Australia ( /əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.

For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.

Eric Edgar Cooke nicknamed The Night Caller (25 February 1931 – 26 October 1964) was an Australian serial killer. From 1959 to 1963, he terrorised the city of Perth, Western Australia, by committing 22 violent crimes, eight of which resulted in deaths.

Eric Cooke was born on 25 February 1931 in Victoria Park, a suburb of Perth and was the eldest of three children.

Cooke's father was forced into marriage, when Cooke's mother discovered she was pregnant with Cooke. Cooke's father showed no affection towards his oldest child and only son, who would often be a victim of his father's alcohol addiction. The child was subjected to beatings for no apparent reason. Cooke was also often beaten by his father when he tried to protect his mother from his father's violent outbursts of rage. Cooke was frequently hospitalized for head injuries and had suspected brain damage. He also suffered from recurrent headaches and was once admitted to an asylum.

Cooke had been bullied at school due to the impediments of a hare lip and a cleft palate. Surgical operations to repair the deformities were not totally successful and had left him with a slight facial deformity, and he spoke in a mumble. Leaving school at 14 to work, Cooke had to use his pay to support the family as his father spent most of his on alcohol. As a teenager, rejected by his peers due to his disability, Cooke had no social life, little money and spent his nights involved in petty crimes and vandalism. Cooke would later serve 18 months in jail for burning down a church after he was rejected in a choir audition. At the age of 18 Cooke was sentenced to three years in prison after being arrested for arson and vandalising homes he had broken into.

The Backpacker Murders is a name given to serial killings that occurred in New South Wales, Australia during the 1990s. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partly buried in the Belanglo State Forest, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south west of the New South Wales town of Berrima. Five of the victims were international backpackers visiting Australia (three German, two British), and two were Australian travellers from Melbourne.

Australian Ivan Milat was convicted of the murders and is serving seven consecutive life sentences plus 18 years.

On 20 September 1992 a group of orienteers discovered a decaying corpse while orienteering in the Belanglo State Forest. The following day, police constables Roger Gough and Suzanne Roberts discovered a second body 30 metres (98 ft) from the first. Early media reports suggested that the bodies were of missing British backpackers Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters, who had disappeared from the inner Sydney suburb of Kings Cross in April 1992. However, a German couple, Gabor Neugebauer and Anja Habschied, had also disappeared from the Kings Cross area sometime after Christmas 1991 and Simone Schmidl, also from Germany, had been reported missing for more than a year. It was also possible that the bodies were of a young Victorian couple, Deborah Everist and James Gibson, who had been missing since leaving Frankston in 1989.

Anthony Michael "Tony" Bourdain (born June 25, 1956) is an American chef, author and television personality. He is well known for his 2000 book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, and is the host of Travel Channel's culinary and cultural adventure programs Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and The Layover.

A 1978 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and a veteran of numerous professional kitchens, Bourdain is currently a chef-at-large, whose home base is Brasserie Les Halles, New York where he was executive chef for many years.

Anthony Bourdain was born in New York City to Pierre (d.1987) and Gladys Bourdain, and grew up in Leonia, New Jersey. Bourdain has French ancestry on his father's side; his paternal grandfather emigrated from France to New York following World War I. Bourdain's mother worked for the New York Times as a staff editor. Bourdain was a student at Englewood School for Boys, graduating in 1973. He attended Vassar College before dropping out after two years, and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978.