What is Australia like? What are the best things? the worst? why?

Question

You can read all about Australia in a text book, but you'll never really understand what it's really like.

I'm curious. What are the best things about Australia? What are the worst? What's going on down there? I'm interested about the culture, the people, the ideals, the history, the politics, everything.

I live in the United States.

Answer 1

best things - healthy environment, excellent at sports, stunning reefs, spectacular coast line, gorgeous country, exciting adventurous desert, HUGE country SMALL population, distance from the northern hemisphere, and of course AUSSIE's!

Worst things - present Prime Minister thinks he's a president and spends way to much time kissing Bush's butt. Minority groups want us to bend over back ward for them while they accept ZERO parts of the Aussie culture (but i guess that problem is every where)

Whats going on - WE JUST KICKED ENGLANDS BUTT! Yes we won the Ashes back in the cricket (my parents are POMEs so i'm not letting that win go quietly). Its summer and its very hot, Victoria is being smashed with bush fires. Water has become so precious to our farmers that they are losing their farms at an alarming rate and suicide for farmers has risen to an average of 5 per week. Some areas havent seen rain in 10 years! Our industry however is booming and it has caused a huge trades shortage so we are sourcing over 270,000 trades qualified people to work the mines, construction etc (mostly from the UK as we are part of the commonwealth, how ever I did read they were offering 40,000 jobs to the USA) Our unemployment is only 4%. And two out of three aussie either OWN or are paying off their own home.

The history - (in short) In the 1700's captain cook sailed up and down Oz and NZ and then let the British Monarchy know about the land (disregarding the aboriginals, the British said the land was free for the taking as they had not "civilized" the country) They decided to send their convicts here (sentenced their criminals to a life of sun surf and lobster) On January 26th 1788 (Ozzie Day) th First fleet arrived carrying around 400 UK criminals, 200 marines and 150 british soliders at Botany Bay (Sydney), they then began the colonisation of Australia. there was around 300,000 aboriginals here at the time, however most died from Europian disease (which was also brought on the ships). In the late 50's through to the mid 60's the 10 pound boats became available to the Uk and some parts of Europe to encourage people to move here and begin the population OZ.
Since then Oz has become a very strong economy with 20 million residents and the only debt free federal government in the world. We enjoy a bit of banter with the kiwi's but in the same breath they are like cousins to us.

The politics - Oz is a Parlimentary Democracy, with a two party prefered government. Currently the Liberals are in power however all polls point to a Labor change over in March. Our flag bares the Union Jack along with Southern Cross. Our sports flag is green and gold, often with the boxing Kanga. Our coat of arms/national emblem bares the emu and kangaroo - chosen because they are the only two animals that cant go backwards.

Every thing - well you ask and i'll let you know ok.

Answer 2

Depends what you mean by 'bad things', I'm not sure what you're looking for. There are a lot of natural disasters in Australia - bushfires are probably one of the worst things here, but we also get cyclones up North, torrential rain and flooding are common, earthquakes happen occasionally. But these things happen in the US as well. Many people are afraid of our native creatures, especially spiders, snakes, sharks, crocodiles etc. But, again you've got variations of these nasties in the States as well. They are not bad, but part of the environment here. A previous answer mentioned scorpions. Australian scorpions are rarely seen by people and, although they can give a nasty sting, they are not venomous (unlike the US Bark Scorpion). The flies here are really bad, especially in the bush, and are really annoying at BBQs and outdoor events. The public transport systems in all major cities is poor. We have a very small population and cities are far part, so distances and travel between major cities is a problem. Water shortages. Other than these inconveniences, I can't think of anything 'bad' about Australia.

Answer 3

The best things are the weather, the beach and the easy going people. Things are relatively cheap and there isn't a bad healthcare system. Plus the economy is booming and unemployment is at it's lowest ever. The bad things are the drought - i.e water restrictions, its isolation from the rest of the world and the over inflammatory media (but then you get that in the States). We have had the same government for more than ten years and it should be doing more in regards to climate change etc. We have a multicultural society with lots of yummy restaurants and all the mod cons of the rest of the world.

Answer 4

It's like warm apple pie .. oh wait thats a movie .. The political stance in australia at the moment is not very good, seeing as Johnny follows bush on everything .. you can imagine the uproar. Many scandals coming from the NSW government .. like child sex allegations and beating partners .. Water crisis in the south east reigon (QLD) not enough water, even talking bout having to drink poo water ... the history is meh .. England built a colony out of convicts which later became a nation and split into its states and so forth. Aboriginal people were persecuted because white men believed they were superior. Harold holt (PM) went missing, and gough Whitlam got sacked .. unfortunately Howard is now in power .. People are diverse in culture, language and personality. We dont really have an Australian culture unless you class is as aboriginal as most of our heratige is British. We are the best in the world with our cricket, but we borrowed the game from the poms and made it our own. We have our nice places, many great sandy beaches, desert landscapes, snowy mountains and great barrier reef. Probably some of the best land attractions in the world. Ideals is hard, most people have their own, but as a nation I guess we are mostly proud of who we are. We stand up for our beliefs and are not afraid to speak our mind. We listen less and less to the heads of state, and sometimes seem to be better off for it. Happy to tell you more if you wish to email me.

Answer 5

Take it from an Aussie, the size and transport system is one of the worst things. Going East to West will take about 7 hours to fly, about 2-3 days by train which there is only 1. By car about 5 days, and carry plenty of extra fuel as service stations are few and far between when out in the country.

Answer 6

Kangaroo on the beach