Australia Section:
New South Wales
New South Wales was the name originally applied to all land east of the 135 th meridian of east longitude was the first British settlement in Australia in 1788. Discussion as to why this region was the site of the first settlement abounds even today.
Land
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Mount Kosciusko is the highest mountain in Australia, while a narrow coastal strip of fertile river valleys, plains and granite outcrops is bounded on the west by steep gorges, leading up to the tableland. These plateaus stretch from the New England Range in the north, the central and southern tablelands, and the Monaro plateau in the south. In the far northwest of the state are the outer sand dunes of the Simpson Desert. Annual rainfall varies from 10 inches to between 35 and 60 inches in the north.
Flora and Fauna
Except on the north coast, where remnants of subtropical rain forest survive, the vegetation is mainly xerophytic (adapted to frequent droughts). The rich bird life includes many species of parrot and cockatoo, the flightless emus, the mound-building scrub birds, and mallee fowl. Marsupials include the koala, the wombat, the kangaroo and wallaby.
Cultural
Henry Lawson and A. B. (Banjo) Paterson have helped to form an Australian identity. Sir William Dobell and Russell Drysdale promulgated the bush images, which goes back to the Victorian Heidelberg School of nationalist Australian landscape painters of the late 19 th century.
Friends
I reside in Sydney, Australia with my two remaining children. I am a Community Development Worker (Social Welfare) and have been in the business for 20 years, the first 10 being
voluntary. Part of my role there for a short time was to teach disabled young people how to work on computers. Through my work I have just commenced a program working with at risk young
children.
I held my own small business for two (2) years in web design as well as various other crafts including painting and making clocks. I have spent quite a bit of my spare time fixing other peoples
computer problems and offering my services to small charitable organizations to build web sites on a voluntary basis.
