Portal:Australia/Featured picture/2008
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Weeks in 2008
[edit]- Week 17
![The La Trobe Reading Room is one of many reading rooms featured in the State Library.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/State_Library_of_Victoria_La_Trobe_Reading_room_5th_floor_view.jpg/300px-State_Library_of_Victoria_La_Trobe_Reading_room_5th_floor_view.jpg)
The State Library of Victoria is the central library of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in the city of Melbourne. It is situated on the block bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell, and Little Lonsdale Streets, in the northern centre of the central business district. The Library's combined collections contain over 1.5 million books and 16,000 serials, including the diaries of the city's founders, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, as well as the folios of Captain James Cook.
Photo credit: David Iliff
- Week 18
![Male Red-winged Fairy-wren in nuptial plumage](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Red_winged_wren_MR_walk_3_email.jpg/300px-Red_winged_wren_MR_walk_3_email.jpg)
The red-winged fairy-wren (Malurus elegans) is a species of passerine bird in the family Maluridae. It is sedentary and endemic to the southwestern corner of Western Australia. Exhibiting a high degree of sexual dimorphism, the male adopts a brilliantly coloured breeding plumage, with an iridescent silvery-blue crown, ear coverts and upper back, red shoulders, contrasting with a black throat, grey-brown tail and wings and pale underparts. Photo credit: Cas Liber
- Week 19
![Uluru](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Lasseter_Highway1437.jpg/300px-Lasseter_Highway1437.jpg)
Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies 335 km (208 mi) south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; 450 km (280 mi) by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park. Uluru is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara, the Aboriginal people of the area. It has many springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Uluru is listed as a World Heritage Site. Photo credit: Tourism NT
- Week 20
![The Art Gallery of South Australia from North Terrace.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/AGSAfront.jpg/300px-AGSAfront.jpg)
The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) is located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace in Adelaide. With a large collection of more than 30,000 works of art and more than 500,000 visitors annually, the AGSA is renowned for its leading collections of Indigenous Australian and colonial art, as well as for its innovative exhibitions. Located adjacent to State Library of South Australia, the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide, AGSA is part of Adelaide's cultural precinct. The gallery was established in 1881, and has existed at its current location since 1897.
Photo credit: K. Lindstrom
- Week 21
![The Art Gallery of South Australia from North Terrace.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/AGSAfront.jpg/300px-AGSAfront.jpg)
The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) is located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace in Adelaide. With a large collection of more than 30,000 works of art and more than 500,000 visitors annually, the AGSA is renowned for its leading collections of Indigenous Australian and colonial art, as well as for its innovative exhibitions. Located adjacent to State Library of South Australia, the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide, AGSA is part of Adelaide's cultural precinct. The gallery was established in 1881, and has existed at its current location since 1897.
Photo credit: K. Lindstrom
- Week 22
![Main quadrangle of the University of Sydney.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/University_of_Sydney_Main_Quadrangle.jpg/300px-University_of_Sydney_Main_Quadrangle.jpg)
The University of Sydney, established in Sydney in 1850, is the oldest university in Australia. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" Australian universities that are highly ranked in terms of their research performance, and is one of the country's most prestigious educational institutions. In 2005, the University of Sydney had 45,966 students and 2,300 (full-time equivalent) academic staff, making it the second largest in Australia. The university's main campus has Oxbridge-inspired grounds and is situated in the south-west of the Sydney central business district.
Photo credit: User:KittySaturn
- Week 23
![A sign on Eyre Highway indicating that a RFDS emergency airstrip is ahead. There are 4 such strips on the highway.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/RFDS_emergency_landing_strip_sign.jpg/300px-RFDS_emergency_landing_strip_sign.jpg)
The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS, informally known as The Flying Doctors) is an air ambulance service for those living in the remote inland areas of Australia. It is a not-for-profit organisation which provides both emergency assistance and primary health care to people who cannot easily access a hospital or general practice due to the prohibitive distances of the Outback. The service, founded in 1928 by The Reverend John Flynn, also assists with distance education.
Photo credit: Hossen
- Week 24
![Fremantle Prison.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Fremantle_Prison_in_Western_Australia.jpg/300px-Fremantle_Prison_in_Western_Australia.jpg)
Fremantle Prison is a former Australian prison located in Fremantle in Western Australia. The 60,000 m² site includes the prison, gatehouse, perimeter walls, cottages, tunnels, and prisoner art. The prison was built by convict labour in the 1850s, and transferred to the colonial government in 1886 for use as a gaol for locally-sentenced prisoners. It closed as a prison in 1991 and re-opened as a historic site and is now a public museum.
Photo credit: Sean Mack
- Week 25
![Horses race on grass at the 2006 Tambo Valley Races in Swifts Creek, Victoria.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Tambo_valley_races_2006_edit.jpg/300px-Tambo_valley_races_2006_edit.jpg)
Horseracing is the third most popular spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian rules football and rugby league, with almost 2 million admissions to the 379 racecourses throughout Australia in 2002–03. It is administered nationally by the Australian Racing Board, with the Australian Rules of Racing applying in each state.
Photo credit: Fir0002
- Week 26
![The western part of the Park. To the right is the rock formation known as The Fortress.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Copy_of_PanoGrampFortress.jpg/300px-Copy_of_PanoGrampFortress.jpg)
The Grampians is a mountain range and national park in Victoria, located 235 kilometres west of Melbourne. The ranges were named in 1836 by Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Mitchell (explorer)Thomas Mitchell, after the Grampian Mountains in his native Scotland, but are also known by the name Gariwerd, from one of the local Australian Aboriginal languages.
Photo credit: Stevage
- Week 27
![The Royal Exhibition Building, showing the fountain on the southern or Carlton Gardens side of the building.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Royal_exhibition_building_tulips_straight.jpg/300px-Royal_exhibition_building_tulips_straight.jpg)
The Royal Exhibition Building is located in Victorian capital of Melbourne. Situated in the Carlton Gardens, at the north-eastern edge of the central business district, it was completed in 1880 for the Melbourne International Exhibition. It was also the site of the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia with the opening of the first Parliament of Australia.
Photo credit: Diliff