The Commonwealth of Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the world's smallest continent and a number of islands in the Southern, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Australia's neighbouring countries are Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east.

The continent of Australia has been inhabited for more than 42,000 years by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. After sporadic visits by European explorers and merchants from the 17th century onwards, the eastern half of the continent was claimed by the British in 1770, and officially settled as the penal colony of New South Wales on 26 January 1788. As the population grew and new areas were explored, another five largely self-governing Crown Colonies were successively established over the course of the 19th century.

On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Since federation, Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and remains a Commonwealth Realm. The current population of around 21 million is concentrated mainly in the coastal cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

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Powderfinger is an alternative rock band based in Australia. The band formed in Brisbane, Australia, in 1989, and their lineup since 1992 has consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bassist John Collins, and drummer Jon Coghill.

Powderfinger became a commercial success with their third studio album Internationalist in 1998. Since then, they have released several hit singles and award-winning works, including a total of fifteen ARIA Awards. Numerous Powderfinger albums have reached platinum status multiple times, and rankings in the top 100 of Australian music charts. Odyssey Number Five, Powderfinger's most successful to date, earned over eight platinum certifications and ARIA Awards in five different categories. The announcement of a two month-long nationwide tour with Silverchair entitled the Across the Great Divide tour followed the release of their sixth studio album, Dream Days at the Hotel Existence in June 2007.

Across their 15-year career, Powderfinger has been active in practicing philanthropic acts. In 2005, Powderfinger performed at a WaveAid concert in Sydney, to help raise funds for areas affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. In October 2007, performed at a concert in the Sydney Opera House for breast cancer victims and their families. The aim of their recent tour was to promote the efforts of Reconciliation Australia, and to promote awareness of the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children.

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The Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is a thickset arboreal marsupial herbivore native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae.

The Koala is found in coastal regions of eastern and southern Australia, from near Adelaide to the southern part of Cape York Peninsula. Populations also extend for considerable distances inland in regions with enough moisture to support suitable woodlands. The Koalas of South Australia were largely exterminated during the early part of the 20th century, but the state has since been repopulated with Victorian stock. The Koala is not found in Tasmania or Western Australia.

Photo credit: Guillaume Blanchard

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On this day...

November 21:

• 1789 - James Ruse becomes the first convict to receive a land grant.
• 1936 - The Hume Dam is completed, creating one of the largest water storage systems in the southern hemisphere.
• 1969 - Death of Norman Lindsay, prolific artist, sculptor, writer and editorial cartoonist, aged 90.

Did you know...

• ... that Jordan Rankin, at 16 years and 238 days, is the youngest player to make his first-grade debut in Australian rugby league in over 70 years?
• ... that Reg Lindsay was an Australian Country and Western singer who won three Golden Guitars Awards and wrote more than five hundred songs in his fifty year music career?
• ... that the murder of Celia Douty was the first murder in Australia to be solved using DNA profiling, after remaining unsolved for 18 years?

  

• ...that the town of Bismarck in Tasmania was renamed Collinsvale due to anti-German sentiment during World War I?
• ...that Indigenous Australian activist Michael Mansell convinced Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi to officially recognise a separate Aboriginal Australian passport in order to draw international attention to the issue of native land rights?
• ...that Wally Koochew was the first VFL player of Chinese background?
• ...that Wing Commander Stanley Goble and Flying Officer Ivor McIntyre, piloting a single-engined seaplane (pictured), became the first men to circumnavigate Australia by air in 1924?
• ...that a series of storms in south-east Queensland spawned two of the most powerful supercells and tornadoes in recorded Australian history?
• ...that the lamington cake is believed to have been named after Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, the Governor of Queensland at the time of its invention?
• ...that during the first seven years of the Australian edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? nobody won the top prize of one million dollars?
• ...that in New South Wales, a Sentencing Council which is the first of its type in Australia, conducts research to improve the consistency of sentencing of criminals?
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