5. The population of australia

ETHNIC DIVERSITY

Ethnic diversity

The ethnic diversity, a product of two hundred years of immigration, has made Australia a very colorful society. Its population is 18,600,000 people, the density of population is 2 people per 1 square kilometer. 85 per cent of the people live in towns, and only 15 per cent – in rural areas. About 80 per cent of the people live in the southeastern part of the country, particularly in large cities along the coast. Most of the rest live along the northeastern and southwestern coasts.

The great majority (96 per cent) of Australians are European immigrants or descendants of European immigrants.

Before the middle of the 199s most of the immigrants were from Great Britain and Ireland. After the end of the World War II in 1945 immigrants from other European countries were encouraged by a special program of the Australian government. This wave included Italians, Greeks, Germans, Dutch, practically any European who wished to move to Australia and who could meet the immigration requirements. Since the 1970s the number of immigrants from New Zealand and Southeast Asia has increased rapidly. Immigrants from Asia make up over 3 per cent of the population. The include Chinese, Indochinese, Indonesians, people from the countries of the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Large numbers also came from Mediterranean countries. As a result Melbourne now has the largest Greek population of any city outside Athens.

This wave of immigrants brought with them a cultural diversity and a new vitality to a previously parochial Australia. They took the “dirty jobs” when necessary, and also entered every sphere of professional and artistic activity. The result of this huge influx is that post-war migrants and their Australian-born children today account for 25 per cent of the population.

Australia also accepts refugees.

In the past 50 years people have immigrated to Australia from all over the world. The multicultural society of the country is represented by settlers from almost 200 nations.

Aborigines, native Australians of mixed (Aboriginal-white) and unmixed ancestry, constitute about 200,000 people. With the arrival of Europeans a great majority of Aborigines was exterminated or forced from their homes by white settlers. The colonists neither comprehended nor cared about the Aborigines and their culture. The death rate, along with the loss of their tribal lands, left the native people confused and resentful. The Aborigines saw the Europeans as invaders and resisted their settlement. In many areas they rebelled against the settlers, but usually these rebellions were brutally crushed. Most Aborigines adhere to their traditional tribal lifestyles and live in rural areas. However, since the early 1960s a growing number of younger Aborigines have moved to the cities.

The population of Australia is very unevenly distributed, because it is determined by the vast inland deserts, where the people cannot live. Despite the vastness of its territory there is a shortage of land. The most fertile and habitable areas are found around the narrow fringes of the continent, especially to the east and south. Most Australians live in these parts of the country. Thus more than 80 per cent of the people live in the six capitals on the coastal strip (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart) and less than 15 per cent actually live in the rural areas. The two largest of these capital cities, Sydney and Melbourne, contain more than 6 million people.

Outback

The proportion of the rural population of the country is one of the smallest in the world. Only about 13 per cent of Australians live in rural areas. Australians call the remote countryside the bush. The term outback refers specifically to the interior.

The outback consists chiefly of open countryside, including vast expanses of grazing lands. There are also widely scattered settlements, the largest of them being mining towns. Practically all farms in the outback are cattle or sheep stations, where life is extremely isolated. Some stations cover more than 2,600 sq. km and are about 160 km or more from the nearest town. However, the gradual improvement of bush roads and the advent of the motel have brought town and country closer together. This breakdown of barriers has improved country living considerably. Air conditioning and modern appliances have brought more domestic comfort.

Of course, station people in the outback are modern so as circumstances allow. The station usually has a two-way radio so that it may communicate with other stations, with police in case of trouble, and with the Flying Doctor Service in case of illness. Electricity is provided by a generator. The station family usually has a car. Most well-to-do station families have a light aeroplane, which they use for transportation to and from town. Families without a plane may get to town only a few times a year.