英会話スクール・英会話教室📚【NOVA大宮西口校】Daniel先生からオーストラリアの歴史についてのお話です🌟

4. The Emu War. In 1932, Australia was facing a significant problem with it’s native wildlife.
The overabundant emu population was damaging the farmland of Western Australia. The government decided to wage a ‘war’ on the emus in order to reduce their numbers. Despite the soldiers being armed with machine guns, the campaign was largely ineffective. The emus proved too fast, durable, and cunning for the Australian Army, and the war was abandoned after one unsuccessful month.

5. The Prime Minister once drowned. In 1967, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt went swimming off the coast of Victoria. Despite being an experienced swimmer, friends on the shore watched him disappear under the water, and never surface. A large search operation was launched, but the body was never found. Holt became the third Australian Prime Minister to die in office. While it is generally accepted as a tragic accident, it has nonetheless launched several conspiracy theories. Some believed he committed suicide, faked his own death, or that he was a spy that fled to China.

6. The British Monarch is our Head of State. As a member of the Commonwealth, Australia is known as a “constitutional monarchy”. This means that although we elect our own Prime Minister, the head of state is technically the current British King or Queen. The Prime Minister reports to the Governor-General of Australia, a representative appointed directly by the monarch. This led to a constitutional crisis in 1975, when the governor-general dismissed reigning prime minister Gough Whitlam, and replaced him with an opposition government. Some Australians believe that Australia should become a republic, and no longer remain in the Commonwealth. However, this proposition has failed in prior referendums.