Topic: Australia (Page 2)

You are looking at all articles with the topic "Australia". We found 31 matches.

Hint: To view all topics, click here. Too see the most popular topics, click here instead.

πŸ”— Pine Gap, Australia

πŸ”— Australia πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/North American military history πŸ”— Military history/United States military history πŸ”— Military history/Intelligence πŸ”— Australia/Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific military history πŸ”— Military history/Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific military history πŸ”— Australia/Northern Territory

Pine Gap is the commonly used name for a US satellite surveillance base and Australian Earth station approximately 18 kilometres (11Β mi) south-west of the town of Alice Springs, Northern Territory in the centre of Australia which is jointly operated by Australia and the United States. Since 1988, it has been officially called the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap (JDFPG); previously, it was misleadingly known as Joint Defence Space Research Facility.

The station is partly run by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), US National Security Agency (NSA), and US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and is a key contributor to the NSA's global interception effort, which included the ECHELON program. The classified NRO name of the Pine Gap base is Australian Mission Ground Station (AMGS), while the unclassified cover term for the NSA function of the facility is RAINFALL.

Discussed on

πŸ”— The Emu War

πŸ”— Australia πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Australia/Western Australia πŸ”— Military history/Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific military history πŸ”— Australia/Australian history

The Emu War, also known as the Great Emu War, was a nuisance wildlife management military operation undertaken in Australia over the latter part of 1932 to address public concern over the number of emus said to be running amok in the Campion district of Western Australia. The unsuccessful attempts to curb the population of emus, a large flightless bird indigenous to Australia, employed soldiers armed with Lewis gunsβ€”leading the media to adopt the name "Emu War" when referring to the incident. While a number of the birds were killed, the emu population persisted and continued to cause crop destruction.

Discussed on

πŸ”— Rabbit-proof fence

πŸ”— Australia πŸ”— Australia/Western Australia

The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits and other agricultural pests, from the east, out of Western Australian pastoral areas.

There are three fences in Western Australia: the original No. 1 Fence crosses the state from north to south, No. 2 Fence is smaller and further west, and No. 3 Fence is smaller still and runs east–west. The fences took six years to build. When completed in 1907, the rabbit-proof fence (including all three fences) stretched 2,023 miles (3,256Β km). The cost to build the fences at the time was about Β£168 per mile ($250/km).

When it was completed in 1907, the 1,139-mile (1,833Β km) No. 1 Fence was the longest unbroken fence in the world.

Discussed on

πŸ”— Terra Nullius

πŸ”— International relations πŸ”— Australia πŸ”— Law πŸ”— Latin πŸ”— Australia/Indigenous peoples of Australia πŸ”— Australia/Australian law

Terra nullius (, plural terrae nullius) is a Latin expression meaning "nobody's land". It was a principle sometimes used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it. It denotes land that has never been a part of a sovereign nation-state, such as Bir Tawil, or for which all claim to sovereign ownership has been relinquished, such as the territory east of the Oder–Neisse line that used to belong to Germany under Prussia.

Discussed on

πŸ”— Sir Douglas Nicholls

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Australia πŸ”— Biography/politics and government πŸ”— Biography/sports and games πŸ”— Christianity πŸ”— Boxing πŸ”— Australia/Australian rules football

Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls, (9 December 1906 – 4 June 1988) was a prominent Aboriginal Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneering campaigner for reconciliation.

Nicholls was the first Aboriginal Australian to be knighted when he was appointed Knight Bachelor in 1972 (he was subsequently appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1977). He was also the first β€” and to date the only β€” Indigenous Australian to be appointed to vice-regal office, serving as Governor of South Australia from 1 December 1976 until his resignation on 30 April 1977 due to poor health.

Discussed on

πŸ”— Tall Poppy Syndrome

πŸ”— Australia πŸ”— Canada πŸ”— New Zealand πŸ”— Psychology πŸ”— United Kingdom πŸ”— Sociology πŸ”— Ireland

The tall poppy syndrome is the cultural phenomenon of jealous people holding back or directly attacking those who are perceived to be better than the norm, "cutting down the tall poppy". It describes a draw towards mediocrity.

Commonly in Australia and New Zealand, "Cutting down the tall poppy" is used to describe those who think too highly of themselves and it is seen by some as self-deprecating and by others as promoting modesty and egalitarianism.

Discussed on

πŸ”— The Great Emu War

πŸ”— Australia πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Agriculture πŸ”— Australia/Western Australia πŸ”— Birds πŸ”— Military history/Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific military history πŸ”— Australia/Australian history πŸ”— Australia/Australian biota πŸ”— Australia/Australian politics

The Emu War, also known as the Great Emu War, was a nuisance wildlife management military operation undertaken in Australia over the latter part of 1932 to address public concern over the number of emus said to be running amok in the Campion district of Western Australia. The unsuccessful attempts to curb the population of emus, a large flightless bird indigenous to Australia, employed soldiers armed with Lewis gunsβ€”leading the media to adopt the name "Emu War" when referring to the incident. While a number of the birds were killed, the emu population persisted and continued to cause crop destruction.

Discussed on

πŸ”— Paul Le Roux

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Australia πŸ”— Crime πŸ”— Australia/Australian crime πŸ”— South Africa πŸ”— Zimbabwe

Paul Calder Le Roux (born 24 December 1972) is a former programmer, former criminal cartel boss and informant to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

In 1999, he created E4M, a free and open-source disk encryption software program for Microsoft Windows, and is sometimes credited for open-source TrueCrypt, which is based on E4M's code, though he denies involvement with TrueCrypt.

He was arrested on 26 September 2012 for conspiracy to import narcotics into the United States, and agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for a lesser sentence and immunity to any crimes he might admit to afterwards. He subsequently admitted to arranging or participating in seven murders, carried out as part of an extensive illegal business empire.

Le Roux was sentenced to 25 years in prison in June 2020.

Discussed on

πŸ”— Cassowary

πŸ”— Australia πŸ”— Birds

Casuarius is a genus of birds in the order Casuariiformes, whose members are the cassowaries (Tok Pisin: muruk, Indonesian: kasuari). It is classified as a ratite (flightless bird without a keel on its sternum bone) and is native to the tropical forests of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and East Indonesia), Aru Islands (Maluku), and northeastern Australia.

Three species are extant: The most common, the southern cassowary, is the third-tallest and second-heaviest living bird, smaller only than the ostrich and emu. The other two species are represented by the northern cassowary and the dwarf cassowary; the northern cassowary is the most recently discovered and the most threatened. A fourth but extinct species is represented by the pygmy cassowary.

Cassowaries feed mainly on fruit, although all species are truly omnivorous and take a range of other plant foods, including shoots and grass seeds, in addition to fungi, invertebrates, and small vertebrates. Cassowaries are very wary of humans, but if provoked, they are capable of inflicting serious, even fatal, injuries to both dogs and people. The cassowary has often been labeled "the world's most dangerous bird".

Discussed on

πŸ”— Octopolis and Octlantis

πŸ”— Australia πŸ”— Animals πŸ”— Australia/Australian biota πŸ”— Cephalopods

Octopolis and Octlantis are two separate non-human underwater settlements built by the gloomy octopuses. The first settlement, named Octopolis by biologists, was found in 2009. The individual structures in Octopolis consist of burrows around a piece of scrap metal. In 2016, a second settlement was found, named Octlantis, which instead of burrows, has dens and is built with seashells.