Geography
Australia whose official name is The Commonwealth of Australia is the sixth largest
country in the world. It has 7,686,884 km2 and it`s as big as the USA and as large as Europe
from Ireland to the Caspian Sea. Its population is 22,885,000 people. It`s politically divided
into six states and two territories. (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia,
Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital
Territory). It`s bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west, by the Pacific Ocean to the east
and by the Southern Ocean to the south. Along the northern coast in the Indian Ocean there
is the Great Barrier Reef - the world`s longest coral reef (2,000 km). The capital of Australia is
Canberra.
The Australian landscape consists of deserts (The Great Sandy Desert and The Great
Victoria Desert) in the centre, bordered by grassy savannas. Then there are low hills with
forests, higher hills and denser forests, rain tropical forests in the north and high mountains
in the east. The Great Dividing Range along the Eastern coast (The Australian Alps) has the
highest Australian mountain Mt. Kosciusko (2,228m).
The longest river is The Murray River which flows from New South Wales to the
Indian Ocean and is 2,575 km long. The second longest river is The Darling. There are 3 big
lakes there: Lake Eyre, Lake Torrents and Lake Gairdner.
The Australian climate varies from warm to subtropical. The continent is in the
southern hemisphere which means that Australia has summer when we have winter and vice
versa.
Flora and Fauna
A typical Australian plant is a eucalyptus tree, but we can find there other ever-green
trees too.
In Australia there are many various animals that can`t be found anywhere else. That`s
because for long periods this continent was quite isolated from the others. We say these
animals are endemic.
The best known of Australian animal is a kangaroo. There are many varieties from
the red or giant grey kangaroo through wallabies or wallaroos to the small kangaroo-rat.
They live all over the country. Kangaroos are marsupials and the other well-known
marsupials are koalas and wombats. The koalas live in the areas where the eucalyptus they
feed on grow. Wombats live everywhere and they are very popular with the Australians. The
most famous bird in Australia is an emu, but the other famous birds are e.g. a black swan, a
cockatoo or a kookaburra.
The other endemic Australian animals are e.g. a dingo, a platypus, an echidna, a
Tasmanian devil, barking and frilled lizards, several kinds of crocodile etc. The most
poisonous snakes and spiders in the world can be found in Australia too. In the north you
can see a lot of eucalyptus trees hollowed out by the termites. The seas around Australia are
full of sharks and deadly box jelly fish.
There is also a big number of rabbits and foxes which were introduced to Australia by
Europeans and which makes a lot of problems, because they haven`t any natural enemy.
In Australia there are 242 national parks and 90 natural reserves (e.g. Uluru National
Park, Cockatoo National Park, Bungle Bungle National Park, Daintree National Park etc.).
Economy
Australia is quite a rich country with highly developed industry and agriculture. Many
farm products are exported. There are 100 million sheep and 25 million cattle in Australia
and this country is the world`s biggest producer of wool. There are grown wheat, sugar-cane
and a great variety of fruits too.
In Australia you can find nearly all raw materials (e.g. coal, oil, gas, iron ore, copper,
zinc, lead, nickel, manganese, silver, gold, diamonds, uranium, titan, bauxite, zircon, opals
etc.)
The important industries are: mining, iron and steel industry, wool industry, cotton
industry, ship building, chemical industry, wood industry, food industry, engineering
industry, car industry, aircraft industry etc.
The commercial partners are mainly the USA, Japan New Zealand and Great Britain.
The currency is the Australian dollar.
Population
85% of the population are of the British or Irish origin. The original inhabitants are
the Aborigines. Now they are only 517,000 and they live mainly in the Northern Territory.
There are also a lot of immigrants from the Middle East, India and Indonesia.
Government
Australia is the constitutional monarchy. The official head of the state is British
Queen Elisabeth II, represented by the Governor-General, but in practice it`s a parliamentary
democracy whose head of the state is the Prime Minister. (Nowadays it`s Julia Gillard.)
The legislative body is the Parliament which is divided into two houses: the Senate
(76 members) and the House of Representatives (148 members). The executive body is the
Prime Minister and the Cabinet.
History
Australia was discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770 who landed in the bay now called
the Botany Bay. From 1788 to 1850s the new continent was a British convict colony and then
the immigration increased, because gold was found here. The Commonwealth was
proclaimed in 1901 and Australia became a British Dominion.