Depuis, la ville — qui de 1901 à 1927 fut la capitale du Commonwealth d'Australie — n'a cessé de s'enrichir de nombreux monuments, dont le pont (Sydney Harbour Bridge), construit en 1930-1932, et l'Opéra, œuvre de l'architecte danois Jorn Utzon inaugurée en 1973 ; ce sont sans doute les plus remarquables. Officiellement appelé Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour est un dédale de promontoires et de petites baies qui s'étend sur 20 km du Pacifique à la Paramatta River.C'est une ville très agréable quant à son climat, la température moyenne est de 25° en été et de 13° en hiver...

 

C'est avec Darling Harbour que l'Australie bascula dans l'ère industrielle en 1815, avec l'ouverture de son moulin à vapeur. Pourtant le quartier des docks sombra ensuite dans une désolante décrépitude. Ce n'est qu'au début des années 80 que Sydney fit face à une demande pressante pour re-développer la zone du Port de Darling. La réhabilitation des lieux visait à créer, en bordure de la mer, un vaste complexe de boutiques, de restaurants, de clubs, de centres d'exposition et de divertissement, le tout situé juste à côté du centre ville.

Australie: Le continent rouge

Vous venez sur les terres sacrées de ma tribu pour y puiser la force de La Terre, terre que nous appelons notre Mère. Nous ne pouvons pas la posséder, nous Lui appartenons."


"Ceci est mon emblème, Kabul. Il représente le Serpent Arc-en-Ciel, celui qui donne et prend la vie."

Au temps d'Alcheringa, le Temps du Rêve, la terre était plate, froide et vide. Le Serpent Arc-en-Ciel, il dormait sous terre. Le temps venu, il sortit. Il émergea au coeur de mon peuple - Uluru - Ayers Rock. Il devint très actif, repoussant la terre, créant les montagnes, les collines, les forêts, les rivières et les lacs.

"Peut-être, bientôt au cours de votre voyage vous verrez Kabul, au détour des paysages qu'il a façonnés. Prenez votre temps, vous voyageurs, et laissez l'esprit de cette terre toute puissante vous pénétrer comme il a habité mon peuple."

Dans un continent qui fait 14 fois la France, il y a des milliers de choses à découvrir et à vivre, impossible de les présenter en 16 pages ...Inspirez-vous de ce qui suit pour en faire la base de votre voyage sur mesure.
 

SOURCE

• www.bourlingueurs.com

• www.australia.com

• australieautrement.

Australia's World Heritage Properties

• http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/world_heritage.html

Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. What makes World Heritage places exceptional is their universal significance. Properties on the World Heritage List are important to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory in which they are located. There are currently (October 2005) 16 Australian properties on the World Heritage List:

The Great Barrier Reef, one of Australia’s first World Heritage Areas, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in recognition of its outstanding natural universal values. It is the world’s largest World Heritage Area. There are an estimated 1 500 species of fish and more than 300 species of hard, reef-building corals. More than 4 000 mollusc species and over 400 species of sponges have been identified.

Kakadu National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in three stages over 11 years. It is one of the few sites included on the List for both outstanding cultural and natural universal values. Kakadu contains features of great natural beauty and sweeping landscapes and living Aboriginal culture dating back tens of thousands of years. Its focal points are the internationally important wetlands and the spectacular escarpment and outliers.

The Willandra Lakes Region is a 240 000 hectare semi-arid landscape of dried saline lake beds vegetated with saltbush, fringing sand dunes and woodlands with grassy understoreys. Located in the Murray Basin area in far south-western New South Wales, it was inscribed on the World Heritage List for both outstanding cultural and natural universal values.

The Tasmanian Wilderness was inscribed on the World Heritage List for both its outstanding natural and cultural universal values. This World Heritage area is one of the largest conservation reserves in Australia. At 1.38 million hectares, it covers approximately 20 per cent of the land area of the island of Tasmania. It is one of only three large temperate wilderness areas remaining in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Lord Howe Island Group was inscribed on the World Heritage List for its outstanding natural universal values. Located 700 kilometres north-east of Sydney and covering an area of 146 300 hectares, the Lord Howe Island Group comprises: Lord Howe Island; Admiralty Islands; Mutton Bird Islands; Ball’s Pyramid; and associated coral reefs and marine environments.

Ulu ru-Kata Tju ta National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in two stages, initially for its outstanding universal natural values and then for its outstanding universal cultural values. The park, covering an area of 132 566 hectares of arid ecosystems, is located close to the centre of Australia in the traditional lands of Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal people (locally known as Anangu).

Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (Australia) . In 1986, a number of rainforest reserves located on the Great Escarpment of eastern New South Wales, known as the Australian East Coast Sub-tropical and Temperate Rainforest Parks were inscribed on the World Heritage List for their outstanding natural universal values. Large extensions, including reserves in south-east Queensland, were listed in 1994 under the new title of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (Australia).

The Wet Tropics of Queensland was inscribed on the World Heritage List in recognition of its outstanding natural universal values. The Wet Tropics World Heritage property lies between Townsville and Cooktown on the north-east coast of Queensland and covers an area of approximately 894 000 hectares. The area is a region of spectacular scenery and rugged topography with fast-flowing rivers, deep gorges and numerous waterfalls. The mountain summits provide expansive vistas of undisturbed rainforests.

Shark Bay is located on the most western point of the coast of Australia and covers an area of 2.3 million hectares. The region is one of the few properties inscribed on the World Heritage List for all four outstanding natural universal values. The Shark Bay region is a meeting point of three major climatic regions, forming a transition zone between two major botanical provinces-the South West and Eremaean provinces.

Stretching over 120 kilometres along the southern coast of Queensland, Fraser Island (184 000 hectares) is the largest sand island in the world. It was inscribed on the World Heritage List for its outstanding natural universal values. The island is a place of exceptional beauty, with its long uninterrupted white beaches flanked by strikingly coloured sand cliffs, its majestic tall rainforests and numerous freshwater lakes of crystal clear waters.

The Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh/Naracoorte) World Heritage property was inscribed on the World Heritage List for its outstanding natural universal values.  Over 2 000 kilometres separate the two sites that form the World Heritage property. Riversleigh (10 000 hectares), located in north-western Queensland, is confined to the watershed of the Gregory River. The site at Naracoorte, South Australia, covers 300 hectares and is located in flat country, punctuated by a series of stranded coastal dune ridges that run parallel to the present coastline.

The Australian Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands was inscribed on the World Heritage List for its outstanding natural universal values, including the only active volcanoes on subantarctic islands and populations of plants and animals largely unaffected by the negative impacts of human activities or introduced species.  The Territory lies isolated in the stormy subantarctic waters of the Southern Ocean, approximately 4000 kilometres south-west of Western Australia. This is near the Antarctic Polar Front, a region where Antarctic and warmer waters converge. Heard Island was discovered in 1853.

Macquarie Island was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997 on the basis of its outstanding natural universal values.  Macquarie Island is situated about 1500 km south-south-east of Tasmania, about half way between Tasmania and Antarctica at around 55 degrees south. It is the only island in the world composed entirely of oceanic crust and rocks from the mantle-deep below the earth's surface.

Over a million hectares of mountainous landscape and eucalypt forests just west of Sydney, The Greater Blue Mountains Area, made it to the World Heritage List in December 2000. It was listed for its outstanding representation of Australia's unique eucalypt vegetation; and for its exceptional biodiversity including ancient species. It is an area of breathtaking views, rugged tablelands, sheer cliffs, deep, inaccessible valleys and swamps teeming with life. It also contains globally significant ancient species such as the Wollemi Pine.

In the East Kimberley Region, where Australia’s tropical and arid zones meet, Purnululu National Park, with its world famous Bungle Bungle beehive formations, is one of Australia’s most recentWorld Heritage listings. It was inscribed in July 2003 for its representation of ongoing geological processes and for its superlative natural beauty. Purnululu has also been nominated for its rich Aboriginal cultural heritage over 20 000 years. This nomination is still being assessed.

The Royal Exhibition Building and its surrounding Carlton Gardens in Melbourne are the latest to achieve World Heritage listing, for their cultural value, in 2004. The building, Australia’s first to attain a World Heritage listing, reflects the global influence of the international exhibition movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement showcased technological innovation and change, which helped promote a rapid increase in industrialisation and international trade through the exchange of knowledge and ideas.

Australia has taken the lead in ensuring high quality management for its World Heritage places, with national legislation to protect World Heritage values through a strict environmental assessment process and a very high level of community and Indigenous involvement in management

• http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/pacifique/australie.htm

On distingue deux types d’aborigènes en Australie: d’une part, les aborigènes qui habitent en Australie métropolitaine et sur l’île de Tasmanie, d’autre part, les insulaires du détroit de Torres, qui vivent entre la pointe du cap York au Queensland et l’île de la Nouvelle-Guinée, ainsi que sur de nombreuses îles côtières. Ces insulaires sont considérés comme ayant développé des traits ethniques et culturels distincts des autres aborigènes du continent, et présentent de plus de nombreuses similitudes culturelles avec les peuples de la Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée ainsi qu’avec d’autres peuples mélanésiens du Pacifique. Depuis 1988, l’année de la célébration du bicentenaire de l’Australie, beaucoup d'aborigènes refusent le terme anthropologique d’aborigène (du latin ab origine: «à l’origine» et désignant un autochtone dont les ancêtres sont considérés comme étant «à l’origine» du peuplement). Ils préfèrent l’appellation de Koorie signifiant «notre peuple» dans plusieurs langues australiennes.

Lors du recensement de 1991, on comptait 238 492 Australiens d'origine aborigène et 26 902 insulaires du détroit de Torres. Or, rappelons-le, ils n’étaient plus que 60 000 en 1920. Sans aucun doute, on assiste présentement à une remontée spectaculaire de la population aborigène par rapport aux décennies antérieures. Selon une projection du Bureau australien des statistiques (Australian Bureau of Statistics), celle-ci devrait passer, sur la base des tendances actuelles quant aux indices de fécondité et de mortalité, de 386 000 personnes (en juin 1996) à 470 000 dès 2006.