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 25th 2008Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Brisbane Last night we experianced our first ever rugby match ( or football as they call it here )
We watched the Brisbane Broncos against the Sharks at the stadium in Brisbane.
I think i am now converted ... 10 photos[full story]
July 19th 2008Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Brisbane Zoe has now turned the big 30 !!!!!
We all had a lovely day. We started the day having a lovely breakfast at a cafe called 'salt'. Then the girls went off for some pampering. I had a manicure and a ... 20 photos[full story]
July 25th 2008Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City Our travels have made us very blase about flights. At 1am the night before our 7am flight we found ourselves sitting in Transport bar after a farewell pizza with our housemates- not our greatest move ... 30 photos[full story]
July 25th 2008Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City I flew into Cairns on Wednesday and got into my hostel at around 3pm, just in time to check my room, book some stuff to see, and go out to visit the town. From the moment I stepped off the plance, I ... [full story]
July 11th 2008Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Rainbow Beach Firstly to finish my other blog off the Whitsundays were beautifull most tours will take you too a long beach this beach is the whitest cleanest beach i have ever seen. The weather was perfect and the ... [full story]
July 23rd 2008Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns Vandaag was het (wederom) bewolkt toen we opstonden en het had 's nachts geregend. We besloten ons er maar niks van aan te trekken en vol goede moed te vertrekken naar Mission Beach. Mission Beach lig ... 7 photos[full story]
July 22nd 2008Oceania » Australia » Queensland Ik ga even afstappen van het blog-a-day principe want wat we de afgelopen drie dagen hebben meegemaakt kan makkelijk in een kort verhaaltje worden beschreven.
Op 20 juli zijn we vroeg met de camper ... 2 photos[full story]
July 24th 2008Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cape York We left Port Douglas full of high expectations and bravado and we have not been disappointed - although the bravado did disappear somewhat at our first challenging creek crossing on the OTL (local buz ... 27 photos[full story]
July 24th 2008Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns We have left Sydney behind, along with the Pope, 400 000 other pilgrims, and the cool, mid teen temperatures. Now we're in beautiful Cairns!
We had an early 7 AM flight on Wednesday morning, arriv ... 1 photos[full story]
July 24th 2008Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Daintree We headded north today towards the wet tropical region driving through sugar cane farms with narrow gauge railways. At Mossman we went to the Gorge where you can walk through the rainforest - unchange ... [full story]
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