Australia and its first locals the Aborigines
Australia, the land down under, is often associated with kangaroos, summer in December and winter in July, its rich Aboriginal history and its historical ties to Britain.
This large nation, slightly smaller than the continental United States and the sixth largest in the world, is actually a continent itself. Although the chief of state is Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, to become prime minister one must be Australian-born.
Its central region is a large desert while its shores are home to lush greenery. This continent and its indigenous people, the Aborigines, who settled in Australia some 40,000 years ago, were largely unknown prior to the 17th century.
When Britain took control of Australia in the 1700s, it used it as a site for its penal colonies. Not too long after that, the burgeoning nation’s population began to rise steadily with increased migration from the West. Today, Australia is home to people from 160 different countries, some descendents of those who came in the middle of the 19th century after the discovery of gold on the continent in 1851. In the year after the discovery, 95,000 people moved to Australia, no doubt in the hope of getting rich.
Australia is a nation filled with natural wonders. Its coastline stretches as far as the eye can see while the rest is covered with rain forests, mountains, deserts and fertile plains -- all elements that add to its vibrant and colorful landscape.
We set out from Sydney for Australia’s desert heartland. After a three-hour flight, we arrived in Alice Springs, located in the middle of the country. The desert landscape of Alice Springs is in start contrast to that of Sydney and Melbourne, both coastal cities filled with greenery.
The desert surrounding Alice Springs appears endless and, in fact, covers 75 percent of Australia. Also known as the outback, it is home to indigenous Australians, or Aborigines. Many Aborigines live in and around Alice Springs, but are reluctant to be photographed. And despite the sweltering surrounding desert, Alice Springs itself is anything but a remote dusty town. It’s an oasis with a population of 26,000 and offers all the amenities and more necessary to lead a comfortable life.
Central Australia is very unique, and this uniqueness is reflected in the Alice Springs Desert Park, set up in the middle of Alice Springs as a place where various animal, plant species and aspects of desert life are on display for visitors. The park boasts 400 different desert plants and more than 100 different desert animals. Visitors even have the opportunity to see nocturnal animals, an opportunity they may not otherwise get. These animals are kept in an environment that simulates nighttime so that they can come out even during the day.
This park opened in 1997 and cost $20 million to build, and sees an average of 90,000 visitors annually. It hosts emus particular to Australia as well as kangaroos. Many tourists also come by the park to see the sharp-eyed hawks that also live here.
As we continued our journey through this land, we encountered mountainous regions. To our right and to our left were rocky hills, with kangaroos here and there. The place we were heading to is called Stanley Chasm. The rocky hills rise up 80 meters and are a part of a canyon carved out by a river whose waterfall is nearby. The only drawback to the area is an extraordinarily large number of black flies, to the point that they make you very uncomfortable.
Our next stop was a region called Natara (Hermansburg). This place was the regional headquarters for German missionaries who came to Australia in 1877. It is at a distance of 130 kilometers from Alice Springs and has a school, a church and a few houses -- all built by the original German missionaries. The story goes that when the missionaries arrived, they offered food to the local Aborigines in return for help to build homes there. Framed photographs depicting the area when the houses were built hang on the walls.
This land was returned to the Aborigines in 1982; however, no missionaries now live there. Although the missionaries are gone, they have left behind some Christian Aborigines. Linguistically speaking, there is no one single language of the Aborigines. Five different dialects are spoken in Central Australia and some say there are more than 1,000 different languages spoken in Australia altogether.
An interesting Aboriginal musical instrument we encountered is the “didjorido.” It looks like a pipe that has been carved out and hollowed. It is made completely from wood and measures up to 1.5 meters. This original Aboriginal instrument is bought by some tourists for as much as 649 Australian dollars.
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