Index
Australia is a land of wonder where visitors can explore the wilderness of the continent and dive into the magical splendor of the great barrier reef. Canberra, the capital, and Sydney are the biggest cities in New South Wales which is Australia's most populous and oldest state. New South Wales is also the location of the picturesque Blue Mountains.
|
Sydney
Sydney is a beautiful modern city with approximately 4.4 million inhabitants,
a rich history, a dynamic way of life, and world-famous tourist attractions waiting to be explored.
The Opera House and the Harbour Bridge are landmarks of international renown.
The Sydney Opera House with its distinctive architecture is open for tours daily.
Walking paths lead toward the city center through the
Royal Botanic Gardens which are open from sunrise to sunset. The gardens feature an attractive
collection of plants, beautiful paths, places to picnic, as well as a restaurant.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge links the center to the suburbs and
carries eight lanes of road traffic and two railway tracks.
The bridge has a challenging pedestrian climb over the
arch at 134 meters above sea level.
The Sydney Aquarium is one of the world's best. It has over 150 meters of clear
tunnels that enable visitors to see fish swimming around and overhead. Native Australian
species, such as the platypus, are displayed.
The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney features the historic Sydney Observatory
and the Powerhouse Museum which has a diverse collection of decorative arts, science,
transport, computer technology, and space technology.
|
Melbourne
Melbourne is Australia's second largest city with a population of 3.9 million people.
It is expected that Melbourne will be the most populous city in Australia by 2028 due to its rapid growth.
Melbourne was transformed into a wealthy metropolis when gold was discovered in the area during the 1850s.
Today, Melbourne is a center for commerce, industry, education, arts, sports and tourism.
The population of Melbourne grew by an influx of immigrants and the prestige of hosting the Olympic Games in 1956.
Melbourne is a city teeming with activity and many remarkable tourist attractions.
You can ride the free City Circle Tram service to most of the main attractions in Melbourne.
A favorite stop is the Exhibition Gardens which features a collection of many of the unusual plants native to Australia.
|
The Blue Mountains
In November 2000, the Blue Mountains were declared a World Heritage
park. It was nominated for its outstanding natural values, including the
biodiversity of its plant and animal communities, its vegetation, which is
dominated by Australia's unique eucalyptus trees, and for the beauty of its natural
landscapes. The region offers a myriad of activities for the visitor like
bush walking, browsing for antiques, and adventures through limestone caves.
Australian Legends
For many generations, aborigines have told the legend of the
three sisters 'Meehni', 'Wimlah', and 'Gunnedoo', who lived in the Jamison
Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had
fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, but tribal law
forbade them to marry. The brothers defied this law and
decided to capture the three sisters by force causing a major tribal
battle. As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a
witch doctor from the Katoomba tribe used a magic spell to turn the three
sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. He had intended to
reverse the spell when the battle was over, but the witch doctor himself was
killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their
former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a
reminder of this battle for generations to come.
Jenolan Caves
The Aboriginal name for the Jenolan Caves was Binnomea which means "dark
places". The beauty of the Jenolan Caves is its maze of ancient limestone
tunnels, subterranean rivers, and caverns richly draped with exotic mineral
deposits. The caves were created over millions of years through a complex
relationship between water, rock, atmosphere, and the life forms that inhabit
the environment. The Jenolan caves are Australia's most
impressive limestone caves.
;w1.focus() "Uluru (Ayers Rock)")
Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is one of Australia's best known natural wonders in the Northern Territory,
approximately 465 kilometers south west of Alice Springs. The name Uluru is the name given to the mountain
by the Pitjantjatjara aborigines.
This 3.6 kilometer-long rock formation in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park rises 348 meters above the
surrounding desert. Uluru is made of coarse-grained arkose, a type of sandstone containing feldspar
that reflects a red glow at sunrise and sunset.
|
Brisbane
Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia and the state capital of Queensland.
Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of around 1.6 million people.
The city is situated along the Brisbane River and provides a picturesque setting with many riverside attractions, including
late night river cruises.
Brisbane has a subtropical climate with temperatures ranging between 20 to 29°C (68-84°F) in summer and cool temperatures
from 9 to 20°C (48-68°F) in winter. The Queen Street Mall features world-class shopping and the South Bank Parklands
provide a great place to have lunch.
|
The picture above shows an air view of the Great Barrier Reef across the city of Mackay on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about 970 km (603 mi) north of Brisbane. The region around Mackay produces over one third of Australia's cane sugar. The Great Barrier Reef stretches for 1,750 kilometers (1,087 miles) between Brisbane at the southern boundary and Cairns at the northern boundary. It has hundreds of islands and thousands of individual reefs in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia. The reef supports a wide diversity of sea creatures such as corals, mollusks, sponges, worms, crustaceans, echinoderms (starfish), and an immense variety of other life forms. Australia's seashores have many stromatolites which are fossilized deposits of ancient cyanobacteria that lived 3,450 million years ago.
