Australia

Feel the warm, red sand squish between your toes and listen as the bright blue ocean whispers secrets to the shore. Do you hear that funny sound? It sounds like a happy, loud laugh coming from the trees, but it’s just one of my special kookaburra birds saying hello. In my grassy fields, bouncy creatures with long tails hop on their big back feet, carrying their babies safely in little pouches. High up in my sweet-smelling gum trees, sleepy, cuddly friends are munching on leaves and taking long naps in the sunshine. For a long, long time, I was a secret land, a giant island sparkling all by myself in the sea, waiting for friends to find me. I am the continent of Australia, a land full of sunshine and surprises.

My very first friends arrived a long, long, long time ago. They were the Aboriginal Australians, and they came to my shores tens of thousands of years before anyone else. They didn’t just live on me; they became a part of me. They learned all my secrets, like where to find water when the ground was dry and which plants were good to eat. They became my storykeepers. On my big, flat rocks, they painted beautiful pictures of animals and spirits. They sang songs and danced to tell the story of the Dreamtime, which is their special and sacred story of how the world was made and how everything came to be. They taught their children how to care for me, the land, and all my animals. Their way of life is the oldest in the whole world, and their stories are woven into my soil, my rivers, and my sky. They are the heartbeat of my ancient past.

For thousands and thousands of years, it was just me and my first friends. Then one day, something new appeared on the horizon. Big wooden ships with tall white sails traveled across the huge ocean to find me. It was a long and brave journey. A famous explorer named Captain James Cook sailed along my eastern coast on his ship, the Endeavour. That was in the year 1770. He and his crew were amazed by my strange animals and giant trees. After Captain Cook told people about the amazing new land he had found, more ships started to come. People from far away places like England and Ireland in Europe sailed here to build new homes, towns, and cities. My quiet shores became busy with new sounds and new faces, and I began to change into a place for people from all over the world.

Today, I am a home for everyone. People from every corner of the world live here together, sharing their foods, their music, and their stories. I am still full of incredible animals and amazing places to see. You can swim with colorful fish in my Great Barrier Reef or watch the sunset turn my giant red rock, Uluru, a hundred different colors. I am a land of adventure and friendship, with ancient stories from my first people and new stories being made every day. I will always have a sunny hello for anyone who comes to visit.