Portal:Australia

The AUSTRALIAN Portal Topics Culture Geography Health History Mathematics Nature People Philosophy Religion Society Technology Main   Indices   Projects The Commonwealth of Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the world's smallest continent and a number of islands in the Southern, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Australia's neighbouring countries are Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. The continent of Australia has been inhabited for more than 42,000 years by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. After sporadic visits by European explorers and merchants from the 17th century onwards, the eastern half of the continent was claimed by the British in 1770, and officially settled as the penal colony of New South Wales on 26 January 1788. As the population grew and new areas were explored, another five largely self-governing Crown colonies were successively established over the course of the 19th century. On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Since federation, Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and remains a Commonwealth realm. The current population of around 24 million is concentrated mainly in the coastal cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Selected article - Holden VE Commodore. The Holden VE Commodore is the fourteenth and current model of the Holden Commodore, a full-size car produced by Holden, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors. The car was officially presented at a media launch in Melbourne on 16 July 2006, which was broadcast live on the Internet. With a sales debut on 14 August 2006, it is the first Commodore to be entirely designed and engineered in Australia. All previous generations from the original VB Commodore had been based on European sourced platforms from Opel that had been adapted both mechanically and in size for the local market. The engines and transmissions of the VE are mainly carry-overs from the previous VZ model, except for a new six-speed automatic transmission offered on selected trim levels. Holden released the VE Commodore to the New Zealand market in September 2006. This was followed by the achievement of the prestigious Wheels Car of the Year award on 23 January 2007. Before the release of the VE model, Holden confirmed that station wagon and utility body styles of the VE would not be launched for some time. Holden will instead manufacture two parallel generations of Commodores until the VE variants are released. Selected picture - Horseracing is the third most popular spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian rules football and rugby league, with almost 2 million admissions to the 379 racecourses throughout Australia in 2002–03. It is administered nationally by the Australian Racing Board, with the Australian Rules of Racing applying in each state. Photo credit: Fir0002 Subportals   New South Wales Queensland Western Australia Northern Territory South Australia Victoria Tasmania Australian Capital Territory Other Australia portals Related portals   Oceania New Zealand Antarctica Commonwealth realms British Empire In the news   8 May 2016 – Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull advises the Governor-General to issue the writs for a double dissolution election on 2 July 2016. 7 January 2016 – Australia defeats West Indies 2-0 in a home Test Cricket series. 7 January – The 2016 Southbound Festival is cancelled due to the Waroona Fire road closures. 6–7 January 2016 – Waroona and Harvey residents are evacuated due to bush fire. 28 December – Comanche takes line honours to win the 2015 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. On this day... - 12 May: Gilbert's grave near Binalong 1865 – Bushranger John Gilbert shot dead near Binalong, New South Wales. 1997 – Susie Maroney become the first person to swim the Florida Straits from Cuba to the United States. 2003 – Governor General Peter Hollingworth stands down following accusations that he had attempted to cover up several instances of sexual abuse in the early 1990s during his tenure as Archbishop of Brisbane. More Australian anniversaries Did you know... - ... that Troughman is mythically famous in Sydney, Australia for lying down in urinals? ... that Jordan Rankin, at 16 years and 238 days, is the youngest player to make his first-grade debut in Australian rugby league in over 70 years? ... that Reg Lindsay was an Australian Country and Western singer who won three Golden Guitars Awards and wrote more than five hundred songs in his fifty year music career? ... that the murder of Celia Douty was the first murder in Australia to be solved using DNA profiling, after remaining unsolved for 18 years? ...that the town of Bismarck in Tasmania was renamed Collinsvale due to anti-German sentiment during World War I? ...that Indigenous Australian activist Michael Mansell convinced Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi to officially recognise a separate Aboriginal Australian passport in order to draw international attention to the issue of native land rights? ...that Wally Koochew was the first VFL player of Chinese background? ...that Wing Commander Stanley Goble and Flying Officer Ivor McIntyre, piloting a single-engined seaplane (pictured), became the first men to circumnavigate Australia by air in 1924? ...that a series of storms in south-east Queensland spawned two of the most powerful supercells and tornadoes in recorded Australian history? ...that the lamington cake is believed to have been named after Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, the Governor of Queensland at the time of its invention? ...that during the first seven years of the Australian edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? nobody won the top prize of one million dollars? For a topic outline on this subject, see Outline of Australia.

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