Australia - Stop 3

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, Neighboring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.


For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. 

The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.
On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia.


The population of 22.9 million is heavily concentrated in the Eastern states and is highly urbanized.
The LGBT scene in Australia is relatively active (in urban areas) with many bars clubs and websites.

However Homosexual acceptance has been and remains a hard struggle within Australia both culturally and politically, reflected by comments such as this made by ex- prime minister John Howard “I certainly don't think you should give the same status to homosexual liaisons as you give to marriage, I don't."

Before our arrival I was not able to make any personal connections, which although sad and a little disappointing , seemed not to be a problem as that had been the same in Brazil.
Also as now the maid is with me, everything’s cool.

We arrived in Sydney around midday, the flight from NZ very short and pleasant. Checking into our hotel they told us we must have separate rooms, this seemed very strange to me as this hotel was listed as Lesbian friendly, I pointed this out to which they replied “not that friendly” so we checked in for just one night with the plan to find something better for tomorrow.

We then headed off to do the tourist thing (well we are tourists) took the usual photos of the Opera house, etc….checked out a couple of hotels and found one we liked, so booked in there for the next day.

2010