Australia

This country contains world-class cities, snowfields, deserts, rainforests and golden beaches. This alluring country captivates worldwide tourists due to its treasure of natural beauty, diverse landscape, distinct lifestyle and the warm culture. Australians believe in enjoying their lives to the fullest; they relish their exquisite Time and sports are the common pasTimes for many Aussies.

Australia offers a wealth of travel experiences, from the drama of the outback and the spectacle of the Great Barrier Reef to the cosmopolitanism of Sydney and arguably the best beaches in the world. Australia is an enormous country, and visitors expecting to see an opera in Sydney one night and meet Crocodile Dundee the next will have to re-think their grasp of geography. It is this sheer vastness, and the friction between the ancient land steeped in Aboriginal lore and the New World culture being heaped upon it, which gives Australia much of its character.

Major attractions

Sydney

Sydney is Australia's oldest city, the economic powerhouse of the nation and the country's capital in everything but name. It's blessed with sun-drenched natural attractions, dizzy skyscrapers, delicious and daring restaurants, superb shopping and friendly folk.

Although it's come a long way from its convict beginnings, Sydney still has a rough and ready energy, and offers an invigorating blend of the old and the new, the raw and the refined. While high culture attracts some to the Opera House, gaudy nightlife attracts others to Kings Cross.

Perth

Perth is a vibrant and modern city sitting between the cerulean Indian Ocean and the ancient Darling Ranges. It claims to be the sunniest state capital in Australia, though more striking is its isolation from the rest of the country - Perth is over 4400km (2750mi) from Sydney by road.

It's true that the city centre's skyscrapers dominate a picturesque riverside location. But behind the towering edifices hide a handful of 19th-century buildings and facades, and some saving-grace patches of greenery. But these concerns fade in an instant when you glimpse the famous beaches.

Melbourne

Melbourne is dubbed marvellous for a reason. Healthy hedonism masquerades as high art: Melburnians are equally passionate about football and ballet, fashion and restaurants. They are ravenous for music and hot for theatre. It's a smorgasbord of a city that you'll want to sink your teeth into.

A leafy bayside community on the 'upside-down' Yarra River, Melbourne is, by turns, cosmopolitan, suburban, cultivated, conservative and an avant-garde haven. Visitors come for its shopping, restaurants, nightlife and sporting calendar; most agree that it's one of the world's most liveable cities.

Brisbane

Australia's third-largest city feels no need to toot its own horn. While other capitals scramble to reach top billing in the status stakes, Brisbane quietly executes its evolution in true, casual Queensland style. It feels no need to advertise its virtues - locals know how good they've got it.

Brisbane is a big-city package but the pretensions are refreshingly absent. The city centre sits within a tropical landscape while cooling its toes in the undulating Brisbane River, and it boasts a climate that lures pale and chilly southerners by the truckload.

Adelaide

When the early colonists arrived and began building Adelaide they used stone. They wanted to build a solid, dignified city, a civilised and calm place, with a manner no other state capital in the country could match. Nowadays, much to the wowsers' chagrin, pubs and nightclubs outnumber the churches.

Scratch the surface of the quiet achiever of Australian cities and you'll tap into its hedonistic vein. This epicurean playground celebrates the cultural, artistic, gastronomic and sporting. During the Adelaide Fringe Festival, the artistic flair of this progressive, yet still conservative city, truly emerges.

Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island is a glorious showpiece of Australian fauna. A wildlife wonderland of birds, native animals and ocean-based creatures, its untamed coastline, turquoise seas, and native forests are unmissable.

Gold Coast

Stretching 35km (22mi) north from Coolangatta at Queensland's southern border, the Gold Coast is the most aggressively developed stretch of land in Australia. High-rise condominiums, restaurants, theme parks and airport-sized shopping malls line the shore, enticing fun-seekers to consume and party.

Canberra : Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is a city comprising of politicians, bureaucrats - picturesque place with beautiful galleries and museums, as well as excellent restaurants, bars and cafes. Canberra is Australia's federal capital. Established as part of Australia's federation in 1901, Canberra contains the national parliament, federal government departments, the High Court of Australia, the Australian War Memorial, and several other important institutions.

Canberra is comprised of five large "town centres" that lie in the valleys of the Canberra region. These are Central Canberra, Belconnen, Woden, Tuggeranong and Queanbeyan (actually in New South Wales) where Central Canberra is the only major area of tourist interest.

Visa Permit
Every nationality except New Zealanders need visas. Tourist visas and Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) visas are valid for three months, but longer-term visas can be applied for.

Culture

Much of Australia's culture is derived from European and more recently American roots, but distinctive Australian features have evolved from the environment, aboriginal culture, and the influence of Australia's neighbors. The vigor and originality of the arts in Australia­films, opera, music, painting, theater, dance, and crafts­are achieving international recognition. Although the effect of the arrival of Europeans on Aboriginal culture was profound and catastrophic, the reverse is not the case: broadly speaking, mainstream Australian culture has been imported from Europe, the United Kingdom in particular, and continuously developing since that Time.

When to Go
Any Time is a good Time to be in Australia. Summer (December to February) can get uncomfortably hot but it's great beach weather. Up north, the summer wet season is very, very humid and the sea is swarming with box jellyfish. Winter (June to August) offers skiing in NSW and Victoria. In spring and autumn the weather is mild.

Climate

The northern Australia enjoys a tropical climate, and southern Australia a temperate one. The tropical states Queensland and the Northern Territory have highly predictable weather. In ``winter'', typical daily maximums are between 20 to 24 degrees Celsius and rain is rare. The beaches and tropical islands of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef are perhaps at their most pleasant during this Time of year. Further south, the weather is less dependable; in Melbourne in August maximums as low as 13 degrees celcius are possible, but can reach as high as 23 degrees.

In summer, the northern states are hotter and wetter, while the southern states are simply hotter, with temperatures up to 41 degrees in Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne but generally between 25 & 33 - very pleasant indeed.

Facts about Australia

Official name : Commonwealth of Australia
Government : Independent member of the British Commonwealth
Nationality : Australian
Capital city : Canberra
Population : 20,090,437

Currency : Australian dollar (AUD)

Languages :
English 79.1%
Chinese 2.1%
Italian 1.9%
other 11.1%
unspecified 5.8% (2001 Census)

Religion :
75% Christian
1% Muslim
1% Buddhist
0.5% Jewish

Area : 7,686,850 sq km

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