Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and

numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the northeast and New Zealand to the southeast. For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Britain in 1770 and initially settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales, where formal possession of the land had been taken on 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established. A developed country, Australia is the world's thirteenth largest economy and it holds a position 16 in Global Competitiveness Index 2010 2011 rankings made by World Economic Forum. Australia ranks highly in many international comparisons of national performance such as human development, quality of life, health care, life expectancy, public education, economic freedom and the protection of civil liberties and political rights. Australia is a member of the United Nations, G20, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, OECD, APEC, Pacific Islands Forum and the World Trade Organization. Australia is the only country outside Europe in the top ten of the quality-of-life index.

History

Exploration by Europeans till 1812 1606 Willem Janszoon 1606 Luis Vez de Torres 1616 Dirk Hartog 1619 Frederick de Houtman 1644 Abel Tasman 1696 Willem de Vlamingh 1699 William Dampier

1770 James C 17971799 George Bass 18011803 Matt ew Fli ers Human habitation of Australia is estimated to have begun between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago, possibly with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea-crossings from what is now Southeast Asia. These first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. At the time of European settlement in the late 18th century, most Indigenous Australians were hunter-gatherers, with a complex oral culture and spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturalists and hunter-gatherers. Following sporadic visits by fishermen from the Malay Archipelago, the first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent were attributed to the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula on an unknown date in early 1606, and made landfall on 26 February at the Pennefather River on the western shore of Cape York, near the modern town of Weipa. The Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines of "New Holland" during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer/privateer landed on the northwest coast of Australia in 1688 and again in 1699 on a return trip. In 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast of Australia, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. Cook's discoveries prepared the way for establishment of a new penal colony. The British Crown Colony of New South Wales was formed on 26 January 1788, when Captain Arthur Phillip led the First Fleet to Port Jackson. This date became Australia's national day, Australia Day. Van Diemen's Land, now known as Tasmania, was settled in 1803 and became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the western part of Australia in 1828.

Poli ic

Parliament House, Canberra was opened in 1988, replacing the provisional Parliament House building opened in 1927. Australia is a constitutional monarchy with a federal division of powers. It uses a parliamentary system of government with Queen Elizabeth II at its apex as the Queen of Australia, a role that is distinct from her position as monarch of the other Commonwealth realms. The Queen resides in the United Kingdom, and she is represented by her viceroys in Australia, (the Governor-General at the federal level and by the Governors at the state level), who by convention act on the advice of her ministers. Supereme executive authority is vested by the constitution of Australia in the sovereign, but the power to exercise it is conferred by the constitution specifically to the Governor-General. The most notable exercise of the

Governor-General's reserve powers outside a Prime Minister's request was the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in the constitutional crisis of 1975. The federal government is separated into three branches:
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The legislature: the bicameral Parliament, comprising the Queen (represented by the Governor-General , the Senate, and the House of Representatives; The executive: the Federal Executive Council, in practice the Governor-General as advised by the Prime Minister and Ministers of State; The judiciary: the High Court of Australia and other federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the Governor-General on advice of the Council.

In the Senate (the upper house , there are 76 senators: twelve each from the states and two each from the mainland territories (the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory . The House of Representatives (the lower house has 150 members elected from single-member electoral divisions, commonly known as "electorates" or "seats", allocated to states on the basis of population, with each original state guaranteed a minimum of five seat. Elections for both chambers are normally held every three years, simultaneously; senators have overlapping six-year terms except for those from the territories, whose terms are not fixed but are tied to the electoral cycle for the lower house; thus only 40 of the 76 places in the Senate are put to each election unless the cycle is interrupted by a double dissolution.

Geography and limate

Climatic zones in Australia, based on the Kppen climate classification. Australia's landmass of 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sqmi is on the IndoAustralian Plate. Surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas. The world's smallest continent and sixth largest country by total area, Australiaowing to its size and isolationis often dubbed the 'island continent' and variably considered the world's largest island. Australia has 34,218 kilometres (21,262 mi of coastline (excluding all offshore islands and claims an extensiveExclusive Economic Zone of 8,148,250 square kilometres (3,146,060 sq mi . This exclusive economic zone does not include the Australian Antarctic Territory. Excluding Macquarie Island, Australia lies between latitudes 9 and 44S, and longitudes 112 and 154E. The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast and extends for over 2,000 kilometres (1,240 mi . Mount Augustus, claimed to be the world's largest monolith, is located in Western Australia. At 2,228 metres (7,310 ft , Mount

Kosciuszko on the Great Dividing Range is the highest mountain on the Australian mainland, although Mawson Peak on the remote Australian territory of Heard Island is taller at 2,745 metres (9,006 ft). Australia is the flattest continent, with the oldest and least fertile soils; desert or semi-arid land commonly known as the outback makes up by far the largest portion of land. The driest inhabited continent, only its south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate. The population density, 2.8 inhabitants per square kilometre, is among the lowest in the world, although a large proportion of the population lives along the temperate south-eastern coastline. The climate of Australia is significantly influenced by ocean currents, including the Indian Ocean Dipole , which is correlated with periodic drought, and the seasonal tropical low pressure system that produces cyclones in northern Australia. These factors induce rainfall to vary markedly from year to year. Much of the northern part of the country has a tropical predominantly summer rainfall (monsoon) climate. Just under three quarters of Australia lies within a desert or semi-arid zone. The southwest corner of the country has a Mediterranean climate. Much of the southeast (including Tasmania) is temperate.

Envi onment

The koala and the eucalyptus form an iconic Australian pair Although most of Australia is semi-arid or desert, it includes a diverse range of habitats from alpine heaths to tropical rainforests, and is recognised as a megadiverse country. Because of the continent's great age, extremely variable weather patterns, and long-term geographic isolation, much of Australia's biota is unique and diverse. About 85 per cent of flowering plants, 84 per cent of mammals, more than 45 per cent of birds, and 89 per cent of in-shore, temperate-zone fish are endemic. Australia has the greatest number of reptiles of any country, with 755 species. Australian forests are mostly made up of evergreen species, particularly eucalyptus trees in the less arid regions, Wattles replace them in drier regions and deserts as the most dominant species. Among well-known Australian fauna are the monotremes (the platypus and echidna); a host of marsupials, including the kangaroo, koala, and wombat, and birds such as the emu and the kookaburra. Australia is home to many dangerous animals including some of the most venomous snakes in the world. The dingo was introduced by Austronesian people who traded with Indigenous Australians around 3000 BCE. Many plant and animal species

became extinct soon after first human settlement, including the Australian megafauna; others have disappeared since European settlement, among them the thylacine.

Economy

The Super Pit gold mine in Kalgoorlie, Australia's largest open cut mine. Australia has a market economy with high GDP per capita and low rate of poverty. The Australian dollar is the currency for the nation, including Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru, and Tuvalu. After the 2006 merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange is now the ninth largest in the world. An emphasis on exporting commodities rather than manufactured goods has underpinned a significant increase in Australia's terms of trade since the start of the century, due to rising commodity prices. Australia has a balance of payments that is more than 7 per cent of GDP negative, and has had persistently large current account deficits for more than 50 years. Australia has grown at an average annual rate of 3.6 per cent for over 15 years, in comparison to the OECD annual average of 2.5 per cent. There are differing opinions based on evidence as to whether or not Australia had been one of the few OECD nations to avoid experiencing a recession during the late 2000s global financial downturn. Six of Australia's major trading partners had been in recession which in turn affected Australia, and economic growth was hampered significantly over recent years.

Language

Nearly three quarters of Australians live in metropolitan cities and coastal areas. The beach is an integral part of the Australian identity.

Although Australia has no official language, English is so entrenched that it has become the de facto national language. Australian English is a major variety of the language with a distinctive accent and lexicon. Grammar and spelling are similar to that of British English with some notable exceptions. According to the 2006 census, English is the only language spoken in the home for close to 79 per cent of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Italian (1.6 per cent), Greek (1.3 per cent) and Cantonese (1.2 per cent); a considerable proportion of first- and second-generation migrants are bilingual. A 20102011 study by the Australia Early Development Index found that the most common language spoken by children after English was Arabic, followed by Vietnamese, Greek, Chinese, and Hindi. Australia has a sign language known as Auslan, which is the main language of about 5,500 deaf people.

Culture

The Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne was the first building in Australia to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004

Since 1788, the basis of Australian culture has been strongly influenced by Anglo-Celtic Western culture. Distinctive cultural features have also arisen from Australia's natural environment and Indigenous cultures. Since the mid-20th century, American popular culture has strongly influenced Australia, particularly through television and cinema. Other cultural influences come from neighbouring Asian countries, and through large-scale immigration from non-English-speaking nations.

Arts
Australian visual arts are thought to have begun with the cave and bark paintings of its Indigenous peoples. The traditions of Indigenous Australians are largely transmitted orally, through ceremony and the telling of Dreamtime stories From the time of European settlement, a theme in Australian art has been the natural landscape, seen for example in the works of Albert Namatjira, Arthur Streeton and others associated with the Heidelberg School, and Arthur Boyd. The country's landscape remains a source of inspiration for Australian modernist artists; it has been depicted in acclaimed works by the likes of Sidney Nolan, Fred Williams, Sydney Long, and Clifton Pugh. Australian artists influenced by modern American and European art include cubist Grace Crowley, surrealist James Gleeson, and pop artist Martin Sharp. Contemporary Indigenous Australian art is the only art movement of international significance to emerge from Australia and "the last great art movement of the 20th century"; its exponents have included Emily Kngwarreye. Art critic Robert Hughes has written several

influential books about Australian history and art, and was described as the "world's most famous art critic" by The New York Times. The National Gallery of Australia and state galleries maintain Australian and overseas collections.

Cuisine
The food of Indigenous Australians was largely influenced by the area in which they lived. Most tribal groups subsisted on a simple hunter-gatherer diet, hunting native game and fish and collecting native plants and fruit. The general term for native Australian flora and fauna used as a source of food is bush tucker. The first settlers introduced British food to the continent which much of what is now considered typical Australian food is based on the Sunday roast has become an enduring tradition for many Australians. Since the beginning of the 20th century, food in Australia has increasingly been influenced by immigrants to the nation, particularly from Southern European and Asian cultures. Australian wine is produced in 60 distinct production areas totaling approximately 160,000 hectares, mainly in the southern, cooler parts of the country. The wine regions in each of these states produce different wine varieties and styles that take advantage of local climates and soil types. The predominant varieties are Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Smillon, Pinot noir, Riesling, and Sauvignon blanc. In 1995, an Australian red wine, Penfolds Grange, won the Wine Spectator award for Wine of the Year, the first time a wine from outside France or California achieved this distinction.

Australian dollar

The Australian dollar (sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu. Within Australia it is almost always abbreviated with the dollar sign ($), with A$ sometimes used to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is subdivided into 100 cents. The Australian dollar is currently the fifth-most-traded currency in the world foreign exchange markets behind the US dollar, the euro, the yen and the pound sterling. The Australian dollar is popular with currency traders, because of the comparatively high interest rates in Australia, the relative freedom of the foreign exchange market from government intervention, the general stability of Australia's economy and political system, and the prevailing view that the Australian dollar offers diversification benefits in a portfolio containing the major world currencies, especially because of its greater exposure to Asian economies and the commodities cycle. The currency is commonly referred to by foreignexchange traders as the "Aussie." 10,000 Australian Dollar (AUD) = 4,72,060.6 Indian Rupee (INR)

Australia cheap flight deals

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Information about Australia

Australia, the land of incredible natural beauty is one of the most highly urbanized countries in the world. It is spread over an area of 7.68 million sq. km and is home to some 19.5 million people. The sun kissed beaches, glittering rivers, stupendous mountains, enthralling wildlife, picturesque landscape, silvery cascades, national parks, historical monuments, museums, and the rich cosmopolitan culture attract millions of tourists from all around the globe to Australia, which is counted as the most sought after tourist destination.

Tourist Attractions in Australia

Blue Mountains: The Blue Mountains with their spectacular rock formations, cliffs and ravines, and a wilderness are one of the most popular daytrip destinations from Sydney. It is less than an hours drive from Sydney. Fraser Island: Listed as the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Fraser Island is t he largest sand Island in the world. Blessed with unique sand dune system, the rainforests, and shimmering fresh water lakes, this wondrous island is a growing hub for Eco tourism in Australia. Great Barrier Reef: Located in Cairns, Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef is home to the rich colourful marine life. It contains the largest collection of rare coral reefs, with 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 types of mollusc. Listed as a World Heritage Site, The Great Barrier Reef is also the habitat to many endangered species such as the dugong ('sea cow') and the large green turtle. Kakadu National Park: Stretching for more than 200 Kms south from the coast and 100 Kms from east to west, Kakadu National park is home to over 280 species of birds, 55 kinds of freshwater fish, 60 kinds of native mammals, thousands of species of insects, and many species of reptiles, the most famous of which is the salt -water crocodile. Gold Coast: Famous for its pristine beaches, vibrant flea markets and invigorating nightlife, Gold coast is a popular holiday destination of Australia. You will find all sort of engaging activities like Fishing, Surfing, Scuba diving and other major water sports here. Kangaroo Island: Kangaroo Islands is the third largest island in Australia after Tasmania and Melville Island. Spread over an area of approximately 4400 square kilometers, this beautiful refuge is the best place to see Kangaroos, Koalas, Wallabies, Platypus, Sea Lions and Osprey and many rare species of animals and birds in their natural habitat.

Buy flights at 4pm on Friday

Several airlines release their weekly sales on Friday afternoons, and once an airline drops its prices, others often respond within the hour. GetFlight principal Ian Cumming says nearly a quarter of sale fares are published on Fridays, with Tuesday at 4pm the second -best time to buy. "We've seen multiple price drops between competing carriers, resulting in sa vings of up to $50 for a one -way fare on the Australia to New Zealand route," Cumming says. "Therefore it pays to keep an eye on all airlines on your chosen route."

Australia Hotels List

Australia is the world s largest island continent complete with dram atic landscapes, sun drenched beaches, coral reefs, tropical rain forests, deserts and bush land. To view all the natural beauty of this beautifully endowed country one would require room reservations in good, clean hotels in Australia. Hotels Australia pr ovide an opportunity to view the attractions while providing a comfortable, quality stay ideal for leisure and business travelers. One get s true value of their money s worth in any of the hotels in Australia whether it is budget, business, tourist or luxu ry hotel. Most Australia Hotel list provide a fresh and warm contemporary design with beautiful European elegance. The travelers are assured that their reasonable demands will all be met in all hotels Australia as per their comfort. The dcor of hotels in Australia is calming and rejuvenating. The facilities and amenities provided in the hotels are the latest as per the demands and requirements of the modern day traveler. The hotels in Australia are well located with many of them within walking distance of major entertainment areas such as theatres, cinemas, night clubs as well as major business and shopping areas. They provide the perfect base from where one can have a perfect start to a fabulously fun sightseeing.

Luxury Resorts Australia

These resort offer the very best in service and facilities. Some resorts offer grand opulence with luxury every inch of the way whilst others offer distinct styles of first class service and facilities. The islands resorts are ideally suited for honeymooners, families, divers and snorkellers - in fact anyone looking for an idyllic, exotic, tropical, and pristine holiday destination. When you want absolute luxury you can try Lizard Island Resort, Orpheus Island Resort, and Bedarra Island Resort. For Scuba divers and snorkellers there is Heron Island Resort or Lizard Island Resort. All of the island resorts are a great place for a stress free holiday and a unique experience. Some of the resorts are situated right on or near the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef stretches more than 2000 kilometres along the coastline of Queensland. Typical activities are swimming, snorkelling, scuba diving, coral viewing, reef walking, sailing, yacht charter, jet skiing, parasailing, sailboarding, kayaking, catamarans, canoes, big game fishing and whale watching. The Great Barrier Reef is of such pristine condition that it was listed as by the World Heritage Trust as a protected site and is therefore managed by the Great Barrier. The Mainland resorts offer a wide range of facilities in their individual ways and have been chosen for their commitment to service and luxurious facilities.

Cheap Hotels in Australia

There are many tourists worldwide who hesitate to venture out to enjoy the picturesque delights of Australia due to the high cost of accommodation. StayResAustralia.com has attempted to resolve this issue for most tourists by providing room reservations in some fine cheap hotels Australia. The vast network of cheap hotels Australia that StayResAustralia.com has enables all tourists to enjoy the variety of culture, tradition and hospitality irrespective of their economic background. The cheap hotels Australia are an excellent and convenient option for the many visitors who would otherwise have most probably missed out on an opportunity of spending a quality vacation. These hotels ensure that no strain is put on one s pocket. StayResAustralia.com has a dedicated team working towards compiling and also providing room reservations in some of the best cheap hotels Australia. You need not worry about last minute reservations as we look into that aspect as well. All you need to do is either choose a h otel of your choice or allow our reservation staff to help you choose one. We provide immediate and guaranteed reservations and the reservation system is fast as well as secure.