
Australia (ô-strâl´ye)
Abbr. Aus., Aust., Austl.
1. The world's smallest continent,
southeast of Asia between the Pacific and Indian oceans.
2. A commonwealth comprising the
continent of Australia, the island state of Tasmania, two external territories,
and several dependencies. The first British settlement, a penal colony at Fort
Jackson (now part of Sydney), was established in 1788. The present-day states
grew as separate colonies; six of them formed a federation in 1901. In 1911
Northern Territory joined the commonwealth and the Capital Territory, site of
Canberra, was created. Canberra is the capital and Sydney is the largest city.
Population, 15,544,500.
As many as 70 percent of the Punjab
tribe of Fiji use the
left
hand by preference. There is also a consistently
higher occurrence of left-handedness in aboriginal tribes of North and South
America, South Africa and Australia.
Ayer's Rock -
Uluru
tribal techno track _Ayers Rock ( Didgeridoo Mix)_ MP3 (192k)
by Mario Piu off of _Ayers Rock_ 12" on BXR (
2001)
![]() |
![]() |
ERS-1, Europe's remote-sensing satellite, snapped some pictures of Australia's Nullarbor Plain that have geologists scratching their heads. The Nullarbor Plain, which has long been billed as a vast, featureless desert, is crossed by five long, parallel lines, 15 kilometers wide and 600 kilometers long. These huge stripes would seem to be too big to miss, but ground-based surveys see nothing obvious. Even more curious, infrared sensors on a US weather satellite also see the five stripes. As the Nullarbor Plain cools off at night, the stripes are found to be about 2°C cooler than the surrounding terrain.
Could they be fault lines? Geologists have not found any in the area.
(Anderson, Ian; "Satellite Spies Strange Stripes in the Desert," New Scientist, p. 10, September 3, 1994.)
"...now, new patterns have appeared on some parched ground in remote north-western Australia, a series of spirals, circles and broken wavy lines by the North West Coastal Highway near Roebourne."Dick Smith noticed them while flying over the area in June 1988. By virtue of their large size they are, like their ancient counterparts, clearly visible only from the air. Dick photographed them and in due course asked me to try to find out what they were. Simple, I thought, they must be for erosion control or some other form of land management."
![]() |
C. Hill inquired at several government agencies to no avail. No one knew anything about them.
(Hill, Chris; "Tractors of the Gods?" Australian Geographic, p. 25, July-September 1990. Cr. L.S. Nelson)
"What are trees?! I tell you they are like your
telephones,
only better. They keep growing, they help us breathe and they offer themselves
freely. Learn to listen to trees and they will let you talk through them."
GUBOO TED THOMAS, Chief Aboriginal Elder, Yuin Tribe of
Australia)
film
_The
Right Stuff_ (vhs/ntsc)
(1983)
it was probably fictionalized, but
according to the film, when John Glenn orbits the Earth (the first time a human
being has ever done so), there is a pass over Australia. during this pass
over, Glenn sees "fireflies" that he describes as "being alive", and gets very
excited but never determines what those things were. the film hints that
it was probably due to a loose heat shield or afterburner sparks. this
sequence is highlighted by the notion that Australian Aborigines were "helping"
the craft, they themselves being familiar with the stars, the
moon,
the milky way...
![]() |
![]() |