What's on in Australia

"The weekend for many Australians is free time to relax and
look forward too."

Friday to Sunday most of our sporting events are played and you will see mums and dads from all walks of life preparing for the day's outing. You will find them either loading the car to take the kids off to footy, cricket, netball, surfing or swimming or getting ready to play, watch or support their team themselves.

Playing sport is not all we do! There are thousands of wonderful things happening in Australia all year round.

Australians like to dress up, go to dinner, see a show or movie, take a boat ride, dance, sit in one of our fantastic waterside bars or night-clubs and sip on a cocktail. As Australia My Land builds you will be able to come back again and again to find new and wonderful additions to WHAT'S ON IN AUSTRALIA.

SPORTING EVENTS, FESTIVALS and OTHER MAJOR EVENTS play a big part in Australian culture. Because of the large distances separating communities it is a big thing for a district event or festival to come around each year and give the locals some entertainment. Local sport also plays a major part in communitry social and cultural affairs, with the football club saturday night dance often the main event for the locals to get together for.

Some individual families live large distances from their neighbours or township. In a regular farming community a family could live up to 50 kilometres away from town, and in the outback some live 100's of kilometres from their next door neighbour's fence line.

ROYAL SHOWS play a major part in the Australian calender as Australia has grown predominantly around the farming communities and the Royal Shows have traditionally been where the farmers and other primary producers 'show' their wares to the community. Even smaller cities like Mildura and Swan Hill in Victoria's north, on the Murray River, have huge Show events with side-show alleys, rodeos and other entertainment.

In the outback where numbers for weekly sporting events like football and cricket are difficult to arrange, RODEOS are a major source of entertainment. Held once or twice a year in a number of towns, they attract everyone from sometimes 1000's of kilometres away and competitors from all over the country make a living by travelling from one rodeo to the next, often competing every fortnight or so.