Democracy
Voting is compulsory
Australia is one of about twenty countries that enforce compulsory voting, and turnout sits above ninety per cent. South Australia gave women the vote in 1894, the second place in the world to do so.
Facts
Things worth knowing
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First Peoples
The oldest cultures on earth
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived here for at least 65,000 years, across hundreds of distinct nations, languages and law systems that continue today.
Language
A dialect of understatement
Australian English shortens almost everything and rarely raises its voice. “Not bad” is high praise. The habit of cutting tall poppies down is the flip side of the fair go.
Community
A volunteer country
Rural fire services, surf life saving and the SES run largely on unpaid volunteers who turn out in the worst weeks of the year. Mateship, in its most literal accounting.
Place
Coastal by habit
Most Australians live within fifty kilometres of the sea, on one of the driest inhabited continents. The country is enormous; the way people live in it is remarkably concentrated.
Arrival
A nation of newcomers
Half of Australians were either born overseas or have a parent who was. Post-war migration from Europe, then Asia, then Africa and the Middle East, rebuilt the place several times over.
Arrival
Citizenship is a pledge, not a test of birth
New citizens make a pledge of loyalty at a ceremony, often held on local council grounds with a barbecue afterwards. Around 100,000 people become citizens in a typical year.
Community
The barbecue is civic infrastructure
Free public barbecues sit in parks in nearly every suburb, paid for by councils. They are used by cricket clubs, church groups, birthday parties and nobody in particular.