1.
Lawson, New South Wales
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Lawson is a town in the Blue Mountains area of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Great Western Highway between Hazelbrook in the north east and Bullaburra in the west, at the 2006 census, Lawson had a population of 2,419 people. It has a station on the Main Western line, one of the first settlements on the eastern slopes of the Blue Mountains, Lawson was identified on early maps as 24 Mile Hollow–a name which was changed to Christmas Swamp for a few years. When the Blue Mountain Inn was opened in 1848, the locals adopted the name Blue Mountain for the village and this name was also given to the original railway station after the rail line was pushed through in 1867. In 1931, the Railway Department agreed to supply electricity to the Blue Mountains Shire Council, power lines were constructed between Blackheath and Lawson, accompanied by a maintenance track. The authorities then decided to promote the track as a walking trail, it became known as Bruces Walk. The track later became neglected and forgotten, until it was rediscovered and improved by bushwalkers in the 1980s and it can now be followed from Medlow Bath to the north side of Lawson, although it is not shown on the relevant topographic map. In more recent years, Lawson was at the centre of controversy due to a government proposal to widen the Great Western Highway. Groups opposed to the demolition claimed the hall could be re-sited, others claimed this would be too costly, there was also a group lobbying for the retention of the shops on heritage grounds. By the end of 2008, the Community Centre had been saved, the walks in South Lawson can be accessed from several points along Honour Ave, within easy walk of the train station. This includes four waterfalls, Adelina Falls, Cataract Falls, Federal Falls, while not having the height of upper mountains waterfalls, this waterfalls walk can be completed in 2 hours. On the north side of town beyond the centre, walks take in Fairy Falls, Dantes Glen, St Michaels Falls. The historic Lawson Community Hall built in 1903 has now reopened after a battle to save it from demolition due to road widening. Media related to Lawson, New South Wales at Wikimedia Commons Media related to Blue Mountains, whats on at the Lawson Community Hall - Mechanics Institute Mid Mountains History Save Community Centre Blogspot
2.
Blue Mountains (New South Wales)
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The Blue Mountains is a mountainous region and a mountain range located in New South Wales, Australia. The region borders on Sydneys metropolitan area, its foothills starting about 50 kilometres west of the state capital, the publics understanding of the extent of the Blue Mountains is varied, as it forms only part of an extensive mountainous area associated with the Great Dividing Range. Geologically, it is situated in the parts of the Sydney Basin. For about two thirds of its length it is traversed by the Great Western Highway and the Main Western railway line, several established towns are situated on its heights, including Katoomba, Blackheath, Mount Victoria, and Springwood. The range forms the watershed between Coxs River to the south and the Grose and Wolgan rivers to the north, the range contains the Explorer Range and the Bell Range. The Blue Mountains area includes the government areas of the City of Blue Mountains, the City of Hawkesbury. Following European settlement of the Sydney area, the area was named the Carmarthen, the Carmarthen Hills were in the north of the region and the Lansdowne Hills were in the south. The name Blue Mountains, however, was preferred and is derived from the blue tinge the range takes on when viewed from a distance. Volatile terpenoids emitted in large quantities by the abundant eucalyptus trees in the Blue Mountains may cause Mie scattering, gundungurra Tribal Council Aboriginal Corporation has a registered Native Title Claim since 1995 over their traditional lands, which include the Blue Mountains and surrounding areas. Examples of Aboriginal habitation can be found in many places, in the Red Hands Cave, a rock shelter near Glenbrook, the walls contain hand stencils from adults and children. On the southern side of Queen Elizabeth Drive, at Wentworth Falls, there are also carved images of animal tracks and an occupation cave. The site is known as Kings Tableland Aboriginal Site and dates back 22,000 years, Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales, first glimpsed the extent of the Blue Mountains from a ridge at the site of todays Oakhill College, Castle Hill. He named them the Carmarthen Hills, some forty to sixty miles distant, and he reckoned that the ground was most suitable for government stock. This is the location where Gidley King in 1799 established a town for political prisoners from Ireland and Scotland. The first documented use of the name Blue Mountains appears in Captain John Hunter’s account of Phillip’s 1789 expedition up the Hawkesbury River and it could be followed upstream to the open plains of the Kanimbla Valley, the type of country that farmers prize. European settlers initially considered that fertile lands lay beyond the mountains, as was China in the belief of many convicts and this idea was, to some extent, convenient for local authorities. An insurmountable barrier would deter convicts from trying to escape in that direction, a former convict, John Wilson, may have been the first European to cross the Blue Mountains. It is also believed that Mathew Everingham,1795, may have also been partly based on letters he wrote at the time which came to light in the late 1980s
3.
Brett Whiteley
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Brett Whiteley AO was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries and he held many exhibitions, and lived and painted in Australia as well as Italy, England, Fiji and the United States. Growing up in Longueville, a suburb of Sydney, Whiteley was educated at The Scots School, Bathurst and The Scots College and he started drawing at a very early age. While he was a teenager, he painted on weekends in the Central West of New South Wales, throughout 1956-1959 at the National Art School in East Sydney, Whiteley attended drawing classes. After meeting the director of the Whitechapel Gallery, he was included in the group show Survey of Recent Australian Painting where his Untitled red painting was bought by the Tate Gallery, in 1962, Whiteley married Wendy Julius. Their only child, daughter Arkie Whiteley, was born in London in 1964, while in London, Whiteley painted works in several different series, bathing, the zoo and the Christies. His paintings during these years were influenced by the modernist British art of the sixties - particularly the works of William Scott and it was these abstracted works which led to him being recognised as an artist, just at the time when many other Australian artists were exhibiting in London. He painted Woman in bath as part of a series of works he was doing of bathroom pictures and it has primarily black on one side and an image of his wife Wendy in a bathtub from behind. Another in the series was a more abstracted Woman in the bath II, during these years he worked with the American painter George Sheridan, sharing for some months his studio in the Haute Pyrenees. In 1964, while in London, Whiteley became fascinated by the murderer John Christie and he painted a series of paintings based on these events, including Head of Christie. Whiteleys intention was to portray the violence of the events, during this time, Whiteley painted works based on the animals at the London Zoo, such as Two Indonesian giraffes, which he found sometimes difficult because of how much the animals would move. As he said, To draw animals, one has to work at white heat because they move so much, Whiteley appears as a character in the book Falling Towards England by Clive James under the name Dibbs Buckley. His wife Wendy appears as Delish, in 1967 Whiteley won a Harkness Fellowship Scholarship to study and work in New York. He met other artists and musicians while he lived at the Hotel Chelsea and his first impression of New York was shown in the painting First sensation of New York City, which showed streets with fast moving vehicles, street signs, hot dog vendors, and tall buildings. The Hotel Chelsea displays several of Whiteleys paintings from the time when he lived there including Portrait of New York which hangs behind the reception desk, one way that America influenced him is the scale of his works. Whiteley became active in the peace movements of the 1960s. The work was called The American dream, it was a work that used painting and collage. It took up a deal of his time and effort
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Henry Lawson
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Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and he was the son of the poet, publisher and feminist Louisa Lawson. Henry Lawson was born 17 June 1867 in a town on the Grenfell goldfields of New South Wales and his father was Niels Hertzberg Larsen, a Norwegian-born miner. Niels Larsen went to sea at 21 and arrived in Melbourne in 1855 to join the gold rush, Lawsons parents met at the goldfields of Pipeclay. Niels and Louisa Albury married on 7 July 1866 when he was 32, on Henrys birth, the family surname was Anglicised and Niels became Peter Lawson. The newly married couple were to have an unhappy marriage, Louisa, after family-raising, took a significant part in womens movements, and edited a womens paper called The Dawn. She also published her sons first volume, and around 1904 brought out a volume of her own, Dert and Do, in 1905 she collected and published her own verses, The Lonely Crossing and other Poems. Louisa likely had a influence on her sons literary work in its earliest days. Peter Lawsons grave is in the private cemetery at Hartley Vale, New South Wales. Lawson attended school at Eurunderee from 2 October 1876 but suffered an ear infection at around this time and it left him with partial deafness and by the age of fourteen he had lost his hearing entirely. Lawson was a reader of Dickens and Marryat and novels such as Robbery Under Arms and For the Term of His Natural Life. Reading became a source of his education because, due to his deafness. In 1883, after working on building jobs with his father in the Blue Mountains, Louisa was then living with Henrys sister and brother. At this time, Lawson was working during the day and studying at night for his matriculation in the hopes of receiving a university education, at around 20 years of age Lawson went to the eye and ear hospital in Melbourne but nothing could be done for his deafness. In 1890 he began a relationship with Mary Gilmore and she writes of an unofficial engagement and Lawsons wish to marry her, but it was broken by his frequent absences from Sydney. The story of the relationship is told in Anne Brooksbanks play All My Love, in 1896, Lawson married Bertha Bredt, Jr. daughter of Bertha Bredt, the prominent socialist. They had two children, son Jim and daughter Bertha, Henry Lawsons first published poem was A Song of the Republic which appeared in The Bulletin,1 October 1887, his mothers republican friends were an influence. This was followed by The Wreck of the Derry Castle and then Golden Gully, prefixed to the former poem was an editorial note, Lawson was 20 years old, not 17. - In 1890-1891 Lawson worked in Albany
5.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
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X-Men Origins, Wolverine is a 2009 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics fictional character Wolverine, distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the installment and the first spinoff of the standalone Wolverine trilogy from the X-Men film series. The film was directed by Gavin Hood, written by David Benioff and Skip Woods and it co-stars Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan and Ryan Reynolds. The film is a prequel/spin-off focusing on the violent past of the mutant Wolverine, the film was mostly shot in Australia and New Zealand, with Canada also serving as a location. Filming took place from January to May 2008, a second Wolverine film titled The Wolverine was released in 2013 to positive reviews and much greater success. In 1845, James Howlett, a boy living in Canada, the trauma activates the boys mutation, bone claws protrude from his knuckles, and he impales Thomas, who reveals that he is Jamess real father before dying. James flees along with Thomass other son Victor Creed, who is thus Jamess half-brother and has a healing factor mutation like James and they spend the next century as soldiers, fighting in the American Civil War, both World Wars, and the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, the increasingly violent Victor attempts to rape a Vietnamese woman, James happens upon the fight and defends Victor, resulting in the pair being sentenced to execution by firing squad, which they survive due to their mutant healing abilities. Major William Stryker approaches them in custody and offers them membership in Team X, a group of mutants including Agent Zero, Wade Wilson, John Wraith, Fred Dukes. They join the team for a few years, with James now using the alias Logan, but Victor, six years later, Logan is working as a lumberjack in Canada, where he lives with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox. Stryker and Zero approach Logan at work, Stryker reports that Wade and Bradley have been killed, and he thinks someone is targeting the teams members. Logan refuses to rejoin Stryker, but after finding Kaylas bloodied body in the woods and he finds him at a local bar, but Logan loses the subsequent fight. Afterward, Stryker explains that Victor has gone rogue, and offers Logan a way to become strong enough to get his revenge, Logan undergoes a painful operation to reinforce his skeleton with adamantium, a virtually indestructible metal. Zero kills them the morning and tries to kill Logan. Logan locates John and Fred at a boxing club, Fred explains that Victor is still working for Stryker, hunting down mutants for Stryker to experiment on at his new laboratory, located at a place called The Island. Fred mentions Remy Gambit LeBeau, the one who escaped from the island. John and Logan find LeBeau in New Orleans, then both fight Victor, who kills John and extracts his DNA, agreeing to help release mutants that Stryker has captured, Gambit takes Logan to Strykers facility on Three Mile Island. Logan learns that Kayla is alive, having been coerced by Stryker into surveilling him in exchange for her sisters safety
6.
Hugh Jackman
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Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor, singer, and producer. Jackman has won recognition for his roles in a variety of film genres. His work in Les Misérables earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, in Broadway theatre, Jackman won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz. A four-time host of the Tony Awards themselves, he won an Emmy Award for one of these appearances, Jackman also hosted the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009. Jackman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to Grace McNeil and Christopher John Jackman and his parents were English and had come to Australia in 1967 as part of the Ten Pound Poms immigration. One of his paternal great-grandfathers, Nicholas Isidor Bellas, was Greek and his parents were devout Christians, having been converted by Evangelist Billy Graham after their marriage. Jackman has four siblings, and was the second of his parents children to be born in Australia. He also has a younger half-sister, from his mothers remarriage and his parents divorced when he was eight, and Jackman remained in Australia with his father and Jackmans two brothers, while his mother moved back to England with Jackmans two sisters. As a child, Jackman liked the outdoors, spending a lot of time at the beach and on camping trips and he wanted to see the world, I used to spend nights looking at atlases. I decided I wanted to be a chef on a plane, because Id been on a plane and there was food on board, I presumed there was a chef. I thought that would be an ideal job, following graduation, he spent a gap year working at Uppingham School in England. On his return, he studied at the University of Technology, Sydney, in his final year of university, he took a drama course to make up additional credits. The class did Václav Havels The Memorandum with Jackman as the lead and he later commented, In that week I felt more at home with those people than I did in the entire three years. After obtaining his BA, Jackman completed the one-year course The Journey at the Actors Centre in Sydney, about studying acting full-time, he stated, It wasnt until I was 22 that I ever thought about my hobby being something I could make a living out of. As a boy, Id always had an interest in theatre, but the idea at my school was that drama and music were to round out the man. It wasnt what one did for a living, I found the courage to stand up and say, I want to do it. Jackman has said he always loved acting but when I started at drama school I was like the dunce of the class and it just wasnt coming right to me. Everyone was cooler, everyone seemed more likely to succeed, everyone seemed more natural at it, I think it is good to come from behind as an actor
7.
The Great Gatsby (2013 film)
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The Great Gatsby is a 2013 Australian-American romantic drama film based on F. Scott Fitzgeralds 1925 novel of the same name. Production began in 2011 and took place in Australia, with $105 million budget, the film follows the life and times of millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbor Nick, who recounts his encounter with Gatsby at the height of the Roaring Twenties in New York state. The film polarized critics, receiving praise and criticism for its acting performances, soundtrack, visual style, and direction. Audiences responded much more positively, and F. Scott Fitzgeralds granddaughter praised the film, as of 2016, it is Baz Luhrmanns highest-grossing film, having earned over $350 million worldwide. At the 86th Academy Awards, the won in both of its nominated categories, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. In 1929, Nick Carraway, a World War I veteran, is receiving treatment for alcoholism at a psychiatric hospital and he talks about Jay Gatsby, the most hopeful man he had ever met. Nicks doctor suggests that he writes his thoughts down, since writing is Nicks passion, in the summer of 1922, Nick moves from the Midwest to New York after abandoning writing. He rents a house in the North Shore village of West Egg, next to the mansion of Gatsby. One day, while Nick has dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, he is introduced to Jordan Baker by Daisy, who hopes to make a match between them. When Nick returns home, he sees Gatsby standing on the dock, Jordan tells Nick that Tom has a mistress who lives in the valley of ashes, an industrial dumping site between West Egg and New York City. Nick and Tom visit the valley and stop at a garage owned by George Wilson and his wife, Myrtle, later, Nick receives an invitation to one of Gatsbys parties. Upon arrival, Nick learns he is the one to receive an invitation. Nick encounters Jordan, and both meet Gatsby, Gatsby offers Nick a ride to town for lunch. On the way, Gatsby tells Nick he is an Oxford graduate and they go to a speakeasy, where Gatsby introduces Nick to his business partner, Meyer Wolfsheim. Jordan tells Nick that Gatsby had a relationship with Daisy years ago and is still in love with her, Gatsby asks Nick to invite Daisy to tea. After an awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy begin an affair, Gatsby is dismayed when Daisy wants to run away with him and wants her to get a divorce. He asks Nick and Jordan to accompany him to the Buchanan home, during the luncheon, Tom becomes suspicious of Gatsby and Daisy, but Daisy stops Gatsby from revealing anything and suggests they all go to the Plaza Hotel. Tom drives Nick and Jordan in Gatsbys car, while Gatsby drives Daisy in Toms car, Tom stops for gas at Georges garage, where George tells him that he and Myrtle are moving and that he suspects Myrtle is unfaithful
8.
Australia (2008 film)
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Australia is a 2008 Australian-American-British epic historical adventure film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. It is the third-highest grossing Australian film of all time, behind Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max, the screenplay was written by Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Ronald Harwood and Richard Flanagan. The film is a story, set between 1939 and 1942 against a dramatised backdrop of events across northern Australia at the time. Production took place in Sydney, Darwin, Kununurra, and Bowen, the film was released to cinemas on 26 November 2008 in both the United States and Australia, with subsequent worldwide release dates throughout late December 2008 and January and February 2009. Australia received mixed reviews critics and it earned $211.3 million on a $130 million budget. In 1939, Lady Sarah Ashley travels from England to northern Australia to force her husband to sell his faltering cattle station. Her husband sends an independent cattle drover, called Drover, to transport her to Faraway Downs, Lady Sarahs husband is murdered shortly before she arrives, and the authorities tell her that the killer is an Aboriginal elder, King George. The childless Lady Sarah is captivated by the boy Nullah, who has an Aboriginal mother, Nullah tells her that he has seen her cattle being driven onto Carneys land — in other words, stolen from her. Because of this Fletcher mistreats Nullah and threatens him and his mother, so Lady Sarah fires Fletcher, when Nullah and his mother hide from the authorities in a water tower, his mother drowns. Lady Sarah comforts Nullah by singing the song Over the Rainbow from the film The Wizard of Oz, Nullah tells her that King George is his grandfather, and that like the Wizard, he too is a magic man. Lady Sarah persuades Drover to take the cattle to Darwin for sale, Drover is friendly with the Aborigines, and therefore shunned by many of the other whites in the territory. It is revealed that he was married to an Aboriginal woman, Lady Sarah also reveals she is unable to have children. Drover leads a team of six riders, including Lady Sarah, Drovers Aboriginal brother-in-law Magarri, Nullah. Lady Sarah and Drover fall in love, and she gains a new appreciation for the Australian territory, the team drive the cattle through the dangerous Never Never desert. Then, when at last delivering the cattle in Darwin, the group has to them onto the ship before Carneys cattle are loaded. Afterwards, Lady Sarah, Nullah, and Drover live together happily at Faraway Downs for two years, meanwhile, Fletcher kills Carney, marries his daughter Cath Carney, takes over Carneys cattle empire, and continues to menace Lady Sarah. It is established that Fletcher was the murderer of Lady Sarahs husband. Nullah is drawn to go on a walkabout with his grandfather King George, Lady Sarah, who has come to regard Nullah as her adopted son, vows to rescue him
9.
AACTA Awards
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The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. The awards recognise excellence of professionals in the film and television industry and it is the most prestigious awards ceremony for the Australian film and television industry. They are generally considered to be the Australian counterpart of the Academy Awards, the awards, previously called Australian Film Institute Awards or AFI Awards, began in 1958 and involved 30 nominations across six categories. They expanded in 1986 to cover television as well as film, the AACTA Awards were instituted in 2011. As of 2011, the Australian awards take place at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney and they were instituted in 1958, as a way to improve the impoverished state of Australian cinema, and was part of the Melbourne International Film Festival until 1972. Between 1958–1980, submitted films were presented with a gold, silver or bronze prize, and in some circumstances, a Grand Prix award, which was the highest honour a film could receive. Additionally, films were presented with a gold or silver medallion for technical achievements. Up until 1970, prizes were handed out in recognition of the film and production, rather than achievements of individual filmmakers and crafts people. In 1977 feature film categories became competitive, while non-feature films continued to be awarded the gold, silver and bronze prizes until 1981, in 1976 the awards were broadcast live on television for the first time on the Nine Network at the Hilton Hotel in Melbourne. In 1986 television categories were introduced, presenting awards for mini-series and telefeatures before expanding to dramas, in June 2011, the AFI announced an industry consultation for an Australian Academy. The aim of the Academy is to create awareness for Australian film in local and international markets, the name of the new Academy was revealed on 18 August 2011 as the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, with the awards renamed to the AACTA Awards. The date change was made to align the awards with the awards season. At the time of the inception, a jury of five judges, composed of film critics and filmmakers. In 1976, the system was replaced by a peer voting process for feature films which would allow public members the right to vote in the Best Film category. The nominees and winners were later peer-voted by a jury which was made up of representatives from all industry crafts, including members of guilds, who have a professional membership with the AFI. When the AFI announced the launch of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, the fifteen Chapters consist of professionals from industry guilds and organisations including actors, producers, directors and screenwriters. All television and non-feature film awards, and feature film pre-selection are determined by juries, members of the Australian Film Institute are eligible to vote in the Best Short Fiction Film, Best Short Animation and Audience Choice award categories only. The votes are audited by accounting firm Ernst and Young from 2011, throughout the history of the awards there have been several differently designed awards given to winners
10.
The Flying Doctors
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The popular series ran for nine seasons and was successfully screened internationally. It was initially a 1985 mini-series based in the outback town of Coopers Crossing. The success of the led to its return the following year as an ongoing series with McFarlane being joined by a new doctor, Chris Randall. McFarlane left during the first season, and actor Robert Grubb arrived as new doctor Geoff Standish, McFarlane later returned to the series, resuming his role The series episodes were mostly self-contained but also featured ongoing storylines, such as Dr. Standishs romance with Sister Kate Wellings. Other major characters included pilot Sam Patterson, mechanic Emma Plimpton, jack Carruthers and Vic and Nancy Buckley, who ran The Majestic, a local pub/hotel. Andrew McFarlane as Tom Callaghan, a doctor who takes over the R. F. D. S base in Coopers Crossing after proving himself to the original boss of the base. He brings along Chris Randall, who is also a doctor, in episode sixteen Tom leaves the base, volunteering for World Vision in Africa. He returns in episode 113, staying until episode 156 although he remained in the credits for the rest of the season. Tom makes a appearance in episode 201 when there is a town celebration in Coopers Crossing. Liz Burch as Chris Randall, a doctor who comes along with Tom Callaghan to run the R. F. D. S base in Cooper Crossing. When Tom leaves for Africa she decides to stay in Coopers Crossing, remaining until episode 146, returns in episode 201 for the town celebration, and falls in love with Tom Callaghan again. She decides to join Tom in Africa, Robert Grubb as Geoff Standish, who makes his first appearance in episode 17 when he takes over the R. F. D. S base from Tom Callaghan. Geoff is one of the characters in the series. His relationship with Nurse Kate Wellings was a key storyline, a young doctor who joins the staff in episode 101 and stays until episode 171 when he decides to leave to do something else with his life. However, after a rescue mission goes terribly wrong, he dies in a climbing accident when he falls down a cliff. Sarah Chadwick as Rosie Rowie Lang and she makes her first appearance in Swinging on the Rope, when she returns to Coopers Crossing after leaving as a teenager to attend Medical School at the University of Sydney. Dr. Lang is the replacement for Dr. Radcliffe, despite her late arrival, Sarah is given a rich character-profile, the series featuring episodes in which both her older brother Frank and her father Alf appear. She attracts romanctic interest from Captain Johnno Johnson and eventually accepts his proposal of marriage, on the day of the wedding she realises she is marrying Johnno to make up for the less than ideal marriage her mother experienced
11.
Wellington, New South Wales
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Wellington is a town in inland New South Wales, Australia, located at the junction of the Macquarie and Bell Rivers. It is within the government area of Dubbo Regional Council. The town is 362 kilometres from Sydney on the Great Western Highway, at the 2011 census, Wellington had a population of 4,540. The area was occupied by the Wiradjuri people. Explorer John Oxley was the first European to discover the area in 1817 and named it Wellington Valley after Arthur Wellesley, Wellington was originally established in 1823 by Percy Simpson in early 1823 as an agricultural station. Squatters started settling along the Macquarie Valley and in 1832 CMS was established in the settlement to teach Christianity to the Aboriginal people of the area, the convict settlement ceased in 1831 but a village called Montefiores was established on the north side of the Macquarie River crossing. The Town of Wellington was gazetted in 1846, on 20 March 1885, Wellington was proclaimed a town. Wellington Shire Council was established in 1949, Wellington is the second oldest New South Wales settlement west of the Blue Mountains. The railway from Sydney reached Wellington in 1880, as a regional centre Wellington benefited by the development of the gold mining industry in the district from the 1850s. Initially this was working alluvial deposits of gold but later focused on the mining of quartz reefs, among the mining districts was Mitchells Creek located 8 miles to the north east near the locality of Bodangora. Wellington is the centre of agricultural land. While alfalfa and vegetables are grown on lands on the river, wheat, wool, lambs, in 2011, Wellington had a population of 4,540, while the population of the surrounding shire is 9200. The town acts as a centre for the district. In September 2008, the Wellington Correctional Centre was opened, a Probation and Parole Office was also opened in the centre of town. Wellington Council hopes this will stimulate growth in the area, due to increasing employment opportunities. The local newspaper The Wellington Times, a Rural Press title, is published three times a week with a circulation in the region of around 1000, there is a popular Community Radio Station operating on a frequency of 91.5 MHz FM. Wellington has a subtropical climate with hot summers and cool winters. The town is rather sunny, getting 138.1 clear days annually
12.
Australians
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Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are people associated with Australia, sharing a common history, culture, and language. Present-day Australians are citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia, governed by its nationality law, the majority of Australians descend from the peoples of the British Isles. Many early settlements were penal colonies, and transported convicts made up a significant proportion of the population in most colonies, large-scale immigration did not occur until the 1850s, following a series of gold rushes. Prior to British settlement, Australia was inhabited by indigenous peoples – Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal Tasmanians, and Torres Strait Islanders. A small percentage of present-day Australians descend from these peoples, the development of a separate Australian identity and national character is most often linked with the period surrounding the First World War, which gave rise to the concept of the Anzac spirit. The Eureka Rebellion of 1854 and various events of the Second World War, large-scale immigration occurred after the First and Second World Wars, with many post-World War II migrants coming from Southern and Eastern Europe introducing a variety of elements. Immigration from the Middle East, south and east Asia, Australian culture has diverged significantly since British settlement. Australians are referred to as Aussie and Antipodean, Australians were historically referred to as Colonials, British and British subjects. Australian identity draws on a multicultural, European and British cultural heritage, today, Australians of Anglo and other European descent are the dominant majority in Australia, estimated at 85–92% of the total population. Historically, European immigrants had great influence over Australian history and society, since soon after the beginning of British settlement in 1788, people of European descent have formed the majority of the population in Australia. The majority of Australians are of British – English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, or Manx –, although some observers stress Australias convict history, the vast majority of early settlers came of their own free will. Far more Australians are descended from assisted immigrants than from convicts, about 20% of Australians are descendants of convicts. Most of the first Australian settlers came from London, the Midlands and the North of England, anglo-Celtic Australians have been highly influential in shaping the nations culture. By the mid-1840s, the numbers of settlers had overtaken the convict population. In 1888,60 percent of the Australian population had been born in Australia, out of the remaining 40 percent,34 percent had been born in the British Isles, and 6 percent were of European origin, mainly from Germany and Scandinavia. In the 1840s, Scots-born immigrants constituted 12 percent of the Australian population, there were 1.3 million British migrants to Australia in the period from 1861–1914, of which 13.5 percent were Scots. 5.3 percent of the convicts transported to Eastern Australia between 1789 and 1852 were Scots, by 1850, there were 290,000 Aboriginal Australians. The European population grew from 0.3 percent of the population of the continent at 1800 to 58.6 percent at 1850, germans formed the largest non-British community for most of the 19th century
