Geography
Australia consists predominantly of flat tabular countries, which are only sporadically covered by island mountains (e.g. Ayers Rock) and low mountain ranges. On the east coast runs the 3000 km long fold mountains of the Great Dividing Range(up to 2230 m high), which only in parts of the south has the character of high mountains. Australia is extremely poor in water. The Murray and Darling Rivers have water year round. The other rivers mostly seep away in salt pans and salt lakes. In the Great Artesian Basin, Australia has an extensive groundwater reservoir, which can only be used as a cattle trough due to its low salt content. Visit themakeupexplorer for Australia Country Overview.
The entire interior of the country and the west are dry areas, which are occupied by desert, semi-desert and dry savannah. Only the south-west and east receive sufficient rainfall in a subtropical to warm-temperate climate. In the far north, too, tree and grass savannahs thrive in a tropical climate, and rain and mangrove forests along the coast. The isolated location of the continent has contributed to the fact that in Australia an endemic flora (eucalyptus, bottle and grass trees) and animal world (kangaroo, koala bear, platypus, emu, etc.) could develop and be preserved to this day.
Droughts and desertification, the death of corals in the Great Barrier Reef, catastrophic forest fires and bushfires are the greatest ecological problem areas. In the southern summer of 2019/20, an area of around 17 million hectares of forest and bushland fell victim to the wildfire. By sticking to coal-fired power plants, Australia is one of the countries with the highest carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the world.
For detailed information, see Australia (continent).
Fine arts
Landscape painting was given special importance early on. Its first well-known representatives are John Glover (* 1767, † 1849) and Conrad Martens (* 1801, † 1878). T. Roberts incorporated the influences of open-air painting and impressionism in his pictures and gathered like-minded painters such as F. McCubbin, A. Streeton and Charles Conder (* 1868, † 1909) at the Heidelberg School. The work of Julian Ashton (* 1851, † 1942) and his school was also influential. Many Australian painters studied in Europe, v. a. in London and Paris, according to John Russell (* 1858, † 1931), the van Gogh, Rupert Bunny (* 1864, † 1947), who was influenced by the Nabis, and George Lambert (* 1873, † 1930), who was also a successful sculptor.
Landscape painting was also dominant in the first half of the 20th century. G. R. Drysdale took a romanticizing direction, Albert Tucker (* 1914, † 1999) and A. M. B. Boyd gave their pictures a socially critical accent. S. R. Nolan was also able to establish himself in Europe with his modern history, spray and stage designs. Portraits with caricatures marked the work of W. Dobell. Since the 1940s, significant impulses in abstract art have come from the painters Ian Fairweather (* 1891, † 1974), Godfrey Miller (* 1893, † 1965), John Passmore (* 1904, † 1984), John Olson (* 1928) and Brett Whiteley (* 1939, † 1992) and by the sculptors Lyndon Dadswell (* 1908, † 1987), Inge King (* 1915, † 2016) and Norma Redpath (* 1928, † 2013)from. Leonard French (* 1928, † 2017) holds a special position with his religious images. The same applies to Ron Mueck (* 1958), who lives in London and has been drawing attention to himself with his hyperreal sculptures, especially since the late 1990s. In addition to influences from European and American art, v. a. young artist suggestions of the nearby Asian and Pacific cultures. G. R. D
Design
Australian art, term for the partly still living art of the Australians and the art of the immigrants that has been based on European styles since the 19th century.
The Australian design v. a. by Marc Newson, born in Sydney (* 1963; living in London since 1997), whose designs for accessories, furniture, lights, interiors and others. have been sold worldwide since the 1980s.
Melbourne
Melbourne [ melbən], capital of the state Victoria and second largest city of Australia, (2018) 4.8 million residents (agglomeration), which are approx. 73% of the population of Victoria.
The metropolitan area, on both sides of the Yarra River, has an area of 7,800 km 2 (Statistical Division), which extends over 120 km on the coast around Port Phillip Bay. Melbourne is the seat of a Catholic and an Anglican Archbishop (Metropolitan of Victoria); seven universities, numerous technical schools and research institutes; State Library, National Gallery and National Museum of Victoria, among others. Museums, theaters; several radio and television stations, zoological and botanical gardens. Major sporting events take place regularly (including horse races, cricket, Formula 1 races). In the oldest part of the city, laid out like a chessboard, there are administrations of industrial and mining companies, banks and insurance companies as well as the headquarters of a stock exchange.
Melbourne is Australia’s most important industrial center; Numerous suburbs as well as new sub-centers on the periphery, especially along the arterial roads, are connected with diverse industrial settlements; Machine, agricultural machinery, industrial plants (including for power plants), rail vehicle and automobile construction, metal processing, paper, textile and clothing industry, chemical and petrochemical industry (oil refinery in Altona, tire production), food industry, marine shipyard in Williamstown. The port (second most important import port in Australia) is located at the mouth of the Yarra River in Port Phillip Bay; Ferry service to Devonport (Tasmania), Tullamarine International Airport.
Attractions
Melbourne, with its buildings from the late 19th century, is considered to be the most distinctly English of the Australian capitals: neo-Gothic Catholic Saint Patrick’s Cathedral (completed in 1868, largest church in Australia), Anglican Saint Paul’s Cathedral (neo-Gothic, from 1880; expansion 1931) and Town Hall (1867-70). The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, built for the 1880 and 1888 World’s Fair, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites; they combine Byzantine, Romanesque, Lombard and Italian Renaissance style elements and are typical of the time of the great world exhibitions between 1851 and 1915. The cityscape is dominated by numerous skyscrapers. An outer ring of suburbs extends to the Dandenong Ranges, foothills of the Great Dividing Range (especially residential areas).
History
The Melbourne area was first settled from Tasmania in 1835, the settlement was named in 1837 after the then British Prime Minister William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne (* 1779, † 1848). Due to the gold discoveries around the middle of the century and the export of wool and talc, the settlement grew rapidly; In 1842 it became a city and in 1851 the capital of the state of Victoria. 1901-27 Melbourne was the capital of the Australian Confederation (since then Canberra). In 1956 the Summer Olympics took place here.
