In 1973, the famous Sydney Opera House opened. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s lots of Australian movies, actors and singers became famous around the world. In the year 2000, Sydney had the Summer Olympics.
In the 1980s and 90s, the Labor Party under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, then the Liberal Party under John Howard made lots of changes to the economy. Australia had a bad recession in 1991, but when other Western countries had trouble with their economies in 2008, Australia stayed strong.
Today Australia is a rich, peaceful and democratic country. But it still has problems. Around 4-5% of Australians could not get a job in 2010. A lot of land in Australia (like Uluru) has been returned to Aboriginal people, but lots of Aborigines are still poorer than everybody else. Every year the government chooses a big number of new people from all around the world to come as immigrants to live in Australia. These people may come because they want to do business, or to live in a democracy, to join their family, or because they are refugees. Australia took 6.5 million immigrants in the 60 years after World War Two, including around 660,000 refugees.
Julia Gillard became the first woman Prime Minister of Australia in 2010 when she replaced her colleague Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party.
Australia is part of the Commonwealth of Nations. Australia is made up of six states, and two mainland territories. Each state and territory has its own Parliament and makes its own local laws. The Parliament of Australia sits in Canberra and makes laws for the whole country, also known as the Commonwealth or Federation.
The Federal government is led by the Prime Minister of Australia, who is the member of Parliament chosen as leader. The current Prime Minister is Scott Morrison.
The leader of Australia is the Prime Minister, although the Governor-General represents the Queen of Australia, who is also the Queen of Great Britain, as head of state. The Governor-General, currently His Excellency David Hurley, is chosen by the Prime Minister.
Australia Day and Anzac Day are both Australian holidays. A Barbecue is traditionally eaten on those days. Australia was colonised by people from Britain, but today people from all over the world live there. English is the main spoken language, and Christianity is the main religion, though all religions are accepted and not everybody has a religion. Australia is multicultural, which means that all its people are encouraged to keep their different languages, religions and ways of life, while also learning English and joining in with other Australians.
Famous Australian writers include the bush balladeers Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson who wrote about life in the Australian bush. More modern famous writers include Peter Carey, Thomas Keneally and Colleen McCullough. In 1973, Patrick White won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the only Australian to have achieved this; he is seen as one of the great English-language writers of the twentieth century.
Australian music has had lots of world-wide stars, for example the opera singers Nellie Melba and Joan Sutherland, the rock and roll bands Bee Gees, AC/DC and INXS, the folk-rocker Paul Kelly (musician), the pop singer Kylie Minogue and Australian country music stars Slim Dusty and John Williamson. Australian Aboriginal music is very special and very ancient: it has the famous digeridoo woodwind instrument.
Australian TV has produced many successful programs for home and overseas - including Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Home and Away and Neighbours - and produced such well known TV stars as Barry Humphries ("Dame Edna Everage"), Steve Irwin ("The Crocodile Hunter") and The Wiggles. Major Australian subgroups such as the Bogan have been shown on Australian TV in shows such as Bogan Hunters and Kath & Kim.
Australia has two public broadcasters (the ABC and the multi-cultural SBS), three commercial television networks, three pay-TV services, and numerous public, non-profit television and radio stations. Each major city has its daily newspapers, and there are two national daily newspapers, "The Australian" and "The Australian Financial Review".
Australian movies have a very long history. The world's first feature movie was the Australian movie "The Story of the Kelly Gang" of 1906. In 1933, "In the Wake of the Bounty", directed by Charles Chauvel, had Errol Flynn as the main actor. Flynn went on to a celebrated career in Hollywood. The first Australian Oscar was won by 1942's "Kokoda Front Line!", directed by Ken G. Hall. In the 1970s and 1980s lots of big Australian movies and movie stars became world famous with movies like "Picnic at Hanging Rock", "Gallipoli" (with Mel Gibson), "The Man From Snowy River" and "Crocodile Dundee". Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett and Heath Ledger became global stars during the 1990s and "Australia" starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman made a lot of money in 2008.
Australia is also a popular destination for business conferences and research, with Sydney named as one of the top 20 meeting destinations in the world.
Sport is an important part of Australian culture because the climate is good for outdoor activities. 23.5% Australians over the age of 15 regularly take part in organised sporting activities. In international sports, Australia has very strong teams in cricket, hockey, netball, rugby league and rugby union, and performs well in cycling, rowing and swimming. Local popular sports include Australian Rules Football, horse racing, soccer and motor racing. Australia has participated in every summer Olympic Games since 1896, and every Commonwealth Games. Australia has hosted the 1956 and 2000 Summer Olympics, and has ranked in the top five medal-winners since 2000. Australia has also hosted the 1938, 1962, 1982 and 2006 Commonwealth Games and are to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Other major international events held regularly in Australia include the Australian Open, one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, annual international cricket matches and the Formula One Australian Grand Prix. Corporate and government sponsorship of many sports and elite athletes is common in Australia. Televised sport is popular; some of the highest-rated television programs include the Summer Olympic Games and the grand finals of local and international football competitions.
The main sporting leagues for males are the Australian Football League, National Rugby League, A-League and NBL.
For women, they are ANZ Netball Championships, W-League and WNBL.
Famous Australian sports players include the cricketer Sir Donald Bradman, the swimmer Ian Thorpe and the athlete Cathy Freeman.
Just 60 years ago, Australia had only one big art festival. Now Australia has hundreds of smaller community-based festivals, and national and regional festivals that focus on specific art forms.
Australia is home to many animals that can be found nowhere else on Earth, which include: the koalas, the kangaroos, the wombat, the numbat, the emu, among many others. Most of the marsupials in the world are found only on the continent or on the neighbouring island of New Guinea. Wildfires from global warming in 2020 have decreased their population.
American English
American English or United States English is the dialect of the English language spoken in the United States of America. It is different in some ways from other types of English, such as British English. Many types of American English came from local dialects in England.
Many people today know about American English even if they live in a country where another sort of English is spoken. This may be because people hear and read American English through the media, for example movies, television, and the Internet, where the most common form of English is American English.