1\25\09 Reading

Students in Australia are much like we are. They are required to attend school until they are fifteen or sixteen. Unlike us though, getting to school can be the real adventure. Some kids have to travel some fifty miles to the schools if they live in the urban areas. Small schools are scattered around the sparsely populated areas where there are anywhere from eight to nine kids. Even those kids are considered lucky when the kids who live in the outback take their lessons from their teacher over the radio.
http://www.australia.com/things_to_do/outback.aspx

Australian is considered both one of the most musicale and one of the most difficult to understand. English there is not exactly like English here due to the intermingling of English words with those of the Aboriginal language. What can really make understanding their language difficult is their typical accent, which tends to be flat and nasally. The rest of the world got a good taste of the language when the Australian soldiers in World War 1 would march around singing the humorous marching song "Waltzing Matilda".

Australian writers were highly influenced by British writers, writing wholly in the British style to begin with. The first true Australian literature were in the form of “Bush Ballads”. One such ballad in the earlier discussed “Waltzing Matilda” written by A. B. Paterson. Literature involving fictional travels in the “bush” and the lives of the convicted colonists of Australia. Writers who were most famous in these styles were Henry Handel Richardson, Alan Moorehead, Patrick White, Jon Cleary, Ruch Park, Morris West, Shirley Hazzard, and many others. Australians hold the spot as being among the largest Buyers of books in relation to their population.

More than eighty percent of Australians live in urban areas and one third of all Australians live in only two cities, Sydney and Melbourne. The rest of the population is distributed between the other state capitals, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, and Darwin. Unlike U.S., Australian cities tend to grow outward rather than upward. Seventy percent of Australians own their own home. Residents of coastal cities are normally within walking distance of a public beach.

http://www.australia.com/things_to_do/cities.aspx

The simple beginnings of Australia add to their easygoing lives today. Though Australians tend to get smaller wages than their American counterparts and tend to pay more for necessities, they tend to enjoy a higher quality of life .