Australia

It covers an area of 7.5 million square kilometers and the population is about 20 million Australia has one of the lowest densities in the world – only 2 people per 1 sq km. The capital city is Canberra, but it is quite a small town. The main ethnic groups are: British (about 90 %), other Europeans (about 5 %) and Aborigines (about 2%).

Australia is the smallest continent in the world lying between the Indian and the Pacific Oceans. There are Coral and Tasman Seas and many large islands such as Tasmania on the south. The Australian climate is various. In the northern and northwest parties there is a tropically hot and dry atmosphere but on the other side north-east has heavy rainfalls because of winds.

Nearly half of the continent occupies the Great Western Plateau on the west, in central part there are three big deserts – the Great Sandy Desert, the Gibson Desert and the Great Victoria Desert. The Central Lowlands are mostly covered by tropic forests and savannah with occasional creeks and rivers, which become dry in the dry seasons. East part occupies the Great Dividing Range and southeast are the Australian Alps – the highest mountain is Mount Kosciusko 2 228 metres high.

Many of Australia’s rivers are fill with water only during the rainy season. The biggest are the Murray and the Darling. Also most of Australian’s lakes are dry for months – for example Lake Eyre, Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner.

The majority of people live in the big cities in the southeast coast – in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. Sydney is the biggest Australian city, but it is not the capital – it is Canberra. Sydney´s population is about 4 million people and it was founded by English settlers. The most famous attraction in Sydney is The Opera House, which looks like a large white sailing-ship lies at Sydney Harbour. It was designed by a Danish architect – he won the international competition in 1957 and it took 19 years to build it. There are 5 theatres inside. The Harbour Bridge is one of the Sydney´s landmarks. It was opened in 1932 and it is 140 meters above a sea level.

Adelaide lies in the southern part of the country. There are two universities and a car-manufacturing factory here. Melbourne is one of the most beautiful cities. There are a lot of museums, galleries and parks. Perth is an important industrial city in the west. Other important cities are Darwin, Alice Springs and Hobart.

Australia is one and only continent where grow eucalyptus. It is also home of remarkable animals such as kangaroo, koala bear, wombat, platypus, dingo, Emu and many lizards – this animals cannot be found elsewhere in the world. It is mainly due to the fact that for long prehistoric periods this continent was isolated from the others.

The most popular Australian attraction is the Ayers Rock – it is called Uluru too, a huge red rock in the centre of Australia. It is the holy place of all Australian Aborigines. One of the biggest Australia’s tourist attraction is the Great Barrier Reef with its 23 000 km of corals of all colour – it is the largest coral reef in the world.

The first (original) inhabitants of this country were the Australian Aborigines, who lived there for over 40,000 years. Australia was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in 1642. In 1770 Captain James Cook explored eastern coast and the first white settlement was made up in 1788 of 730 British prisoners and the first British colony was called English New South Wales. During 1850s and 1890s immigration and the economic growth increased because of ‘gold fever’. In 1901 the six colonies became the Commonwealth of Australia.

The full and official name for Australia is The Commonwealth of Australia. It is the independent sovereign federation of six states – New South Wales (Sydney), Victoria (Melbourne), South Australia (Adelaide), Queensland (Brisbane), Western Australia (Perth), Tasmania (Hobart) and two territories (Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). It is the member of Commonwealth with Elizabeth as the head represented by the Governor-General. It follows the British system so the executive power has the Australian Prime Minister and the Cabinet and legislature is the Federal Parliament.

Main industries are iron, steel, textiles, electrical equipment, chemicals, cars, aircraft, ship and machinery. Natural riches contain mainly bauxite, coal, copper, iron, lead, nickel, silver, tin, uranium ands zinc ores. Among the main trading partners belong Japan, the USA, the UK, New Zealand. Currency used in Australia is the Australian Dollar Australia is one of the top exporters of beef, lamb and high quality wool and wheat. Other agriculture items are cotton, barley, oats, hay, sugar, wine, fruits and vegetables.