Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Fat fat fat!
Jill Stark, The Age, June 20, 2008: “Australia has become the fattest nation in the world, with more than 9 million adults now rated as obese or overweight, according to an alarming new report. The most definitive picture of the national obesity crisis to date has found that Australians now outweigh Americans and face a future “fat bomb” that could cause 123,000 premature deaths over the next two decades…” See also : Fat bomb explodes all over the media, Crikey, June 20, 2008.
Did you know…
‘Modern’ Australia also has the worst record in the world for species extinction! According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, there are more endangered plants and animals in Australia than most of the rest of the world.
Australia is the driest inhabited continent! Cool!
Bonus!
War! What is it good for? Australia!
British settlement of Australia began as a penal colony governed by a captain of the Royal Navy. Until the 1850s, when local forces began to be recruited, British regular troops garrisoned the colonies with little local assistance. From 1788 marines guarded English settlements at Sydney Cove and Norfolk Island; they were relieved in 1790 by a unit specifically recruited for colonial service, and in 1810 the 73rd Regiment of Foot became the first line regiment to serve in Australia. From then until 1870, 25 British infantry regiments and several smaller artillery and engineer units were stationed in the colonies. One role of the troops was to guard Australia against external attack, but their main job was to maintain civil order, particularly against the threat of convict uprisings, and to suppress the resistance of the Aboriginal population to British settlement…
Job done! Also:
- Sudan (New South Wales Contingent), March-June 1885
South Africa (Boer War), 1899–1902
China (Boxer Rebellion), 1900–01
First World War, 1914–18
Second World War, 1939-45
Japan (British Commonwealth Occupation Force), 1946–51
Korea, 1950–53
Malaya (Malayan Emergency), 1950–60
Indonesia (Indonesian Confrontation), 1963–66
Vietnam, 1962-75
First Gulf War, 1990–91
Afghanistan, 2001–ongoing
Second Gulf War, 2003-ongoing
Number of times Australia has been invaded by a foreign power:
