Sites to be Seen

Broome 

Kangaroo Island
Ayers Rock or Uluru
Great Bearier Reef
3 Sisters in the Blue Mountains

Money, Money, Money

Check it out.  These are some of the Australian coins.  They have a 5¢, 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, $1, $2.  Notice they don't have any pennies!  

"Notes" (in the U.S. we call them "bills") are made of plastic.  Each amount is a different size & color.  Also if you look close @ the picture you will notice a clear plastic symbol in a corner.  The smallest amount is a $5 note.  If you need $1, or $2 you need to use your coins.  
In America it is expected to tip most services.  For example if you get your car washed, hair cut or go out to eat, these are all things that you would tip for in America.  In Australia tipping isn't expected but always appreciated.  If you do choice to tip when you travel 10% is what is customary.  Here in America we're @ about 18%.

GST (sales tax) is included in the price of items you are buying.  GST stands for Goods and Service Tax.  Luxury Tax is an added tax that is placed on certain goods the government perceives as a "luxury".

Caution Deadly

Australia is home to many of the deadliest species of animals on the planet. There are 36 species of poisonous funnel-web spiders in eastern Australia. 

The Red-Back Spider is so famous they even have their own song (to hear it click the song title above picture) about the Red-Back spider which is pictured below:

Redback On The Toilet Seat

There are also 20 types of venomous snakes.  The Inland Taipan, which attacks without warning and bites repeatedly, killing its victim in minutes, is the #1 deadliest in the world.  

The #2 deadliest is the Brown Snake.  They are responsible for being most snake-related fatalities in Australia because they live close to humans.  

The Australian Saltwater Crocodile can sense the presence of their prey through changes in water pressure, vision & hearing.  It is also the heaviest reptile alive. 

The Australian Box Jellyfish is also know as the sea wasp or sea stinger.  It can have up to 60 tentacles each being 15 feet long!  Each tentacle has 5,00 stinging cells.  

"Here's Brucey". Great White Sharks, the ocean's most feared predator, are found on all coasts of Australia & throughout the World.  The Great White is grey in color from the top, and white underneath.

Australia has more that 160 species of shark which make up nearly half of the worlds species.  Most of these are not threatening to humans.

Games, Games, Games

Bounce Eye
Bounce Eye is believed to have been created by early Australian settlers in the late 1700s. The game requires 3-4 players, and 3 marbles for each player.

Use a piece of chalk to draw a one-foot circle on a sidewalk. Each player puts two marbles in the center of the chalk circle. The first player stands up straight and drops a marble (from eye level) trying to knock the other players' marbles out of the circle.

If any marbles are knocked out, they become the property of whoever knocked them out. Each player has a turn, until all of the marbles are knocked out of the circle. The player with the most marbles at the end wins!

What Time is it Mr. Wolf?

One player is the wolf and he/she will stand with his/her back turned to the others about 5 meters from the others. The others call out, "Whats the time Mr. Wolf" and the wolf turns to face the others and shouts out a time. Eg: 10 o'clock. The others would then take 10 steps toward the wolf. The group will take the same amount of steps toward the wolf as the amount of hours in the wolfs time. eg, 2 o'clock = 2 steps, 6 o'clock = 6 steps etc. etc. The wolf will then turn his back to the group again for them to yell "whats the time...." (He looks at the group only when he shouts the time at the group". When the group gets close to the wolf the next time the group yells "whats the time Mr. Wolf" the wolf will say 'DINNER TIME" and run after the group who are running back to the start line, and hopefully catch one of the group who will then be the wolf. It sounds messy, but when played is an enjoyable game.

Stuck in the Mud

In this version of Tag, one person is still "it", but when they touch someone, that person is "frozen" in place. They cannot move and must stand with their feet apart. The only way they can become unfrozen is if a person crawls under their legs. Play continues until all the players are frozen. Then the last person to be frozen is "it" for the next game.

Cricket

You have a bat a ball and wickets. They play "one dayers" but can last up to 6 days. Instead of a "pitcher" it's called a "bowler"

Aussie Rules

Rugby League

National Anthem

In 1977, a national plebiscite was held to choose the National Song. Advance Australia Fair received 43.29% of the vote, defeating the three alternatives: Waltzing Matilda (28.28%), Song of Australia (9.65%), and the existing national anthem God Save the Queen (18.78%). In 1984 they adopted it as the National Anthem

Why Green & Gold?

In the U.S. our national colors are: red, white & blue.  Which are the same colors as our flag. 

Look at the Australian flag

Yet their national colors are green and gold.

Australia didn't have official national colors until April of 1984.  By then the people had adopted on there own green and gold.  Their national sports colors had been green and gold for quite sometime, and these colors had now been "associated with the achievements of many great Australian sports men and women."  But it is also said that it is the green and gold of Australia's landscape, which is covered with many species of wattle, which "won the day". 

"Big Things" in Australia

There are over 150 "BIG THINGS" in Australia.  It started back in 1964 with the "BIG BANANA" in Coffs Harbour.  They are scattered through out the small towns.  When you go to Australia you can get a "BIG THINGS" map, travel around and see the small towns while you're there.  But becarefull of the emus  they might snatch a sausage roll right out of your hands. ;)

If you could make something "BIG" what would it be?