Our Parliment House in Canberra

Australia is part of the British Commonwealth, which is a debateable subject now with many wanting to become a republic. What difference does it make, none really, the country is ran independently. We have a Prime Minister who is head of the Liberal Party at present; he is voted in and stays for as long as he keeps getting voted in, we have elections approx every 3 yrs, our other main Party is Labor. It is compulsary to enrol to vote at the age of 18, we are fined if we do not vote. At present our Prime Minister is John Howard and he is in his 10^th year.

We have 6 States and 2 Territories, each has it’s own State Government which is ran by Premiers. The same process with voting, applies here also. We then step into local governments for areas within the States and Territories.

The landscape photos are for real.

I’m looking into some more information on our language differences.

The Wiggles, like Steve Irwin I think became bigger in America then here. I do know the Wiggles are popular here, but as strange as this may sound my kids have never got into them. So I have not met them, I’m sorry I will be a huge disappointment to your children.

We do definitely have mosquitos, though I rarely get bitten but my husband and a couple of my kids they really love to bite.

We are not big in the Mexican food, I’m afraid Australia might be a disappointment for you, I can get tacos and Burritos from the Supermarket. It definitely is not a big part of our diet. In 1999 we had our first Taco Bell but it is only with moderate success apparently, I have never been or do I remember seeing one. When I’m doing a search I see Taco Bill and Taco Bell is there a difference.

We are in Summer, our Winter is cold.

Christianity 12,575,675 = 70.28% Includes all Christians, as classified by Australian census bureau for statistical purposes using the self-identification standard: Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants, Eastern/Orthodox, Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Pentecostal, Jehovah's Witnesses, Churches of Christ, Seventh-day Adventists, Brethren, Apostolic, etc., as well as self-identified Christians and Protestants who didn't further define denominational affiliation.
We are very much a multicultural Society now, I would have to say a small amount of the population are true born again Christians. I would definitely say you are seen as odd if you are Pentecostal, they accept the other churches a lot more. Catholics would be the largest making up to 28% and Pentecostal only making 0.81%=144,208 people. These results were from 10 yrs ago though, I would have hoped its grown.

I just found this from 2006-Roman Catholic 26.6%, Anglican 20.7%, other Christian 20.7%, 2.1% Buddhist, 1.5% Muslims, 0.4% Jewish, 0.8% other, No Religion 15.5%, Not described 11.7%

We have Target but not Walmart.

I’ll get back to you with the rest of the answers. Please fire away with any other questions.