Introduction
Australia is the smallest continent in the world. It lies in the South East of Asia and was discovered by James Cook. Originally Australia was inhibited by a people of a particular ethnic group called the Aborigines. Later, England claimed ownership of the country soon after the English people and many other immigrants from all over the world and from different cultural origins started moving into the continent.
It is from this point that Australia’s culture started growing to one of the most diverse cultures of the world- from a single ethnic group Aborigines, to a mixed population with different cultures. Though the western culture is cropping up, Australia is now more westernized in the people’s way of dressing, foods taken/prepared and their general day to day lifestyle.
Many people have been streaming into Australia since 1945 some running from poverty warring countries-to settle in peaceful regions- and in the process worked quite hard to fight poverty and live in harmony. These migrants have in turn enriched Australia in all their life aspects -cooking, comedy, science, business, art. Right, and sports (Harden, 2009, p23).
The culture of making regional towns
One of the cultures that have been developed in the regional towns is art. Art is a visual language of expression through which an artist communicates to the general public. The people of Sydney have made art their culture for it’s enjoyable and have thus worked to perfect it.
Art and Culture give people an opportunity to explore their identity and also a sense of belonging as they can identify themselves with a certain community culture. Also provides a chance for national and international recognition to the creative outcomes. Above all the economic benefits are enjoyed by the people of the major towns in Australia.
Australia’s large regional towns
Melbourne and Sydney happen to be two among other large regional towns in Australia. These two regions among a few others are a ground to holding most of Australia’s festivities.
Some of the cultures practiced in these two regions include; royal shows, boxing days, Jazz festivals, and food and wine festivals among other annual cultural celebrations. For instance Melbourne has at one time been ranked the world’s most lovable city basing on the rich culture, a favorable and conducive climate, average and affordable cost of living, very low crime rates and health care (Rawlings, 2010, p56).
Sydney gets its name from a cave -a great cultural site- that was named for captain cook’s patron called Viscount Sydney. The many sporting activities carried out within Sydney’s sub-regions earned the regions names like Sydney Olympic park. Initially Sydney Olympic park was a dumping and an industrial site- very dirty and smelly place.
The Olympic Games held in the year 2000 led to a major regeneration of this place. Art and culture played a great role too to the development of this town.
The two regions are made up of a collection of so many cultures this makes them tourist sites and a center of festivities. There are so many cultural activities some shared between communities and others independent. For instance the cultures of art designating and just to be particular / specific unique designing give the cities an aesthetic value hence so beautiful streets and buildings.
They are a hub to many cultural sites; for instance so many tourists’ centers like museums are centered in this two regions thus so many roads lead to this place for recreation value. There is provision of enough facilities to allow and accommodate large numbers of people during their shows, rallies for instance the large digital screen located in a large public space. These then promote public viewing.
Population and movement
Sydney Olympic Park lies on a reclaimed land initially marshy and swampy. It supports a significant number of residents and remains to be largely populated region. Due to the many cultural activities in this region, the population has significantly increased.
The larger part of the population is composed of people who take the advantage of its art and cultural values to make a living from the practices. The cost of living is therefore low due to the high competition from those providing same products and services also due to the readily availability of the same services and products.
Much as the western culture is really fighting the cultural values and practices like the influence to changing the people’s ways of dressing, way of cooking and cooking foreign foods, Melbourne keeps on emphasizing on promoting the peoples cultures (Rawlings, 2010, p56).
These practices and state turn Melbourne and Sydney to homes of international festivals. Sydney is Australia’s largest and one of its old states, also recognized for its fine climatic condition and its natural harbors.
It geographically stands as the capital of New South Wales and lays between two regions namely Cumberland plane and the Hornsby plateau. The geographical location of Sydney gives it the business advantage it highly apprehends and highly enjoys.
In addition to this Sydney is surrounded by suburbs which highly contributes / attributes to the high population of this city. As mentioned earlier in this paper, people have moved into the region, some of them running from warring countries and some in search of ways/activities to earn themselves a living. Sydney’s population comprises of a mixture of cultures (people from different cultures) thus its richness in culture.
Sydney just like Melbourne enjoys a relatively low cost of living is also due to the great diversification of income generating cultural activities. For instance Sydney’s great art work and the sites built for sporting activities (Smith, 2008, p78).
An article on population growth and housing gives a calculated estimate and ranks Sydney number seven in terms of the structures, generally the level of housing in Sydney compared to that of United States of America; this is however, not a bad position now that United States competes at international levels. The rise in population growth therefore is promoted by the housing affordability provided by this region (McCollum, 2007, p120).
Conclusion
On personal grounds I like the way these cities operate / how they do their activities. Sydney goes to the extremes of holding international conference just to research and add onto their cultural values. This is a great asset and shows how much these cities value there culture.
On this note the cultures in these two cities shall therefore keep on progressing and will grow to great heights. The name Melbourne is a boys name originating from old English named after an English man that first discovered the region. Sydney on the other hand originates from a girls name, meaning a wide island.
References
Harden, M., 2009. Melbourne: The Making of a Drinking and Eating Capital. Melbourne: SAGE
McCollum, S., 2007. Australia. Sydney: ICI
Rawlings, C., 2010. Sydney. Sydney: ICI
Smith, D., 2008. Melbourne: A City of Stories. Melbourne: SAGE