Australia, the only nation that is a continent, is located in the southern part
of  the Pacific ocean. It is the largest part of Oceania.
This mysterious land is becoming more and more interesting for overseas tourists. Its first name was Terra Australis incognita. Since 1916 it was called New Holland, later - 1642 - Van Diemens Land, since 1770 New South Wales and Australia since 1814.

In Australia there are many imporant cities with a lot of tourist
attractions : Canberra, tha capital city, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin.......

The biggest cities are on the south- east coast of Australia, because the other parts of the country are desertic (see the Outback) - it has less than 10% of arable land. It
is the least populated continent. The majority of people live in cities which offer many attractions to the numerous tourists that visit them.

There are strong links between our city ( Trieste) and Australian cities. Many Trieste citizens and also our relatives emigrated to Australia, especially to Sydney and Melbourne, from 1950 to 1970. That's the reason why they are object of our research.

Some interesting sites on Web (there can you find a lot of informations, photos etc. about Australia):
www.csu.edu.au/australia/
au.yahoo.com/
www.environment.gov.au
www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/australasia/australia
www.naa.gov.au/
www.aussie.net.au/