Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea,  Indonesia and  East Timor to the north; the  Solomon Islands and  Vanuatu to the north-east; and  New Zealand to the south-east.

Appearance
Australia is often seen with a brown slouch hat and sometimes sunglasses. He usually represents a "safari" type look, wearing a buttoned-up light brown shirt and grey shorts.

In more formal dress, they will wear a button-up shirt and tie (usually red) with black jeans or slacks.

Personality
Normally can be seen with a wild or unkempt personality. Can often be seen as a little depressed (sometimes others forget about them) and is usually very welcoming of others. Sometimes a bit of a goofball.

Interests
Drinking cheap beer while watching the footy. Also loves anything outdoors or to do with sports and his deadly creature inhabitants.

Likes

 * Vegemite
 * Holdens, Australian Chryslers and Australian Ford vehicles
 * V8 Supercars
 * Hectic Habib
 * Friends and Family
 * Steve Irwin
 * Men At Work and Bee Gees
 * Going out
 * Isaac Butterfield
 * Being with their siblings especially New Zealand
 * Visiting Bali
 * Meatpies, lamingtons and sausage rolls
 * Mad Max
 * The kebab stand
 * Hungry Jacks and Maccas

Dislikes

 * Racism
 * Sexism
 * Droughts
 * Criminalisation
 * Mistaken for New Zealand
 * Communists
 * Peppa Pig
 * Dadenemy/Momenemy
 * Invaders
 * COVID-19
 * Spiders
 * Bush Fire
 * Emus " I'll have my revenge someday!" 
 * PETA (for disrespecting Steve Irwin during his birthday)

Flag meaning
The flag of Australia is a defaced British Blue Ensign: a blue field with the Union Jack in the corner, and a large white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Star in the lower-left corner. It also has the Southern Cross on it, a star sign which can only been seen in the Southern Hemisphere. There are other official flags representing Australia, its people and core functions of government.

Nicknames

 * Hell Spider
 * Star Boy
 * Aussie
 * Oz
 * Straya

Other symbols

 * Opal (National Stone)
 * Golden Wattle (National Floral Emblem)
 * Gold and Green (National Colours)
 * Australia Aboriginal Flag
 * Torres Strait Islander Flag

Origins of languages
Pama-Nyungan is spoken across 90% of Australia. Linguists conclude that the family originated in northeastern Australia and spread to the southwest over millennia. To the researchers' amazement, the genetic pattern mirrored the linguistic one. "It's incredible that those two trees match.

Etymology
The name Australia derives from Latin australis meaning southern, and dates back to 2nd century legends of an "unknown southern land" (that is terra australis incognita). The explorer Matthew Flinders named the land Terra Australis, which was later abbreviated to the current form.

Organizations and Affiliations

 * UN
 * APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation)
 * G20
 * Commonwealth of Nations

Pre-History
Human habitation of the Australian continent is known to have begun at least 65,000 years ago, with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea-crossings from what is now Southeast Asia. The Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land is recognised as the oldest site showing the presence of humans in Australia. The oldest human remains found are the Lake Mungo remains, which have been dated to around 41,000 years ago. These people were the ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. Aboriginal Australian culture is one of the oldest continual cultures on earth.

At the time of first European contact, most Indigenous Australians were hunter-gatherers with complex economies and societies. Recent archaeological finds suggest that a population of 750,000 could have been sustained. Indigenous Australians have an oral culture with spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas. The northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by Makassanfishermen from what is now Indonesia.

European arrival
The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, and made landfall on 26 February at the Pennefather River near the modern town of Weipa on Cape York. Later that year, Spanish explorer Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through, and navigated, Torres Strait islands. The Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent "New Holland" during the 17th century, and although no attempt at settlement was made, a number of shipwrecks left men either stranded or, as in the case of the Batavia in 1629, marooned for mutiny and murder, thus becoming the first Europeans to permanently inhabit the continent. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688 (while serving as a crewman under pirate Captain John Read) and again in 1699 on a return trip. In 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain.

With the loss of its American colonies in 1783, the British Government sent a fleet of ships, the "First Fleet", under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, to establish a new penal colony in New South Wales. A camp was set up and the Union flag raised at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, on 26 January 1788, a date which later became Australia's national day, Australia Day. Most early convicts were transported for petty crimes and assigned as labourers or servants upon arrival. While the majority settled into colonial society once emancipated, convict rebellions and uprisings were also staged, but invariably suppressed under martial law. The 1808 Rum Rebellion, the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia, instigated a two-year period of military rule.

The indigenous population declined for 150 years following settlement, mainly due to infectious disease. Thousands more died as a result of frontier conflict with settlers. A government policy of "assimilation" beginning with the Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 resulted in the removal of many Aboriginal children from their families and communities—referred to as the Stolen Generations—a practice which also contributed to the decline in the indigenous population. As a result of the 1967 referendum, the Federal government's power to enact special laws with respect to a particular race was extended to enable the making of laws with respect to Aboriginals. Traditional ownership of land ("native title") was not recognised in law until 1992, when the High Court of Australia held in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) that the legal doctrine that Australia had been terra nullius ("land belonging to no one") did not apply to Australia at the time of British settlement.

Colonial Expansion
The expansion of British control over other areas of the continent began in the early 19th century, initially confined to coastal regions. A settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. In 1813, Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, opening the interior to European settlement. The British claim was extended to the whole Australian continent in 1827 when Major Edmund Lockyer established a settlement on King George Sound (modern-day Albany, Western Australia). The Swan River Colony was established in 1829, evolving into the largest Australian colony by area, Western Australia. In accordance with population growth, separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales: South Australia in 1836, New Zealand in 1841, Victoria in 1851, and Queensland in 1859. The Northern Territory was excised from South Australia in 1911. South Australia was founded as a "free province"—it was never a penal colony.[82] Western Australia was also founded "free" but later accepted transported convicts, the last of which arrived in 1868, decades after transportation had ceased to the other colonies. By 1850, Europeans still had not entered large areas of the inland. Explorers remained ambitious to discover new lands for agriculture or answers to scientific enquiries.

A series of gold rushes beginning in the early 1850s led to an influx of new migrants from China, North America and mainland Europe, and also spurred outbreaks of bushranging and civil unrest. The latter peaked in 1854 when Ballarat miners launched the Eureka Rebellion against gold license fees. Between 1855 and 1890, the six colonies individually gained responsible government, managing most of their own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire. The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs, defence, and international shipping.

Nationhood
On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies was achieved after a decade of planning, consultation and voting. After the 1907 Imperial Conference, Australia and the other self-governing British colonies were given the status of "dominion" within the British Empire. The Federal Capital Territory (later renamed the Australian Capital Territory) was formed in 1911 as the location for the future federal capital of Canberra. Melbourne was the temporary seat of government from 1901 to 1927 while Canberra was being constructed. The Northern Territory was transferred from the control of the South Australian government to the federal parliament in 1911. Australia became the colonial ruler of the Territory of Papua (which had initially been annexed by Queensland in 1888) in 1902 and of the Territory of New Guinea (formerly German New Guinea) in 1920. The two were unified as the Territory of Papua and New Guinea in 1949 and gained independence from Australia in 1975.

In 1914, Australia joined Britain in fighting World War I, with support from both the outgoing Commonwealth Liberal Party and the incoming Australian Labor Party. Australians took part in many of the major battles fought on the Western Front. Of about 416,000 who served, about 60,000 were killed and another 152,000 were wounded. Many Australians regard the defeat of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) at Gallipolias the birth of the nation—its first major military action. The Kokoda Track campaign is regarded by many as an analogous nation-defining event during World War II.

Britain's Statute of Westminster 1931 formally ended most of the constitutional links between Australia and the UK. Australia adopted it in 1942, but it was backdated to 1939 to confirm the validity of legislation passed by the Australian Parliament during World War II. The shock of Britain's defeat in Asia in 1942, followed soon after by the Japanese bombing of Darwin and attack on Sydney Harbour, led to a widespread belief in Australia that an invasion was imminent, and a shift towards the United States as a new ally and protector. Since 1951, Australia has been a formal military ally of the US, under the ANZUS treaty.

After World War II, Australia encouraged immigration from mainland Europe. Since the 1970s and following the abolition of the White Australia policy, immigration from Asia and elsewhere was also promoted. As a result, Australia's demography, culture, and self-image were transformed. The Australia Act 1986 severed the remaining constitutional ties between Australia and the UK. In a 1999 referendum, 55% of voters and a majority in every state rejected a proposal to become a republic with a president appointed by a two-thirds vote in both Houses of the Australian Parliament. There has been an increasing focus in foreign policy on ties with other Pacific Rim nations, while maintaining close ties with Australia's traditional allies and trading partners.

Government
Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The country has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system under its constitution, which is one of the world's oldest, since Federation in 1901. It is also one of the world's oldest federations, in which power is divided between the federal and state and territorial governments. The Australian system of government combines elements derived from the political systems of the United Kingdom (a fused executive, constitutional monarchy and strong party discipline) and the United States (federalism, a written constitution and strong bicameralism with an elected upper house), along with distinctive indigenous features.

The federal government is separated into three branches: Elizabeth II reigns as Queen of Australia and is represented in Australia by the governor-general at the federal level and by the governors at the state level, who by convention act on the advice of her ministers. Thus, in practice the governor-general acts as a legal figurehead for the actions of the prime minister and the Federal Executive Council. The governor-general does have extraordinary reserve powers which may be exercised outside the prime minister's request in rare and limited circumstances, the most notable exercise of which was the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in the constitutional crisis of 1975.
 * Legislature: the bicameral Parliament, comprising the monarch (represented by the governor-general), the Senate, and the House of Representatives;
 * Executive: the Federal Executive Council, which in practice gives legal effect to the decisions of the cabinet, comprising the prime minister and other ministers of state appointed by the governor-general on the advice of Parliament;
 * Judiciary: the High Court of Australia and other federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the governor-general on advice of Parliament

In the Senate (the upper house), there are 76 senators: twelve each from the states and two each from the mainland territories (the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). The House of Representatives (the lower house) has 151 members elected from single-member electoral divisions, commonly known as "electorates" or "seats", allocated to states on the basis of population, with each original state guaranteed a minimum of five seats. Elections for both chambers are normally held every three years simultaneously; senators have overlapping six-year terms except for those from the territories, whose terms are not fixed but are tied to the electoral cycle for the lower house; thus only 40 of the 76 places in the Senate are put to each election unless the cycle is interrupted by a double dissolution.

Australia's electoral system uses preferential voting for all lower house elections with the exception of Tasmania and the ACT which, along with the Senate and most state upper houses, combine it with proportional representation in a system known as the single transferable vote. Voting is compulsoryfor all enrolled citizens 18 years and over in every jurisdiction, as is enrolment (with the exception of South Australia). The party with majority support in the House of Representatives forms the government and its leader becomes Prime Minister. In cases where no party has majority support, the Governor-General has the constitutional power to appoint the Prime Minister and, if necessary, dismiss one that has lost the confidence of Parliament.

There are two major political groups that usually form government, federally and in the states: the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition which is a formal grouping of the Liberal Party and its minor partner, the National Party. Within Australian political culture, the Coalition is considered centre-right and the Labor Party is considered centre-left. Independent members and several minor parties have achieved representation in Australian parliaments, mostly in upper houses. The Australian Greens are often considered the "third force" in politics, being the third largest party by both vote and membership.

The most recent federal election was held on 18 May 2019 and resulted in the Coalition, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, retaining government.

States and Territories
Australia has six states—New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD), South Australia (SA), Tasmania (TAS), Victoria (VIC) and Western Australia (WA)—and two major mainland territories—the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT). In most respects, these two territories function as states, except that the Commonwealth Parliament has the power to modify or repeal any legislation passed by the territory parliaments.

Under the constitution, the states essentially have plenary legislative power to legislate on any subject, whereas the Commonwealth (federal) Parliament may legislate only within the subject areas enumerated under section 51. For example, state parliaments have the power to legislate with respect to education, criminal law and state police, health, transport, and local government, but the Commonwealth Parliament does not have any specific power to legislate in these areas.[205]However, Commonwealth laws prevail over state laws to the extent of the inconsistency.[206] In addition, the Commonwealth has the power to levy income tax which, coupled with the power to make grants to States, has given it the financial means to incentivise States to pursue specific legislative agendas within areas over which the Commonwealth does not have legislative power.

Each state and major mainland territory has its own parliament—unicameral in the Northern Territory, the ACT and Queensland, and bicameral in the other states. The states are sovereign entities, although subject to certain powers of the Commonwealth as defined by the Constitution. The lower houses are known as the Legislative Assembly (the House of Assembly in South Australia and Tasmania); the upper houses are known as the Legislative Council. The head of the government in each state is the Premier and in each territory the Chief Minister. The Queen is represented in each state by a governor; and in the Northern Territory, the administrator. In the Commonwealth, the Queen's representative is the governor-general.

The Commonwealth Parliament also directly administers the external territories of Ashmore and Cartier Islands, the Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the Coral Sea Islands, and Heard Island and McDonald Islands, as well as the internal Jervis Bay Territory, a naval base and sea port for the national capital in land that was formerly part of New South Wales. The external territory of Norfolk Island previously exercised considerable autonomy under the Norfolk Island Act 1979 through its own legislative assembly and an Administrator to represent the Queen. In 2015, the Commonwealth Parliament abolished self-government, integrating Norfolk Island into the Australian tax and welfare systems and replacing its legislative assembly with a council. Macquarie Island is part of Tasmania, and Lord Howe Island of New South Wales.

Diplomacy

 * Canada (1939)
 * Indonesia (1949)
 * New Zealand (1922)
 * United States (1940)
 * United Kingdom (1973)
 * France (1842)
 * Spain (1967)
 * Philippines (1946)
 * Netherlands (1988)
 * Portugal
 * China (1941)
 * Thailand (1952)

Geography
Surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans, Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas, with the Coral Sealying off the Queensland coast, and the Tasman Sea lying between Australia and New Zealand. The world's smallest continent and sixth largest country by total area, Australia—owing to its size and isolation—is often dubbed the "island continent" and is sometimes considered the world's largest island. Australia has 34,218 kilometres (21,262 mi) of coastline (excluding all offshore islands), and claims an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone of 8,148,250 square kilometres (3,146,060 sq mi). This exclusive economic zone does not include the Australian Antarctic Territory. Apart from Macquarie Island, Australia lies between latitudes 9°and 44°S, and longitudes 112° and 154°E.

Family

 * United Kingdom — parent
 * Netherlands — parent
 * Spain — grandparent
 * Portugal — grandparent (indirect) - "There are people who believe that you discovered me!"
 * France — grandparent (indirect)
 * Ireland — stepparent
 * United States — half-sibling
 * New Zealand — sibling
 * Canada — half-sibling
 * Botswana — wife (depends on the person)
 * Papua New Guinea — daughter/son

Optional
'''WARNING: There is controversy about the type of relationship of countries that were former European colonies with the current Western countries. So the following countries are only optional:'''
 * Fiji — half-sibling
 * Indonesia — stepsibling
 * Malaysia — stepsibling

Friends

 * Japan
 * Bulgaria — good friend
 * Philippines
 * Palau
 *  Germany


 *  Papua New Guinea
 *  South Korea

Neutral

 * China — good trading partner (sometimes)

Enemies

 * Emus "I'll never forget for what you did in 1932! I'll have my revenge someday and I'll slaughter you!"


 * North Korea

Fiji
Fiji and Australia are best of buds, known for letting Australia stay in his home when he is on vacation along with New Zealand. They are best of friends that cannot break apart but sometimes does in need of assisting others. Fiji respects his decisions sometimes.

China
China and Australia are friends, but they cannot help but help Fiji and Vanuatu in very political cases. After Fiji's beach got stolen and being turned into a so-called casino, he started to backlash on his hopes of China being his friend after a while.

Trivia

 * These are not factual, and more about what the Countryhumans community think.


 * Australia is usually depicted with kangaroos, emus, snakes, spiders and other deadly animals you find in the country.
 * He can also be seen interacting casually with the animals which unsettle America
 * His dress resembles that of The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin.
 * In some artworks they are shown to have a fear of emus, sometimes referencing the Emu War that happened on the 2nd of November, 1932
 * There is a debate between Australia and New Zealand about which of them made pavlova.

Extra(s):

 * Religion: Protestantism (30.1%, 7.1 Million), Catholic (25.3%, 6 Million), Non-denominational (22.3%, 5.3 Million), Others (22.3%, 5.3 Million)
 * Urbanization: 89%, (21.1 Million)
 * Social Progress: 15th in the World
 * Social Opportunities: 11th in the World
 * Health and Wellness: 10th in the World
 * Basic Medical needs: 19th in the World
 * Personal Safety: 5th in the World
 * Access to Education: 50th in the World
 * Access to Information: 6th in the World
 * Personal Freedom: 17th in the World
 * Freedom of Speech: 30th in the World
 * Tolerance and Inclusion: 16th in the World
 * Tolerance for Minorities: 24th in the World
 * Tolerance for Homosexuals: 18th in the World (74.6%)
 * GDP: $1.2 Trillion
 * Unemployment: 5.6% (722,960)
 * Telephones: 34.9 Million
 * Mobile Phones: 24.4 Million
 * Internet Users: 19.7 Million (83.2%) Users

AustraliaАвстралия