Australia - Culture Smart! (The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture)

Australia is different— a vast island-continent with distances so great that the capital of Western Australia is closer to Singapore than it is to Sydney. The landscape embraces magnificent tropical rainforests and deserts the size of several European states. Indigenous Australians have inhabited the continent for more than fifty thousand years, yet European settlement is just over two hundred years old. Since the end of the Second World War the country has opened its doors to a hugely diverse immigrant population and slowly shaken off the mantle of British influence, transforming what was perhaps one of the dullest nations into one of the most stimulating. This new edition of Culture Smart! Australia introduces you to a young nation with one of the world’ s highest standards of living, “ where people work to live” in order to enjoy a lifestyle that many across the globe. This handy guide provides the necessary background information to enable you to put a human face on the country and its people, to communicate, to make friends, to share experiences, to enjoy the culture; and to form lasting relationships.