Australians in Cleveland

2023

Fun with Maps - Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land)

Being so far south Tasmania - Hobart in particular - serves as Australia's chief sea link to Antarctica, with the Australian Antarctic Division located in Kingston. If you are lucky you can see the aurora australis (southern lights as opposed to the northern lights aurora borealis). Geographically and biological isolated, Tasmania is known for the now extinct Tasmanian Tiger and the Tasmanian Devil. The Tasmanian devil, also called a Tassie Devil, is a carnivorous marsupial (like Kangaroos, Wallabies, Koalas, and Wombats.) It was made famous in the Warner Brothers cartoons. Dan points out the similarities and differences between the real animal and the cartoon.

Fun with Maps - Tasmania Part 2 (with Ash Nallawalla)

Ash said the people are affectionately called Tassies and the island, which resembles an apple, is called the Apple Isle. He says that not only was Tasmania once connected to the mainland but also New Zealand was probably connected to the east coast of Australia. With Hobart so far south Ash told of wanting to film the Aurora Australis, the southern aurora. He told of some sites to visit in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, such as remnants of the Van Diemen's Land prisons, the Museum of Old and New Art and more.

Ash has travelled extensively and says his favorite destination is New Zealand for the amazing scenery. He has travelled from the top northern point with all the volcanic scenery to the southern tip. Of course he visited Hobbiton where the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed.

Cheryl and Craig Watkinson from Australia

Young athletes from Australia compete in Cleveland at the Cleveland Clinic Sports Health International Youth Sports Festival.

Tell us about the music, food, holidays, traditions, costumes, language and other qualities that make Australians so special.

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the mainland of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous other islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James Cook took possession in the name of Great Britain.

Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II.

In recent decades, Australia has transformed itself into an internationally competitive, advanced market economy. It boasted one of the OECD's fastest growing economies during the 1990s, a performance due in large part to economic reforms adopted in the 1980s.

Long-term concerns include climate-change issues such as the depletion of the ozone layer and more frequent droughts, and management and conservation of coastal areas, especially the Great Barrier Reef.

(facts courtesy of CIA World Fact Book)

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Thanks Ash Nallawalla.