Tourism Australia Video

Posted on Fri 06/08/2012 by TonyfromOz

This is the most recent video released from Tourism Australia. Underneath the video clip, I have details of some of the things shown in this video. While there are shorter versions of this ad for TV broadcast, this shows the full version of almost three minutes.

Some of the things you may have seen, and some you may not have seen, so I’ll give an explanation of some of the points in this video. The first number you see will be the time marker in the video, marked with the minute and second marker, and after that will be some text about that part of the video.

0.26 The animal strolling across the screen here is a Wombat, and this one shown here is a medium sized Wombat as they can grow to longer than three and a half feet. They are a stocky, heavy, well muscled marsupial with rodent like teeth and powerful claws. Being a marsupial, they rear their young in pouches, and here the Wombat differs from most marsupials in the fact that its pouch faces backwards. Being short and stocky and rooting around in the dirt, they don’t want to spread dirt over their young in their pouches, hence that pouch faces backwards.

0.40 This old Tiger Moth in this scene is flying along the beaches of one of the Country’s most popular tourist destinations, both nationally, and internationally, The Gold Coast, which is 50 miles to the South of the State Capital of Queensland, Brisbane. The tall buildings at the left are Surfers Paradise. Without doubt, this 20 mile strip of white sand has some of the best body surfing and surfboard riding beaches in the World.

0.50 This shows an image of the iconic Uluru in Central Australia. This is a large sandstone formation. It is in the southern part of the Northern Territory, and the closest major city is the Central Australian city of Alice Springs, around 200 miles away from Uluru. It is aboriginal ground and is part of a large National Park in the area, and is listed as a World Heritage site. It is also known by the Anglicised name of Ayers Rock, but is known better as Uluru.

1.12 These two animals on the beach are Fur Seals which are a relatively common sight along parts of the Southern part of this vast Continent.

1.17 This is probably one of the most recognisable animals in Australia, Kangaroos and Wallabies, and this is one of the smaller of those two, a Wallaby. There are literally hundreds of different varieties of these two animals. Kangaroos, the larger of the two species can grow as large as 7 feet tall, and weigh in the vicinity of 200 pounds. They move around on strong rear legs, and they average around 15 MPH, but can reach 45 MPH in a short burst, and can maintain 25 MPH for around a mile and a half. The smaller species is the Wallaby, and they usually grow to around a maximum size of the one shown here in this video clip.

1.25 This shows an indigenous aborigine with a Mud Crab, an Australian seafood delicacy, and almost a staple when seafood is mentioned. Those huge claws are strong and can easily crush a finger. Easily. Those claws contain the sweetest part of the meat, and while the crab shown here is in its natural colour, they are red when cooked, and the shell is sometimes difficult to crack open, but with the knowledge of what awaits, this delicacy is most prized. The crab shown here is around the normal eating size. There are limits on the size of crab that can be taken, and female crabs are returned to their habitat, and they are easily recognisable for those who ‘fish’ for crabs.

1.32 This image shows a short scene of a group of children with Soldier Crabs, small blue coloured crabs no bigger than an inch or so across. They are called Soldier Crabs, because when they are on the move, and they are quite speedy, they all move in the same direction at the same speed, and change direction collectively, all at the same time, and it’s a fascinating thing to watch sometimes hundreds of the small crabs on the move. They burrow in the soft sand at beaches, also collectively, and you can occasionally see a whole lot of the crabs surface move as a group, and then just as quickly vanish as they collectively bury themselves again in the soft sand.

1.37 This shows the old aboriginal man cooking mud crabs in the traditional tribal manner that aborigines have used for the many Millennia they have inhabited this Continent. While shown here being cooked over slow burning coals, this delicacy is usually cooked in boiling salted water.

2.10 This image shows a group of people and they appear to be almost startled by a familiar Australian sound, that being the ‘laugh’ of the Kookaburra, a large native Australian bird from the Kingfisher family. The sound is loud and closely resembles a loud laughing sound, and more often than not, there are usually more than one of them calling like this.

2.33 This image is taken in the capital city of the State of New South Wales, Sydney, and shows two of the most iconic man made structures in Australia, The Famed Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge, affectionately called the ‘coat hanger’.

2.40 While this image shows the group of people in the closing sequence, watch at the left of screen as the Opera House lights up.