Australia Day 2012. Not Just a Pretty Place?

LONDON, January 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

- iPad App launch marks big day as land Down Under aims to turn perception on its head -

Today is Australia Day but not as we know it; this year some 100,000 Aussies across the UK are being asked to raise an iPad along with a glass.

Not content with being better known for its beauty than brains, the land Down Under is out to turn a parochial perception on its head.  So the nation that pioneered Internet Wi-Fi and Google Maps has turned to crowdsourcing.  Cue the launch of an iPad App telling the story of contemporary Australia through its people and, in turn, giving them the content to become storyteller.

Australia Unlimited is a free monthly magazine App that shares stories of people changing the world for the better.  The common thread is Australia.  Whether through a person's place of birth or their experience of living, working or studying in the country, Australia Unlimited examines the contribution that the nation's people is making to global issues.

The AUApp is part of the wider $20m AUD Australia Unlimited programme led by the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade).  The global campaign aims to use the nation's collective voice to tell its success stories.  Those stories are now available to the diaspora (estimated to be in the region of 1m worldwide with 100,000 in the UK) in an App.

Kym Fullgrabe, Austrade's Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner in the UK, says: "Australia regularly ranks in the top three nations worldwide for its natural environment, quality of life and people.  But this perception, however positive, means we do not always get the credit we deserve in other areas - in Science, Technology, Innovation, Creative Industries, Education, and Business Leadership.  The AUApp gives Australians the stories that can change that."

Engaging content includes interviews, behind-the-scenes videos and podcasts.  It is supported by stunning imagery from some of the world's leading photographers such as Polly Borland, one of Australia's most successful creative exports.  

The launch takes centre stage at what is being billed as London's biggest Australia Day celebration.  The event at Grange St Pauls Hotel is run by Australian Business, the membership-based organisation in the UK set up to promote bilateral trade.  Its members are backing the campaign and just some of those who prove there's much more to the island continent and its proud population.

So too are those who feature in the January edition.  They include provocative ethicist and Oxford don Julian Savulescu, and Rod Sheard, senior principal of architectural practice Populous based in southwest London.  Sheard and his team have overarching responsibility for much of the masterplan behind London's Olympics - and for the Olympic Stadium itself.

Philip Aiken, Chair of Australian Business, adds: "The AUApp will help us better communicate Australia's credentials as a global business partner and global citizen.  It is designed to reflect the positivity of Australia and its people: creative, confident, ambitious and globally engaged.  The ultimate aim is to support future growth by ensuring Australia's reputation in other areas starts to match that held by its people, lifestyle and natural resources."

Download the AUApp at iTunes and follow @AusUnlimited on Twitter #AusUnlimited #AustraliaDayUK

Notes to editors

• Internet WiFi or Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11 as used in an in virtually all wireless enabled laptops, smartphones and tablets (estimated at 800 million devices worldwide and central to devices such as the Apple iPod and iPad) was developed by an Australian team at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) - Australia's national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world - headed by Dr John O'Sullivan.  Although wireless networks had been around since the 1970s, they were too slow for connecting to the internet.  Using a technique known as multipathing which O'Sullivan had developed for radio astronomy, the Australian team developed the most commonly used version of WiFi today.   It was patented in 1996 and adopted as the industry standard in 1999.  In 2009, after many companies had been using and profiting from the technology without obtaining the appropriate licences, CSIRO won a court case protecting its patent rights on the technology, and recouping the considerable unpaid licence fees from manufacturers of laptops and wireless-enabled smartphones will help finance further innovation projects in Australia.
  
• Google Maps was invented by Danish-Australian brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen and developed by an Australian team in Sydney.

SOURCE Austrade