Amazing Australia

Australia is a fascinating country. It is full of strange and wonderful places, unusual animals and amazing culture.

Canberra, the capital of Australia, is the newest city of all. It was designed by Walter Burley Griffin, an American architect, in 1912, and became the capital in 1927. Unlike other capitals, it’s very, very quiet. There ate lots of trees and a big lake in the centre. Canberra is an Aboriginal word, meaning ‘meeting place’.

Coober Pedy is a small town in South Australia, but it is known as the ‘opal capital of the world’. 95 percent of the world’s opals are mined there. But it’s very dry and hot + 40˚-50˚C for days at a time. So, the most people live under the ground in houses that are dug out of the rock. And tourists who come to Coober Pedy prefer to stay at underground hotels. The Aboriginal name Coober Pedy actually means ‘white man in a hole’.

Founded in 1788, Sydney is Australia’s oldest city. Its first settlers were British prisoners, women as well as men, who had been sent to this wild land as a punishment. Today, Sydney is the largest city in Australia. It is also home to one of the country’s most famous landmarks, the Sydney Opera House. The roof of this beautiful building looks like sails on Sydney Harbour. Near the Opera House is one of the largest bridges in the world – the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Melbourne, the second largest city, was once the capital of Australia. Today, it’s the ‘sporting capital’ of the country. Australians have their own kind of football, called ‘Aussie rules’.

The game is unique in the world. It’s played by teams of 18 players on an oval field with an oval ball, like a rugby ball. Unlike normal football or rugby, however, the ball can be passed in lots of ways: kicked, hit with the hand and carried. On the day of the final Aussie rules match, in September each year, everything stops in Melbourne.

Everything is unusual in Australia, even the food. Only in Australia can you find a kangaroo pie, a crocodile steak or smoked ostrich.

National holiday in Australia is Australia Day which is on the 26^th of January. It celebrates the first settlement of Australia.