Australian Stories matching your query...

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....

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...

Works by many contemporary visual artists in Western Australia demonstrate a vital consciousness of the land. Western Australian art traces a presence on the land, a cultural loss and, ultimately, a belief in the future. Contemporary artists such as pai...

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...

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...

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...

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. ...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

Australian films and filmmakers receive acclaim on the world stage, and the achievements of Australian women onscreen are celebrated. The play's success encouraged Kate to turn the play into a film (1920), which she co-directed with Charles Villiers, mak...

Image courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Fiona Hall, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2005. Fiona Hall, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 2005....

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...

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...