Australia

I would like to visit Australia because it is a wonderful country. There is beautiful fauna and flora, climate is nice and scenery is nice too.
I’d like to visit all places and bigger cities in Australia. I think that it has to be an exciting experience to visit this country. The nature is different from our. Many animals that live there you can’t find anywhere else around the world.
Australia is the Earth’s smallest continent, situated in the southern hemisphere between the Pacific and the Indian oceans. It is the only country occupying a whole continent, lying on and extending north and south from the Tropic of Capricorn. With an area covering 7,682,200 km2 it is the sixth largest country of the world after Russia, Canada, China, the USA and Brazil.
With a coastline 36.735 kilometres long, bordering two oceans and four seas, Australia is one big, long beach – with the occasional break for spectacular cliffs, towering headlands, secret inlets, gaping rivers and waterways.
Popular beaches are patrolled by volunteer lifesavers of “lifeguards” who can be recognised by red and yellow caps and T-shirts. You can be sure to swim between the red and yellow flags as these mark the areas being patrolled. All beaches offer sparkling clear water and great surf.
Climate is perfect for outdoor entertainment most of the year. Spending Christmas at the beach or skiing in August may seem strange but the fact is, Australia’s seasons are the opposite of the northern hemisphere – summer starts in December, autumn in March, winter in June and spring in September.
Australia’s isolation for more than 55 million years has created a unique sanctuary of animals and plants found nowhere else around the world. There you can find cute koalas sleeping peacefully on a branch high above the ground in a eucalypt tree, commonly called gum tree, with the young holding itself tight to mum’s back. Australia hosts a really interesting animal group, the monotremes, egg laying mammals, that are often referred to as living fossils, like the platypus – a river dwelling little animal with duck bill and an agile furry body resembling an otter. Another representative of this group is the echidna or spiny anteater. Wombats, a large, grazing, burrowing marsupials, have been in Australia for 15 million years and are found in many parts of Australia. The Tasmanian Devil, a carnivorous marsupial is a fascinating animal. Now you can only find him in the wild in Tasmania. There are many species of birds and lizards too. You can watch there as hundreds of small fairy penguins march up the beach to their burrows every night at dusk on Phillip Islands.
The Great Barrier Reef along the east coast off Queensland is the longest and most complex living coral system in the world and provides a habitat for a wide range of marine animals.
Australia has many vegetation regions. You can fill your lungs with the heavy scented air of the rainforest, or the distinctive smell of the eucalypt.
It is generally thought that Aborigines have been living on the continent for the last 50,000 years, originally migrating from Indonesia. The oldest skeleton found in Australia was at Lake Mungo in south-west New South Wales, believed to be 38,000 years old and bears traces of ceremonial ochre. Aboriginal legends, songs and dances tell of powerful spirits who created the land and people during the Dreamtime. The arrival of white people gradually brought an end to the traditional Aboriginal way of life. Specialised galleries display Aboriginal art, tools, musical instruments and artefacts. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are one of the world’s oldest civilisations.
Melbourne is the capital city of Victoria. It is a cultural city known for fashion, food and entertainment. It is Australia’s second largest metropolis and it is known around the world for the Melbourne Cup horserace. There are lovely gardens, for example Royal Botanic Gardens. You can see Australia’s unique wildlife including koalas, kangaroos, emus, wombats, wallabies and many colourful birds at The Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens, that has more than 350 native and exotic animal species displayed in naturalistic landscaped exhibits set on 22 hectares. The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant travels the street of Melbourne and is the world’s only travelling tramcar restaurant serving fine cuisine and full bar service.
Canberra is stylish, modern city and it is the political centre of Australia. It is the capital city of Australia Capital Territory and it is situated in the middle of the bush. Its climate and facilities make it an ideal place for sailing, fishing, cricket, football and hang gliding and cycling the extensive bicycle paths. There is Parliament House, National Gallery of Australia, the National Library of Australia, the National Museum and many other attractions.
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia. It is a graceful, festival city. There is the Art Gallery of South Australia which houses the state’s collection of Australian, European and Asian art. The South Australian Museum shows you the state’s natural, geological and anthropological history. There are the ethnographic collection of Australian Aboriginal and early Pacific cultures too. The Adelaide Festival Centre is a contemporary performing arts complex with five theatres used for dance, music, drama, opera, mime and film as well as conventions and trade shows. It is venue for the biennial Adelaide Festival, the largest festival of its kind in Australia.
Sydney is the largest and oldest city in Australia. It is the capital city of New South Wales. The first settlers landed there in 1788. You can find there for example the famous Opera House and Sydney Tower Observation Level with a revolving restaurant and the oldest university of Australia. To the north and south of the city, you’ll find white sand beaches. For surfing there is Bondi, Bronte or Coogee in the south; Manly, Collaroy or Palm Beach in the north. Almost every cuisine is available in Sydney and the quality is very high.
Sydney Opera House, a landmark building at Bennelong Point, is home to Australia’s opera, ballet and theatre companies and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It is one of the great performing arts centres of the world.
Perth is the capital city of Western Australia and it is a seaport. There you can find the Underwater World, located at Hillarys Boat Harbour on the Sunset Coast just 20 minutes north of Perth CBD offers seals, dolphins, an underwater journey, divers hand feeding sharks and rays, microworld, touch pool, theatre, restaurant, whale watching, diving, functions and theme parties.
Darwin is the capital city of Northern Territory. There are natural science and maritime galleries and a Northern Territory history gallery concentrating on cyclone Tracy which devastated Darwin in December 1974. Aquascene in Doctors Gully Road provides a daily fish-feeding ritual. The tide brings in milkfish, catfish, mullet, bream an many other varieties of fish to be feed by hand. It opens only at feeding times.
Brisbane, the “City of Sun Days”, is a clean, fresh and vibrant city. It is the capital city of Queensland and it is Australia’s only sub-tropical capital city and the third largest Australia’s city.
Hobart is the capital city of Tasmania and it is the Australia’s second oldest city with a deep-water port.
Alice Springs is a virtual oasis at the heart of Australia's Red Centre - is the home of the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the stopping-off point for one of Australia's great wonders, Ayers Rock/Uluru. You can visit the Alice Springs School of the Air in Head Street that uses radio communication to provide lessons for children living in remote Outback areas. The Royal Flying Doctor Service operates a unique medical service to isolated towns, missions, and homesteads.
Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park - is the world's biggest red sandstone monolith with 9,4 kilometres in circumference. It is located in the lands of the Anangu Aboriginal people and it is an important cultural landscape and has special significance to the Anangu people. The Rock has its moods, changing colour depending on the time of day, dust, cloud cover and even where you are standing, but at sunset you can see the whole gamut when Ayers Rock/Uluru puts on a light show that changes from red to orange to lilac in matter of minutes. Take the opportunity to tour the base of the Rock with Aboriginal guides who can share their stories relating to their fascinating ancestral culture. The Olgas/Kata Tjuta are extremely important to the Aboriginal Dreamtime legends so a walking tour through the Valley of the Winds is a must.