Australia and Pacific Islands

Welcome to the Land Down Under, the place where you’ll find animals native to nowhere else on Earth, weird rock formations, and enormous expanses of flat land. Here, you’ll also get acquainted with Australia’s Aboriginal peoples and learn about their ancestors. This, too, is your chance to become acquainted with the unusual circumstances that surrounded Britain’s colonization of Australia in the late 18th century. . . and ended it. Plus, you’ll have a chance to spend some time at the Great Barrier Reef and its more than 900 islands.

In this Title, you’ll also explore city life in Sydney and Canberra, Australia’s capital. No excursion to Australia would be complete without a trip to the Outback. There, you’ll investigate life on sheep and cattle ranches, where people may have to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest city for shopping and medical help, and where jackeroos and jilleroos round up cattle for market. The final stop on this getting-to-know-you trip is the Pacific Islands – New Guinea, Micronesia, and Polynesia, which includes New Zealand. Here, you’ll get a taste of the history, culture, and interactions with European society that have shaped the region.

Future anthropologists will be eager to dive into the details about the different groups of Aboriginal peoples. Trivia players and kids interested in nature will be eager to learn about the unusual animals in this part of the world. Musically oriented kids will want to find out about the didgeridoo, perhaps the oldest musical instrument of all, while pattern-seekers will want to compare Australia’s experience with colonization to that of Africa’s and South America’s. That and more is right here in Australia.