Introduction to Australia

The continent of Australia lies between equatorial South East Asia and the Antarctic. With a coastline of 30000kilometres and a land area of 7682300k㎡, it is the largest island and the sixth largest country in the world.

1. On the left upper corner is the Union Jack implying its conventional relationship with the UK. Australia is one member of Commonwealth. 2. On the left lower part is a big white heptagram (seven-pointed star) implying six states and one federal district, Northern Territory． 3. On the right is the South Cross Constellation showing it is located on the south Hemisphere.

1. Heptagram (seven-pointed star) implying six states and one federal district. 2. The kangaroo and emu are unique animals in Australia continent, thus the symbols of it. 3.The blue Malta Cross represents the state of Queensland. 4.The red St George Cross represents the state of New South Wales

5. The South Cross Constellation under the crown represents the state of Victoria. 6. The butcherbird represents the state of South Australia. 7. The black swan represents the state of West Australia. 8. The red lion represents the state of Tasmania. 9. The English word on the bottom ribbon is “Australia”.

Unique Animals Platypus

Kangaroo

Koala

Three big cities: 1. Sydney is the largest city with 4.62 million population. 2. Melbourne is the second largest city with 4.13 million population. 3. The Capital city, Canberra has a population of 0.37 million.

Sydney

Melbourne

Canberra

Dreamtime or Dreaming “Dreamtime” is most often used to refer to the “time before time”, or “the time of the creation of all things”, while “Dreaming” refers to an individual’s or group’s set of beliefs or spirituality. For instance, an indigenous Australian might say that they have Kangaroo Dreaming, or Wombat Dreaming.

Terra Nullius By declaring Australia “terra nullius”, the British were not only claiming that they could take possession of the land but that they could dismiss those who had lived there for 18000 or so generations as a people who were not fully human and who were not certainly not “civilized”.

Segregation and Exclusion By the mid 1800s the government practices of violence changed to policies of segregation and exclusion. The aboriginal people were forcibly taken from their own land and put on reserves where they were placed under the absolute control of the white officials, often Christian missionaries, who were given the title of Protectors.

Political System Australia has what has been called a “Whashminster” form of polity. In other words it is a mixture of the US, Washington system of government and the British, Westminster system: the political structure is based on a Federation of States and has a three-tier system of government but the chief executive is a Prime Minister not a President.

At the federal level there are two houses of parliament—the House of Representatives, or the Lower House, and the Senate, the Upper House. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet at federal level is the acknowledged centre of Australian parliamentary power.

Political Parties 1. The Australian Labor Party 2. The Coalition, a combination of the Liberals and the Nations 3. The present Prime Minister is Malcolm Turnbull from the Liberal Party

Malcolm Turnbull (马尔科姆·特恩布尔)

Today, Australia is a member of the APEC, G20, OECD and WTO organizations. APEC Member Economies account for about 70% per cent of Australia’s trade and include 8 of its top 10 export markets. So APEC provides an important base for Australia’s current economic and political role in an increasingly globalised world.