Emu Australia

"Major emu migrations occur about one year in seven. 

"The southward movement of tens of thousands of emus in certain seasons is one of Australia's greatest examples of wildlife migration

The Emus’ migration routes are also influenced by climate. As they can find more food in humid regions the birds wander always to places were rain was falling down recently. It’s not yet clear how Emus orientate themselves and can detect rain from several hundred kilometers away. Researchers believe this is a combination of sighting distant rain cloud formations, smelling rain, and hearing the far-off sound of thunder from distances the human ear cannot.

In Western.Australia, the 100-year-old fence, now called the State Barrier Fence, is the longest manmade structure in the state and is visible from space. It runs for 1170km through the state's southwest, from the Zuytdorp cliffs north of Kalbarri to east of Ravensthorpe.
Originally erected to keep rabbits from spreading westward, the fence is undergoing a multi-million dollar upgrade to protect more agricultural lands in the southwest from 'pest' species, including wild dogs, dingos, emus and kangaroos. It includes major plans for a new barrier, up to 700km long, through pristine woodlands leading down to Esperance, and $5 million has been put aside for that.

Viv Read, invasive species director for WA's agriculture department, says the plan is a response to the region's farmers, who complain of a rising incidence of wild dog attacks and crop damage from flocks of emus. "Extending the fence is a non-lethal way of controlling vermin and the alternative is baiting, shooting or trapping.
"The primary purpose and major benefit of the State Barrier Fence is to minimise emu impact on cropping areas," Viv says. "Major emu migrations occur about one year in seven. 


   

Aboriginal culture and Dreamtime

Aboriginal Australians have not just one culture, but about 400 different cultures across Australia, each with its own language, laws, traditions, and stories. Some of the languages are as different from each other as English is from Chinese, whilst others can be closely related, like Spanish and Portugese.

Some Aboriginal cultures are rich in stories and ceremonies tied to the night sky, while in others the sky doesn't seem to play such an important role at all.

In some Aboriginal cultures the Moon is male and the Sun is female, and there are many different versions of stories, in different languages, in which the Moon-man falls ill (the waning Moon), lies dead for three nights (New Moon), and then resurrects on the third day (the waxing Moon).

NATURE

Aboriginals see themselves as part of nature. We see all things natural as part of us. All the things on Earth we see as part human. This is told through the ideas of dreaming. By dreaming we mean the belief that long ago, these creatures started human society. These creatures, these great creatures are just as much alive today as they were in the beginning. They are everlasting and will never die. They are always part of the land and nature as we are. Our connection to all things natural is spiritual.' Silas Roberts, first Chairman of the Northern Lands Council.

MUSIC

Aborigines have developed unique instruments and folk styles. The didgeridoo is commonly considered the national instrument of Australian Aborigines, and it is claimed to be the world's oldest wind instrument.

Clapping sticks are probably the more ubiquitous musical instrument, especially because they help maintain the rhythm for the song. More recently, Aboriginal musicians have branched into rock and roll, hip hop and reggae.

Artist Minnie Pwerle

ART
Australia has a long tradition of Aboriginal art which is thousands of years old. Modern Aboriginal artists continue the tradition using modern materials in their artworks. Aboriginal art is the most internationally recognizable form of Australian art.

SPORT

The Djabwurrung and Jardwadjali people of western Victoria once participated in the traditional game of Marn Grook, a type of football played with possum hide. The game inspired Tom Wills, inventor of the code of Australian rules football, which is now a popular Australian winter sport.

Similarities between Marn Grook and Australian football include the unique skill of jumping to catch the ball or high "marking", which results in a free kick. The word "mark" may have originated in "mumarki", which is "an Aboriginal word meaning catch" in a dialect of a Marn Grook playing tribe.

Aussie Rules has seen many indigenous players at elite football, and have produced some of the most exciting and skillful to play the modern game. Approximately one in ten AFL players are of indigenous origin.

In the National Rugby League 11% of the players were of Indigenous heritage.  Australia's national Rugby League team saw a record number of five Aboriginal players (38%) in their ranks of 13.

Aboriginal people themselves account for only about 2.3% of Australia's population, yet they account for more than five times that percentage of elite footballers.

The Dreamtime (or Dreaming) is a term used to describe the period before living memory when Spirits emerged from beneath the earth and from the sky to create the land forms and all living things. The dreamtime stories set down the laws for social and moral order and establish the cultural patterns and customs.

The Dreaming, as well as answering questions about origins, provides a harmonious framework for human experience in the universe and the place of all living things within it. It describes the harmony between humans and all other natural things.

For instance, an indigenous Australian might say that he or she has Kangaroo Dreaming, or Shark Dreaming, or Honey Ant Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their "country".

Population of Australia

A real size comparison of Australia and the United States and the U.K. in red

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. Indigenous Australians are distinguished as either Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, who currently together make up about 2.7% of Australia's population.

During the period between 1788 and 1868, about 160,000 convicts were sent to Australia. What happened to them when they got to Australia depended on their skills or education, how they behaved themselves and some luck. The First Fleet carried 780 British convicts who landed in Botany Bay, New South Wales. Two more convict fleets arrived in 1790 and 1791, and the first free settlers didn' arrived until 1793. During this period, the colony of New South Wales was officially a penal colony comprising mainly of convicts, marines and the wives of the marines.


The majority of the 165,000 convicts transported to Australia were poor and illiterate, victims of the Poor Laws and social conditions in Georgian England. Eight out of ten prisoners were convicted for larceny of some description.

In the 2006 Australian Census residents were asked to describe their ancestry, in which up to two could be nominated. Proportionate to the Australian resident population, the most commonly nominated ancestries were.


Australian (37.13%)

English (31.65%)

Irish (9.08%)

Scottish (7.56%)

Italian (4.29%)

German (4.09%)

Chinese (3.37%)

Greek (1.84%)

Dutch (1.56%)

Indian (1.18%)

Lebanese (0.92%)

Vietnamese (0.87%)

Armenian (0.82%)

New Zealander (0.81%)

Filipino (0.81%)

Maltese (0.77%)

Croatian (0.59%)
Welsh (0.57%)

French (0.5%)

Serbian (0.48%)

Maori (0.47%)

Spanish (0.42%)

Macedonian (0.42%)

South African (0.4%)

Sinhalese (0.37%)

Hungarian (0.3%)

Russian (0.3%)

Turkish (0.3%)

American (0.28%)





Australia is a religiously diverse country and has no official religion.

The most commonly spoken languages other than English in Australia are Italian, Greek, German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Chinese languages, Indian languages, Arabic, Macedonian and Croatian, as well as numerous Australian Aboriginal languages

Aboriginal Cooking Methods

Aborigines lived as Hunter-gatherers. They hunted and foraged for food from the land.
Australian Aboriginal cooking methods are unique, most of them originating in and around outdoor fires. Boiling and barbecuing are newer techniques that they have learned.
Aboriginals ate a balanced diet before the invasion of the British Crown, including seasonal fruits, nuts, roots vegetables, wattles, other plant food, many types of meats, and seafood.


Aboriginal Cooking Methods


 Roasting on hot coals:

· The basic technique for cooking flesh, including most meats, fish and small turtles.
A further slow roasting, involving covering with coals and ashes may have then
been employed to thoroughly cook the meat or to soften an otherwise tough meat.
After cooking, the meat would be quickly consumed.
· For game, such as a kangaroo, the fur would first be singed off in the flames. As
the carcase started to swell, it would be removed from the flames, gutted and the
remains of the fur scraped off with a sharp implement. By this time the fire would
be a bed of hot coals on which the carcase would be further cooked. It is unlikely
that cooking would be complete by this method, the meat would be rare but
probably relished by all, particularly the men of the group.
· Smaller game would be more thoroughly cooked by this method.
· Shellfish would be cooked briefly on the coals at the side of a fire so that, as soon as
the contents started to froth, they were removed from the heat. This method
avoided the shellfish being overcooked and tough.

Baking in the ashes

Dampers and various types of bread were baked in the ashes. Care was taken to only
use the correct type of wood from which the ashes were obtained. Some woods
imparted an unpleasant taste or even caused irritation or discomfort to the users. most
wattles seemed to have been successfully used for baking in the ashes, yielding a fine
ash that did not cause irritation. Witchetty grubs only required to be briefly rolled in
the hot ashes to cook them. Often damper or goanna would be placed on the hot
ground beneath the ashes and covered with more ash to cook. A scooped out hollow
was often made in which to cook yams and other small vegetables by then covering
them with a further layer of ash and coals.





Steaming in a ground oven

Aboriginal cooking methods using ancient ground ovens still exist, particularly in the Wiradjuri area, along the Darling,
Murrumbidgee and Lachlan Rivers. At Lake Urana in western NSW I have seen such
ovens and only recognised them after having them explained to me. The ovens were
prepared by digging out a pit about 90 cm long and 60 cm deep, taking care to collect
any clay from the digging. The clay, usually fashioned into smooth lumps, would be
placed aside until the pit had been filled with selected firewood and then placed on
top. As the wood burned, the clay would dry quickly and become very hot. These
clay lumps, nearly red hot, would be removed from the pit using sticks for tongs, the
pit swept out and quickly lined with green leaves or grass on which small game such
as possums would be lain, covered by more green grass and weighed down by the clay lumps. All this was covered with earth from the original excavation to prevent loss of
steam. This method of cooking produced excellent results. In areas such as Arnhem Land, wrapping in moist paperbark from the Melaleuca trees is still a popular method
of cooking vegetables and meat in a ground oven. Iron particles in ground ovens
became aligned according to the magnetic field of the earth at the time the ovens were
last used – from this the age of the ovens could be calculated, a bonus for
archaeologists.