Army-Guide-Australia.Pdf
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A POCKET GUIDE T O AUSTRALI A prepared by SPECIAL SERVICE DIVISION, SERVICES OF SUPPL Y UNITED STATES ARMY WAR AND NAVY DEPARTMENT S WASHINGTON, D . C . INFANTRY JOURNAL Library CONTENT S The Other Side of the World r A Pioneer Land 3 The Empty Heart of Australia zo The People "Down Under " 1 2 Waltzing Matilda 20 The Australian Commonwealth 33 The States 37 Miscellaneous Information 42 Australia at War 43 Cobbers 45 Australian Slang J&UMd,Oc 3 Aiwa ro'~ iM ~no~amcl aQQ . 46 YOU and your outfit have been ordered to Australia a s a part of a world-wide offensive against Hitler and th e Australia is about th e Japs-a drive that will end in Tokyo and Berlin . same size as the Unite d You're going to meet a people who like Americans an d States . It measures ap- whom you will like . The Australians have much i n proximately 2,400 mile s East to West and 2,00 0 common with us-they're a pioneer people ; they believe miles North to South, in personal freedom ; they love sports ; and they're out to lick the Axis all the way . But there are a lot of differences too-their ways of living and thinking on al l sorts of things-like tea, central heating, the best way to spend Sunday, or saluting officers and such . You'll fin d out about all those, but the main point is they like us, and we like them. Since American troops first landed in Australia, th e Australians have gone out of their way to welcome the m and make them feel at home . Australian newspapers have used up newsprint (and it's scarce) to print baseball scores and major league standings and home town news-an d But this isn't supposed to be an Emily Post on how to even American cooking recipes for housewives. The Gov- get along in Australia . It's simply a short guide book to ernment has made American money legal tender in the give you a quick picture of what the Australians and thei r country and set up special exchange rates for America n country are like, and what you may meet there . soldiers . And Australian audiences, at theatres and con- A PIONEER LAN D certs, honor our national anthem by rising when the Sta r Spangled Banner is played . AUSTRALIA is one of the newest countries in the No people on earth could have given us a better, warmer world-yet the continent itself is one of the oldest. A hun- welcome and we'll have to live up to it . dred and fifty years ago, it was an empty land about th e There is one thing to get straight, right off the bat . You size of the United States, inhabited by only a few hundre d aren't in Australia to save a helpless people from th e thousand natives-the Australians call them "Abos" (fo r savage Jap . Maybe there are fewer people in Australia Aborigines)-living about the same way they did in the than there are in New York City, but their soldiers, i n Stone Age . this war and the last, have built up a great fighting record . In a century and a half it has become a land of fine , For three years now, they've fought on nearly every battl e modern cities, booming factories turning out war material , front of the war ; they've suffered heavy losses in Crete , and fighting men, famous everywhere. It's a land of great Libya, Greece, and Malaya ; and they're still in there pitch- plains, millions of sheep and cattle, of gold mines and ing . The Australians need our help in winning this war, of deserts and funny animals . And it's one of the world' s course, but we need theirs just as much . You might remem- greatest democracies . ber this story when you get into an argument about "who' s going to win the war " : Not so long ago in a Sydney bar, an American soldier turned to an Australian next to hi m and said : "Well, Aussie, you can go home now . We've come over to save you." The Aussie cracked back : "Have you? I thought you were a refugee from Pearl Harbor ." 2 3 NFANTRY JOURNAL JUbrary LONDON CAIRO BOMBAY HONOLULU SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK ] A . M . 4 A . M . ]130 A . M . 3130 P . M . 6 P . M . 9P.M . TODAY TODAY TODAY YESTERDAY YESTERDAY YESTERDAY N MOST maps, Australia i s tralia lies below the equator where - it is today on the left-hand page , time between Australia and th e O shown away down in the left - as the United States lies above it . it is yesterday for places on the West Coast of the United State s hand corner by itself, a fact tha t As a result the seasons are reversed . right-hand page . When you are i n is 3 to 4 weeks . Because o f makes Americans think it's a long When it is winter in the Unite d Sydney, you are x8 hours ahead of the war, sea transport now take s way from nowhere . This map give s States it is summer in Australi a San Francisco time . For instance even longer . But aviation ha s a truer picture of Australia in rela- and vice versa . The Internationa l when it is noon on Wednesday i n brought the two countries clos e tion to the rest of the world an d Date Line runs north and sout h Sydney, it is 6 p . m . on Tuesday together . The regular clipper used clearly indicates its strategic impor- through the Pacific-just about at in San Francisco and 9 p . M . i n to take 5 days and a special plan e tance . You will notice that Aus - the fold of these two pages . When New York . The normal shipping has made the trip in 36 hours . or tangled with the harsh laws of the time in some othe r KOALA BEARS way. All told, in the first 40 or 50 years of the settlement of Australia, England shipped over about 16o,ooo so-calle d convicts, but the traffic was stopped by 1868 . For 50 years, the colonists of New South Wales (th e e Opening Up a New Continent . The year the Constitutio n first settlement, around Sydney) stayed close to th of the United States was ratified, 11 ships sailed from coastal area, except for a few expeditions by boat alon g t England under the command of Capt . Arthur Phillip of the coast line . The Blue Mountains, behind Sydney, kep the settler from penetrating into the interior of the conti- the Royal Navy. They carried about a thousand passengers , bound for the other side of the world to settle a new land . nent, until in 1813, three pioneers, seeking new pasture Eight months later, after a voyage of 16,ooo miles (there for their growing herds, found a pass over the range an d weren't any Suez or Panama Canals in those days) the y discovered the great grasslands on the other side . put in at Botany Bay in southeast Australia . It wasn't a Gradually, in the next 6o years, a small group of in- good spot for a permanent settlement so they moved on quisitive courageous men, explored the vast continent- along the coast, finally stopping at the site of what is no w men like our own Lewis and Clark who helped open up Australia's largest city, Sydney . the West. a In a left-handed way, the United States had somethin g The population grew slowly in the early years, until to do with the settlement of Australia . You see, Englan d big gold strike was made in the Bathurst District of Ne w in the early days used to send its surplus convicts to Amer- South Wales. Not long after other gold fields wer e e ica. But after the colonies had declared their independence , found-in Ballarat, once the richest gold mine in th the British had to find some other place to send convict s world; and at the famous "Golden Mile" in Kalgoorlie i n from their over-crowded jails . Nearly half of the first grou p western Australia where miners could pick chunks of to land on the new continent were prisoners-men wh o gold the size of your fist off the side of a hill . These suc- were on the wrong side in politics, or had got into debt, cessive gold rushes brought thousands to the continen t and the population doubled in about 7 years . 6 7 JANUARY 26, 1788 I5 .-.' REALLY AUSTRALIA'S S' THE 'TRUTH BIRTHDAY. ON THAT DAY IT ARTHUR PHILLIP, WITH ALTHOUGH IT IS THE OLDEST CONTIN- A4 ABOUT 1000 MEN ESTABLISHED TH E ENT (GEOLOGICALLY) AUSTRALI A FIRST REAL SETTLEMENT AT WHAT I S WAS THE LAST CONTINENT TO B E NOW THE GREAT CITY OF SYDNEY . IT WAS THE SAME YEAR IN WHICH THE U.S. OCCUPIED BY WHITE MEN . CONSTITUTION WAS RATIFIED BY THE STATES : WHO DISCOVERED AUSTRALIA ? GUNS FROM A PORTUGUESE MAN - OF-WAR OF THE 15TH OR 16T!+ CENTURY HAVE BEEN FOUND IN NORTHWESTER N AUSTRALIA : AFTER THE PORTUGUES E CAME THE SPANIARDS . BUT NONE OF THEM STAYED . ', TASMAN , WAS FIRST A DUTCH EXPLORER ; q DISCOVERED As- SAILED ALONG AUSTRALIA S IN QUANTITY COASTLINE IN 1642 , TH E IN 1851 BYA MINER NAMED HARGRAVES STATE OF TASMANIA I S WHO HAD JUST RETURNED FROM CAL - ' ~arwv .