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 - The Liberal Movement, usually referred to as the LM, was a minor South Australian political party that flourished in the 1970s. Stemming from discontent within the ranks of the Liberal and Country League, it was first formed by former Premier Steele Hall as an internal group in 1972 in response to a lack of reform within its parent. A year later, when tensions heightened between the LCL's conservative wing and the LM, it was established on its own as a progressive liberal party. When still part of the league, it had eleven representatives; on its own, it initially had three. In the federal election of 1974, it succeeded in electing Hall to the Australian Senate, and in the 1975 state election, it gained an additional member, narrowly failing to dislodge the incumbent Don Dunstan-led Labor Government in coalition with other non-Labor parties. The limited success of the LM and internal decline led to it being absorbed back into the LCL in 1976, newly renamed as the Liberal Party of Australia. A wing of the LM did not rejoin the Liberals and instead formed a new party, the New LM. The New LM, along with the Australia Party and Don Chipp, went on form the nucleus of the Australian Democrats, which subsequently went on to hold the balance of power in both federal and state upper houses. The LM and its successor parties were an early voice for what is termed small-l liberalism in Australia. Selected picture - Western Australian Museum, corner of James St and Beaufort St, Perth. The Western Australian Museum is the main museum for the state of Western Australia. Established in 1891, the museum is situated in the heart of Perth's cultural precinct in Northbridge. Photo credit: Greg O'Beirne 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... - 18 April: Sir Owen Dixon 1831 – The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's oldest newspaper, is first published in Sydney, New South Wales. 1889 – Jessie Street, the feminist and human-rights campaigner, is born in Chota Nagpur, India. 1951 – Journalist and anthropologist Daisy Bates dies in Adelaide. 1952 – Sir Owen Dixon (pictured) is appointed to the position of Chief Justice of Australia, succeeding Sir John Latham. 1986 – The 22nd Annual TV Week Logie Awards are presented at the State Theatre in Sydney, with Daryl Somers winning the Gold Logie as the most popular Australian television personality. 2008 – Painter Edgar Dell, known for his watercolours of wildflowers in Western Australia, dies at the age of 106. 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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