Local residents and tourists enjoy sightseeing at the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Australia: Home of multicultural diversity

I recently travelled from the land of a million elephants to the land of the kangaroo, Laos and Australia, which are celebrating the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties as they face the future together with friendship and trust.
Australia is now home to people who came to the country from different continents, settling down over different periods of time. They enjoy living there as the government of Australia treats all Australians the same way.
Australia is a considerable distance from Laos, and the flight from Vientiane to Sydney via Singapore takes about 11 hours.
Before visiting this country, what usually came to my mind when I thought of Australia was its uniqueness in various ways. When I watched television programmes on ABC News, I saw animals such as the kangaroo and kuala which are only found in Australia. 
Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and two territories. The population of more than 25 million of the world’s sixth largest country is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Canberra is the capital while the five largest cities are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
The country’s demography has been shaped by centuries of immigration, with migrants accounting for around 30 percent of Australia’s current population population - the highest proportion among major Western nations. Australia’s abundant natural resources and well developed international trade relations are crucial to the country’s economy, which generates its income from different sources, including services, mining exports, banking, manufacturing, agriculture and international education.
Australia is situated entirely in the southern hemisphere, between the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, south of Southeast Asia and north of the Antarctic. It is a massive island with 30,000 km of beaches. With an area of over 7.6 million sq km, Australia is almost as large as the continental US, excluding Alaska.
The country shares maritime borders with East Timor, Indonesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the islands of New Caledonia.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) broadcasts news in four languages by TV, radio and internet while the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) provides over 60 communities with services in their own language to contribute to an inclusive and cohesive society.
The English spoken in Australia sounds rather different from English in other parts of the world, though it helps bridge this multicultural country.
I used the time during my short visit to go to the iconic and world-famous Sydney Opera House near the popular Sydney Harbour Bridge. I saw people from Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia enjoying the great atmosphere there. Some people spoke English and others spoke their own languages, while the distinct Australian accent clearly stood out.
In Melbourne, my Lao friends and I spent a few days going around the city that is just as multicultural as Sydney. We saw tall and short buildings that appeared to reflect the art and culture of both Asia and Europe. There were many Asian shops and restaurants and we spotted international students from different parts of the world. We also noticed how these students shared their culture with their friends. I also saw Chinese students speaking both Mandarin and English.
This multiculturalism is not surprising if one considers the history of Australia.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have occupied the lands and waters of Australia for more than 60,000 years – the world’s oldest continuing living culture.
Captain James Cook claimed the country’s east coast for Great Britain in 1770, and the west coast was later settled by Britain too. At that time, the indigenous population was estimated to have been between 315,000 and 750,000, divided into as many as 500 tribes speaking different languages.
Between 1788 and the Second World War in 1939, the vast majority of settlers and immigrants came from the British Isles, particularly England, Ireland and Scotland. There was also significant immigration from China and Germany during the 19th century.
In the decades immediately following the Second World War, Australia received a large wave of immigrants from across Europe, with many more arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe than in the previous decades.
 Australia has pursued an official policy of multiculturalism and there has been a large and continuing wave of immigration from around the world, with Asia being the largest source of immigrants in the 21st century, especially from China and India. With all this diversity Australia is a peaceful, colourful and vibrant society is the reason why the country describes itself as ‘the most successful multicultural country in the world’.

ByPhon Thikeo
(Latest Update June 8, 2022)