T here are many who have said “Australia is like no other place on earth” which in itself is intriguing, but not necessarily a compliment. My view of Australia, having spent 7 weeks tremendously enjoying the great nation is a bit different – I feel it is a place with a lot of unique attributes and one that has absorbed a lot of what the world and those who have come to Australia had to offer.

Let’s start with some basic facts. Australia is a very large country, equivalent to the continental US in size, yet just under 10% of the population of United States. The highest percentage of population is concentrated along the eastern seaboard and around Melbourne with west coast (Perth), Northern coast (Darwin), and Tasmania (Hobart) being places of much lower population. To give you a more personal perspective on size and distances of Australia, my trip from Cairns (North East corner of the country) down the coast to Sydney and then to Melbourne took just over 60 bus hours. In US the same timed trip (using the same bus company  - Greyhound) would take me from Port Arthur Washington (top of Olympic National Park) to San Diego CA and then over to Albuquerque NM.

The middle part of Australia is know as “the Red Middle” – just picture Arizona desert covering 3/4 of the Great Plains in US. The middle part of Australia is know as “the Red Middle” – just picture Arizona desert covering 3/4 of the Great Plains in US. With this much land lacking water, you can imagine that Australia does struggle with drought. In the nations early days some errors in planning were made and many farmers created their own irrigation systems even further depleting water supply. This was a major issue and a source of many political battles between rural and urban resident, especially for Victoria and Queensland. Sydney has been blessed with a great reservoir of fresh water coming from the Blue Mountains. The rest of the cities know that water is a high value resource. Australians have learned to manage their water better. Hostels have reminders to limit shower times, farms reuse brown water and pretty much every toilet in the country has an option to half or full flush. In my opinion, this last little incredibly simple step is an example of a nation and people who are a lot less wasteful and more thoughtful about their resources than most Americans are.

Speaking of simple, there is another small item I have seen in every Australian household (as well as in some places in Papua New Guinea which were influences by Australians) that I believe US homes can easily implement and see positives for the environment AND their wallets. In Aussie homes and businesses EVERY electrical outlet has an on/off switch. Told you it was simple, but it is very effective.

Not only are the Aussies conscious of their resources they are highly protective of it. Much harm has been done to native species of flora and fauna by introduction of foreign items. Most people have heard the “rabbit” story. In case you have not, rabbits were introduced into Australia in 1800s for hunting purposes and with no natural predators multiplied (as rabbits do) and became a huge pest damaging farm product, spreading decease, and leading to national rabbit hunting and extermination efforts. There have been other problems from introductions of things as simple as algae to untreated lumber with pests. Having gone through Australian border twice, I can tell you, they are tough. My bags were scanned, sniffed, swiped and hand checked. If I were to fail to declare any living or food item the fines could have been in thousands of dollars. One would say that border protection services may be going overboard as I have heard some crazy stories from various folks (including being given an option of having to spend a few hundred dollars to scan a US shipped package with an insect killing gamma rays or have it destroyed only to find out the package contained a simple cheap stuffed toy). However, having understood the history I can not blame them.

Of course there are other side effects to such tough measures. Imported food is very expensive. And some items are not even allowed to be imported. A simple example of a recent crisis can be seen in bananas. Due to flooding in Queensland and a bug that attacked Australian bananas the amount of banana supplies was cut by over 1/2. So the prices went up to as high as $16/kg. Now, my initial reaction was, well grab some bananas from Papua New Guinea (and for the record they were delicious) and bring them down. But the fear of introducing a worse disease or pest is greater to Australians than paying a high price for delicious fruit.

You may have heard that Australia has more creatures that can kill a man.The protective sense extends inside the country to taking care of native creatures. You may have heard that Australia has more creatures that can kill a man (and a good friend of mine made ever effort possible to remind me of that fact before I left) – there are various snakes, spiders, crocodiles (including the salt water crocs that are one of only two creatures that actively hunt humans), sharks, spiders, jelly fish and who knows what else. And then there are animals that can become very pest like – possums, kangaroos, and wallabies among others. Well, while these animals may cause harm to you, in most Australian cities, states, and territories, you may not harm them. One other interesting note about Australian animals, many of them are nocturnal and therefore the encounters with them are most common ant dawn or dusk (or at night) Kangaroos can be hunted in certain locations with a special license in certain seasons and are used for meat. I have had a chance to sample Roo and the taste very much reminded me of another lean game meat, venison. And while it seems a bit odd to eat an animal found on your nation’s crest or as your symbol, Australia is not the only nation that does that, just ask folks in Johannesburg.

In my travels I did catch a few of the native creatures in my viewfinder. Thankfully I have avoided crocs and snakes. Still, there are a few in the gallery following the post (and on my flickr) mostly featuring the “cute and cuddly” Aussie creatures. Well, they may seem cute and cuddly, but the reality is a bit different. Koalas, which I was informed have no relation to bears, have serious claws and do not like being disturbed. They also make noises similar to a loud old lawn mower. Kangaroos have attacked and mauled humans who have breached their turf. Both roos and wallabies have been deadly for drivers on the road as they jump, sometimes through the windshield, when seeing approaching vehicle headlights. Oh, and no, I have not met “Skippy” who is the Australian equivalent to Lassie – friendly kangaroo who helps folks and maybe even delivers mail (on tv).

Ok, moving away from the furry creatures, let me share some of my thoughts about a much more friendlier kind – native Aussie humans. They are very hospitable and are a lot more laid back than Americans and even Europeans. One of my favorite phrases overheard often was “no worries” which pretty much symbolizes how most in Oz approach life. They love to enjoy life, travel, cook out, eat out, drink various styles of coffee, sip their wine chilled (sometimes even red), and engage in all types of outdoor activities, including amazing “extreme” sports like kite surfing. I saw a large group of these kite surfers on my way to capture some ferry penguins at St. Kilda pier (Melbourne suburb). Not only where they doing amazing stunts and flips, they were extra daring since the water was pretty chilly (around 10 degree Celsius or 50 F) . While food, as pretty much everything, is more expensive in Australia, Aussies do on average eat healthier than Americans.

Australians do like their drinks. This is definitely more of a wine country than liquor or beer. There are several good brews that I have sampled, favorite being White Rabbit, an interesting name for a brown ale from South Australia. While in Tasmania I discovered they are a top 10 worldwide region for whiskey production. Still, the soil and climate is wonderful for grapes and there are vines of various types all around. Wine is perhaps the one affordable purchase in Australia. Australians do prefer to partake of the their beverages out in public, even street cafes allow BYOB when they do not offer refreshments.

One thing Australians love more than their alcohol is their coffee.One thing Australians love more than their alcohol is their coffee. There are probably more coffee shops per capita in Sydney and Melbourne than in New York. And they want coffee to be good. There is no instant coffee, every place, even a small hole-in-a-wall has a “barista” or a few of them. Starbucks only exists in touristy areas. Some Aussies even claim that Starbucks coffee is simply inferior. Since I could not tell a good coffee from a bad, I will not render judgement.

There are some food items that are viewed as Australian. There are some famous desserts: Tim Tams, Sticky Date Pudding and a controversial one called Pavlova. Pavlova, named for a Russian ballerina, is a claim to fame of both Australia and New Zealand. Both nations claim to have invented the dish and accuse the other of stealing it. My hosts in Melbourne went out of the way to introduce me to all of them. The oldest daughter in the family put a huge amount of effort into preparing a home made Pavlova, which is a layered maurange concoction with a passion fruit syrup and fruit topping. And for the record, the home made Pavlova in Melbourne was tastier and much more meaningful than the one in a commercial establishment in New Zealand.

— I decided to continue this post in Part 2. Please do read on.

The photos in this post are less scenic than many others I have taken and are mainly for reference purposes. I am only placing a few photos into the blog. If you would like to see many more sights captured through my lenses, please click here to visit my flickr site.