Kanakas in the Queensland cane fields

Fishing

The industry earns most of its income from the catch of shellfish (моллюск; ракообразное), lobsters, oysters, shrimp, and scallops (гребешок - двустворчатый моллюск). The fishing fleet also brings in fairly large catches of mullet (кефаль), salmon, and tuna (тунец). Much of the shellfish catch is exported.

Tourism

Tourism is one of Australia’s most important industries. It accounts for 5.7 per cent of total employment, contributes $73 billion to consumption per annum and is worth more than 11 per cent of total exports.

Tourism Australia is a statutory authority (государственная организация) of the Government of Australia, with responsibility for tourism marketing within Australia and internationally, as well as research and forecasting of domestic and global tourism trends.

The organisation was formed on 1 July 2004, under the Tourism Australia Act 2004.

Australia has a variety of tourist attractions. They include wildlife sanctuaries (заповедники), sandy beaches, the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian Alps, the Northern Territory’s Kakadu National Park, and numerous points of historical interest.

There were 5.2 million visitor arrivals to Australia during 2004, an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year’s figure.

In the year ended September 2004, international visitors spent a total of 131 million nights in Australia. During their stay they spent $12 billion. The biggest spenders were visitors from the United Kingdom ($2 billion), followed by visitors from New Zealand ($1.2 billion), Japan and the United States ($1.1 billion), and China ($908 million).

History of the Australian national currency

Many forms of currency were used in the Australian colonies after the arrival of the first European settlers in 1788. In the rough early conditions barter was necessary,

and payment in commodities like rum sometimes replaced money transactions. Some of the first official notes used in Australia were Police Fund Notes, issued by the Bank of New South Wales in 1816.

In 1810, Governor Macquarie created the Colonial Police Fund to provide a facility (источник) from which government instrumentalities (органы) and projects could pay expenses and into which duties (пошлины), fines (штрафы) and fees (платежи) could be paid.

The money paid into the Police Fund was, at that time, the main source of revenue (доход) for the running of the non-penal facilities (учреждения) of the colony. The money was derived from duties on various goods including rum (spirits and wine), coal, cedar (кедровое дерево), sandalwood (сандаловое дерево), oil, etc, and from licenses, fines and fees. The Fund helped pay expenses for the gaol (тюрьма), police establishments, wharves (верфи), quays (пристани), bridges and roadbuilding and repair within Sydney Town.

After Federation in 1901, the federal government became responsible for the currency.

The Australian Notes Act was passed in 1910. In 1913 the first series of Australian notes was issued, based on the old British system of twelve pence to a shilling, twenty shillings to a pound.

In 1963 Australia initiated the change to decimal currency. Over 1000 submissions were made about the name of the new currency unit. Prime Minister Robert Menzies wished to name the currency "The Royal", and other names such as ‘the Austral’, 'The Oz', 'The Boomer', 'The Roo', 'The Kanga', 'The Emu', 'The Digger', 'The Kwid' and 'Ming' (the nickname of Menzies) were also proposed. Due to Menzies' influence, the name "Royal" was settled upon, and trial designs were prepared and printed. The unusual choice of name for the currency proved unpopular, and the 'Dollar' was eventually chosen as the name. Decimal currency was introduced on 14 February 1966.

One of the first Australian Royal designs