Australia

General Information, Facts and Statistics

General Information
The BBC Country Profilesinclude links to relevant BBC coverage, Australian newspapers, radio stations, TV channels and an online country timeline. Update information provided.

TheDepartment of Foreign Affairs and Trade provides short and easy-to-handle introductions to all aspects of Australian history, politics, nationalsymbols, minorities, etc. All of these can be downloaded as PDF files and usually include further links to related topics.

The U.S. Department of State offers a comprehensive country profile on Australia. This site focuses on implications for US/US policy.

Portals to the World is a service by the Library of Congress (LOC). The site provides collections of annotated website links for every nation as selected by LOC experts. Links are to both government sites as well as outside servers.

The National Library of Australia> ‘guides’ section leaves its visitor with links to any kind of information considering government, religion, arts, history and culture.

Official websites on Australia
Das Auswärtige Amt bietet Länderinformationen über Australien, gibt Reise- und Sicherheitshinweise sowie informiert über die Wirtschaftslage und Wirtschaftsstruktur des Landes.

The Australian Government offers a general overview of the country. This site provides good links on all relevant subject matters concerning Australia.

TheDepartment of Foreign Affairs and Trade provides short and easy-to-handle introductions to all aspects of Australian history, politics, national symbols, minorities, etc. All of these can be downloaded as PDF files and usually include further links to related topics.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade offers general country information on Australia.

The government of New South Wales provides data on the history, population, NSW parliament, national symbols, industry, geography and weather. Includes a wide range of links in regard to Culture and Recreation, Environment, Law and Justice and many others.

The homepage of the Northern Territory Government of Australia provides data on its population, environment etc.

The homepage of the Queensland Government of of Australia provides data on its population, environment etc.

The homepage of the South Australia Government of Australia provides data on its population, environment etc.

The homepage of the Tasmania Government of Australia provides data on its population, environment etc.

The homepage of the Victoria Government of Australia provides data on its population, environment etc.

The homepage of the Western Australia Government of Australia provides data on its population, environment etc.

Facts and Statistics

The Country Indicator for Foreign Policy (CIFP)project represents an on-going effort to identify and assemble statistical information conveying the key features of the political, economic, social and cultural environments of countries around the world. Maintained by Carleton University (Canada).

The International Data Base (IDB) contains statistical tables of demographic and socio-economic data for 227 countries and areas of the world. Output is displayed in charts and graphs, but can also be modified individually for use in spreadsheets etc. Maintained by the US Census Bureau.

The CIA World Factbook is a reliable, much-quoted resource on basic country statistics. Update information provided.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) supports a site about indigenous statistics, such as information on Population, Education, Employment and Health.

Geography and Maps News and Media

Press

Australian Financial Review - business daily

Herald Sun - daily (Melbourne-based)

The Advertiser - daily (Adelaide-based)

The Age - daily (Melbourne-based)

The Australian - national daily

The Courier-Mail - daily (Brisbane-based)

The Daily Telegraph - daily (Sydney-based)

The Sydney Morning Herald - daily

The Sydney Times

The West Australian - daily (Perth-based)

Australia News Topix - News site, compiling news from a very wide range of different sources, allowing users to quickly and easily find targeted news on the Internet.

News agency

Australian Associated Press, Australia's national news agency, is the largest independent originator and aggregator of news and information in Australia, serving the media, government, business and financial markets. AAP's domestic news coverage is complemented by alliances with the major international news agencies.

Radio

ABC - public, operates speech-cultural network Radio National, news station ABC NewsRadio, youth-oriented Triple J, classical and contemporary music network ABC Classic FM and local-regional services

Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) - licenses and regulates radio stations; station lists available

Radio Australia - ABC's external service, targeted at Asia-Pacific region via shortwave and internet

SBS Radio - national multicultural, multilingual public network, broadcasts in 68 languages

Indigenous Media

Message Stick is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander section. The site has cultural protocols for journalists wishing to write about or communicate with indigenous communities.

Television

ABC - national public network

Australia Network - international channel, run by ABC

SBS TV - national multicultural public broadcaster, programmes in English and 60 other languages

Seven Network - national, commercial

Nine Network - national, commercial

Ten Network - national, commercial

ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) - licenses and regulates TV stations; station lists available

Foxtel - pay-TV operator, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the Packer group and telecommunications giant Telstra

Optus - pay TV operator

Media Education

Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME) is an emerging global coalition run by and for media educators. ACME's unique approach to media education involves teaching people of all ages how to more effectively access, analyse, evaluate and produce media. ACME's success involves teaching media skills in an engaging way. Site contains tool kits, study guides, and contests, as well as a useful Pdf-file including a list of additional web-links on various subjects if you follow the Resources link.

General Media Information/ Web Portals

The Alliance is the union and professional organisation which covers everyone in the media, entertainment, sports and arts industries. The Resources link takes you to topic-related documents in PDF format.

The World Wide Media Guide provides access to Australian newspapers, TV channels and radio stations by region or major city.

Fibreculture offers reviews, maintains an extensive archive and organises various projects in the field of media studies. Informative, topic-related articles of all issues from 2003 to present can be accessed. Major, if not the main network of Australian cultural and media theorists.

Politics, Society and Culture

Political Institutions

Parliament of Australia. General information on the structure of the Australian parliament with cross references to its members. Offers access to life broadcasting of proceedings of the Commonwealth Parliament.

This site of the Australian Government provides good links on all relevant subject matters concerning Australia, including a link to the site of the Parliament of Australia.

The Australian Prime Minster’s personal page with much useful information on Australian facts and figures, national symbols, the constitution, the system of Government, a tour of Parliament House and a brief history of Australia

Entry point to the Australian local governments of New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia,Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania. The official government web site of Tasmania offers a section on Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Site also includes interactive maps, fact sheets on regional pages and a wide range of other services.

Contemporary Australian Society

The Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs provides information for foreign visitors, especially on the application for citizenship as well as an introduction to Australia’s multi-cultural policy with the agenda as PDF file. Includes basic facts about the history, constitution and politics of Australia.

Human Rights

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Internationaloffer frequent reports on human rights issues.

The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HEROC) offers a wealth of useful statistical material (including its annual Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Reports) on the situation of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. Includes a research paper titled "Ending Family Violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities".

Reconciliation Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that was established in 2000 by the former Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. This organisation promotes reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians for the wellbeing of the nation. The site contains material on the history and current process of reconciliation in Australia.

Political and Legal Situation

Index of political sites available on the Internet, sorted by country, with links to Parties, Organizations, Governments, Media.

History

History (Standardseiten)

The BBC country profiles include an online timeline of each country.

History of Nations is based on information from the US Department of State and highlights each nation's history.

Wikipedia's History of Australia.

National History

The National Library of Australia: Collects sites on Australian history, sites collecting historical documents, links to archives, registers, museums and libraries.

The Digital Collections of the National Library also digitises selected items in its collections to provide users with easy online access to some of Australia’s most significant cultural materials.

The National Archives of Australia comprises 110 documents about the foundation and the history of Australia's democracy. Documents are available as view scans and come with comprehensive explanatory notes. This site offers information on official political and historical records as well as ongoing exhibitions.

Dictionary of Australian Biography contains over 10,000 articles on 11,237 persons (some articles are on more than one person) who were important in Australian history or who represent aspects of the Australian experience. All the articles have been taken from the hard-copy volumes of the ADB published between 1966 and 2005.

The Library of Congress (LOC) site provides collections of annotated website links for every nation as selected by LOC experts. Links are to both government sites as well as outside servers. .

The site of the Australian War Memorial is a comprehensive gateway to information on the military history of Australia. Includes a Biographical Database,links to research projects and a Journal.

Australian Periodical Publications - a digital library of Australian journals that began publication between 1840-1845.

Exploration / Colonial Period

South Seas: Voyaging and Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Pacific (1760-1800) Site contains explorers' journals, indigenous accounts, maps and an encyclopaedic reference guide to the history of European voyaging and cross-cultural encounters in the Pacific during the years between 1760 and 1800.

Empire Online is an exciting collection of original documents relating to Empire Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world. Each Section features thematic essays by leading scholars in the field of Empire Studies. (Access only via university network or vpn client)

The Making of the Modern World: full text database providing access to a myriad of historical documents, mostly related to economic and colonial history. (Access only via university network or vpn client)

Indigenous Australia

The site of the Australian Museum is a good introduction to indigenous Australian spirituality. It offers a virtual tour of indigenous Australia, as well an introductory section comprising Information on Indigenous Australia including Cultural Heritage, Spirituality, Family, Land, Social Justice, a Glossary and an IndigenousAustralia Timeline. It also contains relevant links on all subjects to do with aboriginal culture, heritage, legal status, religion, etc.

Reconciliation Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that was established in 2000 by the former Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. This organisation promotes reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians for the wellbeing of the nation. The site contains material on the history and current process of reconciliation in Australia.

The official government web site of Queensland offers a section on Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders as well as one on Queensland's history.

Research and Historical Debates

History Compasspublishes peer-reviewed surveys of the most important research and current thinking from across the entire discipline.Unique in both range and approach, the journal explores all branches of historical scholarship. History Compass plays an active role in fostering research that spans centuries and continents, and provides an ideal entry point for the non-specialist. This site contain articles on Australasia and the Pacific which, however, can only be accessed via the University Network.

In Australia's ongoing 'Historikerstreit' over the extent and implications of frontier and settler violence for contemporary aboriginal relations, the conservative historian Keith Windshuttle (author of the much-criticized yet widely-read The Fabrication of Aboriginal History) has been one of the most controversial figures. At this site, he archives his interventions in various public debates as well as reviews of his work.

Education Religions, Languages and Art

Indigenous Religions and Spirituality

The official website of the Parliamentary Library of the Parliament of Australia contains a research paper on Indigenous Religion in Secular Australia by Dr Marion Maddox, Consultant for the Social Policy Group of the Australian Parliament, dated 14 December 1999. The paper is mainly concerned with the legal framework of various aspects of religion and religious practice in Australia, that is to say the legislative background and current jurisdiction and relevant case-law.

This site gives the viewer the opportunity to cast a glimpse at some of Australia’s sacred sightsand offers short write-ups concerning said sites.

This site of the Australian Museum is a good introduction to indigenous Australian spirituality. It offers a virtual tour of indigenous Australia, as well an introductory section comprising Information on Indigenous Australia including Cultural Heritage, Spirituality, Family, Land, Social Justice, a Glossary and an Indigenous Australia Timeline. You can also hear stories of the Dreaming, handed down since the beginning of time.

Frog and Toad’s ‘Indigenous Australia’ is written entirely by Aboriginal People. The work has not been edited, re-written or changed. It covers subjects like languages, culture, festivals, The Dreaming, social organisation, land and achievements. Well presented and closely packed information that provides a general overview on Aboriginal life and history.

This site of the Australian Museum is a good introduction to indigenous Australian spirituality. It offers a virtual tour of indigenous Australia, as well an introductory section comprising Information on Indigenous Australia including Cultural Heritage, Spirituality, Family, Land, Social Justice, a Glossary and an Indigenous Australia Timeline. It also contains relevant links on all subjects to do with aboriginal culture, heritage, legal status, religion, etc.

The Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre gives information on the meaning of the Dreamtime. According to Aboriginal belief, all life as it is today - Human, Animal, Bird and Fish is part of one vast unchanging network of relationships which can be traced to the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime continues as the "Dreaming" in the spiritual lives of aboriginal people today.

Indigenous Languages

Aboriginal Languages of Australia: Virtual Library, ed. by David Nathan. This site has annotated and categorized links to 231 resources for about 80 languages

ABC National Radio's Holding our tongues is a Hindsight project about the long and painful task of reviving Aboriginal languages. Click on the place names on the interactive map to listen to examples of language, watch archival video or find more information.

The Indigenous Language Map, created by David R Horton, attempts to represent language, tribal or nation groups of Australia's Indigenous peoples. The version on ABC Online Indigenous is an interactive one.

Indigenous Art

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture contributes to the richness and diversity that is contemporary Australian culture. This EIAR site (European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights) provides a latest news index on art events or expositions. It also offers an extensive list of external links related to the topic.

Aboriginal Art Online offers information on art galleries, painting methods, traditional art, rock art and contemporary Aboriginal art.

Aboriginal Dreamings Gallery was established in 1989 and presents one of the finest, most comprehensive and affordable selections of authentic Australian Aboriginal Art and artefacts in Australia. The Gallery's collection includes over 1,500 original artworks representing many of the most respected Aboriginal artists

Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery presents paintings by some of Australia's most prominent Aboriginal artists. Australian Aboriginal art is the oldest living art tradition in the world, with paintings in rock shelters dating back over 20,000 years.

The Aboriginal Memorial is an installation of 200 hollow log coffins from Central Arnhem Land. It commemorates all the indigenous people who, since 1788, have lost their lives defending their land. The artists who created this installation intended that it be located in a public place where it could be preserved for future generations.

Aboriginal Arts is specialized on musical instruments and gives background information, mainly on didgeridoos.

The Aboriginal Art and Culture Centreoffers an introduction to Aboriginal art and depicts its parallels to the Dreamtime.

Minorities, Aboriginal Cultures

Minorities and Aboriginal Cultures

PANDORA, Australia's Web Archive,is a growing collection of Australian online publications, established initially by the National Library of Australia in 1996, and now built in collaboration with nine other Australian libraries and cultural collecting organisations. Contains many categorized links on the subject of indigenous Australia.

Face the Facts provides easy access to facts on Aboriginal issues. This sheet was produced by the Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner in 1997.

Elizabeth Rata "An Overview of Neotribal Captialism" Ethnologie Comparées 6 (Spring 2003). This paper discusses this process of ethnic boundary construction and summarises the research studies that lead to the theory of neotribal capitalism.

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is the world’s premier institution for information and research about the cultures and lifestyles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, past and present.

The Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages is a non-profit organisation. FATSIL is the national peak body for community based indigenous language programs in Australia.

The Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) provides background on many issues in the Aboriginal debate. CAEPR’s mission is to contribute to better outcomes for Indigenous Australians by informing constructive academic and public debates based on innovative research; analysing changes in Indigenous socio-economic status; and informing and influencing policy formation.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Social Justice is a commission whose role includes reviewing the impact of laws and policies on Indigenous peoples, reporting on Indigenous social justice and native title issues and promoting an Indigenous perspective on issues.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provides short and easy-to-handle introductions to all aspects of Australian history, politics, national symbols, minorities, etc. All of these can be downloaded as PDF files and usually include further links to related topics.

The European Network on Indigenous Australians Rights (ENIAR) aims "to promote awareness on indigenous issues and to provide information for Indigenous Australians about Europe and international organisations" and offers a wealth of material on the history andcontemporary situation of aboriginal Australians as well as on aboriginal culture.

Frog and Toad’s ‘Indigenous Australia’ is a site on aboriginal culture maintained by an independent travel guide and mainly written by Mayrah Yarraga. Comprehensive and colourful overview on aspects of indigenous culture.

The National Library of Australia ‘guides’ section leaves its visitor with links to any kind of information considering government, religion, arts, history and culture. Mura Gadi: an online guide to manuscripts, pictures and oral histories in the National Library of Australia relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Information on Indigenous People

The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet is an innovative Internet resource that aims to contribute to ‘closing the gap’ in health between Indigenous and other Australians by making research and other knowledge on Indigenous health readily accessible.

Indigenous Stories

Mission Voices is a project by the Koorie Heritage Trust Inc. in order to share the culture and history of Victorian Aboriginal (Koorie) people. Their Elders tell stories about their lives on missions and reserves. This non-profit Koorie organisation is a cultural centre holding extensive collections of art, oral histories and artifacts.

Dust Echoes is a series of twelve beautifully animated dreamtime stories from Central Arnhem Land, telling stories of love, loyalty, duty to country and aboriginal custom and law. You can watch the animation here...

Dreamtime Kullilla Art : The Aborigines, like the Christians, had their own stories that explained the origin of the world, themselves and all that make up the world that provided Aboriginal people with a strong and close association with the land for thousands of years.

Reconciliation Process

Reconciliation Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that was established in 2000 by the former Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. This organisation promotes reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians for the wellbeing of the nation. The site contains material on the history and current process of reconciliation in Australia.

ReconciliACTION is a network of Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people who have an interest in reconciliation and Indigenous rights issues and those who are active in their communities. The aim of this page is to guide young people to resources that they can use to understand more about reconciliation.

Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) is the only non-Indigenous national advocacy organisation dedicated specifically to the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. ANTaR's focus is on changing the attitudes and behaviours of non-Indigenous Australians so that the rights and cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are respected affirmed across all sections of society.

The National Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peopleson February 13th 2008 at the Parliament House. -This online exhibition by the AIATSIS library draws together many of the videos, photos, music and documents which are online into one resource. It gives a brief history of the Apology and contains the published transcript.

Between 1910 and 1970 up to 100,000 Aboriginal children were taken forcibly or under duress from their families by police or welfare officers. Most were under 5 years old. There was rarely any judicial process. To be Aboriginal was enough. They are known as the ‘Stolen Generations’.This ENIAR (European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights) site provides information on the topic.

The National Native Title Tribunal assists people to facilitate timely and effective native title outcomes. Native title is the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs. Native title rights and interests differ from Indigenous land rights in that the source of land rights is a grant of title from government.

Eddie Koiki Mabo was an Indigenous community leader and human rights activist who achieved national prominence as the successful principal plaintiff in the landmark High Court of Australia ruling on native land title. In 1992 the historic Mabo decision of the High Court of Australia recognised traditional land rights for Australian Indigenous People.

Indigenous Spirituality

See the section Religions, Languages and Art...

Diasporic Communities

Ozlanka: website of the Sri Lankan Community of Australia

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