A Little Background

I have only been on the continent of Australia for less than three weeks, but I have already fallen in love with the captivating landscapes and slow-paced way of life. Often in the United States I felt as though everyone, including myself, was in a rush most of the time. Here, in the land down under, the Aussies seemed to have adopted a more laid-back lifestyle. While most Australians have been exposed to American music, movies, and television, their culture still differs from that of Americans and most Aussies can pick out the Americans in a crowd before they even hear them speak.
I have had a chance to meet quite a few people from Australia. While Australia is about as big as the United States, the population is about as equal as the population of New York state. Most of the people that I’ve met are from the well-known cities like Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne, but I have also had the pleasure of meeting some from the smaller towns, like Dubbo and Smithfield. Since Australia is very dry and often the greater portion of the continent is having a drought, the most populated cities are on the coast. Even in the Wet Tropics, it only rains during the wet season, but during that time it rains daily. Although Cairns is surrounded by tropical rain forest, only a very small percentage of the continent is covered by the rain forest. Australia is the driest continent after Antarctica, but as in most cases life has still found a way to adapt and thrive.

This semester I am taking a course on the biodiversity of tropical Australia, and already I have learned what a truly unique continent Australia is. The greater portion of the plants and animals are endemic, meaning that they are only found in Australia. After the giant continent of Gondwana broke up, Australia spent nearly 40 million years in isolation, allowing a unique flora and fauna to develop. One of the key supporting examples of this is the presence of marsupials and lack of primates in Australia.
I’ve only covered some of the basics in this post, and everyday I learn more and more about the land and people of this extraordinary country that I have had the opportunity to travel to. I am taking a course on the indigenous people of Australia so I am very eager to learn about their history and culture because they have lived here for nearly 70,000 years.