traditional Aboriginal body paintings have all contributed to the definitio...

Nicola Finetti, Dress of silk georgette, silk chiffon and metallic embroidery on silk organza. Fashion can be defined by colour, cut, cloth, garment type, garment styles and interpretation of looks. Chinese silk embroidered shawls and Chinese surcoats b...

One of Australia's greatest treasures is her flora - a staggering 24,000 species of native plants have been identified compared to England's 1700 native plants. Australia's native plants vary across the many different natural environments of the country....

This includes Pleistocene era Aboriginal body fossils, many of which were removed and sent overseas. The Riversleigh fossil site, near Mount Isa Queensland, is recognised as one of the most important fossil sites in the world. The Riversleigh and Narrac...

World Heritage-listed Fraser Island. However, Australia is actually made up of more than 8,000 islands, including the island state of Tasmania. Norfolk Island is located far off the east coast of Australia. ...

Kakadu National Park covers an area of 19,804 square kilometres within the Alligator Rivers region of the Northern Territory. Around 50 per cent of the land in Kakadu National Park is Aboriginal land under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) ...

- Plate I. 'General chart of Terra Australis or Australia, showing the parts explored between 1798 and 1803. Image courtesy of The State Library of South Australia. Indigenous Australian concepts of the world were 'based on another view of creation and on...

John Glover (1767-1849), Australian landscape with cattle: the artist's property Patterdale , c. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia: an2253188. The Heidelberg School was the first significant art movement in Australia. ...

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,...

Other rock structures in Australia, like Uluru, Mount Augustus and Bald Rock, have been described as monoliths. Uluru is located in the National Heritage Listed Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park about 335km to the south-west of Alice Springs in Northern Ter...