1. The first European landfall of Australia is attributed to whom?
2. In what year did James Cook map the east coast of Australia, name it New South Wales, and claim it for Great Britain?
3. What major economic phenomenon beginning in 1851 in Victoria eventually led to the White Australia policy?
4. What is Australia’s official national language?
5. According to the 2006 census, what was the second most followed religion in Australia?

Check your answers here!

Author: Kay McMahon

Kay has been an expat for over 20 years. She set up the British Expat website more than 10 years ago, whilst living in London and missing the expat life. These days she spends much of her time lugging computers and cameras around the world. (Dave gets to deal with all the really heavy stuff.)

There was no official recognition of the founding of this first penal colony for some time, but by 1808 colonists – especially freed convicts – were celebrating the anniversary with “drinking and merriment”. The first official celebration (named “Foundation Day” took place in 1818 under Governor Lachlan Macquarie. However, it wasn’t until the centenary celebration in 1888 that the other Australian colonies beyond New South Wales marked the date at all; they all celebrated their individual foundation dates. It wasn’t until 1994 that all the States and Territories celebrated a unified public holiday on 26 January.

The arrival of European settlers isn’t universally seen as a cause for celebration, of course. The 1938 sesquicentennial celebrations were observed as a Day of Mourning by Aborigines, and the 1988 anniversary was marked as a Day of Invasion protest. (Memorably, a flotilla of Aborigines sailed up the Thames and “claimed” Great Britain.) Various alternative dates have been put forward for a national celebration, but although most Australians now agree that the day should acknowledge the culture of Aborigines and Australia’s cultural diversity generally, a clear majority are against shifting the date.

On the last Sunday in September each year more than 1,500 historic vehicles line up at the start to play their part in perpetuating the legend of the Bay to Birdwood. YOU can be there too!

The next Bay to Birdwood event will be the “Run” staged on Sunday 26 September 2010.

The 2010 Run will be for vehicles manufactured before 31 December 1955.

As well as the Run itself there will be entertainment, food and drink, and prizes for fancy dress (period dress), so there’s lots to do for a fun day out.

Please visit their website for more details of the event.

Do you need to find a hotel in Adelaide?  Please try our preferred partner, Agoda.

The Drumley Walk is an annual four-day walking pilgrimage through the traditional lands of the Yugambeh Aboriginal people. It leaves from Beaudesert, south of Brisbane, and traverses farms, rainforests and bushlands to Southport, on the Gold Coast. Walkers are guided by Drumley’s descendants and relatives, and learn about local history, and indigenous culture. And they are encouraged to celebrate all local heroes, Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal.

The walk finishes at Yugambeh Corroboree, an indigenous food, art and language festival where Drumley’s walk traditionally finished, by the beautiful Nerang River.

For more details please visit:

Australian Explorer: Contact the Drumley Walk

Author: Kay McMahon

Kay has been an expat for over 20 years. She set up the British Expat website more than 10 years ago, whilst living in London and missing the expat life. These days she spends much of her time lugging computers and cameras around the world. (Dave gets to deal with all the really heavy stuff.)

With the absence of snow or even a white hoar frost to make the season traditional for us expats living in the land Down Under, Christmas comes with a whole new meaning.

Normally Christmas Day in Australia dawns under clear skies of brilliant blue, and with most of the population living around the coastline, that tinkling that we thought could have been made by tiny reindeer bells will probably just be the sound of the waves gently playing across white sandy beaches nearby.

In another hour or two, the first of the early morning walkers will be strolling along the pristine beaches enjoying a Christmas Day walk before breakfast, which will probably not be all that different from Christmas breakfasts being enjoyed all around the world.

In the weeks leading up to the big event, parents will have attended school concerts to listen to their offspring performing the Australian version of the famous reindeer song, which has the chorus line “Six White Boomers Leading Santa’s Sleigh”. It’s really quite sensible having six kangaroos leading the sleigh, when you think about it. After all, here in Australia we try to avoid the “red nose” look due to the damage it can cause health-wise, and reindeers wearing white sun-block cream across their noses just doesn’t conjure up the right mental picture somehow!

Christmas Day in Australia is a day of chaos on the roads. Cars are eagerly packed with food, bottles of wine, potted poinsettias, plates of mince pies, gaily wrapped gifts, small children and elderly grandparents crammed against all the beach paraphernalia as families set off to join the queues of other cars taking to the roads en route to share the day with various other family members. Sadly, the happiest time of the year is also the bleakest for many, with the road toll at its highest over the Christmas period.

Turkey, chicken, ham, pork, lobster (crayfish), oysters, scallops, octopus or prawns, anything and everything can be found on the Australian Christmas dining table or on plates balanced precariously on laps sitting beside the swimming pool, BBQ or down on the beach, all washed down with copious amounts of the “amber nectar” which has been lovingly carried home by the slab, held shoulder-high by the men of the house, in the weeks leading up to the big day.

The Australian Christmas day is a far cry from those distant memories of a much different time… supping warm mulled wine or eggnog whilst watching the burning Yuletide log crackling merrily in the open hearth, as the sky outside turns a darker shade of night, making the lights twinkle even more brightly.