Trying to learn about Australia

I'm slowly compiling a list of all the subjects and questions that I will need to research for my new novel. Some of the material is a bit obscure, and the challenge will be finding websites, books, and people that may be able to give me the info I need or point me in the right direction.

I'm not even sure where to start.

I tried Googling "Australia forum" and the only results that looked semi-relevant were Yahoo groups (which I don't like because I much prefer message boards to mailing lists) and amazon.com forums (which tend not to have a very community feel to them).

I then tried "Australia abroad forum," only because I used to belong to a forum called Irish Abroad (or something like that) and it was a friendly place with helpful and knowledgeable members. As I should have predicted, the results had mostly to do with people moving to or from Australia. The most promising looking forum required me to join before I could view the site, and intuition told me that most of my questions would be off topic and/or too obscure.

No better luck with "Australia culture forum," "Australia history forum," or "Australia literature forum" (since I am a writer looking for info on Australia).

I've tossed around the idea of trying to befriend Australians that I find on unrelated message boards and contacting them, but I don't want to seem presumptuous and impolite by hitting people up for info just because they come from a particular region of the world.

I can imagine someone contacting me out of the blue, like "Hey! You're American!! Can you tell me anything about [random or overly broad historical question]?" And although it wouldn't bother me, I would most likely not know the answer and would have to politely point them back toward Google.

Which, I suppose, is where I'm going to have to start over from as well.

It's going to be A LOT of research. I'm totally up for it, but it won't be easy.


NOTE: if you somehow happen across this blog and know a thing or two about Australian history, please feel free to comment and get in touch. :)