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Although Australia was initially largely of British origin, and by the early 21st century was an overwhelmingly city-based society, receiving a large proportion of its cultural communication from either Hollywood and American TV networks, or home-grown productions that some claim are merely imitators.

Australia has three major commercial television networks, the Nine Network, Seven Network and the Ten Network. It also has two public broadcasters, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC and colloquially Channel 2) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).

In common with many other developed countries, Australia is currently experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population, with more people retiring and fewer people of working age. Similarly, a large number of Australian citizens (950,000 as of 2004) live outside of their home country. This number (almost 5%) represents a higher per capita percentage of overseas residents than many other countries including the United States. This phenomenon was, until recently, given little attention by the Australian government and media, but the term Australian Diaspora has now joined the Australian vocabulary.

Australia is divided into six states and several territories. The states are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. The two major territories are the Northern Territory (NT) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The ACT also incorporates a separate area within New South Wales known as Jervis Bay Territory which serves as a naval base and sea port for the national capital.

Australia also has several inhabitated external territories (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands) and several largely uninhabited external territories: Coral Sea Islands Territory, Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

The Australian Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state; there is no state religion in Australia. Although the nation is broadly secular and few are church-goers, three-quarters of Australians are nominally Christian, mostly Catholic or Anglican. A diverse range of other religions are practised.

Australia is home to the Great Artesian Basin - an important source of water for people and cattle in the parched outback. This basin is the world's largest and deepest fresh water basin.

Australians have traditionally had a very strong "underdog" attitude, that is they will support those whom appear to have the lesser hand, so long as Australia is not involved. This can be seen greatly from an occurance during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, where a Georgian Rugby Team arrived in Perth with a crowd of Perth based supporters cheering them on and welcoming them.

Politicians in Australia, or "pollies", be they at state or federal level, are universally disliked and distrusted. Ironically, the failure of the 1999 referendum on becoming a republic was arguably more about the prospect of a President chosen by and from the "pollies", than about any vestigial loyalty to the British monarchy.

Although education is not a federal concern, government grants have aided in the establishment of numerous state universities including the University of Sydney (1850), the University of Melbourne (1853), the University of Adelaide (1874), the University of Tasmania (in Hobart, 1890), the University of Queensland (in Brisbane, 1909), and the University of Western Australia (in Perth, 1911).

Australia has been inhabited for at least 50,000 years, since the remote ancestors of the current Australian Aboriginal people arrived from Southeast Asia. The land was not discovered by Europeans until the 17th century. It was claimed for Britain in 1770, and first colonised in 1788 as a penal colony. Five other colonies, some penal and some free, were founded in the early 19th century.

The first English explorers were Willem Dampier on the west coast of the continent in 1688, and Lieutenant James Cook who, in 1770, claimed the eastern two-thirds of the continent for Britain, despite orders from King George III to first conclude a treaty with the indigenous population. His report to London that Australia was uninhabited (see Terra nullius) provided impetus for the establishment of a penal colony there following the loss of the American colonies.