• Australia is an island, a continent and a country. It’s the world’s
largest island and its smallest (but oldest) continent. And it’s the only
country that has a whole continent to itself.
The big lakes in the desert are dry
most of the time. Every September,
there is a boat race in Alice Springs.
The boats, however, are special. They
have sides but no bottoms and are
powered by feet! Hundreds of people
come to Alice Springs to see this crazy
race.
• The game is unique in the world. It’s played by teams of 18 players
on an oval field with an oval ball, like a rugby ball. Unlike normal
football or rugby, however, the ball can be passed in lots of ways:
kicked, hit with the hand and carried.
• Zorbing is a new exciting sport. A Zorb itself is a huge plastic
ball ( 3 – 3,5 metres tall) which contains another ball. The ball
rolls down the hill and so do you. A Zorb can reach up to 50 -60
km an hour. The ‘parents’ of this crazy sport are Dwaine van der
Sluis and Andrew Akers. They invented it in the 1990s. Zorbing
is very safe. All people from children to their grandparents can
do it. Kids are usually braver than their parents.
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world. There
are more than 1,500 kinds of ship and 400 types of coral in the
Great Barrier Reef.
Canberra, the capital of Australia, is the newest city of all. It was
designed by Walter Burley Griffin, an American architect, in
1912, and became the capital in 1927. Unlike other capitals, it’s
very, very quiet. There ate lots of trees and a big lake in the
center. Canberra is an Aboriginal word, meaning “meeting
place”.
Founded in 1788, Sydney is
Australia’s oldest city. Its first
settlers were British prisoners.
Today, Sydney is the largest city in
Australia. It is also home to one of
the country’s most famous
landmarks, the Sydney Opera
house. The roof of this beautiful
building looks like sails on Sydney
Harbour. Near the Opera house is
one of the largest bridges in the
world – the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Everything is unusual in Australia, even the food. Only in
Australia can you find a kangaroo pie, a crocodile steak or
smoked ostrich.
There are 60 kinds of
kangaroo in Australia. The
biggest kind is the red
kangaroo.
Everyone
loves the
sleepy grey
koalas. They
live in
eucalyptus
trees and eat
one kilo of
leaves every
day. They
sleep 18 -19
hours a day
The emu is a very large
bird. It’s 2 metres tall. It
cannot fly but it can run
very fast. It can swim
very well, too.