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AFL is commonly called Australian rules football. It is a modified form of Irish football and originated in Victoria. Now it is a national game with a national league. An oval ball is kicked and hand passed from player to player. The ball is kicked between goal posts, whereupon six points are scored. There are two other post set 6.4 metres from each of the goal post. When the ball goes between these areas, i.e., between a goal post the the shorter outside post it is called a "behind" and one point is scored. There are 18 players in each team. Three of these are able to roam the field while the others must remain in a zone or mark an opposing player. A player can run with the ball but he must bounce the ball once every 15 metres whilst running. When a player is held by an opponent he must either drop, throw or kick the ball immediately. The objective is to get a a'mark". This is achieved by cleanly catching the ball, using the bodies of opponents if necessary, when the ball is drop kicked by a teammate. This gives the marker the right to drop kick for goal unimpeded.

Life in Australia revolves around sport. We love all sports and become really involved in it. The most popular activities are playing or watching cricket. It is a game played mainly by British Commonwealth countries, a legacy left by the British when the colonial period ended. There are two teams of eleven players with two umpires. Every player in both teams bats, while four or five players in each team also bowl. It is played in a football sized field. There is a pitch 22 yards long and two yards across, with a wicket at each end of the pitch. The wicket is composed of three vertical stumps and two bails sitting on top on the stumps. Each bowler bowls six balls at a batsman in an over. There are fast, medium fast and medium bowlers as well as spinners who impart spin on the ball so that it turns off the pitch. Like baseball there are finer points of the game that you don't learn from a book. The rules are learned as one grows up and experiences the game.

We are proud of our cultural heritage, but Australians today live a Western-style life. We keep up with world news, follow the latest fashion trends and use the latest gadgets. Indeed, many of us live in large cities. I reside north of Brisbane, not far from Bribie Island. The Sunshine Coast of Queensland reaches from Bribie Island to Noosa, a distance of some 50 miles. This is a popular tourist destination for Australians. Travellers from overseas tend to favor the Gold Coast which is just south of Brisbane. People who live on both the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast see themselves as "Brisbanites". Australia is such a vast country that distance in itself is not an obstacle to social interaction. I have lived in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane.

Australia is the land of sun, sand, surf - and the Prawn! Australians love sea food. Though a shrimp is just that to those in other countries, to us it is a prawn. Furthermore, a lobster also has an identity problem. It is a crayfish to us. Waltzing Matilda is not taking a "sheila" to the local dance: a matilda is a sack containing one's essentials which is tied to a stick. The stick is carried on the shoulder by a "swagman" as he travels looking for work across the county - or so it was a century ago!

In 1895 the Northern Union broke away from the Rugby Football Union in England. The split was caused by a difference of opinion over pay. The new league wrote new rules of play. Though spectators had to pay to watch the game the new league became very popular. Because the Australian football authorities remained avid supporters of union remaining amateur, players became disheartened. Some of the best union players were signed up by league clubs which could offer good remuneration, particularly when players had injuries. In Australia the league comprised mostly New South Wales clubs, so it was called the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL). It became a truly national league in the 1990s. Now teams from Queensland and Victoria play in the league alongside NSWs clubs.

Games of rugby union were played between the army stationed in Australia and ships' crews. The Sydney University Club was formed in 1864. By 1874 a Sydney Metropolitan competition was established. A Queensland competition was created in 1883. Players from both competitions were selected to play against a visiting British side in 1899. Australian and New Zealand played a test in 1903. Rugby league broke away in Australia in 1908. The same year an Australian union team toured the United Kingdom, Ireland and North America. In 1931 the Governor General of New Zealand, Lord Bledisloe, donated a trophy to be known as the Bledisloe Cup, which was contested annualy between Australia and New Zealand. A national rugby union was established in 1949. A World Cup, played every four years, began in 1987.