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Transcript (by Youtube)


1s when you start to think about the sheer
3s size of Australia it's a bit like trying
6s to wrap your head around the vastness of
8s the ocean or the endless expanse of the
11s Outback sky on a clear night Australia
15s is enormous and it's often not until you
18s try to Traverse this wide Brown land of
21s ours that you truly appreciate its
24s scale let's put it into
27s perspective Australia is the world's
30s sixth largest country covering a
32s whopping 7.6 million square km that's
37s about 2.9 Million square miles for those
39s who think of those
40s terms to give our friends overseas a bit
43s of context consider this you could fit
47s 27 European countries within the borders
50s of Australia with room to
53s spare imagine that all those cultures
57s languages and Landscapes snugly fitting
60s with within the boundaries of our single
62s nation and then there's the comparison
65s with the United States Australia is only
69s slightly smaller in land area than the
71s us but here's the kicker while the US
74s has a population of roughly 340 million
77s Australia has just about 27 million
80s people that's a lot of space per person
83s which explains our sprawling deserts and
87s Wide Open
88s Spaces traveling across across Australia
91s is an adventure in itself a road trip
94s from Sydney on the east coast to Perth
98s on the west coast is about 3,900 km or
102s 2,400 M that's about 1,000 km further
107s than driving from London to
110s Moscow and if you're journeying from the
113s top to the bottom from Darwin to
116s Adelaide that's about 3,000 km which
119s would take a good 32 hours to Traverse
123s by
124s car but here's the thing about
126s Australia's size it's not just about the
130s distances it's about the diversity
132s within that space you've got tropical
135s rainforests in Queensland vast deserts
139s in the outback snowy mountains in the
142s New South Wales in Victoria and
144s everything in
145s between the variety of Landscapes and
148s ecosystems across Australia is as
150s staggering as its size this immensity
154s has shaped our way of life in all sorts
156s of ways it affects everything from our
159s infrastructure and transport to our
161s sense of
162s community in the more densely populated
165s coastal cities life is fastpaced and
169s vibrant but in the rural and remote
171s areas there's a slower more laidback
174s Rhythm where the sky stretches forever
177s and the Horizon seems endless
181s and yet despite its size or perhaps
184s because of it there's a sense of
186s closeness among
188s Australians maybe it's the shared
191s understanding of living in land so vast
193s and varied a mutual respect for the
196s distances we travel and the Landscapes
198s we love it's like being part of an
201s exclusive Club where the membership fee
203s is understanding just how small you are
206s in comparison to the country you call
208s home this fastness also Fosters a unique
212s kind of resilience and self-reliance
214s among
215s Australians in the remote and rural
217s areas where your nearest neighbor might
220s be hundreds of kilometers away people
223s learn to be resourceful to solve
225s problems on their own and to look out
227s for each other in ways that City
229s dwellers might never
232s experience this a comaraderie born of
234s shared isolation a community spirit that
237s spans great distances
240s but it's not just the landscape that's
242s spread out it's the sky too the sky
245s seems bigger the stars brighter and the
248s sun sets more
250s Vivid there's a sense of openness not
253s just on the land but above it as well a
256s reminder of the natural beauty and the
258s wonder that surrounds
260s us this Grand scale also lends itself to
264s a certain kind of humility when you're
267s faced with the endless Horizons of the
268s Outback or the vast rolling waves of the
271s Southern Ocean it's hard not to feel a
274s bit small a bit a struck by the
277s magnitude of Nature and the world and
280s yet there's a comfort in this
283s vastness it's in the quiet the space and
286s the freedom it's in the knowledge that
289s no matter how busy or crowded the world
292s might seem there's always somewhere to
294s go with the only sounds of the wind and
297s the trees the chirping of the birds and
299s the rhythmic pulse of the Earth itself