Australia and New Zealand are part of the British Commonwealth, and there used to be a lot more countries, but slowly they've become independent so the Commonwealth has been reduced. But there are, um, places in the Caribbean and other parts of the world where the Commonwealth, um... For the Queen, she says it's like a family, um, but she is then, she is head of State in those countries. They have their own Prime Ministers, they have their own governments, etcetera, but the Queen is the figurehead, if you like, um, who is the Head of State.
Uh, at some stage I think that they will all decide not to have the Queen of England as their Head of State, but for the moment that's how it is.
Australia, uh, was discovered by, uh, Captain Cook in 1717*, and, um, he landed at Botany Bay, if I remember rightly, and, um, it's an enormous country. I have no idea how big it was, but it's a very big country and a lot of it is desert, I understand. Um, but, um, it's an English-speaking country. The indigenous population are Aborigines. Um, but, um, a lot of English people were sent there. The convicts were sent out from this country, um, on convict ships to Australia and they formed the base of the, um, English community. Um, obviously they've been added to by people from lots of other different countries since, so it's a very, very big mix of people in Australia these days. Um, but it's, um, along with New Zealand, which is also part of the Commonwealth, it's a place that a lot of British people have emigrated to, because they believe they've got a better quality of life, and life over there is more as it used to be twenty years ago in this country, um, particularly New Zealand. New Zealand, um, has got a very, um, nice rhythm, a very good rhythm of life for socialising, leisure and, um, standard of living. And the same in Australia; they have a very good standard of living. My cousin and her husband emigrated, her brother has emigrated, his sister has emigrated, so there's a lot of people gone out to, to Australia. Um, and one of these days I shall visit, too.
*[transcriber's note: Captain Cook arrived in Australia in 1770, not 1717]
