Roger St. Pierre takes a trip down under to find out how the other half live. He explores this great land mass, meets some of the general public and even finds out what they like to eat

Australia couldn't be more enigmatic. While Aboriginal peoples have lived there for at least 42,000 years, it was the 19th Century that saw the population explode with migrants from Europe flooding there in the wake of the early convict settlers and, in recent times, further growth through a massive influx of Asians. At the same time, the Aussies have become an outward looking nation of international travellers. It was they who in effect invented the round-the-world globetrotting of student gap years and today nearly half-a-million of them live abroad, which is a lot out of a total population of close on 22 million. It's no surprise that the Rough Guides and Lonely Planet concepts were born in the Antipodes. Not that Aussies don't have plenty of space to explore in their homeland. This is a land of broad skies and vast horizons, a country that can also boast of being a continent - all 2,988,888 square miles (7,741.220 sq km) of it.

The word Australia comes from the Latin 'austral' meaning 'southern' and was popularised by the 1814 work 'A Voyage To Terra Australis', written by the intrepid maritime explorer Matthew Flinders, and here in this expansive land, squeezed between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, a totally distinctive lifestyle has been carved out that is at one and the same time ultra-modern and sophisticated and casual, down-to-earth and unafraid to speak in blunt language.

As someone once described it: "Super posh working class". There are no airs and graces here and people speak their minds but a smile and an encouraging "no problems, mate" is the ready response to most things. While Australia has the world's fourth largest account deficit in absolute terms, amounting to a whopping seven percent or thereabouts of GDP, the country nevertheless rated sixth in The Economist's latest quality-of-life index and third in the United Nations' 2006 human development index. Privatisation and major tax reforms have opened up the economy and while the days when you just paid your #10 and were free to emigrate there have long gone, Australia still warmly welcomes those who fill the gaps in its national supply of skills.

Thanks to mass immigration, the population has quadrupled since World War Two and around three out of 10 Australians were born outside of the country. At the same time the Aboriginal population has also multiplied by four due to high birth rates, and now accounts for 410,000 people - some 2.2 percent of the total population. That's brought some worrying social problems in its wake of course but, for the most part, today's Australians, be they of old or new immigrant stock, are doing pretty well. Australia's national dish It's a great place to live. The presence of Britain's Union Jack in the corner of the national flag relates to the modern Australia's roots as a penal and later settler colony but the nation has also absorbed myriad other influences. Barbecues are a national obsession, surfing the most popular sport, and Greek, Italian, Chinese and Thai food has become almost as ubiquitous as the infamous Australian meat pie, a crusty concoction filled with mince and gravy that prominent politician Bob Carr dubbed as "Australia's national dish".

50,000 pies an hour are produced by the popular Four 'N Twenty brand alone and average consumption runs at 12 meat pies per capita per year. So who ate all the pies? Well, mainly it's attendees at Australian Rules football, Rugby games and other sports' events. Whether as participants or spectators, Aussies love the outdoor life and nearly a quarter of those over the age of 15 take part regularly in organised sporting activities. Cycling, rowing, swimming, athletics and motor racing vie with the team games, among which perhaps cricket is the most engaging of all. An equally strong cultural icon as the meat pie is Vegemite, a dark brown spread that expat Aussie's miss in the way the Brits yearn for HP sauce and the French for fresh baguettes.

In a land that loves its beer - more likely to be Castlemaine than Fosters, by the way - it should be no surprise to learn that Vegemite is a by-product of the brewing industry, being made from yeast extract. It was invented in 1923 by Dr Cyril Callister, a food technologist charged with developing a homegrown product to fill the gap crated by the unavailability of similar spreads previously imported from the UK. Its name was picked out of a hat by Sheila, the daughter of Callister's boss, Fred Walker.

Nothing is more precisely Australian. Just as Brits account for almost 70 per cent of all the world's baked bean production, so Vegemite, usually spread on toast, remains a quintessentially Aussie addiction. While it lacks a substantial industrial or manufacturing base, Australia has a strong economy with inflation hovering at between two and three per cent and interest rates around five to six percent for the past decade while unemployment currently stands at some 4.7 percent. Work to live The service sector, including the likes of financial services, education and tourism, accounts for 70 percent of GDP while agriculture and the exploitation of natural resources comprise three percent and five percent of GDP respectively but are important components of the nation's exports, with Japan, China, the USA, South Korea and New Zealand the biggest markets in contrast to the dominance of Great Britain in the days before the UK joined the then EEC and switched its focus to trade with the US and Europe.

For the right people, jobs and the concommited lifestyle are relatively easy to find. Prospective employers, whether Australian or overseas based, can sponsor professionals or others with recognised skills, whether on a short-term work permit or long term residency and eventually citizenship basis. The vast majority of incomers settle in the South East and South West corners of the country, which are the only temperate regions, and the biggest draws are the major cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. Though there are mountains in the south east - and, yes, you can go skiing in winter - by far the majority of Australia is desert or scrub country: the famed outback, with tiny settlements strung often hundreds of miles apart.

But on the favoured stretches of coast though blazing sunshine makes skin cancer a real danger, life is generally free and easy and very healthy provided you avoid the poisonous snakes, spiders and assorted creepy crawlies. It's no wonder that Aussie's - whether native born or recent immigrants have such outspoken pride in their country. Though the landscape was formed countless aeons ago, this is a young and forward-looking nation with a bright future.