7.Australia, New Zealand – history, geography, places of interest
7. AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
AUSTRALIA
GEOGRAPHY
Australia is the smallest and youngest continent, situated in the Southern Hemisphere between the Pacific and the Indian oceans. The nearest neighbours is in the north New Guinea.
Administrative division of Australia is: South Australia (Adelaide), New South Wales (Sydney), Queensland (Brisbane), Tasmania (Hobart), Victoria (Melbourne), Western Australia (Perth), Northern Territory (Darwin), Australian Capital Territory (Canberra). Then we class with Australia some islands, for example Norfolk, Christmas island etc..
In Australia we can see many natural landmarks like a Great Barrier Reef (which is situated in the east coast, it is the biggest coral reef on the Earth), many deserts - Great Sandy Desert, Gibson Desert and Great Victoria desert ( which are situated in the central Australia), many lakes ( Lake Eyre, Lake Torrens, Lake Gairdner), Ayers rock and so on.. We can find there Blue Mountains, Australian Alps (with the highest mountain Mt.Kosciusco). The longest river is Murray- Darling, which is very important for Australian agriculture. When I speak about that, Australia is very known thanks nature. There are living about hundreds kinds of endemic animals like koalas, kangaroos, dingoes, platypuses, Tasmanian devils etc.
The capital city is Canberra and the two biggest cities are Sydney and Melbourne.
HISTORY
Australia's native inhabitants are Aborigines, arrived there at least 40 000 years ago.
The first European inhabitants were british convicts, who estabilished british colony in the Botany Bay.
The first European who entered in this area was Willem Jansz. Later it was Luis Vaez de Torres. A lot of navigators discovered some parts of this land, for example I can name Abel Tasman, James Cook, Fernand de Magalhăes. I'm sure, that this names are very known.
The gold rushes in the New South Wales and Viktoria evoked a big wave of immigrants. In this time we can see, that Australia is „full“ of immigrants from times of history.
AUSTRALIA TODAY
Australia is a limited monarchy. The head of the state is a british queen, who is substitute by a governor general.
PLACES OF INTEREST
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. There live something about 325 000 people. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory, 300 kilometres south-west of Sydney, and 650 kilometres north-east of Melbourne. Canberra is the site of Parliament House, the High Court of Australia and numerous government departments. Canberra is home to many national monuments and institutions such as the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Library of Australia, the National Archives of Australia, and the National Museum of Australia.
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia with 4 254 900 inhabitants. We can find there innnumerous operas, gardens, kinos, theathers etc. Nejznámější(za to se stydim,že nevim jak to říct;) is the Sydney Opera House on Sydney Harbour. Sydney hosted in the year 2000 Summer Olympic Games.
Melbourne
Melbourne is the state capital and largest city in the Australian state of Victoria, and the second largest city in Australia, with a population of 3 700 000 inhabitants. Melbourne is the southernmost city in the world to have a population of over one million people. Melbourne hosted the first Olympic Games in the southern hemisphere in 1956.
NEW ZEALAND
GEOGRAPHY
New Zealand is situated in the Southern hemisphere, in the South- West Pacific Ocean and South- East of the Australia. New Zealand consists of two large islands (of the North Island and of the South Island) and some other small island, for example Cooks islands, Tokelau etc. The nearest neighbours are New Caledonia, Fidji and Tonga.
New Zealand has a various face. We can see there: glaciers (one of the biggest glacier is the Tasman glacier), fiords ( Fiordland- it's the biggest national park), geysers, two funkcional volcanos, lakes ( in the South part of New Zealand are lakes vulcanic origin, in the North part of island are glacier origin) in the East are plains, in the South are lowlands, which are very fertile. The highest mountain is Mt. Cook.
The capital city of New Zealand is Wellington (situated on the South part of island). The biggest cities are: Auckland (agglomeration), Wellington, Christchurch etc.
HISTORY
New Zealand's native inhabitants are Maoris. They came to the New Zealand from Polynesia.
New Zealand discovered the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in 1642. The second navigator, who enterd in the islands was James Cook.
Since 1840 was New Zealand a british colony.
In the 1995 was part of territory returned to the native inhabitants Maoris.
NEW ZEALAND TODAY
New Zealand is limited monarchy. The head of the state is a british queen, who is substitute by a governor general.
PLACES OF INTEREST
Wellington
is the capital of New Zealand, the country's second largest urban area and the most populous national capital in Oceania. Wellington is New Zealand's political centre, housing Parliament and head offices for all government ministries and departments.
Auckland
Auckland is situated in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area in New Zealand. With over 1 200 000 people it has almost a third of the country's population.
It is conurbation sets up from many cities.
some Auckland landmarks: Harbour Bridge- connecting Auckland and the North Shore, it is a symbol of Auckland, Auckland Sky Tower, some parks, etc.