What is an Australian?

[Rule.303]

This got sent to me. It made me smile...

....................................
THE LAND OF OZ

WE, the people of the broad brown land of OZ, wish to be recognised as a free nation of blokes, sheilas and the occasional boong. We come from many lands(although a few too many of us come from New Zealand) and, although we live in the best country in the world, we reserve the right to bitch and moan about it whenever we bloody like.

We are One Nation but we

[copitsweet]

Bill Bryson, an American columnist and author wrote:

"""""Australia is the world's sixth largest country, the world's largest island and the only island that is also a continent. It was the first continent conquered from the sea and the last. It is the only nation that began as a prison.

It is home to the largest living thing in the world - the Great Barrier Reef. Of the world's ten most poisonous snakes - all are Australian. Five of Australia's creatures, the funnel-web spider, box jellyfish, blue ringed octopus, paralysis tick and stonefish - are the most lethal of their type in the world. It has the world's largest worm - up to 12 feet long and six inches in diameter.

Australia contains a fish that can climb trees, a fox that can fly (actually a bat) and crustaceans so big an adult can climb inside the shell.

80% of all plants and animals in Australia exist nowhere else. At a guess, there are at least 25,000 species of plants. At least a third have never been named. Britain by comparison, has 1,600 species.

Australia is the driest, hottest, most dessicated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents. Only Antarctica is more hostile to life.

Australia has 1% of the world's population and 20% of the world's poker machines.

There has never been a more sporting nation. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Australia, the fifty-second largest nation in the world, brough home more medals than all but four other much larger countries (in population). Measured in terms of population, Australia won 3.78 medals per million of population, two and a half times better than the next performer, Germany and five times better than the United States. Moreover, Australian ahtletes did this over fourteen different sports, only matched by the United States.

Australia are currently the Rugby World Cup Champions and the Cricket World Cup Champions.

Baseball, a game which would be lucky to draw a thousand spectators in Australia, has forty Australians playing at professional level in the United States, including five in the major leagues.

The average population density in Australia is 6 per square mile. The US is 76, the world average is 117, Great Britain is 632 and Macau is 69,000.

No other nation lost more men as a proportion of population in the First World War than Australia. Out of a national population of under five million, Australia suffered 210,000 casualities - 60,000 dead, 150,000 injured.""""

The wonderful land of Oz.

[gazza]

MEN AT WORK
do you come from the land down under where women glow and men thunder

[Rule.303]

AUSTRALIAN MINERAL WEALTH

ALUMINIUM : Australia produces about 40% of world bauxite and over 35% of world alumina, making it the largest producer of bauxite and alumina. Bauxite is mined from open cut operations at Weipa (Qld), Gove (NT), and the Darling Range (WA).

COPPER : Australia has about 6 per cent of the world's economic copper resources and is ranked third after Chile (25 per cent) and the USA (16 per cent)

GOLD : Australia has about 10 per cent of world economic gold resources and is ranked third after South Africa and USA. It is the world's third largest producer, after South Africa and USA and accounts for about 12 per cent of world output.

IRON : Australia's economic demonstrated resources (i.e. those that have been sufficiently tested by drilling and that could be economically extracted at current prices with existing technology) total 15.3 billion tonnes and are only exceeded by those in Russia and the Ukraine.

LEAD : Australia also leads the world in mine production of lead and is the world's largest exporter of lead, with the bulk of Australian production exported as lead bullion to the United Kingdom and some to South Korea. Of the rest, lead in ores and concentrates goes mainly to Japanfor further processing, while refined lead is sent to Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, India and Malaysia. Australia is also at the forefront of technological development in lead mining and processing.

MINERAL SANDS : Australia is a world leader in production of mineral sands and has a substantial portion of the world's resources

[Rule.303]

His Excellency, the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, issued the following Proclamation on 19 April 1984:

I, SIR NINIAN MARTIN STEPHEN, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby declare:
(a) that the anthem 'God Save The Queen' shall henceforth be known as the Royal Anthem and be used in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen or a member of the Royal Family;
(b) that the National Anthem shall consist of the tune known as 'Advance Australia Fair' with the following words:

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free,
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.
Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

(c) that the Vice-Regal Salute to be used in the presence of His Excellency the Governor-General shall consist of the first four bars and the last four bars of the tune known as Advance Australia Fair;
(d) that the National Anthem shall be used on all official and ceremonial occasions, other than occasions on which either the Royal Anthem or the Vice-Regal Salute is used; and
(e) that green and gold (Pantone Matching System numbers ll6C and 348C as used for printing on paper) shall be the national colours of Australia for use on all occasions on which such colours are customarily used.


http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill...s/au-flag1.gif

MIDI FILE to hear our Anthem. : http://www.hamilton.net.au/advance_brass.mid


[This message has been edited by Rule.303 (edited 06-09-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Niteshift (edited 06-14-2001).]

[gazza]

THE WORDS OF FREEDOM HOW WONDREROUS ARE THEY

[highwayman]

Stop it fellas, I'm getting misty eyed. We're all a bunch of champions in a champion place, that's all that needs to be said.

P.S Hey, copitsweet, how about that game, huh? Oh, how the momentum has shifted now!! Can't wait for the next one, can you?

[Rule.303]

More damn lies uncovered
http://au.dailynews.yahoo.com/headli...940482617.html

I can't understand why the pommies can't fess up, make repatriations then move on. Denying the provable is mere folly.

[Rule.303]

Birds mimic cell phones
CANBERRA, Australia

[copitsweet]

Top game - shame about the result. Interesting thing is - both sides have scored 42 points over the two games. I heard Freddie is talking about retiring if the Blues win the decider.

Go the Maroons!!!!

Originally posted by highwayman:

P.S Hey, copitsweet, how about that game, huh? Oh, how the momentum has shifted now!! Can't wait for the next one, can you?

[Rule.303]

Wednesday 13 June 1:08 PM

Roo meat exports on the rise to Europe

Scares over foot-and-mouth and mad cow disease have dramatically boosted sales to Europe of kangaroo meat, a leading game meat
exporter said on Tuesday.

Overseas Game Meat Export Ltd director Craig Harwood said the diseases have resulted in kangaroo meat exports to Europe leaping
30 per cent annually over the past five years.

Mr Harwood said the effective promotion of the low-fat, high-protein meat has also helped quell any qualms from Europeans over
eating Australia's most recognisable marsupial.

"The rise in exports are certainly related to foot-and-mouth disease, mad cow disease and every other problem that is a symptom of
intensive farming practices," he said from the Gold Coast.

The industry is worth around $50 million a year to Australia. In Queensland about 1.3 million roos are killed each year for human
consumption, pet food and skins.

About 40 per cent of the roos are used for pet food, 30 per cent only for skins and another 30 per cent for meat.

Mr Harwood said the meat component of the industry was rapidly rising and there was a great opportunity for expansion with the
state government setting an annual commercial kill quota of around three million.

"We have been exporting game meat for almost 20 years and this year's figures are likely to show the best result ever," he said.

"The kangaroo industry is being recognised as not only environmentally responsible but the ideal way of producing food for human
consumption," he said.

[Rule.303]

'Gold medal' for Sydney Airport
From AAP June 13, 2001

16:45 (AEST) SYDNEY airport has been voted the best in the world in an international transport group survey.
Sydney Airports Corporation Ltd (SACL) today won "best in class" in the 15 to 25 million passenger category from the International Air Transport Association.
The ranking compares Sydney Airport with 48 other major international airports by surveying 90,000 international passengers.
Tourism lobby group Tourism Task Force (TTF) chief executive Christopher Brown said the award was a fitting recognition of Sydney Airport's performance during the 2000 Olympics.
"The public rightly acclaimed SACL for their gold-medal performance during the Olympics, however it is their day-to-day, week-in, week-out performance that won them international acclaim from travellers," he said.
Sydney Airport's ranking has lifted from 10th place in the 1999 survey to 1st this year.
Mr Brown said SACL chief Tony Stuart has turned the airport around from an under-performing government-run burden to an outstanding corporate asset.
"Whoever wins the right to purchase Sydney Airport at the end of the year will purchase an asset that, thanks to SACL management team, could not be in better shape."

[tcsd1236]

A place I would have visited until they passed their gun laws a couple of years ago. Same reason I wont go to California.

[ukcop]

Rule

Can us pommies have Aussie back now ?
Then force you to sing the national anthem and bow to the queen ?

Only joking
I think most of us want to live and work in Aussie but your dam immigration laws won't let us!!!

Regards
UK

[Rule.303]

Originally posted by ukcop:

I think most of us want to live and work in Aussie but your dam immigration laws won't let us!!!

You will get no argument from me on that one. One of your British Professors said that Australia had the toughest immigration laws after Japan.
I fail to understand why it is so difficult for pommies to come here to live, considering how only 35 years ago, we were giving free passage to pommies and a lump sum payment upon arrival; while today, a Vietnamese refugee from the 70's can sponsor his/her entire family to come here, then their entire family and so on.
Australia only allows 110,000 immigrants each year under standard immigration, but there is no limit to those in refugee status or family reunion immigration.