Ö1 macht Schule Terra Australis
Eroberung und Besiedelung Australiens
Geschichte: „Terra Australis“ , Teil 1–5
Sendetermin: 4.–8. April 2011
Gestaltung: Sabrina Adlbrecht
Länge: jeweils c.a. 4:40 Minuten
URL:
Didaktisches Material für das Fach Englisch
Schulstufe: 9.
1.Quiz and Trivia
2. Reading Task A: Australian History: European
Settlement of Australia
3. Reading Task B: Australian History: Modern Australia
1900 – 2011
4.Aussie Slang
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Ö1 macht Schule Terra Australis
1.Quiz and Trivia
A) Interesting Facts about Australia
Fill the gaps by choosing the correct word from the box below. There are 15 words but only 12 gaps.
champion / century / things / wildlife / tableemigrated / scenery / visited / biggest / older
celebrities / capital / talented / rainforest / coast
Australia is the sixth (1) ______country in the world after Russia, Canada, China, the United States and Brazil. The population grew very quickly during the 20th (2) ______, mainly because millions of people (3) ______to Australia from other countries. The population of Australia is now around 21 million.
The most famous Australian city is probably Sydney, which is on the country’s southeast (4) ______and has a population of around 4 million. The country’s (5) ______, however, is the smaller city of Canberra, about 300 kilometres from Sydney. Australia is well known for its spectacular (6) ______, which includes deserts in the interior, (7) ______in the far north, and the Great Barrier Reef (the longest coral reef in the world) near the northeast coast. Australia is also well known for its unusual (8) ______, including kangaroos and koala bears. A very high percentage of Australia’s animals do not live in any other part of the world. Australia produces lots of (9) ______sportsmen and women. It has the world (10) ______cricket team, one of the best rugby teams and a strong national football team, even though football is not particularly popular in Australia. In the Olympic Games Australia always does well in lots of different events and finishes near the top of the medals (11) ______. Famous Australian (12) ______include the actor Mel Gibson, the actress Cate Blanchett, and the pop singer Kylie Minogue.
Answer Keys:
1. biggest
2. century
3. emigrated
4. coast
5. capital
6. scenery
7. rainforest
8. wildlife
9. talented
10. champion
11. table
12. celebrities
Words that should not be used: things, visited, older face
B) Trivia
Can you match the numbers in the first column of the table with the items in the second column? (Note that some of the numbers are approximate rather than exact.)
25 / (A) / The number of Australian cities with a population of more than 3 million.4 / (B) / The year Mel Gibson was born.
7,700,000 / (C) / The length of the Great Barrier Reef, in kilometres.
130,000 / (D) / The number of countries with populations bigger than that of Australia.
0 / (E) / The percentage of Australia’s mammals that do not live in any other part of the world.
2,000 / (F) / The number of people who emigrated to Australia in 2005-6.
4 / (G) / The population of Canberra.
350,000 / (H) / The percentage of Australians who were born in another country.
1956 / (I) / Australia’s position in the medals table in both of the last two Olympic Games.
52 / (J) / The size of Australia, in square kilometres.
2 / (K) / The number of times Australia has won the football World Cup.
80 / (L) / The population of Australia in 1900, in millions.
Answer Keys:
(A) 2 (Sydney and Melbourne)
(B) 1956
(C) 2,000
(D) 52
(E) 80
(F) 130,000
(G) 350,000
(H) 25
(I) 4
(J) 7,700,000
(K) 0
(L) 4
C) Pop Quiz
Decide if the following statements about Australia are true (T) or false (F), then bet a minimum of 10 points up to a maximum of 50 on your choice.
T/F / Points bet / Points lost / Points won1 / There are more kangaroos than people in Australia.
2 / At the last Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, Australia won more gold medals than China.
3 / Australia’s internet domain suffix (the two letters representing the name of the country at the end of email and website addresses) is ‘au’.
4 / Australia is more than 50 times bigger than England.
5 / Around 50 different types of bird live in Australia.
6 / There are no snakes in Australia.
Total points lost and won
Final total (subtract total points lost from total points won)
Answer Keys:
1. True. The most conservative estimate of the kangaroo population is 50 million.
2. False. Australia came in fourth place with 17 gold medals, but China was in second place (behind the USA) with 32.
3.True
4. True. Australia’s area is 7,700,000 square kilometers, while England’s is only 130,000 square kilometers.
5. False. Australia has around 800 different bird species.
6. False. Australia has well over 100 different species of snake, many of which are poisonous.
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Ö1 macht Schule Terra Australis
2. Reading Task A: Australian History: European
Settlement of Australia
The fifteenth century saw the beginning of an age of exploration by European seagoing nations such as the Netherlands, England, Spain and Portugal. The Dutch, especially, were aggressively searching for riches in the southern hemisphere. So it is not surprising that the first confirmed landing in Australia by Europeans was by Dutch navigator Willem Jansz in 1606. Jansz and other Dutch explorers after him landed on the west coast of Australia. They decided that Australia, then known as New Holland, was of no economic value to their homeland because they thought it was too arid.
In 1688 English explorer William Dampier sailed to the west coast of Australia. Much later, in 1770, Captain James Cook arrived on the more fertile east coast of Australia and claimed it for Britain. In the mid 18th century, British prisons were overcrowded. British rulers decided they needed a new penal colony. In 1788, eighteen years after Captain Cook had claimed the east coast of Australia for Britain, a fleet arrived consisting of eleven ships carrying about 1500 passengers, half of them convicts. They established the first penal colony, in Botany Bay, which is now part of Sydney. The fleet arrived on January 26, 1788. Today, Australia celebrates Australia Day every January 26.
A second penal colony, Port Arthur, was developed by the British to the south, in Tasmania. About 161,700 convicts were transported to Australia between 1788 and the end of penal transportation eighty years later. There were 25,000 women among these transported convicts. The convicts were transported to the Australian colonies of New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land and Western Australia.
An estimated two thirds of the convicts were thieves from working class towns in England. Most were repeat offenders. Some were able to leave the prison system in Australia. After 1801 they could be granted leave for good behavior, which allowed them to work for free men for wages. Some were pardoned at the end of their sentence and then lead successful lives. The British convicts were soon joined in Australia by free immigrants, beginning in the early 1790s. The wool industry and, later, the gold rushes of the 1850s motivated growing numbers of free settlers to move to Australia. During the 19th century, colonies were established by Britain around the continent, while European explorers penetrated far into its interior.
Australia became known as a land of opportunity, because work was plentiful as was land. Money could be made in farming and mining. However, the indigenous Australians suffered during this time. At the time of first European contact, it is estimated the existing Aboriginal population was at least 350,000. Disease and conflict with the British colonists severely weakened Indigenous Australia throughout the period. Traditional lifestyles and cultures were disrupted by death, illness, displacement and dispossession.
After the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788, Australia was divided into an eastern half named New South Wales and a western half named New Holland, under the administration of the colonial government in Sydney. Van Diemen's Land, now known as Tasmania, was settled in 1803. Other British settlements followed. Edward Hammond Hargraves discovered gold near Bathurst, New South Wales, in February 1851, although smaller amounts of gold had been found in Australia as early as 1823. There was a wave of migration to Australia during the following gold rushes.
Many immigrants came to Australia from Great Britain, Ireland, continental Europe, North America and China. The population of the Colony of Victoria’s grew from 76,000 in 1850 to 530,000 by 1859. On January 1st 1901, the Constitution of Australia came into effect. This is known as the Federation. The six British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia became states in the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia became its own nation.
The non-Indigenous population at the time of Federation was 3.8 million, while the estimated Indigenous population was around 93,000. Half of the people lived in cities, three-quarters were born in Australia, and most were of English, Scottish or Irish descent. Over the decades following Federation, Australia continued to expand and after World War 2, there was a wave of immigration from Europe. More recently, the immigration has come from Asia. In the nineteenth century, Australia was transformed from a destination of last resort for convicted criminals to a land of opportunity and promise for people from around the world.
Adapted from: “European discovery and the Colonisation of Australia” (
Choose the best answer for the following questions:
1.When was Australia first discovered by European explorers?
a) 1606
b) 1688
c) 1770
d) 1901
2.Why did Britain first colonize Australia?
a) Gold
b) Agriculture
c) Prison overcrowding
d) Overpopulation
3.How many convicts were transported to Australia in all?
a) 1500
b) 161,700
c) 350,000
d) 530,000
4.When did the constitution of Australia go into effect?
a) 1770
b) 1788
c) 1851
d) 1901
5.How many British colonies combined to form Australia?
a) 5
b) 6
c) 10
d) 12
6.When was gold discovered in Australia, starting a gold rush?
a) 1851
b) 1901
c)1914
d) 1972
Answer Keys:
1. a) 1606
2. c) prison overcrowding
3. b) 161,700
4. d) 1901
5. b) 6
6. a) 1851
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Ö1 macht Schule Terra Australis
3. Reading Task B: Australian History: Modern Australia
1900 – 2011
The twentieth century was a time of great change for Australia. The country gained independence, suffered through the Depression and fought in two World Wars. Advances were made in ensuring Aboriginal Australians equal rights. Millions ofimmigrants from around the world came to Australia. The population grew from under 4 million in 1901 to almost 21 million in 2006.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the six British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia agreed to form a single nation. The Federation of Australia took place on January 1, 1901. A constitution was adopted, and the colonies became states of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Australia fought alongside Great Britain in the First World War. Although Australia had less than 3 million men in 1914, almost 400,000 volunteered to fight. About 60,000 died in the war. Tens of thousands were wounded.
Like many countries, Australia suffered from economic problems in the time between the two World Wars. Many Australian banks failed during those Depression years. Social and economic divisions widened. The Australian economy depended on exports, such as wheat and wool. For this reason, the Great Depression of the 1930s hit the economy hard. Profits fell and many workers lost their jobs.
During the Second World War, Australian soldiers joined the allied nations of Great Britain and United States. They fought in Europe, Asia and the Pacific. Over 575,000 Australians served overseas from 1939 to 1945.
The Second World War also affected those who stayed at home. Itchanged society. Manufacturing increased during the war. Workers were needed to run the factories. Many men were away at war, so women had to work in the factories. Between 1939 and 1944 the number of women working in factories rose from 171,000 to 286,000.
The Australian economy boomed after 1945. Hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants arrived in Australia after the war. The economy grew strongly in the 1950s. The suburbs in Australia grew as more people could afford houses. Television broadcasting began in 1956. Melbourne hosted the Olympic Games that same year. (In 2000, the Olympic Games came to Australia a second time, hosted by Sydney.)
Post-war immigration from around the world made Australian society ethnically diverse. In the 1960s, relations to the United Kingdom grew less important. Relations to Asia grew more important. The Vietnam War began, and Australia sent troops. There was political, economic and social change.
Australia developed a stronger its own history and culture in the 1960s. The National Trust of Australia worked to preserve Australia’s heritage. Australian TV started producing its own shows instead of importing them from the UnitedStatesandGreatBritain.The Sydney Opera House openedin 1973. Australian History began to be taught in schools by the 1970s.
The 1960s was also an important time for Aboriginal Australians’ rights. In 1962, the Commonwealth Electoral Act said that all Indigenous people had the right to vote in federal elections. In 1967 Australians changed their constitution to include all Aboriginal Australians in the national census and let the Federal parliament make laws for them. A Council for Aboriginal Affairs was created. This change was the result of a campaign by Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Aboriginal Australians began to serve in Australian parliaments during the 1970s. In 1971 Neville Bonner became the first Aborigine in Federal Parliament. The Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1976 was passed in the Northern Territory, helping Aboriginal Australians to reclaim their land.
The twentieth century was a time of growth and development for Australia. The colonies united in a Federation to form a nation. Trade with Asia increased and post-war immigration brought more than 6.5 million people from around the world. Australia became a self-confident, modern nation.
Adapted from: “European discovery and the Colonisation of Australia” (
Choose the best answer for the following questions:
1.When was the Commonwealth of Australia formed?
a) 1606
b) 1688
c) 1901
d) 1967
2.By how much did the Australian population grow during the 20th century?
a) About 30 million
b) About 10 million
c) About 17 million
d) About 100 million
3.What made Australian society ethnically diverse?
a) Intermarriage
b) Post-war immigration
c) Aboriginal rights
d) A booming economy
4.What did the Commonwealth Electoral Act of 1962 do?
a) Gave women the right to vote
b)Gave immigrants the right to vote
c) Gave indigenous Australians the right to vote
d) None of the above
5.What did Australia suffer from between the World Wars?
a) A weak economy
b) Overpopulation
c) The ozone hole
d) An overheated economy
6.When did Australia first host the Olympic Games?
a) 1948
b) 1956
c) 1964
d) 2000
Answer Keys:
1. a) 1901
2. c) About 17 million
3. b) Post-war immigration
4. c) Gave indigenous Australians the right to vote
5. a) A weak economy
6. d) 2000
Ö1 macht Schule Terra Australis
4.Aussie Slang
Look at the examples of Australian slang. Which expressions do you know already? Can you guess the others from the context?
- The man started getting a bit aggro when he had had too much to drink.
- Our neighbours complained that their ankle-biters couldn’t sleep because of the noise.
- I’m going to watch the game tomorrow arvo.
- We have so much business at the moment, I’m as busy as a one-legged man in an arse kicking contest.
- I love the smell of snags on a barbie.
- A bloke came up to me and asked for directions.
- My house is just down the road.
- I can’t believe you didn’t know the answer, you drongo.
- I saw a great footy match last night
- If you can’t hack what he says, don’t talk to him!
- You’ve put in some hard yakka – Take a break.
- After so long not seeing my mates it was great to have a have a chinwag
- My brother likes KFC but I prefer Macca’s.
- How can you forget where you parked your car? What a mug!
- The employee went outside to have a smoko.
- After such a poor meal, the customer spat the dummy when he was overcharged.
Answer Keys:
1. aggro = aggressiv
2. ankle-biters = little children
3. arvo = afternoon
4. as busy as a one-legged man in an arse kicking contest: = useless, not at all
5. snags = sausages, barbie = barbeque
6. bloke = guy, man
7. down the road = term indicating distance but no particular distance
8. drongo=slow-witted or stupid person
9. foorty = football
10. hack it= to tolerate something or to keep up
11.yakka = hard work
12. mates = friend, chinwag = chat
13. Macca’s = McDonald’s
14. mug = fool, idiot
15. smoko = cigarette
16. spit the dummy= get very upset about something