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The ABC has made an impressive contribution to television drama with immensely popular series like "Brides of Christ" and in comedy, with the 1970's hits "Aunty Jack" and "The Norman Gunston Show" and most recently "Kath & Kim".

Much of the area around Adelaide was once used for wine grape production, so that wine growing districts (such as the Barossa Valley, for which Adelaide and South Australia are well known) remain within a short drive of the city outskirts.

The Great Barrier Reef, by far the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast of Australia. Uluru, in central Australia, is the second largest monolith in the world.

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.

By far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid — 40% of the land mass is covered by sand dunes. Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate: part is tropical rainforests, part grasslands, and part desert. The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast and extends for over 1,200 kilometres. Uluru (until 1986 known as Ayers Rock), is the second largest monolith in the world and is located in central Australia (the largest being Mount Augustus in Western Australia). The largest city in the world by area (not by population) is Mount Isa in northern Queensland.

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.

The British Crown Colony of New South Wales began by the establishment of a settlement (later to become Sydney) in Port Jackson by Captain Arthur Phillip on January 26, 1788. The date of arrival of the First Fleet was later to become the date of Australia's national day, Australia Day.

Two of Australia's most traditional takeaway dishes are the meat pie and sausage roll. These come in varying grades, ranging from the mass-produced factory outputs of Four-and-Twenty and Big Ben, sold on every street corner in milk bars, through to gourmet pies sold by specialist pie shops. There is an annual competition to find the 'Great Australian Meat Pie', and the winners are greatly removed from their fat-laden antecedents.

Van Diemen's Land (i.e. the present day Tasmania) was settled in 1803, and became a separate colony in 1825. The rest of the continent, what is now Western Australia, was formally claimed by the United Kingdom in 1829. Following the spread of British settlement, separate Colonies were created from parts of New South Wales: South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851 and Queensland in 1859. The Northern Territory was founded, as part of the Colony of South Australia, in 1863.

The Australian aborigines , estimated to number as many as 350,000 at the time of the Europeans' arrival, was numbered at 386,049 (including Torres Strait Islanders, who are of Papuan descent) in 1996. Although still more rural than the general population, the aboriginal population has become more urbanized, with some two thirds living in cities. New South Wales and Queensland account for just over half of the Australian aboriginal population. In Tasmania the aboriginal population was virtually wiped out in the 19th century.

Melbourne was the only city in the Southern Hemisphere in which the Three Tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras) performed on their world tour in 1997, and the only city in the world to host the Kiss Symphony, a combined performance of the rock band KISS and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2003.

During the period of 1855-1890, the six Crown Colonies each successively became self-governing colonies, which managed most of their own affairs. British law was adopted in each colony at the time of the granting of responsible government, and was subsequently modified by the individual legislatures. The British government retained control of some matters, especially foreign affairs, defence, international shipping. Despite its heavily rural based economy Australia remained significantly urbanised, centred particularly around the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. In the 1880s 'Marvellous Melbourne' was the second largest city in the British Empire. Australia also gained a reputation as a 'working man's paradise' and as a laboratory for social reform, with the world's first secret ballot and first national Labor Party government.

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.

The exact date of the first human habitation of Australia is still a subject of considerable research. There is strong scientific evidence for a presence around 50,000 years ago, a period of massive ecological upheaval in Australia which is believed to be consistent with human colonisation. However, there is some speculation about considerably earlier arrivals, even as far as 100,000 or more years ago. These first Australians were the remote ancestors of the current Australian Aborigines, and arrived via land bridges and navigation of significant sea crossings from present-day Southeast Asia.

Many Perth residents consider their city to be egalitarian and relaxed, with a relatively large middle class and a suburban lifestyle; however, as with all large cities, Perth does have pockets of extreme wealth and poverty. The population is easy-going and friendly, but can be parochial, especially towards the "Eastern States" which are often viewed with deep, but usually jocular, suspicion. This attitude can be attributed mainly to isolation — reflected in the widely-held belief that Perth is "the world's most isolated capital city".