Australia

Australia is a country comprised of the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest country in the world and the largest in Oceania. Australia has a wide variety of landscapes and climates, including large swaths of desert in the interior and tropical rainforests along the coast.

 

Australia is divided into 6 states and 2 territories; for ease of navigation on this website we have given them their own pages; Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) which includes the nation's capital Canberra.

​

Australia was first inhabited by Aboriginal peoples 50,000 to 65,000 years ago. They represent one of the most culturally diverse early human settlements in history. Beginning with European discovery of the landmass in the 18th century, these native peoples were dispossessed of their land and subjected to relocation and mass killings, acts which have been described by historians as genocide. Australia in the present time has worked hard to undo this shadow on the country's dark colonial past.

 

Beginning in 1788 with the establishment of a penal colony, Great Britain ruled Australia as part of the British Empire. In 1827, they claimed the entirety of the continent. Australia was federated in 1901, and has since been on a slow road to full autonomy, the latest being in 1986 with the signing of the Australia Acts. Today, the country is technically a commonwealth, and the British Monarch is the Australian head of state.

​

Australia was a young country when the First World War broke out, and more than 421,000 Australians served under the British Flag, with 60,000 being killed in action and 137,000 wounded. The ANZACs, or Australia New Zealand Army Corps, served with distinction at Gallipoli, the Somme, and the Third Battle of Ypres, among many other battles. The national consciousness of Australia was largely built during the First World War, and there are ANZAC memorials throughout the country dedicated to those who served in the various wars that Australia has taken part in.

 

The vast majority of Australia's population lives along the eastern coast, and is centered in the southeast in the country's two largest cities of Sydney and Melbourne. There is a proud maritime heritage in Australia as a result of British colonization, and maritime museums are plentiful. During the Second World War, Allied submarines were based in Brisbane and Perth, from which they patrolled the South and Central Pacific against the Imperial Japanese Navy. Australian ships, then as now, served alongside U.S. Navy ships all over the world, and the two countries have a strong friendship forged in blood.