ThisisAustralia.au is about Australia. Australia is a vast continent covering a large number of climate and vegetation zones. It is the only island continent. The only continent surrounded entirely by seas.
Stories, pictures, from every state and territory, each linked to the website, for your easy reference.
New South Wales, the premier state! Still the most populous state in Australia - though Victoria is giving it a run for its money! From legendary outback towns such as Broken Hill and Bourke, to the snow covered mountains around Mount Kosiuszko, to the magnificent Sydney Harbour with its iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
Northern Territory - Outback Australia!. From the magic of the Tiwi Islands in the Arafura Sea just north of the capital, Darwin, to the legendary middle of Australia outback town of Alice Springs. From the geographical heart of Australia, the magnificent rock, Uluru, to the mighty MacDonnell Ranges. From the great isolation of the desert to bustling Darwin. Also, the isolated settlements, cut off from the rest of Australia by distance and political arrangements, where there is still great disadvantage for the people. Northern Territory is a place of contrasts.
Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef. There is more to Queensland than the Great Barrier Reef, but the reef is a big thing! It is the largest coral reef structure in the world. It is about 2900 kilometres long, and stretches from near Cape York at the very northern tip of Australia, down to almost the latitude of Brisbane. But there is much more to Queensland. The Daintree rain forest. The gulf country. Bustling Brisbane. And more...
South Australia. The mighty Murray River, the longest river in Australia, ends its journey in South Australia. The Flinders Ranges, with the mystical Wilpena Pound. The wine regions of the Barossa Valley and the Coonawarra. The 'pivot point' of Australia, Port Augusta, at the southern end of that great central road through Australia that ends in Darwin. Adelaide, the city of churches.Then there is the Eyre Highway heading west from Port Augusta and across the Nullarbor Plain to Western Australia. The magnificent Bunda Cliffs on the Great Australian Bight.
Tasmania - the island state. Tasmania is steeped in history. It was established as a penal colony. The prisons at Port Arthur in the far south of the state, and at Macquarie Harbour on the wild west coast were pretty harsh. Historic Hobart, once home to whaling fleets, and now the finish port of the Sydney Hobart sailing race. The beautiful northwest coast
Victoria - Mallee to mountains. With Melbourne, the capital, as a mid-point, Victoria falls naturally into two halves. In the western half the country varies from desert and drier farming country from Mildura down through Horsham and beyond, through the Otway Ranges to the iconic Great Ocean Road. In the east it goes from the lush green farmland in the Gippsland through to the Alpine ranges in the north. And Victoria is the home of AFL football - as especially seen in the history of the Geelong Cats team!
Western Australia - the wildflower state. The wildflower state was the slogan on WA number plates for years, and with good reason. In season, the wildflowers all over WA are magnificent! Western Australia is by far the largest size state in Australia. It occupies nearly a third of the Australian continent. From the remote northern town of Kununnurra on Lake Argyle - which is twenty time the size of Sydney harbour! - to the southern towns of Albany and Esperence. WA has so many different climates and ways of life and natural features that it is impossible to try to describe them in a paragraph. Hot dry deserts, lush tropical rainforests. Mighty rivers, like the Fitsroy which is miles wide during the wet season. Want to travel? WA has so much!
Australian Poetry. From Banjo Patterson to Henry Lawson. From Hanrahan to 'My Country' by Dorothea MacKellar. This is only a small beginning of a rich tradition of Australian poetry.