States of Australia – Western Australia

Here is the last instalment of my monthly feature going through the States of Australia in alphabetical order to check out how they got named, what their flag is like and other things of interest. 

Location – Western Australia is huge.  It takes up the entire left hand third of mainland Australia.  It is almost a million square miles.  That's quite a lot bigger than Texas.

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Capital – Perth (also the state's largest city). Perth is named after Perth in Scotland. Perth is closer to Singapore than to Australia's capital, Canberra.

State Bird – Black swan (for a long time people believed there were no such things as black swans)

State Animal - Numbat

Signature foods – wines from Margaret River, Seafood, Mangoes

Famous places to visit – The Pinnacles, Nature's Window's (Kalbarri National Park), Horizontal Waterfalls, Rottnest Island, King's Park in Perth (larger than New York's Central Park)

Famous people from Western Australia – Heath Ledger, Alan Bond, Rod Marsh (wicketkeeper)

Australian State of the Month – Victoria

Here is the next instalment of my monthly feature going through the States of Australia in alphabetical order to check out how they got named, what their flag is like and other things of interest. Only one more to go after this!

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Origin of name –  as you probably will have guessed, the State is named in honour of Queen Victoria – who had been queen for 14 years when the state was established.

Nicknames – The Garden State

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Capital – Melbourne, lovely people, sports mad.  Melbourne has trams and unusual rules at intersections in the central city.

Flower – Pink heath

State Animal – Leadbeater's possum – possums seem to be protected in Australia whereas in New Zealand they are pests.

State Bird – Helmeted honeyeater

State Sport – Aussie Rules – I don't have a clue about the rules but the outfits are quite nice.

Signature foods – Chiko Roll – invented by a Victorian

Famous places to visit – Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Yarra Valley (wineries), The Twelve Apostles, Torquay

Famous people from Victoria – Dame Edna Everage, Cate Blanchett, Pat Cash (tennis), Germaine Greer, Kylie & Danni Minogue, Olivia Newton-John, Helen Reddy

Australian State of the Month – Tasmania

Here is the next instalment of my monthly feature going through the States of Australia in alphabetical order to check out how they got named, what their flag is like and other things of interest. 

Location – Tasmania is different from other states – it is an island off the Southern Coast of mainland Australia.  The British settled it as a penal colony.

Origin of name – Tasmania was first called 'Van Diemen's Land' but in 1855 this was changed to Tasmania.  The name recognises the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who was the first European to sight the island.

Nicknames – Tassie, The Apple Isle

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Capital – Hobart

Flower – Tasmanian Bluegum

Animal – Tasmanian Devil ( a small fierce looking marsupial)

Signature foods – Tasmanian Scallop Pie, Tasmanian Apple Cake, Farmed salmon, wild abalone, honey

Famous places to visit – Port Arthur (beautiful now but with a violent history as a penal colony and the site of a massacre in 1996), Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart (one of the oldest cities in Australia and is overlooked by Mt Wellington), Wineglass Bay (great name), Sunset at Strahan

Famous businesses/brands – Cascade Beer, Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

Famous people from Tasmania – Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, Elizabeth Blackburn (first woman from Tasmania to get a Nobel Prize), David Foster (wood chopping world champion), Ricky Ponting (said to be a cricketer)

Australian State of the Month – South Australia

Here is the next instalment of my monthly feature going through the States of Australia in alphabetical order to check out how they got named, what their flag is like and other things of interest. 

Location – South Australia has borders with every other state except Tasmania (which is an island).  Just under 2 million people live in the state, about ¾ of them in and around Adelaide.

Nicknames – The Festival State, The Wine State

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Capital – Adelaide (largest city too) – named after the wife of King William IV, founded in 1836 as a planned capital.  It was formed from free settlers – not as a penal colony.

Flower – Sturt's Desert Pea

State Bird – Piping shrike – important enough to be on the flag

State Animal – Southern hairy-nosed wombat

State Sports – Australian Rules Football (don't understand it at all but quite like  the outfits) and in the summer, Cricket

Signature foods – Pie floater ( a classic meat pie sitting in pea soup)

Great places to visit – McClaren Vale, Barossa Valley, any of the many festivals

Famous businesses/brands – Australia builds most of its submarines here.

Famous people from South Australia – Sir Donald Bradman, Maggie Beer (born NSW but farms in SA), Robert Stigwood (producer),Vernon Knowles (writer),  the Chappell brothers (cricket), Lleyton Hewitt (tennis), Sia (eccentric pop star)