The Australian Way of Life

More than 80 % of Australians live in cities or bigger towns. Most of them live in the suburbs and have their own schools, churches and shopping centres there. They live in bungalows with their own gardens. Older houses are made of wood and have verandas or porches. Some of them are built on poles . Most newer houses are made of brick or stone.

Country life in Australia is not like anywhere else in the world. The inner part of the continent is often called the outback (which means “out in the back country ”). Farms in the outback are called stations. Farmers raise cattle and sheep and they grow wheat . These stations are very large, sometimes up to 2,000 or more square kilometres . The nearest town may be over one hundred km away.

Life in the outback is very hard. There are not always paved roads , so travelling by car is difficult ,sometimes impossible. Many families have smaller airplanes which they use to get to the next town and back again. Because it is the driest region of Australia, the people in the outback must cope with natural disasters , like droughts or bush fires.

Many Australian children who live in the outback get their education at home. Students get their homework by two-way radio , over the Internet or by mail from teachers who live in the nearest towns.

Flying Doctors give medical treatment to people who live far away from doctors or hospitals.

Australians like to eat meat , especially beef , poultry and mutton . When Europeans from other countries started to come to Australia they brought their eating habits with them. Today, you can find Italian, Greek and other restaurants all over the county.

Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink, but many Australians also like to drink wine that grows in the southern and south eastern part of the continent. Older people still drink lots of tea—like in Great Britain—but younger ones drink more and more coffee.

Australians love sport because they spend a lot of their free time outdoors . Swimming, sailing and diving are some popular water sports. Many Australians also play golf and tennis.

The most popular team sports are cricket and rugby. Many world famous athletes come from Australia and the country has won many medals at Olympic Games and World Championships.

Words

• athlete = sportsman or sportswoman
• beef = meat from a cow
• brick = a hard, red material used for building houses
• bungalow = a house with only one floor
• cattle = cows that are kept on a farm for their meat and milk
• cope with = deal with
• diving =swimming under water with special equipment
• disaster = something that happens and causes a lot of damage
• drought = when there is dry weather for a long time and plants and animals don’t have enough water to live
• education =teaching and learning at schools , colleges and universities
• medical treatment = to help you when you are ill
• mutton = meat from sheep
• paved road =a road or street with a hard surface, not just stones or sand
• pole = a post made of wood
• poultry = meat from chicken or turkeys
• outdoors = in the open
• raise = to look after and feed animals so that you can sell them as food or other things
• square kilometres = an area of one kilometre in a square
• suburb = places where people live which are far away from the centre of the city
• two-way radio = a radio that lets you listen to and send messages
• wheat = a plant from which you make white bread