New Zealand History Blog

It has been commonly thought that Aborigines most likely populated the Australian continent around 50,000 years ago, by people from the areas we now know as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Recent evidence has emerged in the form of ancient Kimberley Rock Art that suggests that this may have been more like 70,000 years...

This iconic Australian passenger train 'The Ghan' took over one hundred years of planning, $1.3 billion in resources, and its path now stretches from Adelaide through Alice Springs and onto Darwin. It travels North to South through the center of Australia covering 2,979 kilometres (1846 miles) in 3 days Its been one hell of a journey, the project began construction in 1878 and was completed 126 years later,  `The Ghan' now crosses the continent twice a week offering accommodation options rivaling the best in the world.

Locally known as ‘The Rock’, Ayers Rock is a single stone, larger than an island, lies in the Great Western Desert close to the geographic center of Australia. It has another name, a name of towering antiquity, a name from before the ice ages and a name associated with the giant devil dingo, which some believe dwells somewhere on the crest of what the aborigines call “Uluru”.

Cultivated and consumed by humans for well over 3000 years, Kava is still used today by a wide range of Pacific societies for medicinal, spiritual, and recreational purposes. The feelings of camaraderie that Kava drinking evokes have made it a symbol for peace and friendship in many island nations of the Pacific.