Background: Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name of Great Britain. Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop its agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II. In recent decades, Australia has transformed itself into an internationally competitive, advanced market economy. It boasted one of the OECD's fastest growing economies during the 1990's, a performance due in large part to economic reforms adopted in the 1980's. Long-term concerns include pollution, particularly depletion of the ozone layer, and management and conservation of coastal areas, especially the Great Barrier Reef.
July 23rd 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Byron Bay On Sunday after our very large meal at the hard rock cafe we weren't really feeling up to anything exciting, so spent the rest of the bay wandering round town and lazing on the beach. That evening we ... 6 photos[full story]
July 20th 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Byron Bay After Oz waved me off at 7 in the morning in Queenstown, I hopped onto a coach heading for Christchurch which would take me to the airport and into Australia. The coach took about 11 hours, and kept ... 17 photos[full story]
July 20th 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Byron Bay There cannot be many moments in a person’s life when you can say you have had a perfectly wonderful time and that everything about it could not have been better, well I had one of those moments ... 12 photos[full story]
July 22nd 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Byron Bay G'Day Mate,
Arrived in New Zealand yesterday and met another roomie at the airport, Nate Wucherpfennig, so now there are 3 of us on the trip. Our time in Australia was great as we were able to hav ... [full story]
April 3rd 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Byron Bay We have spent the past week in Byron Bay, staying at the Byron at Byron resort and spa. It was every bit as nice as it sounds!
The coach trip down was great. We travelled with Country link, who are ... [full story]
July 4th 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Byron Bay Where better to celebrate the 4th of July than in Hippie Land AKA Byron Bay!! Byron Bay is definitely the hippie capital of the eastern coast at least. This is a town which is much different to most ... 12 photos[full story]
July 5th 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Byron Bay this afternoon we arrived at Byron bay, interstingly the most eastern point of eastern Australia, and we are HUGELY excited to be here!! But before i get ahead of myself, our time has been over the l ... [full story]
June 21st 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Byron Bay
Wow Byron Bay what a place!! Im writing this in retrospect as I have got a bit behind with the blog!! We spent a week in Byron Bay and to be honest it was one of the most chilled out weeks of my l ... 10 photos[full story]
June 6th 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Byron Bay On an average sized map of Australia, the trip from Brisbane to Byron is roughly the width of a toe-nail clipping. But that is still an inter-state journey, with Byron bay being the first major town i ... 11 photos[full story]
May 15th 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Byron Bay Although many of the towns up the East coast seem very similar in style and attitude, Byron Bay seems like arguably the most genuine little 'surf' town we have come across so far. It is a tiny place, ... 24 photos[full story]
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