Australia

My subject of presentation is a new culture: Australia.

I went to Australia for two months in 2011 with my family. The purpose of this trip
was to discover a new culture, travel, and visit my uncle who is married an Australian
woman. I had the chance to go to Sydney, to go to an Australian school for three
days, to see kangaroos, koalas, to see the Sydney Opera House, I went several times
on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I tasted many Australian specialities including
pavlova. I'm going to talk to you about Australia in general and then Sydney.

Australia, the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere

whose area covers most of Oceania. In addition to the eponymous island, Australia
also includes Tasmania and other islands in the Southern, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Australia is the oldest continent in the world. The aborigines who have inhabited it
for more than 60,000 years are now a small minority in a nation of some twenty
million inhabitants marked by its Anglo-Saxon heritage.
Australia was colonized in the 18th century by Great Britain with the explorer James
Cook who took possession of the east coast and named it New South Wales. Colonies
were founded in the 19th century, as the population increased and new territories
were explored. On January 1, 1901, the six colonies federated to form the
Commonwealth of Australia.
The national language is English and the currency is the Australian dollar.
The emu is Australia's national bird and the kangaroo is the national animal. The
country has more than 500 national parks, a world record. The capital of Australia is
Canberra but the most populated city is Sydney.

Sydney is famous for the Sydney Harbour Bridge completed in 1932, it is a real
technical achievement, its construction took 8 years and has given many jobs in times
of economic crisis. Its nickname is "hanger". Then there is the Sydney Opera House
which is a very special building, known as shell races or its sails which house four
performance halls. Its construction began in 1959 by the architect joran Utzon. It
lasted fourteen years at a final cost of $102 million. The Sydney opera house has the
world's largest organ with 10,000 pipes. It is Sydney's most popular tourist attraction.
In downtown Sydney, there is the Queen Victoria building, considered the most
beautiful shopping centre in the world. A statue of Queen Victoria stands proudly in
front of the department store.
There are still hundreds of buildings: the Sydney Tower, the Australian Museum,
many animal parks where it is possible to touch and feed kangaroos.
For Australian gastronomy, the pavlova is a meringue-based dessert named after the
Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. Its specificity is to be crispy on the outside and soft
on the inside. Pavlova is usually topped with whipped cream (or ice cream) and
covered with fruit. Dessert is very popular and forms an important part of the cuisine,
where it is particularly associated with summer occasions, including Christmas
dinner.
Then I went to an Australian school for three days. The students wore a green
uniform. During one of these three days, Australian students celebrated France's
national holiday. They love France very much. There were shows in honour of
France, the sung Marseillaise and French cooks who made crepes in the schoolyard.
in French class, the students had taken to saying: "I want a sugar pancake". For this
special day, the students could come and dress in blue, white and red as a tribute to
the French flag.

Australia is a beautiful country, a multitude of landscapes, the ocean as far as the eye
can see, exotic animals, impressive buildings, wilderness, a unique culture. If you
can't go to Australia, I recommend the film Australia about Aborigines and the
colonization.