Immigration Forum / Australia and NZ / October 2007

Of interest to most intending migrants, and I really should have
mentioned this.

However, mere population densities per square mile, or square
kilometer, can be highly misleading in a country such as
Australia.  Percentage wise, Australia is actually more
"urbanized" than the USA.

Most of the population is concentrated in the major cities, and
most are on, or near, the coast.  

From memory, most of the population is on the coastal fringe.
Say, about 70 km or roughly 44 miles from the sea.

As a Sydney resident, am often surprised to meet people who
haven't even bothered to go across the "Blue Mountains", the
coastal range, accessible by freeway, roughly 40 miles west of
Sydney.

Once cross the mountains, paved highways of course, the
population density per square mile drops very dramatically
compared to the USA.

Perhaps a couple of people per square mile?  

"Towns" are few and far between.  Don't be misled by maps.  Many
don't have "stores" or even gasoline ["petrol"] stations.  

Those that do have petrol stations are not really reliable for
refueling, as they close around 7 PM at the latest.

At night, the only vehicles one sees at night are heavy trucks.
Few Aussie's would risk the roads or highways at night.  Too much
chance of hitting a kangaroo or other wandering animals, even
stray cows.

Yet even this is just "rural" Australia, not the "real outback".
As may have mentioned on this particular group, if a traveler
wants to find the real "outback" he puts a sea anchor in the back
of his "Ute" [or "pickup"] to use the common U.S. term. [Another
Australian invention, incidentally.]

When he drives into a town, and the locals gather around, looking
at the anchor, and someone ventures to ask what the object is
and what is used for, then they are in the real "outback" :-)

Any readers who don't believe me?  I would suggest that they look
at an old atlas or map of Australia and note just how much of the
desert areas are marked as "uninhabited".  

Up until the mineral boom of, say, 30 or 40 years ago, could even
add "unexplored".

In a "scientific" sense, much of Australia is like that.  How
many insect species have been scientifically classified?  Perhaps
5%.

Any entomologists  reading this want to have a new species named
after them?  Pretty easy, actually.

Although really not all that surprising.   Australia is roughly
the size of the continental U.S., but with only 21 million people
or so, most of have never even ventured inland.  

If it helps, think of the US in about 1840 or so.  First
settlement of Sydney around 1788.  As mentioned earlier,
the Blue Mts now around 40 miles away.  Perhaps 60 in those days.

When were they first crossed?  1813.

See Wikipedia article
European exploration of Australia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_exploration_of_Australia#Land_exploration_
1788-1900

Skipping ahead in same reference:

=============
20th century explorers

By the turn of the 20th century, most of the major geographical
features of Australia had been discovered by European explorers.
However, there are some 20th century people who are considered
explorers. They include:

   * Ted Colson (first to cross the Simpson Desert in 1936)
   * Cecil Madigan (major scientific expedition to the Simpson
Desert in 1939)
   * Len Beadell
   * Robyn Davidson
=======================

Discoveries in the 20th century? Not that long ago, really:

       
  "1960s
    "An early player in the Hamersley story was Langley
George Hancock, who in the early 1960s recommended that Rio Tinto
look at several prospects in the Pilbara. The historic moment in
the discovery of one of the world’s richest iron ore bodies came
in 1962, when two CRA geologists found a large dark outcrop which
extended about 6.5 kilometres. This, the biggest deposit of high
grade ore in the Hamersley Ranges, was later to be known as Mt
Tom Price, in tribute to an American engineer who was
instrumental in the Pilbara’s development. As Kaiser Steel’s
leading raw materials authority, Thomas Moore Price had
personally surveyed the Hamersley Ranges, and promoted the
region’s iron ore prospects with great enthusiasm."

http://www.hamersleyiron.com/about_hist.asp

Diamonds?  Around 1970 from memory, but to check:

    "Discovery Of The Argyle Diamond Mine
The Argyle diamond story has its origins in the early 1970s, when
one of the world's most significant find of diamonds was made at
Smoke Creek in the remote north of Western Australia, over 2000
kilometres from Perth, the state capital."

http://www.costellos.com.au/diamonds/industry.html

Uranium?  Australia has about 30% of the worlds supply of easily
recoverable ore.

    "Today Australia's share of the world's uranium resources
in the low cost category is about 30%. Other countries with major
uranium deposits are Canada, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Namibia,
Brazil and the USA."  . . .
The Nabarlek mine was the first of the uranium deposits
discovered in the late 1960s to early 1970s to come into
production. The main orebody, which contained about 11,000 tonnes
U3O8, was mined and stockpiled when operations commenced in 1979.
The stockpiled ore was processed from 1980 to 1988.

http://www.uic.com.au/ozuran.htm

How much does the USA have?  Roughly 3%.  See table at above
link.

Black opals?  Don't even need to look this up.  Only found in
Australia.  Some, carat by carat are more valuable than gem
diamonds.

Any Yanks or others out there who have ambitions to be a
prospector?  Or an opal miner?  Australia is the place to be,
mate!

Cheers,
Kangaroo16

At the moment, many of us here would like to see less
sunshine and more rain!  Much of the inland is
drought stricken, cities have water use restrictions.

Then too, the atmosphere in the southern hemisphere is far less
polluted than the northern hemisphere.  Which means the sunlight
here is much more intense here than there.  

One of the more important considerations is the invisible
ultraviolet radiation in sunlight.  It can be divided into three
types:
UVA, long wave, or black light     400 nm - 320 nm    
UVB or medium wave         320 nm - 280 nm    
UVC, short wave, or germicidal     Below 280 nm    

(nm = wavelength in nanometers)

The Sun emits ultraviolet radiation in the UVA, UVB, and UVC
bands, but because of absorption in the atmosphere's ozone layer,
99% of the ultraviolet radiation that reaches the Earth's surface
is UVA. (Some of the UVB and UVC light is responsible for the
generation of the ozone layer.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet#Natural_sources_of_UV

The southern hemisphere  would have a higher percentage of UVB
than the northern hemisphere.  Due to depletion of the ozone
layer, some UVC reaching the ground in last several years.

Good sunglasses that filter out most of the UV are highly
advised.  It isn't possible to tell by the color, density, or
cost.  Most are labeled as to their degree of U.V. protection.

Incidentally, especially  if light skinned, will start to sunburn
here much quicker than would in the northern hemisphere.

At night, the lower level of pollution is easily seen if get a
few miles out of a city.  Just go out at night and look at the
stars.  

When I was a child in the USA, could go out camping and the
sky blazed with stars that seemed near enough to touch.  Visitors
tell me it been like that for decades in the USA, but still is in
Australia.

Cheers,
Kangaroo16