Australian Prime Ministers

Governor General / List /

9:00-10:00 (daily)

17:00-17:30 (Mo-Fr)

21:30-22:00 (Sa+Sun)

Australia Direct

Wednesday 23:30

Thursday 03:30 & 11:30

Saturday 07:30

Sunday 00:30; 03:30

 Australia Now series

19:00-19:30 Travel Channel

Go 2 Australia

Sat 28 June, 11:30 to 12:00 BBC World

5 July, 16-17:00
Travel Channel

Short History of Convict Australia

Commonwealth Past

►Anzac Day ►Brief History ►Australia Act '86

Republican Future?

European Tradition

Pacific Integration

Closed Society

Asian Melting Pot

Governor General Past Crises

►1975:Senate&G-G dismiss PM ►2003 crisis

Governor General - Future

►New GG Appointed ►Echoes of 1975

Sydney Morning Herald (June 9)

 ALP Crisis: Crean vs Beazley (ABC)

Hollingworth Apologizes to Nation

Nov 1975:Dismissed PM Whitlam watches as the G-G's secretary reads the proclamation dissolving Parliament

The Age (May 27)

The Australian Labor Party is Australia's oldest political party. It was formed in the 1890s and was represented in the first Federal Parliament elected in 1901. The ALP is the only party to have survived since that time.

The Howard Government was first elected on March 2, 1996. It was the first federal victory by the coalition of the Liberal and National Parties since 1980.

Perhaps unaware of the old adage that if you can remember the 60s you weren't there, the Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the National Party, John Anderson, has delivered a critique of the 1960s to a conference of his party, decrying the loss of traditional family values. His comments are a good example of the social conservatism of the National Party. [June 17, 2002]

►Country Profile: Australia  (BBC)

►Australia - National Geographic (+Map)

►Australia Interactive Map

Aussie English Language is unique

The English language in Australia is distinguished. The way of Australian English is a bit different from other countries which use English as an everyday speech. Australians have their own styles and characters in using the language, both vocabulary, pronunciation and accent. In addition, they have their own slang words when they speak in their groups, women and men also have their language as well.   Read more ....

        Page of Language Differences / Australian English (Nat.Museum of Austr.)

A History of Australia - Content:

Contemplations of "Australia"

Significance and history of Australia Day,

Convicts

National Museum of Australia, Canberra: Galleries

The Museum has been created around the concepts of land, nation and people and these three themes are explored throughout the Museum's galleries:

► Tangled Destinies: Land and People in Australia
Tangled Destinies is a unique depiction of Australia’s natural and cultural histories. It explores the twists and turns of the incredible relationship between the Australian continent and its people. 

► Eternity: Stories from the Emotional Heart of Australia
The mystery of Harold Holt's disappearance, one woman's passion for football, the fear of sharks, the thrill of the Mardi Gras, the joy of cyberspace — Eternity is a dynamic and exciting new style of exhibition about the people of Australia.

► Nation: Symbols of Australia
From the kangaroo to the Hills hoist, the Nation exhibition takes a new approach to Australian history by focusing on the expressions and symbols of national identity.

► Horizons: The Peopling of Australia since 1788
Horizons captures the hopes, fears, joys and disappointments of the Australian migrant experience and the complex and changing meaning of home.

► First Australians: Gallery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
First Australians introduces visitors to the two Indigenous groups in Australia — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people — and shows the wide diversity of languages and cultures within these groups.

Dorothea Mackellar was born in Sydney, NSW into a prosperous and notable family. She received a private education before attending Sydney university. After her studies Mackellar travelled widely in Australia and abroad. 'My Country', which she wrote at the age of nineteen, was published in 1908, It appeared in the London Spectator entitled 'Core of My Heart'.

The love of field and coppice,

Of green and shaded lanes,

Of ordered woods and gardens,

Is running in your veins;

Strong love of grey-blue distance,

Brown streams, and soft, dim skies, -

I know, but cannot share it;

My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of rugged [ragged] mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains;

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel[-]sea,

Her beauty and her terror

Liberal Party cont.: The government's second term has seen a deal with the Australian Democrats that secured passage of tax reform legislation and the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax.

In the final year of its second term, the Howard government faced a bleak electoral situation. Since the 1998 election, the ALP had won office in Victoria, trounced the coalition government in Western Australia, been re-elected in a landslide in Queensland, and snatched the formerly safe Liberal seat of Ryan in a by-election.

However, a series of policy changes in the first half of 2001 saw the government recover some ground. In a July by-election in the Melbourne seat of Aston, the Liberal Party retained the seat whilst suffering a 4% swing against it. Howard was to claim later that this was the turning point.

The arrival of the MV Tampa with a cargo of asylum-seekers off Christmas Island in late August dramatically altered the political equation. The issue of "border protection" sparked a big surge of support for the government's hard line on what were termed "illegals", "queue-jumpers" and "boatpeople". ALP support plunged.

On September 11, the terrorist attacks on the United States served to heighten the unease over security and national borders.

The ensuing election, held on November 10, 2001, was dubbed a "khaki" election. News of the "war against terrorism" and the United States-led attacks on Afghanistan dominated the news throughout the campaign, as did further arrivals of boatloads of asylum-seekers.

The government was returned with an increased majority for a third term, the ministry was reshuffled and John Howard moved towards becoming the second longest-serving Liberal Prime Minister since Menzies.

►Letter from Australia

►Aussi Slang

Asia-Pacific Lectures

Go Asia Pacific

Forging Friendships

Media & Democracy

Sharing Power:
the ties that bind