Travel Tale - No. 2 -
Vol. 1 - Australia, Kangaroo and Koala
Country
One of my favorite authors, Colleen
McCullough, who wrote The Thornbirds, hails
from Australia, but she currently lives with
her husband on Norfolk Island in the South
Pacific.
Aboriginal settlers came from Southeast Asia
about 40,000 years before the arrival of the
first Europeans in the 17th century.
Captain James Cook, in 1770, made a
territorial claim of the land in the name of
Great Britain. Australia is located in
Oceania, between the Indian Ocean and the
South Pacific Ocean. The new country
became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.
Due to its natural resources and manufacturing
industries it made a major contribution to the
British efforts in World Wars I and II.
In recent decades Australia has become
internationally competitive in an advanced
market with a Western-style economy.
I
have a friend who comes from Perth, on the
west coast, and she tells me that the
invigorating tropical sea breeze is known as
the "Fremantle Doctor," which is one
of the most consistent winds in the world.
We visited Sydney, when my husband was flying
to Australia, and I thoroughly enjoyed the
city with the opera house with its large
seashell-like domes overlooking the Harbour,
and beautiful houses dotting the surrounding
hillside with sleepy sailboats in Sydney
Harbour. In a way, it reminded me of San
Francisco, one of my favorite places.
Any
female on the hunt for a husband might try
looking "Down Under" because there
seems to be a surplus of men working
everywhere, in their chemical industries, food
processing, steel works, mining, and
transportation services. Their
agriculture products consist of wheat, barley,
sugarcane, fruits; and cattle, sheep and
poultry. Aussies also boast of
commodities such as: coal, gold, wool, iron
ore and lovely opals.
We
spent a wonderful two-week vacation touring
Katoomba Forest, and the Blue Mountains, which
get their name from the color of the oils in
the air of the eucalyptus trees. I also
had a lot of fun feeding the jumping kangaroos
and shy koala bears at the zoo. The only
problem with Australia is the time and
distance it takes to get there, otherwise it
is a fantastic place to visit, and I can't
wait to return to visit Darwin, Brisbane, and
Tasmania where actor Errol Flynn was born.
Alinka
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