Australia

• Australia is the smallest continent in the world. It is situated between the Pacific and the Indian Oceans in the southern hemisphere. Its official name is the Commonwealth of Australia and its capital is Canberra. Another big cities are Sydney (the largest and the oldest city famous for the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House), Melbourne (the second largest city), Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobard. Australia is a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. It is a federal state with the Queen as the head of the state, represented by a Governor General.
• history:
  – the original inhabitants of Australia were the Aborigines – they arrived from Asia about 40, 000 years ago when Australia wasn’t a separate island – Dutch sea captain Abel Tasman, landed on the island which was eventually named after him, Tasmania
  – in 1770 Captain James Cook discovered the island – he landed in Botany Bay in today’s Sydney and explored the eastern coast – Australia was originally the colony where England deported convicts, the last convicts came to Australia in 1839 – from 1800 free British immigrants formed the greater part of the population, but they were mainly men. That’s why Engaldn strated a campaign to get more women to Australia. After many years of continueing exploration and settlement of Australia, a great increase in the population of Australia occurred between 1850 and1860 after the discovery of gold in the south-west. As most people did not find enough gold to pay their passage home so they stayed
  – after the various colonies in Australia decided to unite into a single nation and united government, on January 1, 1901 the six colonies became states of a new nation, the Commonwealth of Australia
• geography:
  – the country is divided into six states – Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and two territories – Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory. Western Australia takes up one-third of Australia and contains the city of Perth. South Australia with city of Adelaide. Queensland lies in the tropical north-eastern corner. New South Wales lying in the south east corner, is the most populous state. Victoria is in the south west corner. Tasmania is an island state, the smallest state.
  Northern Territory lies in the north and centre of Australia. It is the least populated and lest developed of all the states and territories. Australian Capital Territory is the capital city Canberra.
  – most of Australia is low and flat. Australia can, however, be divided into three major land regions. They are, from west to east, the Western Plateau, the Central Lowlands and the Eastern Highlands.
• mountains – Australia has the Australian Alps and the Great Diving Range on the eastern coast. Ayers Rock (=Urulu) is the largest piece of rock in the world. It is about 2,4 kilometres long and 300 metres high and has many small caves. The walls of these caves are covered with rock painting made long ago by the Aboriginal artists.
• the highest mountain is Mount Kosciusko, in the the Australian Alps
  – rivers – many of Australia’s rivers are dry and fill with water only during the rainy season
  –  the longest river is the Murray, another significant river is the Darling River
  –    lakes – Australia’s large permanent lakes have been artificially created. They include Lake Argyle in Western Australia and Lake Gordon in Tasmania (both are used as reservoirs for conservation reservoirs)
• most of Australia’s natural lakes are dry for months or years – for example Lake Eyre, Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner
• the Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef and one of Australia’s most popular tourist attractions. It extends for just over 23,000 kilometres along Australia’s north-east and is composed of about 400 species of corals of many shapes and colours.
  – deserts – some parts of Australia are completely dry – in central Australia there are three deserts – the Great Sandy Desert, the Gibson Desert and the Great Victoria Desert
• industry and agriculture:
• Australia has rich mineral resources – it exports a great variety of minerals and metals (gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, iron) all over the world
• Australia’s farmers produce nearly all the food needed by the people. Crops are grown on only about 5 percent of the farmland, however the use of modern agricultural methods make this land highly productive. Much of the crop farming is located near the east and west coasts. Australia’s leading farm products are cattle (sheeps), wheat and wool along with dairy product, fruit and sugar cane.
• people:
• there are about 18 million inhabitants, the country has the lowest density in the world
• most people live in towns on the eastern coast, the biggest towns in Australia are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide
• most people are of British origin

– the Aborigines live mostly in the northern coastal areas and on small islands. Most of them no longer live the nomadic, tribal life of their ancestors. Because they have suffered from various forms of prejudice, discrimination and extreme poverty, special government welfare, housing and education programs were formed to assist Aboriginal people
– sports – the Australians like playing rugby and Australian football. Cricket is another popular game.

• fauna and flora
• most of Australia has a continental climate, but there is also warm and subtropical climate
• Australian seasons are the opposite of the northern hemisphere which means that Australia has summer when we have winter and vice versa
• Typical plants – eucalyptus, the national flower is wattle
• Australia has more than 2,000 national parks and nature reserves, protected wilderness areas of natural and environmental importance and rainforests
• because Australia is isolated from other continents, it has a lot of unique animals like kangaroo, koala (it lives in eucalyptus trees and feeds mainly at night on leaves of eucalyptus tress), emu (large birds which cannot fly), echidna, kiwi, cockatoo, dingo, wombat, etc. The platypus is a very strange animal. It has a beak and webbed feet (like a duck) and lays eggs (like a hen) but it is a mammal.
• Tasmania – is an island in the south of Australia, named after the explorer Abel Tasman
• it is home of a rare animal – Tasmanian devil – a carnivorous marsupial that cannot be
  found anywhere else