Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia in 1954, greeted by huge crowds across the nation. Her son Prince Charles went to school in Australia in 1967. Her grandson Prince Harry lived in Australia for some of his gap-year in 2003.
The Royal family was very popular for most of the 20th Century - but by the 1990s, some politicians and lots of people wanted Australia to become a republic. In 1999, the country had a referendum to become a republic, but the people chose to keep the Australian monarchy instead of changing to a republic.
At the moment, the monarch of Australia is Queen Elizabeth II. She has the title of Queen of Australia and has reigned since 6 February 1952. She is represented in Australia by the Governor-General. The Governor-General does the work of the Queen in Australia and follows the rules of the Australian Constitution. He or she is chosen by the Prime Minister and appointed by the monarch.
In each of the States of Australia, the monarch is represented by a Governor. The Governors are appointed by the Queen after the state premiers tell her their choice.
The Australian monarch is also monarch of fifteen other Commonwealth countries known as Commonwealth realms: including Britain, New Zealand, Canada and Papua New Guinea.
The Governor General is chosen by the Prime Minister and is appointed by the monarch to act as Head of State. The Governor General cannot behave like a politician or member of a political party, but must do the work of the monarch in Australia. The Governor General does things like opening parliament, and giving out awards on Australia Day. After elections, or when a government loses or wins a majority in the Australian House of Representatives, the Governor General is the person who legally decides that the prime minister has the numbers to lead a government.
Some Governor-Generals belonged to the Royal Family and for a long time they all came from Britain, but for many years all Governor Generals have been Australians.
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of Australia. The lower house is the House of Representatives. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years. But some senators have three year terms. The Senate has a lot of power from the Australian Constitution.
There are currently 76 people in the Senate.
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the Parliament of Australia. The upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament (MPs) serve for terms of about three years. There are 150 members. Each member represents one electorate. The number of electorates is figured out so that it is in proportion to the population of each state/territory. and so that each one has roughly the same population. This is determined by the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission)
UTC+06:30
UTC+06:30 is the timezone in places below. The time is 6.5 hours later than Greenwich Mean Time.
UTC+07:00
UTC+07:00 is the timezone in places below. The time is 7 hours later than Greenwich Mean Time. This timezone is also known as Indochina Time (ICT).
It is considered the westernmost time zone in East Asia.
Although usually time zones are made based on longitude, there are some differences.
Asian time zones
Automatic rifle
Usually, an automatic rifle is a rifle that continuously fires bullet as long as the trigger is pressed. Cartridge shells are ejected and new cartridges are loaded into the chamber automatically. However, most automatic rifles are designed to give both semi- and fully automatic fire. This is called selective fire. They also rifle bullets from a magazine. These features makes them different from other automatic firearms like the machine gun and submachine gun.
Soldiers in the United States Army who carry the M249 SAW are called "automatic riflemen". The weapon is also called an "automatic rifle". However, it is a fully automatic firearm. These are normally called squad automatic weapons (SAW) or light machine guns.
An assault rifle is quite similar to an automatic rifle. However, it uses less powerful bullets than the machine gun or battle rifle. This allows the soldier using it to control the recoil of the weapon without using a bipod or something similar. Bullets like these are called "intermediate" bullets. For example, the AK-47 assault rifle often uses a 7.62x39mm bullet. The bullet is the same diameter. However, it is smaller and less powerful compared to the 7.62x54mmR. The 7.62x54mmR was what was being used with rifles when the AK-47 was brought in to service.
The very first automatic rifle was the Mexican Mondragón rifle. It was designed by General Manuel Mondragón. He began working on the weapon in 1882. He patented it in 1887. In the 20th century, automatic rifles go back to World War I. This is where the Browning Automatic Rifle (B.A.R.) and Huot were first used. They were supposed to be used like light machine guns to help soldiers attack. However, only the Mondragón rifle and the B.A.R. were used in World War I.
UTC+06:00
UTC+06:00 is the timezone in places below. The time is 6 hours later than Greenwich Mean Time.
UTC+11:30
UTC+11:30 is the timezone in places below. The time is 11.5 hours later than Greenwich Mean Time. This time zone was used in Norfolk Island until October 4, 2015.
Telephone numbers in Australia
Country Code: +61<br>
International Call Prefix: 0011<br>
Trunk Prefix: 0
The Australian telephone numbering plan is how phone numbers work in Australia. It has changed many times. The most recent major change was between 1994 and 1998.
Australia is divided geographically into four large area codes. The standard telephone number in Australia has ten digits. The first digit is '0'.
The first digits are for the type of service. The following list is a high level of numbering plan presented in domestic format. Geographical region boundaries do not exactly follow state borders.
000 is the emergency telephone number in Australia.
1910 in music
This list is about 1910 in music.
The Kingdom (Elgar)
The Kingdom, Op. 51, is an oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra composed by Edward Elgar.
It was first performed at the Birmingham Music Festival on 3 October 1906, with the orchestra conducted by the composer, and soloists Agnes Nicholls, Muriel Foster, John Coates and William Higley.
Elgar thought for a long time about the idea of writing an oratorio about the apostles. He decided in the end to write not just one, but three oratorios (a “trilogy”). The first one was to be about the apostles being called to follow Jesus. This one was called "The Apostles" and was composed and performed in 1903. The second one was to be about the apostles being persecuted. This one, first performed in 1906, was given the title The Kingdom. The third one was going to be about the Last Judgement. Elgar never got round to composing it, although he thought about it as late as the 1920s.
Elgar prepared the words of "The Kingdom" himself. He describes events from the Acts of the Apostles, and he also put in lines from the Gospels, the Old Testament and the Apocrypha.
A lot of the music is calm and thoughtful rather than dramatic. If Elgar had completed all three oratorios, "The Kingdom" would have been the middle one: quiet and relective between two more dramatic ones. As in "The Apostles" , Elgar used the idea of the Leitmotif. This is something that Richard Wagner had developed in his operas: the technique of having short tunes (motifs) which represent particular characters or events in the story.
The oratorio is divided into a prelude which is played by the orchestra, and five parts.
"The Kingdom" is written for a large orchestra. There is a double chorus (the choir split into 8 parts) with semichorus, and four soloists who represent The Blessed Virgin (soprano), Mary Magdalene (contralto), St John (tenor), and St Peter (bass).