Australia

From the red desert center to the rain forest of the northeast, and the city centers of the south and east coast, Australia is a very beautiful and deeply varied country. I traveled to Australia in July of 2007, first traveling to Melbourne before making my way to the Red Center at Uluru (Ayers Rock). After a drive to Alice Springs, I flew to Cairns were I visited Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef and Kuranda and the Northeast Rain Forest. My final stop was to the beautiful city of Sydney. I would love to return to Australia and plan on doing so one day.

The Aborigines are believed to have migrated to Australia about 40,000 years ago. Australia was discovered by the Europeans when Dutch explorer Willem Jansz, van Amsterdam came across the continent in 1605. The Dutch named the region New Holland, but never settled it. In 1770 Captain James Cook claimed the continent for Britain. This lead, in 1778, to the formation of the colony of New South Wales.

Most of the first settlers were convicts, condemned for offenses that today would often be thought trivial. By the mid-19th Century the majority of settlers were free persons from Britain and other parts of Europe. In 1850 the colonies were granted self-government. The discovery of gold in 1851 quickly led to increased population, wealth, and trade.

In 1901 the colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and West Australia merged to become the Commonwealth of Australia, which become a federal parliamentary democracy.

Australia participated in both World War I and World War II and contributed troops to the wars in Korea and Vietnam as well as both Gulf Wars. In 1999, it became part of the UN peacekeeping force sent to East Timor.