While Australians like to think that the bush is at the heart of
their country, about 80 per cent of the population live in towns or
cities and their suburbs.
Outside urban areas, there's great variety in the Australian environment, from surf beaches to eucalypt ranges, rainforests, deserts, coastal plains and snow-covered mountains.
The continent, which is almost as big as the contiguous United States, has 14 World Heritage listed sites, including the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kakadu National Park and the Blue Mountains.
Despite its arid interior, about 60 per cent of Australia is used for agriculture and grazing, and mining has expanded significantly in recent decades. The best soil and climates are to be found on the coastal plains of the continent, and that's where you'll also find all the big cities.
Today 12 million Australians live in the 8 capital cities and their
suburbs, with 3.6 million living in coastal towns and regional cities,
and 3.3 million in rural areas.
The suburban way of life
Initially Australian cities were designed very much along the lines of English ones, with compact, high-density city housing.
However, by the 1920s, the temptation to make use of the abundant space led to the enlargement of house block sizes and suburbs - developments that made Australian cities some of largest in the world in area. The dream of the 'quarter-acre paradise' was born.
Almost every family's goal was a block of land of about 1000 square metres and on it, a home, which they would own once they'd paid off the 30-year mortgage. That suburban lifestyle has been on display around the world to viewers of the television series, "Neighbours".
Home ownership
"This is really very deep in our national psyche as the way Australians live," says social researcher Hugh Mackay.
The 'dream' of owning one's own home is alive and well in the 21st century. Many young Australians leave the parental home to rent close to the city, before they move to the suburbs, where they can afford a house and garden.
"It'll be the birth of the first child that will drive these
renters to become buyers," Hugh Mackay says. "They're likely
to be renting in the inner city, but they'll start looking to the
suburbs as the place to create this quintessentially Australian environment
for raising children."
An inside-out life
According to British-born Sue Turnbull, who teaches media studies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australian suburbia is different to other western countries. Australians, she notes, prefer to be outside.
"You don't have a garden, you have an outdoor entertainment area," says Ms Turnbull. "There is a direct relationship between having a kitchen inside and a barbecue outside - another food preparation area in which to entertain and live. So Australians have, within suburbia, brought together the ideal of the bush, which is living outside, and the ideal of the city, which is having a retreat from the bush. In suburbia the two meet perfectly."
It's a lifestyle to be shared with family and friends, complete with
a high fence so the neighbours can't see you, she adds.
Environmental Issues:
Water
Some of Australia's environmental problems are due to the fact that
it is the driest continent on earth. The threat of drought is always
present and chronic low rainfall prevents vast areas from being cultivated
using conventional farming methods.
State authorities often impose water restrictions on households and industries in an effort to conserve water resources. But with their large lawns, gardens and love of water sports, Australians continue to be amongst the biggest consumers of water in the world.
Fire
Bushfires regularly destroy thousands of square kilometres of
forests, parks and farmland in Australia. Research dating back to
1850 shows bad fire seasons occur every 13 years or so. After the
1939 bushfires in south eastern Australia, in which 71 people died,
Australians began thinking about their ecology. A Royal Commission
then noted that Europeans had failed to learn from Aboriginal people,
says historian Tom Griffiths.
"Aboriginal people never lived in the middle of the bush," he says, "but on the outskirts. And they cleared pathways and edges by burning off to ensure that, when fire did break out, it didn't spread."
Burn-off, or the clearing of undergrowth, is a hot topic of debate.
Salt
After two centuries of removing the bush and using European farming
practices, Australia has recognised the need for change. The once-great
Murray-Darling River system is under threat, with much of its flow
diverted to irrigate farmland.
Tree-clearing and excessive irrigation have resulted in extensive salinity. Increases in the salt levels in the surface and sub-surface water supplies are affecting large areas of countryside.
"It's pretty staggering to think that since 1788 we've cleared 20 billion trees from this country," says Jack Thompson, an actor with an interest in environmental issues. "Right now we're losing a piece of land the size of a football field every single day to salinity. In the lifetimes of our children the cancer of salinity will make a third of our productive land, a third of the land we are using to produce food, unusable."
In response to these problems, the Australian government is spending
$AUD1.4 billion dollars over seven years on a program to decrease
salinity and clean up waterways.
