Usually I write a travelogue of a place I have visited and tell of its good and maybe not so good attributes. This column is about a place I have never visited but I hope someday to tour. The place is the South Pacific continent of Australia.

In Australia no one wishes to trace their ancestry too far back. The British government used Australia as a form of penal colony and deported incorrigible and career criminals to the other side of the world.

The Australian Open Grand Slam Tennis Tournament revived my desire to see the land "Down Under." Australia is in the southern hemisphere and enjoys summer while we are experiencing winter. They are a beer-drinking nation and Foster's is the major brew in the land. I long to enter an English-style pub and speak to the Aussies. They seem to be so open and without the shortcomings of a pretentious modern society.

They have sent us some wonderful actors such as Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Dame Edith Olivia Newton John, Hugh Jackman, Peter Allen and Crocodile Dundee. They have also sent us the lovely song with the strange words, Waltzing Matilda.

Australia is also known for its bizarre and unusual wild life. These include the bouncy Kangaroo with its wonderful pouch for its young. The cute little, tailless, marsupial Koala Bear lives in and dines on the Eucalyptus tree leaves. But the strangest of all is the Platypus. It is a burrowing, egg-laying aquatic mammal with a ducklike bill and webbed forepaws. I remember the hullabaloo when the Bronx Zoo acquired one. When I was a kid, we stood on lines to view it.

Another specifically Australian item was the Boomerang. it is V-shaped, made of wood ad was used in hunting by the aboriginal natives. You hurled it and if you missed the target, it would come back to you. I sent away for one as a child, but I never got the knack of using one successfully.

Melbourne (pronounced Mebvin) where the Open is held, looks like a modern metropolis. The Aussies are great tennis advocates. Rod Laver, Ken Rosewal, Harry Hopman, Pat Cash, Roy Emerson and Lew Hoad are some of the famous Australian tennis stars who have appeared in the U.S.A.

I have been happy to watch the Australian Open since it has revived my desire to visit this English-speaking country. I hope to get down there some day.