Australia WebQuest

created by A. LEBLOND- Collège Le Revard (73)

SYDNEY It is Australia's oldest and biggest city but it is not the country's capital city.

CANBERRA Even though only 462,000 persons live there, it is the capital city of Australia.

This surreal monolith of red sandstone rises abruptly out of the flat Australian desert very close to the geographical centre of the country. Uluru, as it is known to the indigenous Aboriginal people, is a very sacred place. Uluru is easily one of Australia’s most recognisable landmarks. It rises 348 meters above the ground, but the bulk of this rock, which has a circumference of nearly 10 miles, lies underground. In geological terms, it is known as an island mountain. Such is its rarity and majesty that UNESCO has placed Uluru on its World Heritage sites list. Hundreds of thousands of people make a tour of Ayers Rock every year to get a glimpse of this sacred rock. Uluru is famous for its ability to change colour based on the time of year and the time of day. For the local Anangu Aboriginal people, Ayers Rock is a place a great power. It is many things to the Anangu, including the centre of the universe and the home of the Earth Mother. For tens of thousands of years, the Anangu have created petroglyphs on Ayers Rock that are now considered national cultural treasures. On October 26, 2019, climbing Uluru was banned outright (it was already discouraged) in accordance with a unanimous 2017 vote by the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park management board. In Australia, the climb has been the subject of fierce debate. Those against the ban reckon it’s “just a rock”, and some believe closing the climb will deter tourists from visiting, while those for the ban say climbing Uluru is flat-out disrespectful to the local culture.

The 5 most popular sports in Australia

One of Australia’s most remarkable natural gifts, the Great Barrier Reef is blessed with the breathtaking beauty of the world’s largest coral reef. The reef contains an abundance of marine life and comprises of over 3000 individual reef systems and coral cays and literally hundreds of picturesque tropical islands with some of the worlds most beautiful sun-soaked, golden beaches. Because of its natural beauty, the Great Barrier Reef has become one of the worlds most sought after tourist destinations.A visitor to the Great Barrier Reef can enjoy many experiences including snorkelling, scuba diving, aircraft or helicopter tours, bare boats (self-sail), glass-bottomed boat viewing, semi-submersibles and educational trips, cruise ship tours, whale watching and swimming with dolphins. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the natural world, and pulling away from it, and viewing it from a greater distance, you can understand why. It is larger than the Great Wall of China and the only living thing on earth visible from space.

The Australian Aboriginal Flag was designed by artist Harold Thomas and first flown at Victoria Square in Adelaide, South Australia, on National Aborigines Day in July 1971. It became the official flag for the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra after it was first flown there in 1972. Since then, it has become a widely recognised symbol of the unity and identity of Aboriginal people. Form and symbolismThe Aboriginal flag is divided horizontally into halves. The top half is black and the lower half red. There is a yellow circle in the centre of the flag. The meanings of the three colours in the flag, as stated by Harold Thomas, are:

• Black – represents the Aboriginal people of Australia.
• Yellow circle – represents the Sun, the giver of life and protector.
• Red – represents the red earth, the red ochre used in ceremonies and Aboriginal peoples’ spiritual relation to the land.

source : naidoc.org.au/about/indigenous-australian-flags

The flag has three elements on a blue background: the Union Jack, the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross. The Union Jack in the upper left corner represents the history of British settlement. Below the Union Jack is a white Commonwealth, or Federation, star. It has seven points representing the unity of the six states and the territories of the Commonwealth of Australia. The star is also featured on the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. The Southern Cross is shown on the flag in white. It is a constellation of five stars that can only be seen from the southern hemisphere and is a reminder of Australia’s geography. source: pmc.gov.au/government/australian-national-flag