Australia - Destination Australia

Culture Club

Australia is often mocked for having no real history and about as much culture as synthetic yoghurt, but actually it has plenty of both.

Aboriginal: Australian Aborigines boast one of the oldest surviving continuous cultures in the world. They existed in happy isolation for many millenniums until white explorers brought them presents like alcohol, disease and land theft. The colonists who followed dumped the rejects of their "civilized" society on their shores and over the following century an ancient indigenous way of life was largely destroyed. Sadly white Australia's attitude to their old hosts often still leaves a lot to be desired.
South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territories are the best places to experience Aboriginal culture and you should take time to learn about these amazing people and their lifestyle. Please also have a bit of respect; would you want fat tourists clambering all over Stone Henge or Mount Rushmore? Exactly, so extend the same courtesy when visiting their sacred and significant sites.
Convicts:  Convict history is fascinating and horrendous in equal measure. The old prisons, particularly in Tasmania, are sites where the air still hangs heavy with horror despite their present-day solitude and natural beauty. Around 162,000 men, women and children were transported to Australia from Britain and Ireland, for crimes ranging from rebellion to stealing hankies. The irony now is that most young Brits would rob their own granny's grave to be able to stay here. Australia also has a rich history of bushrangers (outback highwaymen) and shady characters from Ned Kelly to Chopper Reid.
Modern: People may think that Australian pop-culture begins with ACDC and ends with Neighbours, with precious little in between, but there is actually a thriving contemporary art scene here, encompassing live music, film making, writing, comedy and all the performing and visual arts. Melbourne is generally seen as the country's epicentre of creative culture and has produced an impressive list of ambassadors for Australian art, from Nick Cave to Jet, but all the major cities have contributed to what has been a bit of a renaissance of original Aussie creativity in the past decade. Regular art festivals are held around the country. To stay up-to-date with the local and international music scene tune into the quality and advert-less national radio station Triple J.

Straight Guide for the Queer Eye

Despite the crocodile-wrestling macho image, there is actually a big gay and lesbian culture here in Australia's two largest cities; homophobia may well raise its ugly and badly dressed head elsewhere. The annual Mardi Gras in Sydney, as famous as it is flamboyant, is televised nationally and seems to be enjoyed by the whole community. In Sydney Paddington, Surry Hills and Darlinghurst all have large gay communities, with Oxford Street being the epicentre of the scene. In Melbourne Prahran and St Kilda are popular gay hangouts. Elsewhere, Daylesford and Hepburn Springs in country Victoria and Cairns and Noosa in Queensland have gay-friendly venues.

Good Sports

Australians are sport mad; hence their place on the world?s athletic/aquatic/cricket/rugby and tennis stages so completely out of proportion to the population.
Getting Stuck In: Active travellers will find plenty of opportunities to sweat off their beer bulge by swimming and having a kick around. Obviously, surfing is a massive pastime/lifestyle all round the coast - although it's not as chilled-out as it looks and wave rage is common. Windsurfing, kite-surfing and kayaking are also hugely popular. Snorkelling and SCUBA diving around reefs and wrecks is great in the clear and unpolluted seas around Australia. Sport and aquatic centres are everywhere, as are gyms, tennis courts and parks with all kinds of sporting facilities.
Just Watching: There are only two seasons for sports fans in Australia: the footy season and the cricket season. The country is split in half over what 'footy' is; in New South Wales and Queensland footy means rugby league, but elsewhere it refers to Australian Rules Football - a mildly psychotic game which involves a cricket oval, four posts at each end, a lot of fighting and not many rules. Rugby union is popular on an international level and in the super 12s. Cricket is unanimously popular while the world game of football, or soccer, has a growing following and a recently relaunched national league. All crowds are generally well-behaved, fans aren't even segregated, and almost half the terrace seats are often filled by women. There are also many international events on the sporting calendar, such as the Australian Tennis Open, PGA Golf Tournaments, The Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Melbourne Cup. Melbourne will be hosting the 2005 Commonwealth Games.

The Really Wild Show

You don't need to be Mick Dundee to realise that Australia has more than its fair share of aggro animals. The ferocity of the fauna is unbelievable, from tiny paralysis bugs and jellyfish to 5metre great white sharks and crocodiles with bigger mouths than Cameron Diaz; everything wants a piece of you.
Spiders, snakes, scorpions giant lizards and all sorts of other unsociable creatures roam around in a phobia fest. Even the cuddly ones pack a punch; kangaroos can disembowel with their feet and wombats have bony butts capable of crunching skulls.  However, nearly all of the above will leave you well alone if you extend the same courtesy. Look but don't touch and if you see a sign saying "Danger Crocodiles, No Swimming", don't go swimming.
Australia offers some awesome encounters with things which Mother Nature invented after closing time on a Friday when she didn't have all the right bits to hand, like the duck billed platypus, thorny devils, and weedy seadragons. Even the common marsupials are pretty much unique to Australia, clearly a country that didn't go out much until lately. Enjoy them while you're here.

Drinking Culture

Australia's favourite past time!!!  Our pubs are where you'll find us and to find the perfect pub you'll find it here.

Planning a trip or moving location we've got you covered, a site exclusive to pubs in Australia.  Whether it be a special occassion, a certain style or a social with a mate, simply search our site by name, address maybe phone number or search our map by state.

We've made it easy for you.  www.pubsonline.com.au         

Check out the country

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Images courtesy of Tourism Qld, Nt & NSW respectively