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Australia The People
Australia is the most sparsely populated of the inhabited continents. The estimated total population in 2008 was 20,600,856, giving the country an overall population density of 3 persons per sq km (7 per sq mi). Australia’s population grew at a relatively modest rate of about 1.3 percent annually from 1996 to 2001.
The country is heavily urbanized. Some 93 percent of the population lives in cities, about two-thirds in cities with 100,000 or more residents. The most rapidly growing areas are the coastal zones near and between the mainland capitals in the east, southeast, and southwest. In fact, four out of every five Australians live on the densely settled coastal plains that make up only about 3 percent of the country’s land area. The fastest-growing region is southeastern Queensland.
Political Divisions
The Commonwealth of Australia comprises six states and two territories. The states and their capitals are New South Wales (Sydney), Victoria (Melbourne), Queensland (Brisbane), South Australia (Adelaide), Western Australia (Perth), and Tasmania (Hobart). The territories and capitals are the Australian Capital Territory (site of the national capital, Canberra) and the Northern Territory (Darwin).
Ethnic Groups
The United Kingdom and Ireland were traditionally the principal countries of origin for the majority of immigrants to Australia, reflecting the colonial history of the country. Since World War II (1939-1945), however, Australia’s population has become more ethnically diverse as people have immigrated from a wider range of countries. The proportion of residents born in other countries increased from 10 percent in 1947 to 24 percent in 2000. In 1947, 81 percent of new arrivals came principally from the United Kingdom and Ireland, and to a lesser extent from New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and the United States. In 2000 only 39 percent of new arrivals came from those major English-speaking countries. From 1995 to 2000, people from New Zealand constituted 18 percent of total immigration; those from the United Kingdom, 11 percent; China, 8 percent; the former Yugoslavia (overwhelmingly refugees and asylum seekers), 7 percent; South Africa, 5 percent; and India, 4 percent. These six principal countries of birth represented about 53 percent of total immigration during those years. Since the early 1970s the countries of South, Southeast, and East Asia have become an increasingly important source of new arrivals, both settlers and long-term visitors (who are primarily in Australia for educational purposes). In 1999-2000 Asian-born arrivals made up 34 percent of all immigration to Australia.
People of European descent constitute about 91 percent of Australia’s population. Although most claim British or Irish heritage, there are also Italian, Dutch, Greek, German, and other European groups. People of Asian descent or birth constitute about 7 percent of the population; their countries of origin include China, Vietnam, India, the Philippines, and Malaysia. People of Middle Eastern origin make up an estimated 1.9 percent of the population. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people constitute about 2.2 percent; their proportion of the total population rose strongly during the 1990s. Also known as Indigenous Australians, these two groups are the original inhabitants of the region. Torres Strait Islander people, who are a Melanesian people, are indigenous to the islands of the Torres Strait, which lies between the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland and the island of New Guinea.
Indigenous Australians
The Aboriginal people are indigenous to Australia, meaning their ancestors were the first humans to settle and populate the continent. Aboriginal folklore claims that they were always in Australia. However, most anthropologists believe that they migrated from Southeast Asia at least 50,000 years ago, probably during a period when low sea levels permitted the simplest forms of land and water travel. A rise in sea level subsequently made Tasmania an island and caused some cultural separation between its peoples and those on the mainland.
These original Australians were essentially hunter-gatherers without domesticated animals, other than the dingo. They employed a type of “firestick farming” in which fire was used to clear areas so that fresh grazing grasses could grow, thereby attracting kangaroos and other game animals. Aboriginal people also may have harvested and dispersed selected seeds, perhaps creating extensive tracts of grassland in the process. There is evidence of careful damming and redirection of streams, and of swamp and lake outlets, possibly for fish farming.
Although the Aboriginal people were nomadic or seminomadic, their sense of place was exceptionally strong, and they had an intimate knowledge of the land. The most recent 3,000 years of Aboriginal history were characterized by accelerating changes based on the use of stone tools, the exploitation of new resources, the growth of the population, and the establishment of long-distance trading.
By the time of the first notable European settlement in 1788, Aboriginal people had developed cultural traits and ecological knowledge that showed an impressive adaptation to Australia’s challenging environments. They also had developed many complex variations between regional and even local communities. Estimates for the total Aboriginal population in 1788 vary. Current estimates based on archaeological research range between 500,000 and 1 million. About 250 distinct languages existed at the beginning of the 19th century. Bilingualism and multilingualism were common characteristics in several hundred Aboriginal groups. These groups—sometimes called tribes—were linguistically defined and territorially based.
During the first century of white settlement, there were dramatic declines in the Aboriginal population throughout Australia. The declines resulted from the introduction of diseases for which the Aboriginal people had little or no acquired immunity; social and cultural disruptions; brutal mistreatment; and reprisals for acts of organized resistance. By 1901 the Aboriginal population had declined to roughly 93,000. It then increased more than fourfold during the second half of the 20th century, partly in response to the wide acceptance of more relaxed interpretations of Aboriginal descent.
Until the 1960s the Aboriginal population was mainly rural. Over the next two decades Aboriginal people began moving in greater numbers to urban areas. In many small, rural towns, Aboriginal families were viewed negatively as fringe dwellers. In the larger cities, small, but highly volatile, ghetto-like concentrations of Aboriginal people led to demands for greater political rights.
In fact, the social and political status of Aboriginal Australians was so low that they were omitted from the official national censuses until 1971, following the overwhelming passage of a 1967 referendum that granted the government power to legislate for them and to include them in the census count. At the 2001 census, 366,429 Australian residents were counted as Aboriginal people, 26,046 as Torres Strait Islander people, and 17,528 as belonging to both groups. The largest concentrations of Indigenous Australians were in New South Wales (with 29.2 percent of the national total), Queensland (27.5 percent), Western Australia (14.3 percent), and the Northern Territory (12.4 percent).
More than 70 percent of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in urban areas. Traditional ways of life are still maintained in small enclaves in the more remote locations, especially in the northern and central areas of the continent. Every region of the country is represented by its own Aboriginal land council, and most regions run cultural centers and festivals. A shared desire to reassert their claim to land rights has united the widely separated communities, and indigenous culture is now widely expressed in art, literature, and popular culture.
In terms of social and economic disadvantage—unemployment, family income levels, welfare dependence, infant mortality rates, and average life expectancy—the Aboriginal population still fares badly in comparison with the Australian population as a whole. Its recent renaissance has brought victories in many spheres, however, and the confirmation of Aboriginal ownership and control of extensive areas of northern and central Australia has introduced a new dimension into the economic, political, and social life of the nation.
Education
Education in Australia is primarily the responsibility of the individual states and territories, which provide most of the funding at the primary and secondary levels. In each state or territorial administration, the training and recruiting of teachers are centralized under an education department. Education is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 15 in all the states and territories except Tasmania, where the upper age requirement is 16. Most children start school at age 5. About 70 percent of students attend government-funded, or public, schools, which provide free secular (nonreligious) education. There are also private schools, which are usually denominational and charge tuition fees. The majority of private schools are Catholic. Some private schools, which are sometimes called public schools as in Britain, accept day students and boarders. Most children transfer from the primary to the secondary school level at the age of 12. Secondary schools, known as high schools and junior technical schools, provide five- or six-year courses of study designed to prepare students for university entrance. In 2000–2001 Australia had nearly 10,000 primary and secondary schools, with an annual enrollment of 1.9 million primary students and 2.6 million secondary students.
Preschool education is not required by national policy and varies widely among the states and territories. In 1999 almost half of all children aged four were receiving some form of preschool education. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation conducts broadcasts for children unable to attend preschool centers. For the compulsory grades, special provisions are made for children who live in remote areas. These include Schools of the Air—where children use two-way radios, television sets, video and cassette recorders, and computers to participate in classroom instruction—and correspondence schools.
The federal government has special responsibilities for the education and training of youths in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. A national education policy has been in place and evolving since 1990 to help improve attendance, retention, and completion rates in these communities, in part through federally funded, locally based initiatives and the development of more culturally sensitive curricula.
Universities and Colleges
In 1999 Australia had 42 public higher education institutions, together with two private institutions—the multicampus Australian Catholic University (known collectively as ACU National) and Bond University in Queensland—and a large number of public and private colleges offering advanced education in specific subject areas. Their combined annual enrollment in 2002–2003 was 1,012,210.
Among the leading universities are the Australian National University (founded in 1946), in the Australian Capital Territory; Macquarie University (1964), the University of New South Wales (1948), and the University of Sydney (1850), in New South Wales; the University of Queensland (1910); the University of Adelaide (1874), in South Australia; the University of Tasmania (1890); La Trobe University (1964), the University of Melbourne (1853), and Monash University (1958), in Victoria; and the University of Western Australia (1911). In addition, the commonwealth government maintains a number of specialized learning institutions, notably the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, the Australian Maritime College, and the National Institute of Dramatic Art.
The commonwealth government provides about 45 percent of the general funding for public institutions of higher education. It also assists with competitive research grants. Australian citizens studying at the country’s universities are obliged to pay a higher education contribution tax. This tax, which can be paid over time with interest, provided about 20 percent of universities’ operating revenue in 1999. Students from overseas pay sizable fees.
Way of Life
Most Australians enjoy or aspire to middle-class suburban lifestyles in their homes. Apartments—called flats—were not common until recent years. They became more prevalent because of reduced family sizes, the adoption of more cosmopolitan modes of living, a trend toward rented accommodation, and state government efforts to revitalize the inner cities and maximize expensive infrastructure investments in transportation, water supplies, and other services. These developments were accompanied to some extent by an increased sophistication, especially in the capital cities.
Australian fashion generally follows Western styles of dress, but is distinctive for the lightweight, colorful casual wear that reflects the absence of harsh winters. Food and drink preferences are influenced by global tastes, but also mirror the rise of ethnic diversity and the country’s capacity to produce most kinds of food, wine, and other beverages in abundance.
Popular culture is dominated by an emphasis on leisure activities and outdoor recreation. Great pleasure is taken in traditional backyard barbecues, bush picnics, and a wide range of organized sports, including soccer, Australian Rules football, rugby, cricket, tennis, baseball, basketball, volleyball, netball (a game similar to basketball, played by women), track and field, cycling, boating, swimming, horseback riding, and horse racing. Fishing and gardening are popular activities. |
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