MEET Australia’s Laughing Jackass. Its party name is the Kookaburra and it lives in no other country.

AN AUSTRALIAN mutton and wool factory. Wool from sheep like these merino ewes is the foundation of the country’s biggest business.

SYDNEY. Australia’s largest city, has more than a million and a quarter people. Its beautiful harbor and bridge are world famed.

THE SIGHTS of Melbourne. A flyer of the Royal Australian Air Force guides a couple of sailors around the capital of Victoria.

A MAN of the people. John Curtin, Australia’s prime minister since October 1941, rose to the top through the ranks of labor.

FREE SPEECH on the soapbox and free heckling from the audience are cherished traditions. Sunday afternoon in a Sydney park.

BALLOTS AND BULLETS. With the Japs not far away and some GI’s looking on, Aussies in New Guinea sign the voting register.

IN MELBOURNE the spires of St. Paul’s Cathedral dominate the skyline of the city on the banks of the quiet Yarra River.

BULLOCK TEAMS in the timber country. Most of the timber from Australia’s few forests is hardwood from the eucalyptus tree.

IN PEACE OR IN WAR, horse racing and betting on the races is as much a part of Australian life as baseball is in America.

GI JOKERS bucking for a fall. The guests at this rodeo and barbecue in Australia were all veterans of South Pacific actions.

IT MAY LOOK like checkers to you, but to these oldsters enjoying the winter sunshine in Hyde Park, Sydney, it’s draughts.

SURROUNDED by sergeants. This traffic cop in an Australian city seems to have a bit of Old Erin in his smile.

From EM 44: Australia: Our Neighbor Down Under (1944)