Is there a dominant religious belief in Australia? I seriously don't know.

Yes, there is. And it could probably be called 'Christian' but to dice things more accurately, far more Australians are 'religious' about sport, usually some sort of football. Socially, we're British by descent, but we do import from other cultures. And significantly, we never had a revolution against Mother England (they learnt from the US's; when it looked like one might be starting here, they decided to talk to us about independance).

Because of this, there is a certain evangelical rabidity that Australians do not, as a rule, have. You may have heard the phrase "She'll be right, mate" as an Australianism: this embodies a *lot* of the Australian psyche. If it wasn't compulsary, voter turnout at elections would probably be around 15%.

Issues with recent immigrants and refugees don't focus so much on their religious practices, as much as their assimilation. There have been concerns about specific Islamic developments, but very rarely is the focus on anything but how "unAustralian" things might be.

Many state schools offer a form of religious education called 'scripture', which is takes about an hour a week and is run with cooperation of the local churches. Students are free to opt-out and the school will provide an alternate program for those who do. This program does struggle, though, with lack of people to teach. I don't know how this fares in areas with a high level of Muslim children. Or Jews. But then, I've heard that in both cases, they are more likely to be placed in private schools, anyway.

If an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of aborigines had approached the local authorities and requested a meeting to discuss what they were doing, how would they have been received? With an honest effort to discuss the issue? Or maybe with threats and intimidation?

Usually with an honest effort to discuss the issue. Or at least that's what each side would believe they were doing. If talks break down, the next recourse tends to be civil disobedience, or trial by media, especially if one side just refuses to even talk. People do try very hard to make themselves heard. (Frivolous lawsuits do get thrown out in Australian courts; magistrates and judges do not like people wasting the courts time and will tell them so directly. There is provision in several laws for the court process to be halted and the parties sent to negotiation or mediation.)

One good example is the so-called Aboriginal Tent Embassy. This was classic civil disobedience dating from 1972 where some Aborigines simply camped on the lawn of Parliament House because the McMahon government refused to consider Aboriginal land rights. There was police action a few times, but neither side rolled out the lawyers.

To give you a good idea of how alien us Aussies can find rural southurn US, even by proxy, have you ever seen the Top Gear US Special? The British presenters drove through Alabama with a task that saw them seriously teasing the residents about their beliefs, religious and social. This turned out to be far more dangerous than the show's producers ever thought possible. And the presenters could not quite believe the responses, either. You would get the same response from most Aussies. (The same anti-gay, anti-religious messages would invite reasonably harmless ridicule in both Britan and Australia. In Alabama, people were shocked and horrified. And then the presenters were shot at.)

Wade.