Statistics

In 2005 the service owned 50 aircraft, and operated 22 bases with 495 full time and 145 part-time staff members. Each day, on average, the service:

traveled 53, 491 kilometers by air; performed 159 landings; saw 643 patients; performed 91 emergency evacuations and conducted 202 telehealth sessions.

Science and technology

The European history of Australia was scientific from the very start. Australian science began with amateur naturalists collecting, describing, and classifying the unique flora and fauna that so amazed the earliest European explorers. It was as if another planet had been found. William Dampier, the first Englishman to tread (ступить) on Australian soil (1688 and 1699), gathered some plant specimens (образцы) to take back home. His specimens are preserved in Oxford. Australian botany was thus born.

Further expeditions by French scientists (Napoleon Bonaparte was keen on Australia's flowers and marsupials) and, of course, by the English explorer Captain James Cook, were conceived (задуманы) as quests (поиски) for astronomical and biological discovery. Capt. James Cook's first landfall (место высадки на берег) in 1770 was named Botany Bay to celebrate the large number of new plants discovered there. Initial efforts to acclimatize useful plants and animals, including the familiar flowers and birds of Britain, were followed by efforts to eradicate pests (вредители) and weeds (сорняки) from pioneer farmlands.

Australia today maintains its place in the forefront (на переднем краю) of fields such as immunology, biotechnology, solar power, drug design, astronomy and astrophysics, plant biotechnology, solar engineering, nanotechnology and many other fields. Around 200 biotechnology companies operate in Australia - more per capita than in the United States.

Australia is a hub (центр) of expertise for its region. Many of its scientists are involved in South East Asia, pioneering studies of cereal crops (зерновые культуры), hydrology, solar energy and even the prediction of volcanic eruptions. Major programs linking Australia with China (fuel technology, genetics) and India (catalytic converters, astronomy) continue to flourish.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), begun in 1926 as the federal government's research agency.

Australia is one of the world's key astronomical centers, thanks to its clear dry air, and clear wide view of the southern skies. The Mills Cross radio telescopes originated in Australia. The CSIRO's radiophysics laboratory pioneered the use of the interferometer in 1946, while the 64-meter dish at Parkes, New South Wales, identified the first known quasars in 1960.