My name is Lauren and I started this group when I kept noticing how many of the articles I rate seem to be centred around America. I'd love to see a lot more from my fellow countrymen.

I hope I'll be able to look after this group well but I do find I'm very busy these days so I may be reduced to just accepting requests! Ah well.

Please enjoy meeting some Australians and writing more about/from the perspective of our awesome country.

Hi Aussies!

I'm Tracey, based in Brisbane and like you Lauren have found that far too many articles on Helium are American in focus (I sometimes find it hard to rate them because I don't know much about the topic in the first place, which makes it difficult to judge which article is more informative). 

Anyway I look forward to chatting with other Aussies and let's get a bit of true blue flavour into Helium.

Cheers

Tracey

I totally agree. I wish there was more Aussie topics available. There are so many topics I don't feel I can write on because I have no idea about them.

I'm Holly, also a Queensland near the Brisbane area.

Hi guys,

A big g'day from Victoria. There are lots of Aussies on Helium we might have to CTW them to let them know about the group.

I don't have a big problem with the US flavour to the site (note the correct spelling :)

But then I stick mainly to the business and pets channels which are pretty much universal.

Anyway nice to meet you all.

Cheers

Hi everyone,

For those of you who have said you are sick of reading American articles... in the new contests this week there is a whole contest devoted to Aussie Rules Football.

Go for it there's $60 up for grabs for the winner and second and third prizes too.

Good luck!

Marie

Thanks for the tip!

Next time, topic suggestions go under the Writing forum so we can keep things organised.

Thanks again.

This is still "Aussie's on Helium" just with a new name and a pretty logo. I thought I should get rid of the embarrassing mistaken apostrophe and give us a nice, Helium-themed logo to attract more members.

What do you think?

Remember to point any Australian writers you find toward this group.

Mission Statement

Australium aims to increase the quantity of quality articles written about topics and from point-of-views relevant to Australians and those interested in Australia.

How do we do this?

1. Write articles from an Australian perspective
2. Rate articles based on quality
3. Find and create titles relevant to Australians
4. Build an active community to:

• Assist with writing and research
• Build friendships
• Critique articles

Post below if you have a suggestion or game plan to achieve these goals.

Howdy fellow Aussies or should I say G'day :) (not)

My name is Leanne and Im from Newcastle in NSW (2.5hrs North of Syd).

I found Helium about a year ago but used it for reading, however this year I decided to get writing & am pretty hooked.

I have a site @ Helium-'StormSage Central' which aims to provide a place for all creative mediums to gather and share 'Creative' side.

Our main site is with Google @ http://sites.google.com/site/stormsagecentral/.  Contest Creative is ending April 15th (Poetry, short stories, lyrics), if you would like to enter please do; for more info please visit our site.  SSC is also on Twitter, FB & Live.

Take Care & Good Luck Writting Aussies!!!

Leanne

Hello Aussie friends,

I'm at a low activity point in my studies this semester and decided to come and visit our group.

A quick search for "Australia" turned up three titles we can write to and start building the Aussie presence here on Helium.

How did surfing come to Australia?

Surfing is something often associated with Aussies and this title only has one article. There's still room for more so it can become a competitive title.

Little known facts about Australia

What do you know about your country that few other people do? Other than the drop bears. Everyone knows about those.

Poetry: Australia

Although there's already 20 articles in this title, I'm sure your poetic musings on your home country are ready to take them on to become a high-ranked literary artwork.

All the best with your writing, guys!

Check out the Australia & South Pacific channel within the Society and Lifestyle channel. This is just one Australian focused area we can write on. There seems to be many writing assignments--titles in need of articles.

What other Australian focused channels have you found?

So, to create a useful resource for the group, I thought we could create topical threads to list research sources. So I'll start off with one of my favourite subjects: Australian History. Please feel free to post links/bibliographic details of your family reference websites/books for Australian history.

National Library of Australia website list - http://www.nla.gov.au/oz/histsite.html

Full text of official war histories from the Australian War Memorial - http://www.awm.gov.au/histories/

Government website about the Anzacs and Gallipoli - http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/

About Australia at Australia.gov.au - http://australia.gov.au/about-australia

Within our forums, we'll probably set up a few 'thread series'.

Two exampls are RL and ORIENTATION series.

The ORIENTATION series is written by group managers to provide guidelines for participating here at Australium. For example - ORIENTATION : Australium Goals

The RL series is the 'resource list' series. These threads go under the Research forum and are a place for members to post suggested references for a given topic. For example - RL: Australian History.

Post below if you have a suggestion for a thread series.

A tried and true forum game just perfect for writers. Here's the first word:

Australia

To get some conversation flowing on the forums, how about a little ice-breaker? Reply with your home state, how long you've been writing (for Helium or otherwise), the answer to the previous poster's question and a question for the next poster.

(Feel free to post more than once if you like. Put just the answer to the question and the new question)

To start:

I'm from WA and I've been writing for about ten years. There was no previous question and here's the question: if money was no object, what one city would you love to visit?

(Since I had no question to answer, I'll answer my own question: Nice, France. A couple of my friends have visited it. The first friend spent most of her time on the beach so I thought it was fairly "meh" but after seeing my other friends pictures, I think it looks like a beautiful destination.)

Hope you all had great days. What did you get up to?

I went to a breakfast with family friends which was a delicious spread of museli, pikelets, fruit, mini sausages, bread rolls, croisants, scrambled egg, coffee, tea, soft drink and then Anzac biscuits and lamingtons for morning tea. This was topped off with sun, the breeze and swimming in the pool.

I also baked some "lamington" cupcakes which were just simple vanilla butter cupcakes with chocolate icing and coconut sprinkled on top.

I stayed in for most of the day watching tennis and writing and avoided the huge crowds, the heat and drinking violence in my area. Went down for a swim at my local beach early evening. What a beautiful temperature the ocean in Sydney is at present.

Sounds lovely, Mark. Good to hear some writing was involved ;)