ADELAIDE

    Adelaide was named after Queen Adelaide who was the wife of King William IV. It is the capital of South Australia, which is the driest of all Australian states and territories. The population of Adelaide is 1.1 million and it was established in 1873. It is now Australia's fifth largest city just after Perth. Adelaide is known for its botanical garden which is the biggest in southern hemisphere and for the production of some of the best wines in Australia.

    Brisbane has a population over 1.5 million people and is the capital of Queensland. It dates from 1902 and has a sub-tropical climate with average temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius.

    Canberra is the capital of Australia with a population 307,700 people. The federal government is run from Canberra. The city was founded in 1928. The name of the city is an aboriginal word meaning "Meeting Place".
    If we speak about Australia to someone who has only an overall knowledge about the country we shall notice that most of the people think about Sydney as an Australian capital. What a surprise to say that even though Sydney is the largest city, the capital city is Canberra.
    Canberra (from Aboriginal word Kamberra that means a meeting place) is a very young city. The site in the Molonglo Valley was chosen for the national capital in 1910 as a compromise between the rival claims of Melbourne and Sydney as the rightful seat of power. It stands between the two state capitals in a zone of its own - the Australian Capital Territory.
    A competition for its design – the ambition was to accommodate about 25 000 people - was held in 1911. In 1912, brilliant American architect Walter Burley Griffin won the world-wide competition to design Australia's new National Capital. Construction began in 1913, though war and the depression delayed it. The first Parliament House was opened in 1927 but the local population grew steadily. By the 1980s Canberra had more than 240 000 residents, a large proportion of whom were public servants. These days the population exceeds 300 000 and it is growing fast. The original Griffin plan was modified, but fortunately, much of the great original plan was realized, including the man-made lake (Lake Burley Griffin), which is the major ornamental feature of the city. The essential spirit and character of Canberra planned as a garden city of light, space, dignity and aesthetical appeal has been achieved. In 1979 a design competition for a new Parliament House was held and again Americans won. The designers from New York designed the present building with its towering flagpole.
    Canberra is a handsomely planned city, with fine public buildings, wide boulevards, the soothing waters of Lake Burley Griffin, and attractive suburbs with its sophisticated residents. Canberra is now host to over 70 diplomatic missions, which enrich the character of the city with their highly individual and nationalistic architecture.
    The unifying centrepiece of the capital is undoubtedly the 11 km long Lake Burley Griffin with beautifully landscaped shoreline and its Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet. The lake provides perfect conditions for rowing, windsurfing, sailing and other popular water sports. The commercial heart of Canberra is the Civic Centre on the north shore of Lake Burley Griffin. Arcades, plazas and malls, which offer boutiques, specialty shops, restaurants and cinemas, surround office blocks and department stores in the Centre. There are many places of interest and buildings worth seeing in Canberra. These are both the Old and New Parliament Houses, the National Library of Australia, Questacon - the national science and technology centre, Telstra Tower rising to a height of 195.2 meters with its three public viewing galleries and rotating restaurant, the High Court of Australia, the Australian War Memorial, the magnificent modern structure of Australian National Gallery and many other modern or historic buildings. There are also some recreational facilities in and around Canberra, like Weston Park, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, which is home to many kangaroos, koalas and cockatoos, Cotter Dam with a recreational area around it or Cockington Green, a charming display of famous historical buildings and gardens of Great Britain - all in miniature form of 1/12th scale. It is a popular tourist attraction. There are about 8 major festivals held in Canberra every year. The most popular of them is Canberra Festival in March and Floriade Festival in September.

    Darwin has a population of 82,400 people and is the capital of Northern Territory. With such a small population, Darwin is the smallest of all the capital cities. During World War II, women, children and older men were evacuated from Darwin because the first Japanese attack on Australia was the bombing of Darwin Harbour. On Christmas Day in 1974, Cyclone Tracy hit the city and destroyed most of the buildings there.

    Hobart is the capital of Tasmania, which is the smallest of all seven states. It is the second oldest of all Australian capitals and was established in 1803. The population of Hobart is around 200,000 people. Australia's first legal casino was opened here.

    Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria, has a population over 3.2 million. It is Australia's second largest city and the only city in the country in which trams are still used. About thirty percent of the people living in this city were born overseas. It has one of the largest Greek populations outside Greece in the world and a large Italian community.

    Perth is the capital city of Western Australia. About 1.3 million people live there.

About 80% of all people from Western Australia live in Perth. Of all capital cities, it was the slowest growing - only 300 people lived there in the first year.

  Sydney has a population of around 3.9 million people, is the capital city of New South Wales and the oldest city in Australia. In 1850, its first university was built. The shores of Sydney Harbour are 240 km long. The most famous building in Sydney is the Opera House, which was built in 1973 and cost 100 million dollars. The oldest part of the city is called The Rocks. In 2000, Sydney was a host town for the summer Olympic games.

    For over 200 years Tasmania was known as Van Dieman's Land, after a Dutch governor. The island, far from the world's busy trade routes, has an unhurried and friendly lifestyle and local people appear to be warmly hospitable. Within this land lies the rich history of Tasmania's convict (trestanecká) past.
    Port Arthur was established in 1830 as a convict timber station. Tasmania in those times became world-famous for its vast supplies of top quality timber. But this small bay surrounded by magnificent hills became a prison settlement for male convicts. For over 40 years, Port Arthur was one of the most infamous prisons in Australia if not the whole British empire.
    Although prisoners were disciplined in the early years by flogging (bičování), this sort of punishment was later replaced by correction by isolation and silence. When you are standing within the walls of the former isolation prison building you can clearly imagine prisoners walking one by one in a small open courtyard, each with a black mask covering his face and peering out through a couple of eye-holes. You can picture them walking for hours in silence because talking was strictly forbidden and thinking about hopeless nights in their damp and cold cells. It is maddening to walk alone in this very pitiful place which is alive with the misfortune of wasted lives.
    There is a small island situated just a mile or so off shore. The name of that island sounds terrifying: the Isle of the Dead. It was the burial ground for thousands of prisoners or ex-prisoners who died during their stay within the Port Arthur prison walls. The Isle of the Dead is a small steep cliff with dozen of trees and a small platform on the top. Only few broken headstones remain to remind us of these prisoners, most of whom are in unmarked graves. There are some stories about the mysteries of that place: strange things appear from time to time and some people who lived there for a while went mad afterwards.

    One of Australia's greatest landmarks can be found in the Uluru National Park about 337 km south of Alice Spring. It is a famous expanse of rock. Aborigines gave it the name "ULURU" although most people know it as AYERS ROCK. Today, it has officially been returned to its Aboriginal name again.
    The rock Uluru stands 348 metres above a broad and flat desert. It is 1,400 metres wide and 3,600 metres long. It also goes 2,100 metres under the ground making it the biggest sandstone monolith in the world.
    Aborigines have been coming to this rock for centuries. Inside the rock, there are caves with interesting ancient paintings thousands of years old. This sacred place has always played an important role in the lives of the Aboriginal people.
    Since Uluru is the most famous place in Australia, lots of tourists come every year to see this sacred rock and take pictures of the largest monolith in the world.
    We must say that tourist agencies and businessmen don't respect Aboriginal traditions. Many tourist agencies organize trips and offer lots of services. Visitors can stay overnight at nearby lodges or camping sites to be able to watch the dramatic colour changes when the sun is rising or setting. But what is worse, many tourists try to climb the rock to get to the top. This makes Aboriginal people very angry. They strongly believe the land itself has life - and walking on the rock is like walking on a living being. Do you think this is impossible? Do you think all the traditions and legends of the Aborigines are strange?
    Well, if you learn more about their culture, the rhythms of the land, about the plants, animals and birds, you will feel the strange effect Uluru and the surrounding red land can have on you.

    It is a large area of over 2,900 individual reefs separated by channels of wonderful clear water and 71 coral islands.
    First of all, let's explain what a reef is. It is a line of sharp rocks usually made of coral. Coral reefs take thousands of years to form animals called coral polyps. Layer after layer, large colonies of polyps build coral reefs under the sea. Some of them grow so much that they become coral islands - atolls.
    And this is how the Great Barrier Reef has been created over a period of a few million years, and it keeps growing! It is said that there are more than 300 species of coral of different colours and shapes such as purple sea fans (vějíř), flowers, wonderful pink whips (bič) and blue bubbles … Living among the coral reefs, there is a fantastic variety of sea life - lots of sea anemones (sasanky), starfish and seashells. The largest shell is the Giant Clam (škeble) which is 1.2 m wide. There are also more than 1,500 species of fish!
    Lots of tourists come to these places to explore not only the underwater world, but also the beautiful coral islands. You don't have to be an experienced diver or swimmer with a snorkel to be able to see and appreciate the colourful coral's unique beauty. You can take a fascinating underwater journey in a sub-sea viewer or in a boat with a glass bottom. You can also visit the Barrier Reef Wonderland, a walkthrough "aquarium" and admire a variety of sea life around and above you. The aquarium was built under the sea on a real coral reef.
    Once in this paradise, don't forget to visit some of the coral islands. They offer wonderful sandy beaches, beautiful lagoons, tropical plants and romantic coasts. Some of them have become important places for birds and sea turtles. Lots of sea birds nest there, sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach and whales migrate there in September. They are fantastic places for animal- and bird- watching.
    Because of its beauty and ecology, the Great Barrier Reef is protected as the "Great Barrier Reef Marine Park" and has been named a World Heritage Area by UNESCO.