Today is Australia Day
Today is Australia Day!
Here are some interesting Australian facts from this website:
* The Australian Coat Of Arms has on it a kangaroo and an emu. The reason for this is that the kangaroo and the emu cannot go backwards but can only walk forwards. (Editor’s note: of course there are many very unique wildlife species here. Our daughter’s family had their station wagon written-off by a large kangaroo – which jumped onto it early one morning while they were traveling on the freeway home from the airport !)
* Australia is the sixth largest country after Russia, Canada, China, the United States of America and Brazil. However our population remains relatively small at just over 20 million.
* Australia is the only country that is a continent. The mainland is the largest island and the smallest, flattest continent on Earth.
* Australia is the driest, inhabited continent on earth. The only continent drier than Australia is Antarctica. (Editor’s note: this is despite the terrible floods across Queensland this week and this time last year).
* The interior has one of the lowest rainfalls in the world and about three-quarters of the land is arid or semi-arid.
* More than 40 000 years before the arrival of European settlers, there were an estimated 300,000 indigenous Australians living on the continent.
* On the 26th of January, 1788, The First Fleet of 11 ships with 1500 aboard, half of them convicts from Britain, arrived at the south eastern shores of Australia. The town of Sydney grew from that first small, British penal settlement. Australia day commemorates this. etc.!
Hard to see you as you don’t say who you are. Reminds me of that classic line from Alice in Wonderland, “It would be so nice if something would make sense for a change.” 🙂
Hey Mr Hayden!
Haven’t seen you for a while how are things going?