Education in Australia

Education in Australia follows a three tier model: primary, secondary and tertiary education. Education is primarily regulated by the individual state governments, not the federal government. Education is compulsory up to an age specified by legislation; this age varies but is generally 15 or 16, that is prior to completing secondary education.

Post-compulsory education is regulated within the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), a unified system of national qualifications in schools, vocational education and training (TAFEs and private providers) and the higher education sector (mainly universities).

OECD data shows that all member countries have problems with adult literacy, and in Australia one in five adults do not have the literacy skills to effectively participate in daily life

Government and Private

Primary and Secondary

Primary and secondary education may be provided by:
Government schools (also known as State schools, or public schools)
Private schools (the older of these institutions are sometimes called Public School)

There has been a strong drift of students to private schools during the past decade.

Government schools educate the majority of students and do not charge large tuition fees (most do charge a fee as a contribution to costs). The major part of their costs is met by the relevant State or Territory government. Private schools, both religious or secular (the latter often with specialisations), may charge much higher fees.

Public schools can be divided into two types: open and selective. The open schools accept all students from their government defined catchment areas, while selective schools have high entrance requirements and cater to a much larger area. Entrance to selective schools is often highly competitive. In Victoria, for example, more than 3000 applicants sit the entrance exam each year competing for the 600 available places.

Private schools can also be divided into two groups. By far the most numerous are Catholic schools. The rest are known as Independent schools, which are largely Protestant grammar schools and lower key religious schools. There has been substantial growth of low fee church based schools.

The most prestigious schools are generally the private grammar schools and highest performing selective High Schools. James Ruse Agricultural High School in New South Wales and Melbourne High School and Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School in Victoria consistently out perform the private grammar schools in all academic fields, and have thus earned their associated prestige.

The prestige itself, unlike some other countries, confers no advantage for university entrance; however, students from the prestigious schools tend to get higher than average Equivalent National Tertiary Entry Rank scores. However, this slight advantage does not appear to equate to superior university performance. A recent study found that students from independent schools are more likely to drop out in the first year of university than those from public schools. Regardless of whether a school is public or private, they are regulated by the same curriculum standards frameworks.

Most school students in Australia wear uniforms, although there are many exceptions. Private schools tend to have stricter dress codes than government schools do.

Foreign relations of Australia

Over recent decades, Australia’s foreign relations have been driven by a close association with the United States, through the ANZUS pact and by a desire to develop relationships with Asia and the Pacific, particularly through ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum. In 2005 Australia secured an inaugural seat at the East Asia Summit following its accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.

Australia is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, in which the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings provide the main forum for co-operation. Much of Australia’s diplomatic energy is focused on international trade liberalisation. Australia led the formation of the Cairns Group and APEC, and is a member of the OECD and the WTO. Australia has pursued several major bilateral free trade agreements, most recently the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

Australia is a founding member of the United Nations, and maintains an international aid program under which some 60 countries receive assistance. The 2005-06 budget provides AUSD 2.5bn for development assistance;[9] as a percentage of GDP, this contribution is less than that of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Australia’s armed forces - the Australian Defence Force (ADF) - comprise the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the Australian Army, and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). All branches of the ADF have been involved in UN and regional peacekeeping (most recently in East Timor, the Solomon Islands and Sudan), disaster relief, and armed conflict, including the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. The government appoints the chief of the Defence Force from one of the armed services; the current chief is Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston. In 2005-06, the defence budget is AUSD 17.5bn

World War II

Relations with Britain

At the beginning of World War II, Australia was still part of the British Empire. Indeed, as it had not yet ratified the Statute of Westminster, it could still be considered a British colony (the Statute was ratified in 1942). Some Australians still considered themselves British.

On September 3, 1939, Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced, “Great Britain has declared war on Germany, and as a result, Australia is also at war… There can be no doubt that where Great Britain stands, there stand the people of the entire British world.”

Australia was the first nation to come to Great Britain’s aid, sending numerous men to fight in the Middle East and North Africa.

After the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, direct danger was coming closer to Australia. Japanese attacks continued through Burma, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and Malaya. The island of Singapore was strategically crucial for the Allied forces. When Singapore fell to the Japanese on February 15, 1942, Australia realised they were alone and defenceless.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had given priority to the European war and was unable to provide much support to the Australians. Prime Minister John Curtin appealed to the US instead, “Australia looks to America free of any pangs as to our traditional links of kinship with Great Britain.” This began the shifting of foreign policy for Australia from relying on Great Britain alone and shifting towards the United States.
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States and territories of Australia

Australia consists of six states, two major mainland territories, and other minor territories. The states are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. The two major mainland territories are the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.

In most respects, the territories function similarly to the states, but the Commonwealth Parliament can override any legislation of their parliaments. By contrast, federal legislation overrides state legislation only with respect to certain areas as set out in Section 51 of the Constitution; all residual legislative powers are retained by the state parliaments, including powers over hospitals, education, police, the judiciary, roads, public transport and local government.

Each state and territory has its own legislature (unicameral in the case of the Northern Territory, the ACT and Queensland, and bicameral in the remaining states). The lower house is known as the Legislative Assembly (House of Assembly in South Australia and Tasmania) and the upper house the Legislative Council. The heads of the governments in each state and territory are called premiers and chief ministers, respectively. The Queen is represented in each state by a governor; an administrator in the Northern Territory, and the Governor-General in the ACT, have analogous roles.

Australia also has several minor territories; the federal government administers a separate area within New South Wales, the Jervis Bay Territory, as a naval base and sea port for the national capital. In addition Australia has the following, inhabited, external territories: Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and several largely uninhabited external territories: Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Tourist Attractions of Australia

Australia’s main tourist attractions are Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, the Gold Coast of Queensland and Uluru (Ayers Rock), in the rugged outback of the Northern Territory. Other attractions in the continent range from the wild flowers of Western Australia to the vineyards of the Barossa Valley, and from Western Australia’s ghost towns to the remarkable wildlife on the island of Tasmania. It is possible to visit the relatively undisturbed Aboriginal communities on Bathurst and Melville Islands, about 80km (50 miles) north of Darwin, providing valuable insights into the continent’s
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ancient indigenous culture. The Australian coastline has thousands of miles of beautiful beaches. Information on resorts, excursions, places of interest, sports and activities within Australia is given under each individual State section.

Norfolk Island
Situated 1700km (1056 miles) off the east coast of Australia, Norfolk Island is not part of any State but is instead administered by the Australian government. The island is best reached by air from Sydney. Its history as one of the world’s harshest penal colonies has left the island with some of Australia’s finest Georgian colonial architecture. Many of the island’s small population are directly related to the mutineers of HMS Bounty who settled in the area. A variety of accommodation is available. There is excellent buswalking and the island boasts 40 different plants and animals that are unique to the island.

Australian Capital Territory

Canberra
Canberra is an elegant city of wide streets, gardens and parkland. The Old Parliament House is impressive and complemented by its replacement, a grand modern edifice completed in 1988, Australia’s bicentennial year. There are guided tours around Old Parliament House (home to the National Portrait Gallery) and the new Parliament House, where visitors can view both the Senate and House of Representatives. Parliament House also offers free guided tours daily where visitors can learn about the role and function of the Federal Parliament.

The Australian War Memorial is deservedly one of the city’s most popular attractions, and is the scene of the annual ANZAC Parade; it contains archives, galleries displaying relics, photographs and art. Lake Burley Griffin, a vast manmade waterway named after Canberra’s architect, features prominently throughout the city area. Cruises and boating are popular. Blundell’s Cottage (built 1858-60), which predates the lake, is a stone-slab construction calling to mind the location’s earlier incarnation as a sheep station. The new, architecturally radical National Museum of Australia (located on the shores of the lake) displays a vast range of exhibits, chronicling Australian life from the first indigenous peoples through to modern times.

It is a further cultural addition to the present National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia and National Science and Technology Center (Questacon). The Australian Institute of Sport offers guided tours by elite athletes and the interactive Sportex Center with facilities for virtual rowing and virtual golfing. Some of Australia’s deadliest and most colorful reptiles can be seen at Canberra’s Australian Reptile Center. The center is open daily and, apart from the permanent displays, features special exhibitions. The National Archives of Australia hold archive material and Commonwealth records from Federation Day to the present. The Archives also feature special exhibitions and are open daily.

Beyond Canberra
There are several hills in the immediate area of Canberra; from the 195m (650ft) Telstra Tower, topping the 825m high (2750ft) Black Mountain, there is an excellent view of the area for those who do not get dizzy in revolving restaurants (meal optional). Hot-air ballooning trips provide other ways of taking in the view. Glenloch Sheep Station, located in Belconnen on the outskirts of Canberra, is a popular tourist attraction. Activities include sheep shearing, boomerang throwing and sheep-dog demonstrations, rounded off with a traditional Australian barbecue lunch. The Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, 40km (25 miles) southwest of Canberra, contains a collection of space models and memorabilia (including a sizeable piece of the moon) and interactive exhibits covering 40 years of space exploration. The Snowy Mountains are to the south of Canberra, in New South Wales, and provide excellent opportunities for winter skiing and summertime pursuits such as bushwalking, horseriding and watersports. Organized trips from Canberra are available; for details, contact the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation (see General Info section).

Activities in Australia

The range of activity, adventure and special interest holidays is almost limitless. Detailed information is given under each individual State section. Below is a brief outline with practical information on some of the most popular sports and activities available in Australia. Further trade information can also be obtained via the Tourism Australia (website: www.australia.com).

Bushwalking
This is an Australian term coined in the 1920s to distinguish serious walkers from casual hikers. Australia’s wilderness areas, national parks and vast tracts of sparsely populated countryside make bushwalking one of the country’s most popular pastimes. Maps are widely available, either from the many guide books on offer or from State government offices. Fires are a threat during summer, and walkers must respect fire ban warnings. Outdoor clothing and equipment tends to be expensive. Each State and Territory has its own independent parks authority.

Self-drive tours
Three-quarters of Australia’s land mass lies in the outback. 4-wheel-drive vehicles are a favorite means of transport and there are a number of scenic highways and roads leading to the often remote outback destinations. On such journeys, it is not unusual to drive for hours without seeing another person. It is advisable to take extra water and petrol in case of emergencies.

Diving
With 36,735km (22,826 miles) of coastline, Australia provides outstanding opportunities for watersports, particularly diving and snorkeling. The tropical waters along the 2500km (1500 miles) of the Great Barrier Reef and its multitude of tiny islands form one of the world’s best known diving locations. Requirements for dive courses (which are widely available) vary from state to state, but generally, beginners must be at least 12 years of age and have a medical certificate of fitness in accordance with Australian standards. To obtain the basic scuba-diving qualification, visitors can participate in either a one-week full-time course or a two-week part-time course; tailor-made courses are also available. Certified divers must be able to produce their international certification card and log book for solo dives, unless they participate in fully supervised dives with a professional.

Fishing
The seas off the east coast are reputed to be one of the world’s best game-fishing areas, and the waters off north Western Australia are also particularly abundant. The area north of Queensland is well-known for marlin fishing while the streams in the high country in New South Wales and Victoria are very good for trout. Newspapers and radio have comprehensive tide and fishing reports. Fishing license requirements vary from state to state.

Surfing
There are surfing schools all over the country, offering instruction for beginners or advanced surfers.

Golf
Facilities are excellent and the settings often spectacular.

Shopping in Australia

Special purchases include excellent local wines; wool, clothing, leather and sheepskin products; opal and other precious or semi-precious stones; and modern art sculpture and paintings. Exhibitions of bark paintings, boomerangs and other tribal objects are on view and for sale in Darwin, Alice Springs and the State capitals; many depict stories from the Dreamtime. Many cities and towns have small shops devoted to the sale of ‘Australiana’, where Australian souvenirs, ranging from T-shirts to boomerangs, can be bought.

Shopping hours

Opening hours for most stores in the cities are Mon-Fri 0900-1730, Sat 0900-1700. Late-night shopping is available Friday to 2100 in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart and Darwin. Late-night shopping is available Thursday at the same times in Sydney, Canberra and Perth. Major stores in some states are open 1000-1600 Sunday. Corner stores, restaurants and snack bars are open in most cities until well into the night. For further information on shopping and trading, contact the ACT Office of Fair Trading .

Currency Information:

Currency

Australian Dollar (AUSD ) = 100 cents. Notes are in denominations of AUSD 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5. Coins are in denominations of AUSD 2 and 1, and 50, 20, 10 and 5 cents.

Currency exchange

Exchange facilities are available for all incoming and outgoing flights at all international airports in Australia. International-class hotels will exchange major currencies for guests. It is recommended that visitors change money at the airport or at city banks.

Credit and debit cards

American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard and Visa are accepted. Use may be restricted in small towns and outback areas. Check with your credit or debit card company for details of merchant acceptability and other services which may be available.

Travelers cheques

These are accepted in major currencies at banks or large hotels. However, some banks may charge a fee for cashing travelers cheques. To avoid additional exchange rate charges, travelers are advised to take travelers cheques in a major currency.

Currency restrictions

Export and import of coins/notes in Australian or foreign currency above AUSD 10,000 must be declared to customs at the port of entry or departure. Export of local currency above AUSD 2000 must have reserve bank approval.

Exchange rate indicators

The following figures are included as a guide to the movements of the Australian Dollar against Sterling and the US Dollar

Banking hours

Mon-Thurs 0930-1600, Fri 0930-1700. These hours may vary slightly throughout the country.

Sport in Australia

Sport in Australia plays a central role in many aspects of the local lifestyle. The climate is suited to playing sport year-round, with golf being the most commonly participated in sport in Australia. Other sports that are most commonly participated in by Australians include tennis, netball, soccer and swimming.

Many sports are played in Australia, with popularity varying between sports and between regions. The popularity of the various codes of football is one good example of this: although Australian rules football is the most popular spectator sport in Australia, rugby league is more popular in Queensland and New South Wales.

When not playing sports, Australians are just as keen to spectate. Australians sports are amongst the highest attended. Armchair sports fans drive high television ratings for sports programs. In fact, the top 5 television shows in 2005 were sports programs.

Australian rules football

Australian rules football (also known as Aussie rules or footy) is a game played between two teams. Each team has 18 players on the field of play at any one time. There are 22 players per side in the premier league, AFL, who are interchanged without limitation by the coaches as required. Teams use an ellipsoidal ball on cricket ovals, or similar-sized areas, with four goal posts at each end. The aim for each team is to kick the ball between the two inner posts of one set, for a goal, worth six points. If the ball travels between one outer and one inner post (which includes striking an inner post), it scores a behind, worth just one point. The game is distinguished from other kinds of football by the fast, relatively free movement of the ball.

Australian rules, which originated in Melbourne, is the predominant winter sport in its traditional areas of popularity, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania. In these areas (which include about half of Australia’s population), much of the population takes an obsessive interest in the competition and attend many of the games, making it the biggest spectator sport in the country. [2] Footy tipping is a mainstay of many workplaces’ social interaction. Its popularity is increasing in Queensland and New South Wales, due to the recent success of the local teams in Brisbane and Sydney.

The Australian Football League is the national Australian rules competition. It consists of a single division of 16 teams. Of these 16 teams, 10 are Victorian, and 2 each from South Australia and Western Australia. The remaining two teams are based in Brisbane and Sydney. The Sydney team was originally the Melbourne based club of South Melbourne. The AFL was renamed from the Victorian Football League in 1990 to signify its change from a Victorian competition to a national competition. Each state has its own local league, and there are amateur recreational, children’s and women’s competitions.

Basketball

The National Basketball League was formed in 1978 and is Australia’s top professional basketball competition. It has eleven teams. Some players have gone on to play in the NBA such as Andrew Gaze and Luc Longley. The premier women’s basketball league is the Women’s National Basketball League, with player Lauren Jackson going on to win the WNBA’s Most Valuable Player award in 2003. In recent years, many young Australians have chosen to play college basketball in the United States, the most notable of whom is 2005 NBA Draft top pick Andrew Bogut.

Cricket

Cricket has a long history in Australia, and is played on local, national and international levels. The Australian cricket team is today regarded as one of the leading international teams in world cricket, having been the unquestionably dominant team for much of the 1990s. The first Australian cricket team which played overseas was the 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England. The Australian team which toured England in 1948 was nicknamed The Invincibles and was captained by Donald Bradman. In recent years the Australia team has been captained by Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist and currently Ricky Ponting.

Cycling

Cycling is one of the most popular recreational activities in Australia, as the weather is suitable most of the year. In 2004, almost 1.5 million Australians aged 15 years and over participated in cycling for exercise, recreation and sport at leat once [3].

Cycling is gaining a higher profile at a competitive level due to the success of Australians competing overseas (such as in Olympic Games and the Tour de France), and the Tour Down Under race in Australia attracting top cyclists from around the world.
Further information: Category:Australian cyclistsand Category:Cycling in Australia

Football (soccer)

Australia has a new national league (first season 2005-6) called the A-League. Australia’s national team, nicknamed the Socceroos, are active in international games including World Cup Qualification games, and have qualified for the 2006 World Cup. Australia has just completed a move to the Asian Football Confederation from the Oceania Football Confederation.

The name ‘football’ can sometimes be ambiguous in Australia. Historically, the sport has been known as soccer, but many official organisations and clubs are now using the term ‘football’ in line with common international usage of the word, however, use of the word “football”, to mean either Australian rules or one of the rugby football codes, is well-established in Australia.

Further information: Australia national football (soccer) team, Football Federation Australia, Football (soccer) in Tasmania, Football (soccer) in Western Australia, Football (soccer) in Victoria, and Football (soccer) in South Australia

Golf

The Australian Open was first played in 1904 and is one of the main annual golf tournaments in the PGA Tour of Australasia. The Royal Park Golf Club was one of the earliest golf clubs in Melbourne. One of the best known Australian golfers is Greg Norman, the world’s number one ranked golfer for much of the 1980s and 1990s. Also well known are Stuart Appleby, Steve Elkington, Ian Baker-Finch, Nick O’Hern and Karrie Webb.

Hockey

Hockey is a popular amateur sport throughout Australia, but tends to have limited appeal at higher levels, at least, when compared to Cricket, AFL and Rugby. Traditional field hockey, played during winter, is the most common form of the game, but indoor hockey is growing in popularity, and smaller, generally fairly isolated competitions for roller hockey and ice hockey.

At the highest levels, Australian hockey teams have been extremely successful in the recent past. The Hockeyroos, Australia’s women’s hockey team, have won three olympic gold medals, in 1988, 1996 and 2000. The Australian Men’s team, the Kookaburras are the reigning Olympic and Commonwealth champions.

Horse racing

Horse racing in Australia is administered by The Australian Racing Board, with each State’s Principal Racing Authority agreeing to abide by, and to enforce the Australian Rules of Racing.

Thoroughbred horse racing is the third most attended spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian Rules football and rugby league, with almost 2 million admissions to the 379 racecourses throughout Australia in 2002-2003. Besides being a spectator sport, horse racing is also an industry, which provides full or part time employment for almost 250,000 people, the equivalent of 77,000 jobs. About 300,000 people have a direct interest as owners, or members of syndicates in the 31,000 horses in training in Australia.

Public interest in thoroughbred racing, especially during the main Spring and Autumn racing carnivals, has been growing in recent years with over 100,000 attracted to the running of both the Melbourne Cup and VRC Oaks. The Caulfield Cup and W S Cox Plate are also major attractions.

Throughout its history, horse racing has become part of the Australian culture and has developed a rich and colourful language as well as providing some of Australia’s great sporting icons such as Phar Lap, Tulloch, Bernborough, Carbine, Kingston Town and Makybe Diva.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a sport played by relatively few people in Australia, but is one of the oldest established sports in the country, having been introduced in 1875. Despite the small playing numbers and being generally concentrated in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, lacrosse is played to a high standard in Australia, with many individual players also achieving success in American college and professional teams. The national teams have been successful too, with the women’s national team winning the World Cup in 1986 and again in 2005, while the men’s team have been runners-up on a number of occasions.

Motorsport

Motorsport is a popular spectator sport in Australia, although there are relatively few competitors compared to other sports due to the high costs of competing. The most widely watched motorsport is V8 Supercars, especially at the Bathurst 1000. Other classes in Australia include Formula 3 and Formula Holden (open wheel racing), Superbikes, and touring cars.

Australia hosts a round of most international series, including:
Formula One - Australian Grand Prix
Champ Car - Lexmark Indy 300
MotoGP - Phillip Island MotoGP Round
World Rally Championship - Telstra Rally Australia
A1 Grand Prix
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Cuisine in Australia

Traditional Australian cuisine was based on English cooking brought to the country by the first European settlers. This cuisine generally consisted of Sunday roasts, grilled chops, and other forms of meat, and was generally accompanied by vegetables (often known colloquially as “three veg”) such as mashed potatoes, beans, peas, and carrots (often served soggy or overcooked). This trend has declined considerably with the multicultural emphasis of Australian culture over the last thirty to fifty years.

Background

Fifty years ago, Australian cuisine was unsophisticated; Chicken Maryland would be regarded as a sophisticated dish. By stark contrast, today’s Australian cuisine is some of the most diverse available anywhere, due to the many cultural influences. Modern Australian cuisine has been heavily influenced by the country’s South East Asian neighbours, and by the many waves of immigrants from there, and all parts of the world. Similarly, Greek, Lebanese and Italian influences are common. Fresh produce is readily available and thus used extensively, and the trend (urged by long-term government health initiatives) is towards low-salt, low-fat healthy cookery incorporating lean meat and lightly cooked, colourful, steamed or stir-fried vegetables.

Australia’s wide variety of seafood are also popular, especially for festivities, while barbecues are common at weekend family gatherings. Barbecues are also common in fundraising, where sausages and onion are served on white bread with tomato sauce, although due to food safety issues this trend has decreased.

Some English trends are still evident in domestic cuisine, among them a widespread tradition of having a hot roast turkey, chicken and/or ham with all the trimmings for Christmas dinner, followed by a heavy Christmas pudding.

Takeaway food in Australia

Despite the best intentions of government health schemes and cultural marketing initiatives, the traditional Australian palate is amply serviced by an extensive takeaway food industry. Two of the most traditional takeaway dishes are the meat pie and sausage roll. These come in varying grades, ranging from the mass-produced factory outputs of Four-and-Twenty and Big Ben, sold on every street corner in milk bars, through to gourmet pies sold by specialist pie shops. There is an annual competition to find the ‘Great Australian Meat Pie’, and the winners are greatly removed from their fat-laden antecedents. In a number of cities, you can get a meat pie from Harry’s Cafe de Wheels.

American-style chain stores are common including Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King (known as Hungry Jacks due to a trademark issue), Dominoes, and of course McDonalds (commonly called Maccas by locals). An alternative to the US imports is offered by the Australian chicken fastfood chain Red Rooster, The Portuguese chicken franchise Oporto (restaurant), and by the corner Pizza shops, charcoal chicken stores, stores selling gyros and fish and chip shops. Many of these sell high-quality food for reasonable prices.

Chinese and various Asian restaurants provide eat-in and takeaway services and with the high levels of immigration from South and South East Asian to Australia many authentic and high-quality restaurants run by Asians themselves exist. (more…)

Music of Australia

The earliest music of Australia was the folk music of the Australian Aborigines. Aboriginal music declined after European colonisation, and has only recently begun to be revived, often with modernised influences. Bands like Yothu Yindi have generated an increased interest in Aboriginal music in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Australia has also been home to notable classical composers as well as artists working in popular music genres such as rock, jazz, country, Gospel music and electronic music.

Indigenous Australian music

Indigenous Australian music has become a vehicle for social protest, and has been linked, by both performers and outsiders, with similar forms from Native Americans; Jamaican singer Bob Marley is often credited with helping to revive traditional Aboriginal music, as did the movie Wrong Side of the Road, which depicted Aboriginal reggae bands struggling for recognition and linked it with land rights.

Yothu Yindi’s sudden pop success in the 1990s surprised many observers, and helped bring many Aboriginal issues into mainstream Australian affairs. In 1980, the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) began broadcasting traditional music and has become extremely successful. CAAMA has helped popularise remote musical communities, such as Blek Bala Mujik whose “Walking Together” became a sort of Australian anthem after its use in a Qantas commercial.

Classical music and contemporary classical music

Perhaps the first Australian musician to gain international recognition (at the end of the 19th Century) was soprano Dame Nellie Melba. She was followed half a century later by another prominent soprano, Dame Joan Sutherland.

The first important composer of classical music in Australia is Alfred Hill, who was trained in Leipzig (Germany) but even studied the music of the native people of Australia and New Zealand, e.g. the Maori.

Composer Peter Sculthorpe is notable for his incorporation of the sounds of the Australian bushland and outback in his symphonic works such as Kakadu, Mangrove and Earth Cry.

Jazz

The history of jazz and related genres in Australia extends back into the 19th century. During the gold rush era of the 1850s American, British and locally formed ‘blackface’ (white actor-musicians in blackface) minstrel troupes began to tour Australia, touring not only the capital cities but also many of the booming regional towns like Ballarat and Bendigo.

Minstrel orchestra music featured jazz-like musical characteristics including improvisatory embellishment and polyrhythm in the (pre-classic) banjo playing and clever percussion breaks. Some genuine African-American minstrel and jubilee singing troupes toured from the 1870s. A more jazz-like form of minstrelsy reached Australia in the late 1890s in the form of improvisatory and syncopated coon-song and cake-walk music, two early forms of ragtime. The next two decades brought ensemble, piano and vocal ragtime and leading (mostly white) American ragtime artists, including Ben Harney, ‘Emperor of Ragtime’ Gene Greene and pianist Charlie Straight. Some of these visitors taught Australians how to ‘rag’ (improvise unsyncopated popular music into ragtime-style music).

By the mid 1920s, phonograph machines, increased contact with American popular music and visiting white American dance musicians had firmly established jazz (meaning jazz inflected modern dance and stage music) in Australia. The first recordings of jazz in Australia are Mastertouch piano rolls recorded in Sydney from around 1922 but jazz began to be recorded on disc by 1925, first in Melbourne and soon thereafter in Sydney.

Soon after World War 2, jazz in Australia diverged into two strands. One was based on the earlier collectively improvised called “dixieland” or traditional jazz. The other so-called modernist stream was based around big band swing, small band progressive swing, boogie woogie, and, by 1947, watered down version of bebop. By the 1950s American bop, itself, was dividing into so-called ‘cool’ and ‘hard’ bop schools, the latter being more polyrhythmic and aggressive. This division reached Australia on a small scale by the end of the 1950s. From the mid-1950s rock and roll began to draw young audiences and social dancers away from jazz. British-style dixieland, called Trad, became popular in the early 1960s. Most modern players stuck with the ‘cool’ (often called West Coast) style, but some experimented with free jazz, modal jazz, experiment with ‘Eastern’ influences, art music and visual art concept, electronic and jazz-rock fusions.

The 1970s brought tertiary jazz education courses and continuing innovation and diversification in jazz which, by the late 1980s, included world music fusion and contemporary classical and jazz crossovers. From this time, the trend towards eclectic style fusions has continued with ensembles like The Catholics, Australian Art Orchestra, Tongue and Groove, AustraLYSIS, Wanderlust, The Necks and many others.

It is questionable whether the label jazz is elastic enough to continue to embrace the ever-widening range of improvisatory musics that are associated with the term jazz in Australia. However, mainstream modern jazz and dixieland still have the strongest following and patron still flock to hear famous mainstream artists who have been around for decades, such as One Night Stand players Dugald Shaw and Blair Jordan, reeds player Don Burrows and trumpeter James Morrison and, sometimes, the famous pioneer of traditional jazz in Australia, Graeme Bell.

See: Andrew Bisset. Black Roots White Flowers, Golden Press, 1978 Bruce Johnson. The Oxford Companion to Australian Jazz OUP, 1987 John Whiteoak. Playing Ad Lib:Improvisatory Music in Australia: 1836-1970, Currency Press, 1999

Country music

Australia has a long tradition of country music, which has developed a style quite distinct from its U.S. counterpart. Waltzing Matilda, often regarded as Australia’s unofficial National anthem, is a quintessential Australian country song, influenced more by Celtic folk ballads than by American Country and Western music. This strain of Australian country music, with lyrics focusing on strictly Australian subjects, is generally known as “bush music” or “bush band music.” The most successful Australian bush band is Melbourne’s Bushwackers, active since the early 1970s.

Another, more Americanized form of Australian country music was pioneered in the 1930s by such recording artists as Tex Morton, and later popularized by Slim Dusty, best remembered for his 1957 song “A Pub With No Beer”. In recent years local contemporary country music, featuring much crossover with popular music, has enjoyed considerable popularity in Australia; notable musicians of this genre include Beccy Cole, Gina Jeffries, Lee Kernaghan, Sara Storer, Keith Urban, and the hugely successful Kasey Chambers.

Rock and popular music

Australia has produced a wide variety of popular and rock music. While many musicians and bands (some notable examples include the 1960s successes of The Easybeats and the folk-pop group The Seekers, through the heavy rock of AC/DC, and the slick pop of INXS and more recently Savage Garden) have had considerable international success, there remains some debate over whether Australian popular music really has a distinctive sound. Perhaps the most striking common feature of Australian music, like many other Australian art forms, is the dry, often self-deprecating humor evident in the lyrics.

First wave of Australian rock

In the mid-1950s, American rockabilly was spreading across the world. Sydney’s independent record label Festival Records was the first to get on the bandwagon in Australia, releasing Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” in 1956. It became the biggest-selling Australian single ever.

Johnny O’Keefe was the first Australian rock star, rising to fame by imitating Americans like Elvis Presley and Little Richard. O’Keefe and other “first wave” bands were popular until about 1961, when a wave of clean-cut family bands took their place.

Though mainstream audiences in the early sixties preferred a clean band, grungier bands inspired by American and British surf, garage and psychedelic rock were appearing major cities, including Sydney and Melbourne. These included The Atlantics and The Denvermen. (more…)

Religion of Australia

Religion in Australia is predominantly Christian, although it is a highly secularised society. There is no state religion, the establishment of which is prohibited by the Constitution.

At the time of European settlement, the Indigenous Australians had their own religious traditions of the Dreamtime (as Mircea Eliade put it) There is a general belief among the Australians that the world, man, and the various animals and plants were created by certain Supernatural beings who afterwards disappeared, either ascending to the sky or entering the earth (Eliade, 1973, p. 1). and ritual systems, with an emphasis on life transitions such as puberty and death (Berndt, 1974, pp. 4-5).

Historical

Prior to European settlement in 1788 there was contact with Indigenous Australians from people of various faiths. These contacts were with explorers, fishermen and survivors of the numerous shipwrecks. There has been countless artifacts retrieved from these contacts, although there is no record of this influencing the religion of Indigenous Australians.

Christianity was introduced with European settlement of Australia from 1788, denominations represented were predominantly Roman Catholic found amongst Irish convicts and Anglican among other convicts and their goalers. Other groups were also represented, for example, among the Tolpuddle martyrs were a number of Methodists.

After settlement, some Muslim sailors and prisoners came to Australia on the convict ships, Afghan cameleers settled in Australia from the 1860s onwards, from the 1870s Malay divers were recruited (with most subsequently repatriated). Islam was not a significant force in this period

During the 1800s, European settlers brought their traditional churches to Australia. These included the Church of England (now the Anglican Church), and the Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Baptist churches.

With the exception of a small but significant Lutheran population of German descent, Australian society in 1901 was predominantly Anglo-Celtic, with 40% of the population being Anglican (then Church of England), 23% Catholic, 34% other Christian and about 1% professing non-Christian religions. The first census in 1911 showed 96 percent identified themselves as Christian.

Further waves of migration helped to reshape the profile of Australia’s religious affiliations over subsequent decades. The impact of migration from Europe in the aftermath of World War II led to increases in affiliates of the Orthodox Churches, the establishment of Reformed bodies, growth in the number of Catholics (largely from Italian migration) and Jews (Holocaust survivors), and the creation of ethnic parishes among many other denominations. More recently, immigration from South-East Asia and the Middle East has expanded Buddhist and Muslim numbers considerably, and increased the ethnic diversity of existing Christian denominations.

The White Australia Policy restricted non-European immigration until post World War 2.

Recent relationships have been more difficult between adherents of Islam and the government. Some cite the attitude to what has been viewed as Islamic extremism post September 11, e.g., the Australian anti-terrorism legislation, 2004, along with the 2005 Sydney race riots as evidence of increased inter-religious stresses, although others see this more in terms of ethnicity.
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