Australia

Commonwealth of Australia

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Commonwealth of Australia
CAPITAL: Canberra
FLAG: The flag has three main features: the red, white, and blue Union Jack in the upper left quarter, indicating Australia's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations; the white five-star Southern Cross in the right half; and the white seven-pointed federal star below the Union Jack. The flag has a blue background. Of the five stars of the Southern Cross, four have seven points and one has five points.
ANTHEM: God Save the Queen is reserved for regal and state occasions and whenever singing is appropriate; the national tune is Advance Australia Fair.
MONETARY UNIT: The Australian dollar (A$) is a paper currency of 100 cents. There are coins of 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents and 1 and 2 dollars, and notes of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 dollars. A$1 = US$0.6173 (US$1 = A$1.62) as of May 2003.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES: Metric weights and measures are used. The Australian proof gallon equals1.37 US proof gallons.
HOLIDAYS: New Year's Day, 1 January; Australia Day, last Monday in January; Anzac Day, 25 April; Queen's Birthday, second Monday in June; Christmas, 25 December; Boxing Day, 26 December. Numerous state holidays also are observed. Movable religious holidays include Good Friday, Easter Saturday, and Easter Monday.
TIME: Western Australia, 8 PM = noon GMT; South Australia and Northern Territory, 9:30 PM; Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania, 10 PM. Summer time is 1 hour later in all states except Western Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory.

Koala

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The Koala is one of Australia's best known animals. It is an icon represented when promoting Australia to the tourist industry, and in general people adore these cuddly creatures. There are two species, the Southern Koalas and the Northern Koalas.
Koalas are often referred to as a Koala bear. However they are not a bear. The name Koala comes from an Aboriginal word. It means "no drink", as Koalas get enough fluids through the eucalyptis leaves they feed on. Koalas are found all over east Australia, mainly in the south east.The male Koalas are larger than the females. Southern koalas are larger than Northern koalas. They have a grey soft furred coat, with a white chest. A flat nose and big ears, and clawed feet for climbing.
They are very placid animals, and do not move around much, they are only active for about 2 hours of the day.
The old Australian joke of "Koalas: Eats Roots & Leaves" is not quite correct. Koalas feed on eucalyptis leaves, which they have a variety of twelve different species to choose from. This is basically the only thing they do eat, although there are a few exceptions.

About the Guide to Australia

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About the Guide to Australia
The Guide to Australia is an encyclopaedic collection of essential information about Australia. It contains information as diverse as the Australian constitution, current weather and lamington recipes.
Unlike a paper encyclopaedia, the Guide is a distributed service. It is made possible by the collective efforts of the hundreds of site editors who submit their site URL's. The information contributed by these sites is about AUSTRALIAN topics. Ultimately the project aims to compile links to all major on-line information resources about Australia for distribution via World Wide Web. Our aim is that ultimately it will grow into an on-line hypertext encyclopaedia.
The Guide also incorporates the Register of Australian Web Servers, which lists all registered web services and servers in the country. Both the Register and the Guide were established early in 1993 as officially endorsed services of the World Wide Web Virtual Library and its index of countries. They are also referenced by international projects such as the Virtual Tourist.