For Klaus-Otto, Olaf, Ines, Achim, Alexandra, Annika, Steffen, Gudrun, Carlos, Anna-Lena and Marie

       INTRODUCTION

      Australien (out of: Das neue große farbige Lexikon von Bassermann, ISBN 3-8094-0002-5)

      Addition to the mainland smallest continent to the S. hemisphere btw Ind. U. silent ocean comprises the islands lying on the common base , which v. - Tasmania in the SO is the largest. The only less-structured in its coastal mainland has an area v. 7.68 million square kilometers in an east-west extent of 4100 km v. . In the north of Carpentaria golf grips 700 km deep into the country and in the south the Great Austr. Bay and the NO Coast is preceded by the Great Barrier Reef. A. is a flat , 400 m high on average tableland, whose edges are usually bent. In W, the large trunk area of the West Austr expands. Panel with island mountains and sand and gravel deserts busy after means -A. from, the SO is best. from the deep basin of the Murray-Darling, which collects the water from the largest part of the fold mountain range that runs along the entire O-coast and is dissected by faults. In the Alps in Austr SO it reaches 2234 m (Mt Kosciusko). 60% of the area As are without outlet, so that collect only occasionally flying in the interior waters in salt pans. Some artes. Pools reduce water poverty of the country in whose far inside there is a hot and dry desert climate, in the north it is trop - hot, in SO subtrop. – warm moderate with uniform rainfall. All shows the strong climate fluctuations and heatwaves. The orig. flora (eg Eucalyptus, Bottle & Grass Tree) and fauna (kangaroo, koala, platypus, echidna, emu, lyre tail, parrot species) have an independent development after the secession as (with Tasmania, New Zealand and New Guinea) v. the land mass of the big old S-continent "Gondwanaland" out the o. in the later Cretaceous period in the early Tertiary and was the O-plaice isolated. Through a post-Pleistocene. Sea level rise were separated and Tasmania New Guinea, New Zealand.

      Commonwealth of Australia, amtl. The Commonwealth of Australia, the Australasian. Continent, and the islands includes Tasmania with 7,686,848 square kilometers. Population: The Ew. are mostly British and ir Ethnicity, Indigenous Australians and mixed race, Asian. State Language: Engl Hptst. Canberra, which creates its own district in addition to the six states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Vicoria, Western Australia and Northern Territory. Head of state since 1952 Kg Elizabeth II, represented by a Governor General. The constitutional political. Bonds of parlamentar. But monarchy in Britain are only slight. Agriculture and mining are the basic sectors of the economy, but the industry production represents the gross national product. Agriculture esp. in the SO and SW z.T. with artificial. Irrigation, wheat, oats, barley, corn, cotton, rice, sugarcane, fruit and S-fruits. More extensive is the livestock (sheep, cattle). Australia is the largest growers worldwide. In addition, a lot of meat is exported. The mining industry uses rich deposits of gold, silver, copper, uranium, lead, iron, manganese and stone and brown coal , increasingly, oil and gas is developed.

      Prolog

      Being three months home after my departure from Australia a postal employee rings the bell in Kiel. My three big parcels arrive! I am full exited and open them without the parcel with my trailer. In them I find the little, old and scrubbed mobile phone of Matthew’s friend Sony from Darwin and the long rope of Barry from Cullen Bay against snakes. I take deep breath with emotion. Tears out of gratitude drop down my cheeks.

      My whole, great adventure Australia rises in front of my inner eyes. This I would write now onto paper and you, my readers, shall share it. I invite you, to join me by reading. You will see the peace, the heat, the cold, the country, the animals and above all the absolutely kind and helpful people of Australia. A big adventure waits for you.

      Perth

      Departure from Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel via London Heathrow in England to Sydney in Australia.

      WESTERN AUSTRALIA