The Australian Geography Competition is an Australia-wide competition run by the Royal Geographic Society of Queensland and the Australian Geography Teachers Association and sponsored by the National Geographic Channel. It tests the geographic knowledge of high school students from years 8-12. It starts with a written multiple choice test in early March. In the under 16 competition the winners from each state & the territories (Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, Cocos Islands) are taken as well as a runner up who has the highest score after these winners. These people are flown to Sydney at the start of June for a weekend of sightseeing followed by the national final. The winners go on to the National Geographic World Championship to represent Australia. The competition is also used to select the members of the Australian team for the International Geography Olympiad.
There are many forms of transport in Australia. Australia is highly dependent on road transport. There are more than 300 airports with paved runways. Passenger rail transport includes widespread commuter networks in the major capital cities with more limited intercity and interstate networks. The Australian mining sector is reliant upon rail to transport its product to Australia's ports for export.
Rail transport in Australia is a component of the Australian transport system. It is to a large extent state-based, as each state largely has its own operations, with the interstate network being developed ever since federation. As of 2019, the Australian rail network consists of a total of 32,894 kilometres (20,439 mi) of track built to three major track gauges: 17,972 kilometres (11,167 mi) of standard gauge ), 2,683 kilometres (1,667 mi) of broad gauge, and 11,930 kilometres (7,410 mi) of narrow gauge lines. Additionally, about 1,400 kilometres (870 mi) of 610 mm / 2 ft gauge lines support the sugar-cane industry.
Australians generally assumed in the 1850s that railways would be built by the private sector. Private companies built railways in the then colonies of Victoria, opened in 1854, and New South Wales, where the company was taken over by the government before completion in 1855, due to bankruptcy. South Australia's railways were government owned from the beginning, including a horse-drawn line opened in 1854 and a steam-powered line opened in 1856. In Victoria, the private railways were soon found not to be financially viable, and existing rail networks and their expansion were taken over by the colony. Government ownership also enabled railways to be built to promote development, even if not apparently viable in strictly financial terms. The railway systems spread from the colonial capitals, except in cases where geography dictated a choice of an alternate port.
QantasLink is a regional brand of Australian airline Qantas and is an affiliate member of the Oneworld airline alliance. It is a major competitor to Regional Express Airlines and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines, not to be confused with Air Link. As of September 2010 QantasLink provides 1,900 flights each week to 54 domestic locations.
The eastern states of Australia are the states adjoining the east continental coastline of Australia. These are the mainland states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and the island state of Tasmania; the Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory, while not states, are also included. On some occasions, the southern state of South Australia is also included in this grouping due to its economic ties with the eastern states.
The Apple University Consortium is a partnership between Apple Australia and a number of Australian universities. Every two years it holds the AUC Academic & Developers Conference in an Australian city. It also sponsors subsidised seats to the WWDC conference in San Francisco each year for university staff and students.
The Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) is an organisation that was founded in 1888 as the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science to promote science.
Australian non-residential architectural styles are a set of Australian architectural styles that apply to buildings used for purposes other than residence and have been around only since the first colonial government buildings of early European settlement of Australia in 1788.
Royal tours of Australia by Australia's royal family have been taking place since 1867. Since then, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the Royal Family, though only six of those came before 1954. Elizabeth II is the only reigning monarch of Australia to have set foot on Australian soil; she first did so on 3 February 1954, when she was 27 years old. During her sixteen journeys the Queen has visited every Australian state and the two major territories.
The "Barassi Line" is an imaginary line in Australia which divides areas where Australian rules football is the most popular football code from those where rugby league and rugby union dominate. It was first used by historian Ian Turner in his "1978 Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture". Crowd figures, media coverage, and participation rates are heavily skewed in favour of the dominant code on both sides of the line.
American football, known locally as "gridiron", is a participation and spectator sport in Australia. The sport is represented by Gridiron Australia, a member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), and also Gridiron Victoria, which operates independent of Gridiron Australia
The 2007 A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup competition was held in July and August in the lead-up to the start of the A-League 2007-08 season. The opening round started on 14 July 2007. The competition featured a group stage, with three regular rounds, followed by a two-week finals playoff.
The Australian Venture is an event for Australian Venturer Scouts. It is their equivalent of a Jamboree, but for Venturers there is a lot more freedom and latitude in what they do. There is a number of on site activities and also an off site expedition, normally totaling about 12 days long.
The Galvatrons are a four-piece rock band who formed on 28 August 2007, in Geelong, Australia. Lead singer Johnny Galvatron stated on radio station 101.3 Sea FM on the Central Coast that the band got their name from the 1986 animated film Transformers. The Galvatrons cite their influences as Devo, Stan Bush, Australian Crawl, Van Halen, Lion, Cheap Trick, Kim Wilde, Queen, Stevie Nicks, Pat Benatar, Kenny Loggins, Tears for Fears and Gary Numan. The band have completed their debut album, as announced via their MySpace, which was released 3 July 2009.
The Australian Women's Championships is an annual event run by the Australian Baseball Federation. The Championship includes the women's Queensland Rams, Western Australia Heat, Victoria Aces, New South Wales Patriots as well as Victorian Provincial, a New South Wales Country team and Australian Capital Territory.
Allies is a composite Australian rules football of players from outside of Victoria plus players from any other state or territory other than the state they compete against. The team has competed in Interstate matches in Australian rules football and other special representative matches.
The Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL) is top-tier women's ice hockey league in Australia. This league represents the highest level of national competition for women's hockey and is currently represented in five states: South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria. The Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The current champions are the Sydney Sirens. They defeated the Adelaide Rush 3–0 in the 2019 Championship on 2 February 2020.
The 2018–19 Y-League season was the eleventh season of the Australian Y-League, the premier national competition for youth football in the country.
The 2019–20 Y-League season was the twelfth season of the Australian Y-League, the premier national competition for youth football in the country.