Australia

Do you feel the warm, red earth under your feet. It is soft like playground sand. Shhh, shhh, shhh. Can you hear the big blue ocean whispering all around me. Bouncy animals with long tails hop, hop, hop across my fields, and sleepy animals cuddle in my trees. My water sparkles like glitter in the sun. I am a special, sunny place. I am the continent of Australia.

I am very, very old. Older than your grandparents. A long, long, long time ago, my very first friends came to live with me. They are the Aboriginal Australians. They were so kind. They painted beautiful stories on my rocks with red, yellow, and white paint, like a big storybook. They learned all my secrets, like where to find sweet berries and how to listen to the wind. Much, much later, after many sleepy nights, new visitors came. They sailed on big, tall ships with white sails that looked like fluffy clouds. One of the captains was named James Cook. A long time ago, on April 29th, 1770, he sailed his ship across the big blue water and said, “Hello.”. He was so surprised to see all my bouncy animals and tall, sleepy trees.

Today, I am a happy home for so many people and animals. You can swim with rainbow fish in my warm water. It is called the Great Barrier Reef. You can see sleepy, cuddly koalas hugging my trees. I have big, sparkly cities with tall buildings where people laugh and play together. I love being a home for so many different friends, from the littlest fish to the tallest person. I am Australia, and I love to share my sunshine and stories with everyone in the world.