Jessica Watson

As my last blog for this months topic, Australia I am going to write about Jessica Watson Who is Most well known for being the youngest person to sail round the world non-stop and unaccompanied!

When and where was she born?

Jessica Watson was born on the 18th May 1993, gold coast Australia.

Who is she?

Jessica Watson is a 23 year old from Australia who has been sailing since she was eight. She decided she wanted to sale round when she was eleven when her mum read her a book about a man called Jesse Martin who sailed round the world. It took her many years to gear up for her trip, she needed to know everything so she learnt how to fix every single thing on her boat, first aid, storm survival and how to navigate by the stars and finally she was ready.

What did she sail round the world in?

The boat that Jessica Watson sailed round the world in is a 30 foot bright pink boat called Ella's lady.

Frida Kahlo facts

As my first blog for this month's topic, amazing women, I am going to write about Frida Kahlo, an amazing painter.

                                        

Frida was actually born on July 6th, 1907, in Mexico, but claimed to be born on July 7th, 1910 when the Mexican revolution broke out, because she wanted to begin life with the new and modern Mexico.

When Frida was six she suddenly caught polio, which damaged her left leg and made it look much thinner than the other one.

In 1922 Frida attended the best educational institution in the whole of Mexico, this is where she first met Diego Rivera ( Full name, Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez.)

Sadly on the 17th September, 1925 Frida was involved in a terrible bus accident. The accident left Frida with a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, broken pelvis, 11 fractures in her leg, one shoulder out of joint, and her right foot was dislocated and crushed. The other sad thing that happened to Frida during the accident was that she was pierced in the stomach with a handrail bar, this is one of the reasons why people thought Frida couldn't have children. It was thought that she would have to have approximately 30 operations in her lifetime.

Because Frida couldn't have children she kept loads of pets, she loved animals so much!

As soon as she could walk again, Frida went to see Diego to ask him if her paintings were good. Frida had nothing to doubt because her paintings were amazing. Diego fell in love with Frida's paintings, and soon with her.

When Frida and Diego finally got married people called it the union of a Elephant and a dove, because Diego was so large and fat while Frida was so small.

In 1953 Frida got a gangrene infection in her foot this meant that she had to have the part of her leg underneath her nee amputated. After this happened Frida felt highly depressed and tried to commit suicide a couple of times, but she didn't do nothing she drew a picture of her feet in her diary and tried to find light in the sudden darkness. That is when she wrote one of her famous quotes, 'Feet, what do I need you for if I have wings to fly?'

Frida died on July 13th 1954, suicide was rumoured but no one knows.

Here is a video showing some of her amazing paintings, it may be slightly long but her paintings are amazing keep watching!

 Click here to watch.

Saltwater crocodiles

After learning about Koalas, Kangaroos and Australian Aboriginals i'm learning about Saltwater crocodiles, the Largest reptile in the world!

What do they eat?

A saltwater crocodile diets varies widely. It mainly eats mammals, birds and fish, but will eat mostly anything that passes including other crocodiles! A saltwater crocodiles like to hunt at night they'll hide until something comes ear the edge of the water and then SNAP! They'll bite and when they bite you'll never be able to open there mouth, but you could hold its mouth shut with your bear hands! This is because the muscles that open the jaw are tiny, about the size of a toddlers shoe whereas the the muscles that close the jaws are massive! They are about the size of your foot! The reason their muscles are so strong is so its prey can't get away.  

How big are they?

Saltwater crocodiles usually weigh about 400-600kg! Male saltwater crocodiles can grow up to 7m! But thats very rare, they usually grow from 5m and up. A female saltwater crocodile usually grows up to 3m which seems tiny compared to the males but its about the size of two fully grown men!  

What is its latin name?

The saltwater crocodiles latin name is: Crocodylus porosus but its also called:

Indo-pacific crocodile,

Estuarine crocodile

and by the Australians:

Salties!

Habitat?

Saltwater crocodiles mainly live in south east Asia and northern Australia. They live mainly in swamps and rivers but can be found in open sea. Saltwater crocodiles also live in freshwater.

How fast can they swim/run?

You could probably outrun a saltwater crocodile on land as they can only go 8.7mph but theres no chance you could outrun a saltwater crocodile in the water as it can swim at speeds up to 18mph! The reason why they can swim so fast is because there tail's so strong, it propels them.

Interesting facts about saltwater crocodiles

When a crocodile runs it looks like a rabbit.

Their the largest reptile in the world!

One of the main tactics to hunt is the 'death roll' the crocodile will grab its prey and then roll vigorously so that the prey gets thrown of guard and can't attack.

They can swallow massive bits of meat without chewing it.

You can tell that a crocodile isn't an alligator by looking at its closed jaw, if you can only see its top teeth sticking out then it's an alligator but if you can see some of its bottom teeth sticking out as well as its top teeth then its a crocodile.  

If you'd like to learn a bit more about saltwater crocodiles here's a couple of pages and a documentary:

Active wild: Saltwater crocodile,

The animal files: Saltwater crocodile,

Inside natures giants: Saltwater crocodiles.

Prison colonies

When did humans first arrive in Australia?

The very first humans to arrive in Australia arrived around 53,000 years ago by sea. Today they are known as the Aboriginals (or the indigenous people of Australia.)

What did the Aboriginals do to the land?

The Aboriginals were hunter gatherers which meant they would hunt animals, bring them home, skin them, use the meat for food and the skin for clothes. Aboriginals weren't farmers.

Europeans?

In 1788 the Europeans came to Australia in hope of finding a new place to keep all of their prisoners, at this point there was about half a million Aboriginals in Australia.

Prison colonies?

When the Europeans came to Australia in 1788 they set up colonies for all the prisoners. The way the colonies worked was that if you did something wrong you would be sent to Australia to a colony do do work for however many years and once you had served your sentence you would be set free.

Released prisoners?

You would think that being released from a prison colony after years of work would be amazing! Well it would and it wouldn't, because once you got released you would be free but you would still be stuck in Australia.

How did the Europeans treat the Aboriginals?

When the Europeans came to Australia they tried to befriend the Aboriginals and see if they could be useful but the Aboriginals turned down all offers. Aboriginals feared the white people because they believed they where the returned dead.  After no civilisation from the Aboriginals the Europeans ended up killing them and stealing there land.  

The stolen generation

The good history of Australia is absolutely amazing! But the other history.........not so. So far i've learned so much about Australia! I've learned about Koalas, Red kangaroos, Aboriginals and Aussie slang, but know its time to learn about the stolen generation.



What is it?

The stolen generation is a very sad subject, it happened between 1910 and 1970. What happened was that the Australian government (the Australian government at the time probably wasn't made of Aboriginal Australians but of European settlers) believed they had a right to take mixed race children away from their parents at about age 2 to 5 to mix them into white society and breed their black ancestry out. They were forced to accept white civilisation and where banned from speaking there native language.

When did it happen?

The stolen generation occurred between 1910 and 1970.

Who was involved?

The people who where in charge of this happening where the Australian government of the time.

This quote from Australians Together explains the government policy of Assimilation:

The forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families was part of the policy of Assimilation. Assimilation was based on the assumption of black inferiority and white superiority, which proposed that Indigenous people should be allowed to “die out” through a process of natural elimination, or, where possible, should be assimilated into the white community.  

Children taken from their parents were taught to reject their Indigenous heritage, and forced to adopt white culture. Their names were often changed, and they were forbidden to speak their traditional languages. Some children were adopted by white families, and many were placed in institutions where abuse and neglect were common.

Why? What was the point?

The Australian government didn't believe in the future of the Aboriginals and thought that if they could assimilate the mixed race children into white society by forcing them to accept European civilisation and banning them from speaking their cultural language everything would be perfect...... Well they were wrong, all this caused was trauma for the children and their parents.

Australian slang

Today i'm doing a fun project about Australian slang! Before I start here are a couple of relevant words and what they mean:

Accent: Accent is the way your voice sounds when you pronounce words, a group of people (in a country) will speak in an accent and another group of people (from a different country) will speak in a different accent.

Dialect: dialect is when people in a different areas speak the same language with some slightly different words, for example in Cornwall instead of saying 'see you later' you might say 'see you dreckly.'    

Here is a list of 21 Aussie (Australian) slang words and what they mean.

1. Arvo - afternoon. "See you this arvo?"
2. Barbie - barbecue. " Wanna come to mine this arvo for a barbecue?"

3. Esky - cooler, fridge. " I got some Tinnies in the esky."

4. Mozzie - mosquito. "Annoying mozzies!"

5. Roo - kangaroo, baby kangaroo. "Look at that cute little roo!"

6. Servo - petrol station. "I'm gonna pop past the servo on my way."

7. Sook - to sulk. "If your gonna sook then do it somewhere else!"

8. Ta - thank you. "Ta for the tinnie."

9. Togs - swimsuit. "I'm just gonna get my togs on."

10. Ripper or Bonza - something really great. "That tinnie is ripper!"

11. Grommet - young surfer. "That grommet is good!"

12. Chockers - really full. "I'm chockers!"

13. Tradie - tradesman. "That tradie is doing good."

14. Ute - Utility vehicle, pickup truck. "I'm just gonna pick up the ute."

15. Ambo - ambulance. "Look at that ambo!"

16. Aussie - Australian. "I feel like a proper Aussie now!"

17. Cactus - Useless, broken. "This washing machine is cactus!"

18. Dunny - loo, toilet. " I'm just gonna go to the dunny."

19. Garbo - garbage collector."I need to put the rubbish out for the garbo."

20. Hooroo - goodbye. " Hooroo mum i'll be back in half an hour."

21. Tinnies - beer. " I'm gonna crack open a tinnie want one?"

22. Thongs - flip-flops. "I've lost my thongs!"

23. Shiela - woman. "She's a fine looking sheila!"

24. Singlet - vest, tank top. "I'm gonna get a singlet on its to hot for shirts!"

25. Sanger - sandwich. " I'm gonna pop past the shop to get a sanger."

koalas!

In my last blog i wrote about Red Kangaroos and today i"m going to carry on writing about Australias animals and write about Koalas.

Diet?
A Koalas diet is very boring it consists of eucalyptus leaves and barely anything else.

Habitat?

Koalas are mainly found in southeastern and eastern Australia.

How big are they?

A fully grown koala is only 60-85cm tall and weighs a mighty 4-15kg!!! Imagine being so small and weighing that much!

How many are there?
Theres A very small population of 43,000 koalas left in the world! we need to save them!!!


Can you have a pet Koala?

The answer to that Question isn"t very well known round the world. When people go too pet shops with their kids they probably ask them "what pet do you want?" and they"l probably say "I want a Koala!" But sadly you cant legally keep a koala as a pet.

How long do they live?

A Koalas lifespan in the wild usually varies between 13 and 18 years! Thats a long time.