Australia is the Earth’s smallest continent, situated in the Southern Hemisphere between the Pacific and Indian oceans. Australia is the only country occupying a whole continent. It’s an island continent. It’s the sixth largest country in the world after Russia, Canada, China, the USA and Brazil. It´s official name is the Commonwealth of Australia and its capital is Canberra. Australia is a part of British Commonwealth. The queen is represented by general Government. In Australia there live about 23 million people. Majority of people live along the southeast coast, because there are the most suitable conditions for living. Official currency is Australian dollar. Official language here is English.
History
Australia is one of the oldest lands on earth, originally breaking away from super continent Gondwana. The original inhabitants of Australia were black people – the Aborigines – who came here from Asia about 40 000 years ago when Australia wasn’t a separate island and now they live in reserves. Australia was firstly discovered by the first European – a Spanish captain Abel Tasman in the 17th century. Later in 1771th British Captain James Cook landed in Botany Bay in today’s Sydney and explored the eastern coast. Australia was originally a penal colony where England deported convicts and the last of them came to Australia in 1839. After many years of continuing exploration and settlement of Australia, there was a great increase of population in 19th century because of golden rush. 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.
Political system
Australia is a member of British Commonwealth of Nations and its Commonwealth of Australia. The head of state is Queen of UK but she is represented by the general Government. It is considered as constitutional monarchy but in practice it is parliamentary democracy. The country is divided into 6 states (Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania) and 2 territories (Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory) The Australian flag consists of a small Union Jack in the top left corner on a blue background and the Southern Cross constellation. There is a seven-pointed star that represents federation
Geography
Most of Australia is low and flat and it can be, however, divided into three major land regions. They are from west to east, the Western Plateau, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory. The Western Plateau which occupies nearly half of the continent is mostly covered by deserts – The Great Sandy Desert, The Gibson Desert, The Great Victoria Desert. The most famous point in this area is Ayers Rock (Uluru), which is the largest piece of rock in the world. It has many small caves and the walls of them are covered with paintings made long ago by Aborigines. The Central Eastern Lowland, this are is quiet dry and hot because there are tropic forests and savannah (backgrounds). The Australian Cordilleras which are along the eastern coast of Australia. The area from Brisbane to Melbourne is the most populated part of Australia. There is The Great Dividing Range where we can find The New England Range, The Blue Mountains and The Australian Alps with the highest mountain Mt. Kosciusko. 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 kilometers along Australia’s north-east and is composed of about 400 species of corals of many shapes and colors.
Flora and fauna
Australia has many different kinds of climate. Tropical in the north, continental in the interior and subtropical or temperate in the rest of the continent Australia’s seasons are the opposite of the northern hemisphere which means that Australia has summer when we have winter and vice versa. This country has more than 2,000 national parks and nature reserves and some areas of Australia haven’t been explored yet
As the island is separate from the rest of the world, it has a lot of unique animals like kangaroo, koala, emu, kiwi and so on. Typical plants of this country include eucalyptus which is eaten by koala and the national flower is wattle Agriculture is also very important. Here are plants of barley, wheat, fruit. In Australia are resources of iron, bauxite, lead, gold, silver etc. Australia exports raw materials.
Tasmania
Is an island south of Australia. It is named after the explorer Abel Tasman. The island is sometimes called “the apple isle”. It is home to a rare animal – Tasmanian devil – that cannot be found anywhere else.