Australia

General information
Australia is an island continent and the world's sixth largest

country (7,682,300 sq km).
Lying between the Indian and Pacific oceans, the country is
approximately 4,000 km from east to west and 3,200 km
from north to south, with a coastline 36,735 km long.
Canberra is Australia's capital city. With a population of
approximately 380,000 people and situated in the
Australian Capital Territory, Canberra is roughly half way
between the two largest cities Melbourne and Sydney.
Australia has 19 listed World Heritage properties. Australia
is also famous for its landmark buildings including the
Sydney Harbour Bridge; its ancient geology, as well as for
its high country.
Geographical position
The Australian mainland extends from west to east for
nearly 2,500 miles (4,000 km) and from Cape York
Peninsula in the northeast to Wilsons Promontory in the
southeast for nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km). To the south,
Australian jurisdiction extends a further 310 miles (500 km)
to the southern extremity of the island of Tasmania, and in
the north it extends to the southern shores of Papua New
Guinea. Australia is separated from Indonesia to the
northwest by the Timor and Arafura seas, from Papua New
Guinea to the northeast by the Coral Sea and the Torres
Strait, from the Coral Sea Islands Territory by the Great
Barrier Reef, from New Zealand to the southeast by the
Tasman Sea, and from Antarctica in the far south by the
Indian Ocean.
Climat
The majority of Australia experiences temperate weather
for most of the year.
The northern states of Australia are typically warm all the
time, with the southern states experiencing cool winters but
rarely sub-zero temperatures.
Snow falls on the higher mountains during the winter
months, enabling skiing in southern New South Wales and
Victorian ski resorts, as well as the smaller resorts in
Australia's island state, Tasmania.
Nature
Australia's ecosystem is an unusual one because of its remote
location. As a result, there are many animal species that occur here
and nowhere else in the world, such as the platypus, kangaroo,
echidna, and koala. Australia has 516 national parks to protect its
unique plants and animals.
One of Australia's most amazing sites rises like an enormous whale's
back from a flat red-soil desert called the Red Center. This site is
called Uluru, and it is a sacred natural formation at the heart of the
country. Rising 1,100 feet (335 meters) tall, it is the largest rock in
the world!
Australia is home to many of the deadliest species of animals on the
planet. There are 36 species of poisonous funnel-web spiders in
eastern Australia. There are also 20 types of venomous snakes,
including the taipan, which attacks without warning and bites
repeatedly, killing its victim in minutes.
There are several types of rain forests in Australia. Tropical rain
forests, mainly found in the northeast, are the richest in plant and
animal species. Subtropical rain forests are found near the mid-
eastern coast, and broadleaf rain forests grow in the southeast and
on the island of Tasmania.
History
Australia's first inhabitants, the Aboriginal people, are believed to have
migrated from some unknown point in Asia to Australia between
50,000 and 60,000 years ago.
While Captain James Cook is credited with Australia's European
discovery in 1770, a Portuguese possibly first sighted the country,
while the Dutch are known to have explored the coastal regions in the
1640s.
The first European settlement of Australia was in January 1788, when
the First Fleet sailed into Botany Bay under the command of Captain
Arthur Phillip. Originally established as a penal colony, by the 1830s
the number of free settlers was increasing. Transportation of convicts
to the eastern colonies was abolished in 1852 and to the western
colonies in 1868.
Economy
Australia’s established world reputation has long been that of a wealthy
underpopulated country prone to natural disasters, its economy
depending heavily on agriculture and foreign investment.
In general the economy has been dominated by foreign interests—first by

those of the United Kingdom, then by the United States and Japan, and
more recently by giant multinational corporations.
Far too little has been done to farm the kangaroo and wallaby
populations on a commercial basis; this might be preferable, on economic
and environmental grounds, to the regular culling operations that mainly
serve the pet-food trade.
Australia is an important source of export cereals, meat, sugar, dairy

produce, and fruit.
Wine making for domestic and export markets is pursued in every state
but is most significant in the southern parts of the country. Nearly half of
wine exports are directed to the United Kingdom. Other major markets
include the United States, New Zealand, Canada, and Germany.
Sheep are raised in most of the agricultural regions and under widely
varying environmental conditions.
Canberra - capital of Australia

Canberra, located in the southeast between the larger and
more important economic and cultural centres of Sydney
and Melbourne.
Canberra is home to Government, where you can visit
Government House, Parliament House, Old Parliament
House, The National Gallery of Australia and The Australian
National Botanic Gardens.
Canberra is known as Australia’s capital city and sometimes
affectionately called The Bush capital for its sweeping
nature reserves and surrounding mountain ranges.
It’s one of the only places in Australia where you can go

on a Hot Air Balloon ride
Canberra has a NASA base - Canberra Deep Space

Communication Complex
Australian desert
The Australian deserts make up about 18% of this continent, but a full
35% of Australia receives so little rainfall, it is classified as desert.
That makes Australia the driest inhabited continent on Earth. Only

Antarctica is drier.
Only 3% of the Australian population live in those dry 70% of the

continent, the rest of our people is concentrated on the coasts.
 Great Victoria Desert: 424,400 km2 (163,900

square miles)

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General information

Australia is an island continent and the world's sixth largest

In general the economy has been dominated by foreign interests—first by

Australia is an important source of export cereals, meat, sugar, dairy

Canberra - capital of Australia

It’s one of the only places in Australia where you can go

Canberra has a NASA base - Canberra Deep Space

That makes Australia the driest inhabited continent on Earth. Only

Only 3% of the Australian population live in those dry 70% of the

 Great Victoria Desert: 424,400 km2 (163,900

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