![\"Australia](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Australia-on-the-Globe-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians<\/a> for about 60,000 years before the first British settlement<\/a> in the late 18th century. It is documented that Aborigines spoke languages that can be classified into about 250 groups.<\/a> After the European exploration of the continent by Dutch explorers in 1606, who named it New Holland<\/a>, Australia’s eastern half was claimed by Great Britain<\/a> in 1770 and initially settled through penal transportation<\/a> to the colony of New South Wales<\/a> from 26 January 1788, a date which became Australia’s national day<\/a>. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored and an additional five self-governing crown colonies established. On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and ten territories.<\/a><\/p>\n Being the oldest, flattest and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils, Australia has a landmass of 2,941,300 square miles. A mega-diverse country, its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes, with deserts in the center, tropical rain forests in the north-east and mountain ranges in the south-east. A gold rush<\/a> began in Australia in the early 1850s, which boosted the population of the country. Nevertheless, its population density, 2.8 inhabitants per square kilometer, remains among the lowest in the world. Australia generates its income from various sources including mining-related exports,<\/a> telecommunications<\/a>, banking<\/a> and manufacturing<\/a>. Indigenous Australian rock art<\/a> is the oldest and richest in the world, dating as far back as 60,000 years and spread across hundreds of thousands of sites.<\/p>\n Australia is a highly developed country, with the world’s 13th-largest economy. It has a high-income economy, with the world’s tenth-highest per-capita income. It is a regional power, and has the world’s 13th-highest military expenditure. Australia has the world’s ninth-largest immigrant population, with immigrants accounting for 26% of the population. Having the third-highest human development index and the eighth-highest ranked democracy globally, the country ranks highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights, with all its major cities faring well in global comparative livability surveys. Australia is a member of the United Nations<\/a>, G20<\/a>, Commonwealth of Nations<\/a>, ANZUS<\/a>, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)<\/a>, World Trade Organization<\/a>, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation<\/a>, Pacific Islands Forum<\/a> and the ASEAN Plus Six mechanism<\/a>.<\/p>\n The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis (“southern land”), a name used for a hypothetical continent in the Southern Hemisphere since ancient times. When Europeans first began visiting and mapping Australia in the 17th century, the name Terra Australis was naturally applied to the new territories.<\/p>\n Until the early 19th century, Australia was best known as “New Holland”, a name first applied by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman<\/a> in 1644 (as Nieuw-Holland) and subsequently anglicized. Terra Australis still saw occasional usage, such as in scientific texts. The name Australia was popularized by the explorer Matthew Flinders<\/a>, who said it was “more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth”. The first time that Australia appears to have been officially used was in April 1817, when Governor Lachlan Macquarie<\/a> acknowledged the receipt of Flinders’ charts of Australia from Lord Bathurst<\/a>. In December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office<\/a> that it be formally adopted. In 1824, the Admiralty<\/a> agreed that the continent should be known officially by that name. The first official published use of the new name came with the publication in 1830 of The Australia Directory by the Hydrographic Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n Colloquial names for Australia include “Oz” and “the Land Down Under” (usually shortened to just “Down Under”). Other epithets include “the Great Southern Land”, “the Lucky Country”, “the Sunburnt Country”, and “the Wide Brown Land”. The latter two both derive from Dorothea Mackellar<\/a>‘s 1908 poem “My Country<\/a>“.<\/p>\n Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun around 65,000 to 70,000 years ago, with the migration of people by land bridges<\/a> and short sea-crossings from what is now Southeast Asia<\/a>. These first inhabitants were the ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. Aboriginal Australian culture is one of the oldest continual civilizations on earth.<\/p>\n At the time of first European contact, most Indigenous Australians were hunter-gatherers<\/a> with complex economies and societies. Recent archaeological finds suggest that a population of 750,000 could have been sustained. Indigenous Australians have an oral culture<\/a> with spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime<\/a>. The Torres Strait Islanders<\/a>, ethnically Melanesian<\/a>, obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas. The northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by Makassan<\/a> fishermen from South Peninsula, Sulawesi<\/a>.<\/p>\n The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent (in 1606), are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken<\/a> captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon<\/a>. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula<\/a> in early 1606, and made landfall on 26 February at the Pennefather River<\/a> near the modern town of Weipa<\/a> on Cape York. Later that year, Spanish explorer Lu\u00eds Vaz de Torres<\/a> sailed through, and navigated, Torres Strait<\/a> islands. The Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent “New Holland” during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier<\/a>, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688 and again in 1699 on a return trip. In 1770, James Cook<\/a> sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain.<\/p>\n With the loss of its American colonies in 1783, the British Government sent a fleet of ships, the “First Fleet<\/a>“, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip<\/a>, to establish a new penal colony in New South Wales. A camp was set up and the flag raised at Sydney Cove<\/a>, Port Jackson<\/a>, on 26 January 1788, a date which became Australia’s national day, Australia Day. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen’s Land<\/a>, now known as Tasmania<\/a>, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825.<\/p>\n The United Kingdom formally claimed the western part of Western Australia<\/a> (the Swan River Colony<\/a>) in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales: South Australia<\/a> in 1836, Victoria<\/a> in 1851, and Queensland<\/a> in 1859. The Northern Territory<\/a> was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia. South Australia was founded as a “free province” \u2014 it was never a penal colony. Victoria and Western Australia were also founded “free”, but later accepted transported convicts. A campaign by the settlers of New South Wales led to the end of convict transportation to that colony; the last convict ship arrived in 1848.<\/p>\n The indigenous population, estimated to have been between 750,000 and 1,000,000 in 1788, declined for 150 years following settlement, mainly due to infectious disease. Thousands more died as a result of frontier conflict with settlers<\/a>. A government policy of “assimilation” beginning with the Aboriginal Protection Act 1869<\/a> resulted in the removal of many Aboriginal children from their families and communities \u2014 often referred to as the Stolen Generations<\/a> \u2014 a practice which may also have contributed to the decline in the indigenous population. As a result of the 1967 referendum<\/a>, the Federal government’s power to enact special laws with respect to a particular race was extended to enable the making of laws with respect to Aborigines. Traditional ownership of land (“native title<\/a>“) was not recognised in law until 1992, when the High Court of Australia<\/a> held in Mabo v Queensland (No 2)<\/a> that the legal doctrine that Australia had been terra nullius<\/a> (“land belonging to no one”) did not apply to Australia at the time of British settlement.<\/p>\n In 1813, Gregory Blaxland<\/a>, William Lawson<\/a> and William Wentworth<\/a> crossed the Blue Mountains<\/a>, west of Sydney, opening the interior to European settlement. In 1824, Hamilton Hume<\/a> and former Royal Navy Captain William Hovell<\/a> led an expedition to find new grazing land in the south of the colony, and also to find an answer to the mystery of where New South Wales’ western rivers flowed. In 1826, the British claim was extended to the whole Australian continent when Major Edmund Lockyer<\/a> established a settlement on King George Sound<\/a> (modern-day Albany). By 1850, large areas of the inland were still unknown to Europeans, but explorers remained ambitious to discover new lands for agriculture or answer scientific enquiries.<\/p>\n A gold rush began in Australia in the early 1850s and the Eureka Rebellion<\/a> against mining licence fees in 1854 was an early expression of civil disobedience. Between 1855 and 1890, the six colonies individually gained responsible government, managing most of their own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire. The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs, defense, and international shipping.<\/p>\n On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies<\/a> was achieved after a decade of planning, consultation and voting. This established the Commonwealth of Australia as a dominion<\/a> of the British Empire. The Federal Capital Territory (later renamed the Australian Capital Territory<\/a>) was formed in 1911 as the location for the future federal capital of Canberra. Melbourne was the temporary seat of government from 1901 to 1927 while Canberra was being constructed. The Northern Territory was transferred from the control of the South Australian government to the federal parliament in 1911.<\/p>\n In 1914, Australia joined Britain in fighting World War I<\/a>, with support from both the outgoing Commonwealth Liberal Party<\/a> and the incoming Australian Labor Party<\/a>. Australians took part in many of the major battles fought on the Western Front<\/a>. Of about 416,000 who served, about 60,000 were killed and another 152,000 were wounded. Many Australians regard the defeat of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs)<\/a> at Gallipoli<\/a> as the birth of the nation \u2014 its first major military action. The Kokoda Track campaign<\/a> is regarded by many as an analogous nation-defining event during World War II<\/a>.<\/p>\n Britain’s Statute of Westminster<\/a> 1931 formally ended most of the constitutional links between Australia and the UK. Australia adopted it in 1942, but it was backdated to 1939 to confirm the validity of legislation passed by the Australian Parliament during World War II. The shock of the United Kingdom’s defeat in Asia in 1942 and the threat of Japanese invasion<\/a> caused Australia to turn to the United States as a new ally and protector. Since 1951, Australia has been a formal military ally of the US, under the ANZUS treaty.<\/p>\n After World War II Australia encouraged immigration from mainland Europe. Since the 1970s and following the abolition of the White Australia policy<\/a>, immigration from Asia and elsewhere was also promoted. As a result, Australia’s demography, culture, and self-image were transformed. The passing of the Australia Act 1986<\/a> ended all possibility for any vestigial role of the British government in the government in Australia and removed the already seldom-used option of judicial appeals to the Privy Council<\/a> in London. In a 1999 referendum<\/a>, 55% of voters and a majority in every state rejected a proposal to become a republic with a president appointed by a two-thirds vote in both Houses of the Australian Parliament. Since the publication of the landmark critique The Lucky Country (1964)<\/a> by Donald Horne<\/a> and the election of the Whitlam Government in 1972<\/a>, there has been an increasing focus in foreign policy on ties with other Pacific Rim nations<\/a>, while maintaining close ties with Australia’s traditional allies and trading partners.<\/p>\n Surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans, Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafura<\/a> and Timor seas<\/a>, with the Coral Sea<\/a> lying off the Queensland coast, and the Tasman Sea<\/a> lying between Australia and New Zealand. The world’s smallest continent and sixth largest country by total area, Australia \u2014 owing to its size and isolation \u2014 is often dubbed the “island continent”, and is sometimes considered the world’s largest island. Australia has 21,262 miles of coastline (excluding all offshore islands), and claims an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone<\/a> of 3,146,060 square miles. This exclusive economic zone does not include the Australian Antarctic Territory<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Great Barrier Reef<\/a>, the world’s largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast and extends for over 1,240 miles. Mount Augustus<\/a>, claimed to be the world’s largest monolith, is located in Western Australia. At 7,310 feet, Mount Kosciuszko<\/a> on the Great Dividing Range is the highest mountain on the Australian mainland. Even taller are Mawson Peak<\/a> (at 9,006 feet, on the remote Australian external territory of Heard Island<\/a>, and, in the Australian Antarctic Territory, Mount McClintock<\/a> and Mount Menzies<\/a>, at 11,457 feet and 11,007 feet respectively.<\/p>\n Australia’s size gives it a wide variety of landscapes, with tropical rainforests in the north-east, mountain ranges in the south-east, south-west and east, and dry desert in the center. The desert or semi-arid land commonly known as the outback<\/a> makes up by far the largest portion of land. Australia is the driest inhabited continent; its annual rainfall averaged over continental area is less than 500 mm. The population density, 2.8 inhabitants per square kilometer, is among the lowest in the world, although a large proportion of the population lives along the temperate south-eastern coastline.<\/p>\n Eastern Australia is marked by the Great Dividing Range, which runs parallel to the coast of Queensland, New South Wales and much of Victoria. The name is not strictly accurate, because parts of the range consist of low hills, and the highlands are typically no more than 5,249 feet in height. The coastal uplands<\/a> and a belt of Brigalow grasslands<\/a> lie between the coast and the mountains, while inland of the dividing range are large areas of grassland. These include the western plains<\/a> of New South Wales, and the Einasleigh Uplands<\/a>, Barkly Tableland<\/a>, and Mulga Lands<\/a> of inland Queensland. The northernmost point of the east coast is the tropical-rainforested Cape York Peninsula.<\/p>\n The landscapes of the Top End<\/a> and the Gulf Country<\/a> \u2014 with their tropical climate \u2014 include forest, woodland, wetland, grassland, rainforest and desert. At the north-west corner of the continent are the sandstone cliffs and gorges of The Kimberley<\/a>, and below that the Pilbara<\/a>. To the south of these and inland, lie more areas of grassland: the Ord Victoria Plain<\/a> and the Western Australian Mulga shrublands<\/a>. At the heart of the country are the uplands of central Australia. Prominent features of the center and south include Uluru<\/a> (also known as Ayers Rock), the famous sandstone monolith, and the inland Simpson<\/a>, Tirari<\/a> and Sturt Stony, Gibson<\/a>, Great Sandy, Tanami<\/a>, and Great Victoria<\/a> deserts, with the famous Nullarbor Plain<\/a> on the southern coast.<\/p>\n A wealthy country, Australia has a market economy, a high GDP per capita, and a relatively low rate of poverty. In terms of average wealth, Australia ranked second in the world after Switzerland<\/a> from 2013 until 2018. In 2018, Australia overtook Switzerland and become the country with the highest average wealth. Australia’s poverty rate increased from 10.2% to 11.8%, from 2000\/01 to 2013. It was identified by the Credit Suisse Research Institute as the nation with the highest median wealth in the world and the second-highest average wealth per adult in 2013.<\/p>\n The Australian dollar is the currency for the nation, including Christmas Island<\/a>, Cocos (Keeling) Islands<\/a>, and Norfolk Island<\/a>, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati<\/a>, Nauru<\/a>, and Tuvalu<\/a>. With the 2006 merger of the Australian Stock Exchange<\/a> and the Sydney Futures Exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange became the ninth largest in the world.<\/p>\n The service sector of the economy, including tourism, education, and financial services, accounts for about 70% of GDP. Rich in natural resources, Australia is a major exporter of agricultural products, particularly wheat and wool, minerals such as iron-ore and gold, and energy in the forms of liquefied natural gas and coal. Although agriculture and natural resources account for only 3% and 5% of GDP respectively, they contribute substantially to export performance. Australia’s largest export markets are Japan<\/a>, China<\/a>, the US<\/a>, South Korea<\/a>, and New Zealand. Australia is the world’s fourth largest exporter of wine, and the wine industry contributes A$5.5 billion per year to the nation’s economy.<\/p>\n Road transport is an essential element of the Australian transport network, and an enabler of the Australian economy. There is a heavy reliance on road transport due to Australia’s large area and low population density in considerable parts of the country.<\/p>\n Another reason for the reliance upon roads is that the Australian rail network<\/a> has not been sufficiently developed for a lot of the freight and passenger requirements in most areas of Australia. This has meant that goods that would otherwise be transported by rail are moved across Australia via road trains. Almost every household owns at least one car, and uses it most days.<\/p>\n Australia has the second highest level of car ownership in the world. It has three to four times more road per capita than Europe and seven to nine times more than Asia. Australia also has the third highest per capita rate of fuel consumption in the world. Melbourne is the most car-dependent city in Australia, according to a data survey in the 2010s. Having over 110,000 more cars driving to and from the city each day than Sydney. Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane are rated as being close behind. All these capital cities are rated among the highest in this category in the world (car dependency). The distance travelled by car (or similar vehicle) in Australia is among the highest in the world, being exceeded by USA and Canada.<\/p>\n There are 3 different categories of Australian roads. They are federal highways, state highways and local roads. The road network comprises a total of 913,000 km broken down into:<\/p>\n paved: 353,331 km (including 3,132 km of expressways) Victoria has the largest network.<\/p>\n Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide have extensive commuter rail networks which have grown and expanded over time. Australian commuter rail typically operates with bidirectional all day services with Sydney, Melbourne, and to a lesser extent Perth\u2019s systems operating with much higher frequencies, particularly in their underground cores. Sydney Trains<\/a> operates the busiest system in the country with approximately 1 million trips per day. Metro Trains Melbourne<\/a> operates a larger system albeit with a lower number of trips.<\/p>\n Trams<\/a> have historically operated in many Australian towns and cities, with the majority of these being shut down before the 1970s in the belief that more widespread car ownership would render them unnecessary. Melbourne is a major exception and today has the largest tram network of any city in the world. Adelaide also retained one tram service – the Glenelg tram<\/a>, since extended from 2008 onwards to Hindmarsh<\/a> and the East End<\/a>. Trams had operated in a number of major regional cities including Ballarat<\/a>, Bendigo<\/a>, Brisbane<\/a>, Broken Hill<\/a>, Fremantle<\/a>, Geelong<\/a>, Hobart<\/a>, Kalgoorlie<\/a>, Launceston<\/a>, Maitland<\/a>, Newcastle<\/a>, Perth<\/a>, Rockhampton<\/a>, Sorrento<\/a>, Sydney<\/a> and St Kilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n A modern light rail system<\/a> opened in Sydney<\/a> in 1997 with the conversion of a disused section of a freight railway line into what is now part of the Dulwich Hill Line<\/a>. A second CBD and South East Light Rail<\/a> line in Sydney is currently under construction and is due to open in 2019. A light rail system opened on the Gold Coast<\/a> in 2014. A line opened in Newcastle<\/a> in February 2019, with a line Canberra<\/a> scheduled to open in April 2019.<\/p>\n Major cities in Australia do not currently have full-fledged rapid transit systems<\/a>, however a driverless rapid transit system in Sydney<\/a> is currently under construction with completion of its first stage in 2019. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth’s commuter systems are all partially underground and reflect some aspects of typical rapid transit systems, particularly in the city centres.<\/p>\n The railway network is large, comprising a total of 33,819 km (2,540 km electrified) of track. Rail transport started in the various colonies at different dates. Privately owned railways started the first lines, and struggled to succeed on a remote, huge, and sparsely populated continent, and government railways dominated.<\/p>\n The Great Southern Rail<\/a>, operates three trains: the Indian Pacific<\/a> (Sydney-Adelaide-Perth), The Ghan<\/a> (Adelaide-Alice Springs-Darwin) and The Overland<\/a> (Melbourne-Adelaide). NSW owned NSW TrainLink services link Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne to Sydney. Since the extension of the Ghan from Alice Springs to Darwin was completed in 2004, all mainland Australian capital cities are linked by standard gauge rail, for the first time.<\/p>\n There are various state and city rail services operated by a combination of government and private entities, the most prominent of these include V\/Line<\/a> (regional trains and coaches in Victoria); Metro Trains Melbourne (suburban services in Melbourne); NSW TrainLink (regional trains and coaches in New South Wales); Sydney Trains (suburban services in Sydney); Queensland Rail<\/a> (QR) operating long distance Traveltrain services and the City network in South-East Queensland, and Transwa<\/a> operating train and bus services in Western Australia.<\/p>\n In Tasmania, TasRail<\/a> operates a short haul narrow gauge freight system, that carries inter-modal and bulk mining goods. TasRail is government owned (by the State of Tasmania) and is going through a significant below and above rail upgrades with new locomotives and wagons entering service. Significant bridge and sleeper renewal has also occurred. The Tasmanian Government also operates the West Coast Wilderness Railway<\/a> as a tourist venture over an isolated length of track on Tasmania’s West Coast.<\/p>\n Qantas<\/a> is the flag carrier of Australia. The Australian National Airways<\/a> was the predominant domestic carrier from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s. After World War II, Qantas was nationalized and its domestic operations were transferred to Trans Australia Airlines<\/a>. The Two Airlines Policy<\/a> was establish to protect both airlines. However, ANA’s leadership was quickly eroded by TAA, and it was sold to Ansett Airways<\/a> in 1957. The duopoly continued over the next four decades. In the mid 1990s Qantas was merged with TAA and later privatized. Ansett collapsed in September 2001. In the following years, Virgin Australia<\/a> became a challenger to Qantas. Both companies launched low-cost subsidiaries Jetstar<\/a> and Tiger Airways Australia<\/a> respectively.<\/p>\n Overseas flights from Australia to Europe via the Eastern Hemisphere<\/a> are known as the Kangaroo Route<\/a>, whereas flights via the Western Hemisphere<\/a> are known as the Southern Cross Route<\/a>. In 1954, the first flight from Australia to North America was completed, as a 60-passenger Qantas aircraft connected Sydney with San Francisco and Vancouver, having fuel stops at Fiji, Canton Island and Hawaii. In 1982, a Pan Am first flew non-stop from Los Angeles to Sydney. A non-stop flight between Australia and Europe was first completed in March 2018 from Perth to London.<\/p>\n There are many airports around Australia paved or unpaved. A 2004 estimate put the number of airports at 448. The busiest airports in Australia are:<\/p>\n Sydney Airport Sydney, New South Wales SYD<\/a> There are 305 airports with paved runways.<\/p>\n There are 143 airports with unpaved runways.<\/p>\n The flag of Australia is a\u00a0defaced<\/a>\u00a0Blue Ensign<\/a>: a blue field with the Union Jack<\/a> in the canton (upper hoist quarter), and a large white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Sta<\/a>r in the lower hoist quarter. The fly contains a representation of the Southern Cross<\/a> constellation, made up of five white stars \u2013 one small five-pointed star and four, larger, seven-pointed stars. There are other official flags<\/a> representing Australia, its people and core functions of government.<\/p>\n The flag’s original design (with a six-pointed Commonwealth Star) was chosen in 1901 from entries in a competition<\/a> held following Federation, and was first flown in Melbourne on 3 September 1901, the date proclaimed as Australian National Flag Day<\/a>. A slightly different design was approved by King Edward VII<\/a> in 1903. The seven-pointed commonwealth star version was introduced by a proclamation dated 8 December 1908. The dimensions were formally gazetted in 1934, and in 1954 the flag became recognized by, and legally defined in, the Flags Act 1953<\/a>, as the “Australian National Flag”.<\/p>\n The Australian flag uses three prominent symbols: the Union Flag, the Commonwealth Star (also the Federation Star) and the Southern Cross (or Crux).<\/p>\n The Union Flag is thought to symbolism Australia’s history as six British colonies and the principles upon which the Australian Federation is based, although a more historic view sees its inclusion in the design as demonstrating loyalty to the British Empire<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Commonwealth Star, also known as the Federation Star, originally had six points, representing the six federating colonies. In 1908, a seventh point was added to symbolism the Papua<\/a> and any future territories. Another rationale for the change was to match the star used on the Coat of Arms, which was created in the same year. The Commonwealth Star does not have any official relation to Beta Centauri, despite the latter’s brightness and location in the sky; however, the 1870 version of the flag of South Australia featured the “pointer” stars, Alpha<\/a> and Beta Centauri<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Southern Cross is one of the most distinctive constellations<\/a> visible in the Southern Hemisphere, and has been used to represent Australia since the early days of British settlement. Ivor Evans, one of the flag’s designers, intended the Southern Cross to also refer to the four moral virtues ascribed to the four main stars by Dante<\/a>: justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude. The number of points on the stars of the Southern Cross on the modern Australian flag differs from the original competition-winning design, in which they ranged between five and nine points each, representing their relative brightness in the night sky. The stars are named after the first five letters of the Greek alphabet<\/a>, in decreasing order of brightness in the sky. In order to simplify manufacture, the British Admiralty standardized the four larger outer stars at seven points each, leaving the smaller, more central star with five points. This change was officially gazetted on 23 February 1903.<\/p>\n Before 1901, what is now Australia was six separate British colonies. The Union Flag, as the flag of the British Empire, was first used on Australian soil on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay<\/a>, and it was again used at the start of European settlement of the country on 26 January 1788. This was the original Union Flag introduced in 1606 that did not include the Saint Patrick’s Saltire<\/a>, included from 1801 after the Acts of Union 1801<\/a>. It is the second version post 1801 that is depicted on the Australian Flag. It was often used to represent them collectively, and each colony also had its own flag based on the Union Flag.<\/p>\n As an Australian national consciousness began to emerge, several flag movements were formed and unofficial new flags came into common usage. Two attempts were made throughout the nineteenth century to design a national flag. The first such attempt was the National Colonial Flag<\/a> created in 1823\u20131824 by Captains John Nicholson and John Bingle.<\/p>\n This flag consisted of a red cross on a white background, with an eight-point star on each of the four limbs of the cross, while incorporating a Union Flag in the canton. The most popular “national” flag of the period was the 1831 Federation Flag<\/a>, also designed by Nicholson.<\/p>\n This flag was the same at the National Colonial Flag, except that the cross was blue instead of resembling that of St. George. Although the flag was designed by Nicholson in 1831, it did not become widely popular until the latter part of the century, when calls for federation began to grow louder. These flags, and many others such as the Eureka Flag<\/a> (which came into use at the Eureka Stockade in 1854), featured stars representing the Southern Cross.<\/p>\n The oldest known flag to show the stars arranged as they are seen in the sky is the Anti-Transportation League Flag<\/a>, which is similar in design to the present National Flag.<\/p>\n The differences were that there was no Commonwealth Star, while the components of the Southern Cross are depicted with eight points and in gold. This flag was only briefly in usage, as two years after the formation of the Anti-Transportation League in 1851, the colonial authorities decided to stop the intake of convicts, so the ATL ceased its activities. The Eureka Flag is often viewed as the first “Australian” flag as it was the first notable example of a design that had the Southern Cross while excluding the Union Flag. The Murray River Flag<\/a>, popular since the 1850s, is still widely used by boats that traverse Australia’s main waterway.<\/p>\n It is the same as the National Colonial Flag, except that the white background in the three quadrants other the canton were replaced with four alternating blue and white stripes, representing the four major rivers that run into the Murray River.<\/p>\n As Federation approached, thoughts turned to an official federal flag. In 1900, the Melbourne Herald<\/a> conducted a design competition with a prize of 25 Australian pounds (2017: A$3,700) in which entries were required to include the Union Flag and Southern Cross, resulting in a British Ensign style flag.<\/p>\n The majority of designs incorporated the Union Flag and the Southern Cross, but native animals were also popular, including one that depicted a variety of indigenous animals playing cricket. The entries were put on display at the Royal Exhibition Building<\/a> in Melbourne and the judges took six days to deliberate before reaching their conclusion. Five almost identical entries were chosen as the winning design, and the designers shared the \u00a3200 (2009: $25,000) prize money. They were Ivor Evans, a fourteen-year-old schoolboy from Melbourne; Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager apprenticed to an optician from Sydney; Egbert John Nuttall, an architect from Melbourne; Annie Dorrington<\/a>, an artist from Perth; and William Stevens, a ship’s officer from Auckland, New Zealand. The five winners received \u00a340 each. The differences to the current flag were the six-pointed Commonwealth Star, while the components stars in the Southern Cross had different numbers of points, with more if the real star was brighter. This led to five stars of nine, eight, seven, six and five points respectively.<\/p>\n![\"Aboriginal](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Aboriginal-Rock-Art-in-the-Kimberly-Region-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Etymology:<\/h2>\n
![\"Terra](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Terra-Australis-1-300x207.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
History:<\/h2>\n
Pre-History:<\/h3>\n
![\"Aboriginal](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Aboriginal-Rock-Art-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
European Arrival:<\/h3>\n
![\"Captain](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Captain-James-Cook-239x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Tasmania's](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Tasmanias-Port-Arthur-Penal-Settlement-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Colonial Expansion:<\/h3>\n
![\"Blue](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Blue-Mountains-1-300x212.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Nationhood:<\/h3>\n
![\"ANZAC](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/ANZAC-Day-300x257.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"Australian](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Australian-States-and-Territories-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Topographic](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Topographic-Map-of-Australia-300x275.png\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Great](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Great-Dividing-Range-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Uluru](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Uluru-Ayers-Rock-300x197.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"Super](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Super-Pit-Gold-Mine-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Transportation:<\/h2>\n
Roads:<\/h3>\n
![\"Road](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Road-Map-of-Australia-300x212.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
\nunpaved: 559,669 km (1996 estimate)<\/p>\nPublic Transport in Australia:<\/h3>\n
Commuter Rail:<\/h4>\n
![\"Commuter](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Commuter-Rail-in-Melbourne-300x199.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Trams and Light Rail:<\/h4>\n
![\"Trams](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Trams-in-Adelaide-300x151.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Rapid Transit:<\/h4>\n
Rail:<\/h3>\n
![\"Passenger](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Passenger-Rail-Services-in-Australia-300x255.png\" "\\"\\"")
Air:<\/h3>\n
![\"Qantas](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Qantas-A380-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Melbourne](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Melbourne-International-Airport-300x201.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
\nMelbourne Airport Melbourne, Victoria MEL<\/a>
\nBrisbane Airport Brisbane, Queensland BNE<\/a>
\nPerth Airport Perth, Western Australia PER<\/a>
\nAdelaide Airport Adelaide, South Australia ADL
\nGold Coast Airport Gold Coast, Queensland OOL<\/a>
\nCairns Airport Cairns, Queensland CNS<\/a>
\nCanberra Airport Canberra, Australian Capital Territory CBR<\/a>
\nHobart International Airport Hobart, Tasmania HBA<\/a>
\nDarwin International Airport, Northern Territory DRW<\/a>
\nTownsville Airport Townsville, Queensland TSV<\/a><\/p>\nFlag of Australia:<\/h2>\n
Design:<\/h3>\n
![\"Flag](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Flag-of-Australia-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")
History:<\/h3>\n
![\"National](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/National-Colonial-Flag-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Australian](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Australian-Federation-Flag-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Eureka](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Eureka-Flag-300x195.png\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Anti-Transportation](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Anti-Transportation-League-Flag-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Murray](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Murray-River-Flag-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")