1.
Order of Australia
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Before the establishment of the order, Australian citizens received British honours. The Queen of Australia is Sovereign Head of the Order, while the Governor-General is Principal Companion/Dame/Knight, the Governor-Generals Official Secretary is Secretary of the Order. The order is divided into a general and a military division, honorary awards at all levels may be made to deserving non-citizens – these awards are made additional to the quotas. The badge of the Order of Australia is a convex disc representing the Golden Wattle flower, at the centre is a ring, representing the sea, with the word Australia below two branches of golden wattle. The whole disc is topped by the Crown of St Edward, the AC badge is decorated with citrines, blue enamelled ring and enamelled crown. The AO badge is similar, without the citrines, for the AM badge only the crown is enamelled, and the OAM badge is plain. The AK/AD badge is similar to that of the AC badge, the star for knights and dames is a convex golden disc decorated with citrines, with a blue royally crowned inner disc bearing an image of the coat of arms of Australia. The ribbon of the order is blue with a stripe of golden wattle flower designs. AKs, male ACs and AOs wear their badges on a necklet, women usually wear their badges on a bow on the left shoulder, although they may wear the same insignia as males, if so desired. The orders insignia were designed by Stuart Devlin, the Order currently consists of four levels and the medal, in both general and military divisions. Since 2015, the level has been discontinued. Awards of Knight and Dame of the Order have been made in the division only. Military Division – Not awarded in the military division. There was a quota of four per year, excluding honorary appointments, the Knight- and Damehoods were conferred between 1976 and 1983, and again from 2014 till 2015. Although this level is not awarded anymore, several knight and dames of the Order are still alive, Companion General Division – Eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or to humanity at large. Military Division – Eminent service in duties of great responsibility. Excluding honorary appointments, until 2003, no more than 25 Companions were appointed in any calendar year, in 2003 this was increased to 30. This was increased in 2016 to 35, Officer General Division – Distinguished service of a high degree to Australia or to humanity at large. Military Division – Distinguished service in responsible positions. Prior to 2003, the quota was 100 Officers appointed in any calendar year, in 2003 this was increased to 125. This was increased in 2016 to 140, Member General Division – Service in a particular locality or field of activity or to a particular group. Military Division – Exceptional service or performance of duty
2.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
3.
Racewalking
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Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although it is a race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. This is assessed by race judges, typically held on either roads or on running tracks, common distances vary from 3000 metres up to 100 kilometres. There are two racewalking distances contested at the Summer Olympics, the 20 kilometres race walk and 50 kilometres race walk, both are held as road events. The biennial IAAF World Championships in Athletics also features the three events. The IAAF World Indoor Championships featured 5000 m and 3000 m race walk variations, top level athletics championships and games typically feature 20 km racewalking events. Compared to other forms of racing, stride length is reduced. There are two rules that govern racewalking, the first dictates that the athletes back toe cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front foot has touched. Violation of this rule is known as loss of contact, the second rule requires that the supporting leg must straighten from the point of contact with the ground and remain straightened until the body passes directly over it. These rules are judged by the human eye. Athletes regularly lose contact for a few milliseconds per stride, which can be caught on film, athletes stay low to the ground by keeping their arms pumping low, close to their hips. If one sees a racewalkers shoulders rising, it may be a sign that the athlete is losing contact with the ground, what appears to be an exaggerated swivel to the hip is, in fact, a full rotation of the pelvis. Athletes aim to move the forward, and to minimize sideways motion in order to achieve maximum forward propulsion. Speed is achieved by stepping quickly with the aim of rapid turnover and this minimizes the risk of the feet leaving the ground. Strides are short and quick, with pushoff coming forward from the ball of the foot, world-class racewalkers can average under four and five minutes per kilometre in a 20-km racewalk. Races have been walked at distances as short as 3 kilometres —at the 1920 Summer Olympics—and as long as 100 km. The mens world record for the 50-mile race walk is held by Israeli Shaul Ladany, the modern Olympic events are the 20 km race walk and 50 km race walk. There are judges on the course to monitor form, three judges submitting red cards for violations results in disqualification
4.
Young, New South Wales
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Young is a town in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia and the largest town in Hilltops Council. At the 2011 census, Young had a population of 6,960, Young is marketed as the Cherry Capital of Australia and every year hosts the National Cherry Festival. Young is situated on the Olympic Highway and is approximately 2 hours drive from the Canberra area and it is in a valley, with surrounding hills. The town is named after Sir John Young, the governor of NSW from 1861 to 1867, before European settlers arrived in Young, members of the Burrowmunditory tribe, a family group of the Wiradjuri people, lived in the region. Descendents of the Burrowmunditory clan still live in Young, james White was the first European settler in the district and established Burrangong Station in 1826 with a squatting claim of 260 square kilometres. His story is told in the novel Brothers in Exile, gold was found in the district in 1860. Until that time the area was called Lambing Flat, a reference to the grazing of sheep that was the industry until mining. The town was gazetted in 1861, the goldfields produced 15,000 kilograms of gold sent by escort from the fields. Up to 20,000 miners worked the fields including about 2,000 Chinese miners, Lambing Flat Post Office opened on 1 March 1861 and was renamed Young in 1863. From November 1860 through to June 1861, anti-Chinese miners attacked Chinese gold miners in the area, now known as the infamous Lambing Flat riots. As gold became scarce, European miners began to resent what they saw as the success of the more industrious Chinese. The anti-Chinese rebels rallied in numbers of up to 3,000, in 1889 Young was the first town in Australia to install electricity into the streets and homes of the township, Tamworth NSW installed electricity to the streets only the previous year. The former Young Shire was acknowledged as the first Local Government Area to institute a school bus system in New South Wales. Young has a subtropical climate. On census night,7 August 2001, there were 6,821 people counted in Young, there were 238 people who identified as being of Indigenous origin in the 2001 Census. The median age of people in the 2001 Census was 36 years The number of people born overseas in the 2001 Census was 650 compared with 589 in the 1996 Census and 549 in the 1991 Census. Of those born overseas, the three countries of birth in the 2001 Census were, United Kingdom,253 New Zealand,74 and. In the 2001 Census, the three most common ancestries identified with were, Australian,5741 people English,4022 people and, English was stated as the only language spoken at home by 10547 people in the 2001 Census
5.
Ballina, New South Wales
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Ballina /ˈbælᵻnə/ is a town in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, and the seat of the Ballina Shire local government area. Ballinas urban population at the 2011 census was 15,963, a larger area including Lennox Head had an estimated population of 25,194 at 30 June 2015. Ballina was established in the 1840s on the shore of the Richmond River near Cape Byron. It is approximately 600 km north of Sydney and 160 km south of Brisbane, Ballina is a coastal town and is connected to the Pacific Highway which passes nearby. The Richmond River was an important transport route for the region for the first 100 years after settlement, the river and its estuaries abound with marine wildlife and provide for recreational fishing and water sports. A lighthouse, Richmond River Light, was first constructed in Ballina in 1866, the temporary lighthouse was replaced with the current one, designed by James Barnet, in 1879, and first lit in 1880. Ballina has a number of famous landfalls associated with it, in 1928, Charles Kingsford Smiths plane, the Southern Cross, crossed the coast over Ballina after its epic journey across the Pacific Ocean. Ballina had an associated with the event during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1973, the Las Balsas rafts were towed into Ballina by fishing trawlers after their journey from Ecuador, one of the rafts is preserved in the Ballina Maritime Museum. They had planned to arrive in Mooloolaba in Queensland, but currents forced them off their course and their journey was almost twice as long as the Kon-Tiki expeditions of 1947 and proved that people could have travelled across the Pacific in ancient times. A branch railway line connected Ballina with the Murwillumbah railway line railway at Booyong, the line was opened on 24 August 1930 and closed on 12 January 1949. Ballinas etymology is not entirely certain, some believe it was named directly after the Irish town of Ballina. A recent theory has emerged, without evidence, that a more likely source is a Bundjalung word, bullinah. This theory argues that the Aboriginal name reminded the predominantly Irish settlers of Ballina, the population of Ballina township was 15,963 at the 2011 census. The urban area had a population of 25,194, which includes Lennox Head, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3. 1% of the population, compared with the national and state average of 2. 5%. The most common ancestries in the area were English 32. 0%, Australian 31. 2%, Irish 10. 5%, Scottish 8. 1%,74. 5% of people had both parents born in Australia and 13. 7% of people had both parents born overseas. The most common responses for religion in the area were Catholic 25. 1%, Anglican 24. 2%, No Religion 21. 4%, Uniting Church 5. 6% and Presbyterian and Reformed 5. 2%. The median household income was estimated to be A$931 per week, with the mortgage repayments estimated at A$1,733 per month
6.
Australian Institute of Sport
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The Australian Institute of Sport is a sports training institution in Australia. The Institutes headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in Canberra, the 66-hectare site campus is in the northern suburb of Bruce. The AIS is a division of the Australian Sports Commission, the need of the AIS was compounded in 1976 when the Australian Olympic team failed to win an Olympic gold medal in Montreal, which was regarded as a national embarrassment for Australia. The Institutes well-funded programs have been regarded as a reason for Australias recent success in international sporting competitions. There are a number of sculptures located throughout the Bruce Campus, such as Acrobats, Gymnast, Pole Vaulter and Soccer Players by John Robinson and the Swimmer by Guy Boyd. After the Sydney 2000 Olympics, two of the three sculptures - Gymnast and Wheelchair Basketballer - that were located on the Sydney Tower Eye prior to the Olympics were installed at the AIS. The AIS Arena is a 5,200 capacity indoor stadium which has used for sports such as basketball, gymnastics. Directly adjacent to, but not strictly part of the Institute is the 25,000 capacity outdoor Canberra Stadium which has hosted matches of all the forms of football played in Australia. In 2005,2009 and 2010 the Institute won awards at the prestigious Canberra and these awards were given in recognition of the daily public tours that are available. Each tour, which takes in several different buildings of the Institute as well as the arena, shortly after its inception in 1981, the AIS held a competition for a symbol that would depict the AIS aim of achieving supremacy in sport. The winner was a student from Bendigo in Victoria, Rose-Marie Derrico. Her design showed an athlete with hands clasped above the head in recognition of victory, the colours of the logo were red, white and blue, which are the same colours as the Australian flag. On 3 February 2014, the AIS launched a new logo in line with its new direction as outlined in its Winning Edge program that was launched in 2012, landor Associates designed the new brand and logo. The gold in the brand representing Australias pursuit of gold, from 2014, as a result of Australias Winning Edge 2012-2022 strategy, the AIS no longer directly offered scholarships to athletes. As a result of the strategy, many sporting organisations are utilizing the AIS facilities and services on an ongoing or regular basis. Several national sports organisations have located their national centres for excellence at the AIS, the AIS does continue to support other athletes in other sports however they are self funded and not under the National Training Centre banner. Many prominent Australian athletes have taken up AIS scholarships, in 2001, the AIS established the Best of the Best Award to recognise highly performed AIS athletes. In August 2013, Stuart OGrady was indefinitely suspended from the Best of the Best due to his admission to doping in 1998, the Australian Institute of Sport Alumni highlights the many prominent Australian athletes that the AIS has assisted
7.
Australian Sports Medal
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The Australian Sports Medal was an award given during 2000 to recognise achievements in Australian sport. Recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, office holders, the medal is circular and made of nickel-silver with a highly polished finish. The obverse design symbolises Australian sport featuring the stars of the Southern Cross, the reverse features the same lines as the obverse symbolising the athletics track, with the words ‘to commemorate Australian sporting achievement’ appearing in the raised rim of the medal. The reverse is also marked with the year ‘2000’, the medal is suspended from a 32 mm ribbon by a connector piece and ring. The ribbon’s colours are Australia’s national sporting colours green and yellow, the Prime Minister announced the creation of the Australian Sports Medal on 31 December 1998. This commemorative medal was introduced to recognise Australian sporting achievements, the medal acknowledged a range of Australians who, in different ways, contributed to the nation’s sporting success. Recipients included former competitors, coaches, sports scientists, office holders, the Australian Sports Medal was formally established on 23 December 1999 by Letters Patent. The Australian Sports Medal was awarded by the Governor-General, most of the medals were presented to people following their nomination by the sports community. Peak sports bodies recognised or funded by the Australian Sports Commission were given according to a formula based on the number of their registered competitors. All Australian parliamentarians could make nominations, the medals were progressively awarded during the year 2000. The Australian Sports Medal does not carry a post-nominal entitlement, the Australian Sports Medal has been awarded to various notable sportsmen and women and among them are, Gary Ablett, Sr Willie Carne. For contribution to Australias international standing in the sport of rugby league Cathy Freeman Rod Laver Tim Macartney-Snape, Australian Honours Order of Precedence Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal Its an Honour - Australian Government site
8.
Centenary Medal
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The Centenary Medal is an award created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the Centenary of Federation of Australia and it was also awarded to centenarians, Australian citizens born on or before 31 December 1901 who lived to celebrate the centenary of federation on 1 January 2001. Nominations were assessed by a panel chaired by Professor Geoffrey Blainey, the obverse of the medal features a seven-pointed Commonwealth Star representing the six Australian states, with the seventh point representing Australias territories. At the centre of the star is an Indigenous styling of Aboriginal traditions at the heart of the continent, around the rim are 100 dots depicting 100 years of federation. The reverse features a seven pointed star, with the words For Contribution Made to Australian Society around the rim, the colours in the ribbon are crimson, which represents federation, and blue and gold for the beginning of the 21st Century. The seven gold and red lines signify the states pathways to federation, the bar and ribbon are the same so that a recipient can be identified as such
9.
Athletics Australia
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Athletics Australia is the National Sporting Organisation recognised by the Australian Sports Commission for the sport of athletics in Australia. First founded in 1897, the organisation is responsible for administering a sport with over 16,000 registered athletes, coaches, Athletics Australia was originally the Athletic Union of Australasia, an amateur group founded in 1897. In 1928, New Zealand broke away to form its own national body, in 1932, an Australian Womens Amateur Athletics Union was instituted and it remained responsible for womens athletics until 1978. In that year, the national unions amalgamated into one governing body which. Affiliated with the IAAF, the organisation governs the sport of athletics throughout Australia, AA conducts the Athletics Grand Prix Series and the Australian Championships in Athletics, where athletes compete to gain selection at Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships. The Australian Athletics Team since 2009 has been known as the Australian Flame, the association also provides co-ordination, guidance, and support to affiliated member organisations, which govern athletics in their respective states, territories or jurisdictions. A number of committees and commissions hold responsibilities in specialist areas such as Race walking, Coaching and Anti-doping, in 2000 Athletics Australia established its Hall of Fame to recognise outstanding achievement amongst Australias greatest athletes. Induction is at the discretion of Athletics Australias Special Awards Committee
