Cultural Relations
The cultural and scientific relations (outline agreements over co-operation between the universities of both countries) are continuously developed. One outline agreement over academic co-operation and 38 bilateral co-operation and student agreements between universities exist. At present approx. 200 Austrians study in Australia.
In 2004 a specimen of the Wollemia Pine, a tree which was thought to have become extinct and was newly discovered in 1995, was given as a present on the occasion of the 250-year-anniversary to the Botanical Garden of the University Vienna .
Repatriation of Aboriginal Remains
- Aborigines - CeremonyPhoto: BS Strohmayer
On 9 October a delegation of traditional owners received the human remains of 16 Aboriginal Indigenous Australians at the Museum of Natural History in Vienna. The delegation included Jody Coghill, representing the Goorenpul people from Moreton Bay, Queensland, Tom Lawford and Terry Murray from the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Center/KALACC in Western Australia, and Lori Richardson from the Department of Family Affairs, Health, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA).
On 4 December, Neil (Jubpalgi) Carter from the Gooniyandi/Kija Community presented a DVD as a gift to the Austrian people in appreciation of the return of those human remains. The DVD features the sites and the sounds of their homelands and emphasises the importance to the Indigenous communitiesof their ancestors' return.
