About Australia

Geographical features

Economic features

Geographical features of Oz
Mainland Australia, with an area of 7.69 million square kilometres, is the Earths largest island but smallest continent. With a population of more than 21 million, Australia is the only nation to govern an entire continent. It is the earths biggest island and the sixthlargest country in the world in land area.

Australias biodiversity
Australia has 10% of the worlds biodiversity and a great number of its native plants, animals and birds exist nowhere else in the world. Australia is committed to conserving its unique environment and natural heritage and has a range of protection procedures in place, including World Heritage Listings and many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

Rivers, water resources

Australia is a dry continent and the management of water resources is a major concern for most people. The Murray and Darling rivers are the two longest river systems in Australia. Together they form the Murray-Darling Basin, which covers more than one million square kilometres, (approximately 14%) of the mainland. Lake Eyre, in the centre of the country, is a vast salt lake more than 9000 square kilometres in area which is dry for lengthy periods.

Agriculture in Australia-1
Farming includes a mix of wheat, cattle, sheep, cane sugar, lupin, canola, fruit orchards, vineyards and dairy farms. The gross value of agricultural production in Australia in 20052006 was AUD37.8 billion. The most important agricultural commodities by production value were cattle and calves (AUD7.7 billion), wheat (AUD5.2 billion), milk (AUD3.3 billion) and wool (AUD2.1 billion).

Agriculture in Australia-2
Although 6.5% of its land mass is arable, Australias diverse climatic zones, technical expertise and hardworking farmers combine to produce a wide range of highly sought-after agricultural and forestry products.

Agriculture in Australia-3
Australias location in the Southern Hemisphere also makes it ideally situated to supply counter-seasonal produce to markets in Asia, Europe and North America during their winter months. Australia exports around 65% of its farm products; 60% of its forest products; 98% of its wool and 51% of its dairy products.

Forest industries of Oz
Australias forest industries employ about 82,900 people. The annual turnover is more than AUD18 billion. Employment and wealth flow directly from the wood products derived from forests and plantations. Other products also generated are honey, wildflowers, natural oils, firewood, craft wood and fodder.

Coal & metal ore minerals

Australia has some of the worlds largest known resources of minerals, including coal, copper, bauxite, gold, silver and diamonds. The mining industry accounted for 37% of the total value of the countrys exports in 200607, mainly from the coal and metal ore mining industries.

History of Exploration,

Colonization & Development

The Aborigines_1
The Aborigines first arrived in Australia from somewhere in Asia at least 40,000 years ago, and probably up to 60,000 years ago. They had occupied most of the continent by 30,000 years ago, including the southwestern and south-eastern corners. Tasmania at this point was still part of the mainland; it was only separated by rising sea levels some 16,500 to 22,000 years later.

The Aborigines_2
Their successful adaptation to a wide range of environments had enabled the population to grow to between 300,000 and 1 million by the time of the first European settlement

Visitors before sixteenth century

Macassan traders from what is now Indonesia are thought to have been visiting Arnhem Land well before the 17th century to harvest sea cucumbers for export to China. There were also contacts with New Guinea, and Chinese, Malaysian, and Arab sea captains may also have landed in northern Australia after the 15th century.

Early European Exploration

Australia remained unexplored by the West, however, until the 17th century. European logic and mythology: a "Great Southern Land", or Terra Australis, was thought necessary to balance the weight of the northern landmasses of Europe and Asia. Terra Australis often appeared on early European maps as a large, globe-shaped mass in about its correct location, although no actual discoveries were recorded by Europeans.

European Exploration
The European exploration of Australia took more than three centuries to complete [1650-1870]; thus, what is often considered the oldest continent, geologically, was the last to be discovered and colonized by Europeans.

British Exploration- W. Dampier

Portuguese and Spanish Sailings Dutch Interest British Expeditions and Claims: In 1688, William Dampier, landed in the north-west and a second expeditionalong 1,610 km (1,000 mi) of the western coast in 1699-1700 resulted in the most detailed report on the continent that was unfavourable.

British Exploration- 1768-1770

In 1770 Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay on the eastern coast and at Possession Island in the north where, on August 23, he claimed the region for Great Britain and named it New South Wales. Matthew Flinders, a naval officer, was the first to circumnavigate the continent from 1801 to 1803.

Complete Geographical Exploration

Although the coast was now largely charted, it was not until the 1870s that Australias major interior features were known to the Europeans.

Penal Settlements 1786:

For Britain, Australia had strategic and, after the loss of the American colonies (1783), socio-economic value. The British government established a penal settlement at Botany Bay, on the south-east coast of New South Wales. Mindful of British economic interests and keen to save public expenditure, the government planned that Botany Bay would become a self-financing colony through the development of its economy by convict labour.

Sydney Founded
Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Botany Bay on January 18, 1788. Here, on January 26 (now commemorated as Australia Day), he began the first permanent European settlement in Australia.

Captain Arthur Phillip [1788 to 1792]

Three major problems confronted Phillip and other early governors: providing a sufficient supply of food, developing an internal economic system, and producing exports to pay for the colonys imports from Great Britain.

Exports to pay for the colonys imports from Great Britain?

John Macarthur in 1802 had shown British manufacturers samples of Australian wool. It was only after 1810, however, with the breeding of the merino sheep, with its staple wool, that sheep-grazing gradually developed into a major economic activity.

Lachlan Macquarie [1809 to 1821]

Churches, hospitals, and government buildings were built in Sydney. The arrival of more free settlers brought more claims to farmland. The free settlers [exclusives ] vs freed convicts [emancipists]

Expansion of sheep - and cattle-raising into the interior

Gregory Blaxland and William Charles Wentworth opened up the route through the Blue Mountains, about 80 to 120 km (50 to 75 mi) west of Sydney, in 1813, initiating the westward settlement of New South Wales.

In search of more pastures

Together with the southerly treks of Andrew Hamilton Hume and William Hovell in 1824, and Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836, Blaxland and Wentworths explorations spurred the transfer of flocks and herds to inland pastures.

Search for agricultural heartland

Captain Charles Sturt in 1828-1830, traced the chief arteries of the Murray-Darling Basin, now the agricultural heartland of Australia. Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell confirmed Sturts work, and opened the route from New South Wales to the rich land of western Victoria (1836).

Expanding Colonization [1820-1880]

Between the late 1820s and the 1880s, Australia underwent rapid changes that laid the foundation for its present society. These included: the formation, between 1829 and 1859, of four of the six colonies that eventually became the states of Australia, the expansion of sheep- and cattle-raising into the interior, and the discovery of gold and other minerals.

Towards Federation
A gold rush began in Australia in the early 1850s, and the Eureka Stockade rebellion against mining licence fees in 1854 was an early expression of civil disobedience. Between 1855 and 1890, the six colonies individually gained responsible government, managing most of their own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire. The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs, defence, and international shipping.

On 1 January 1901, the six colonies became a federation, and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Since Federation, Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and remains a Commonwealth realm.

Australian Capital Territory

The Federal Capital Territory (later renamed the Australian Capital Territory) was formed from a part of New South Wales in 1911 to provide a location for the proposed new federal capital of Canberra. (Melbourne was the temporary seat of government from 1901 to 1927 while Canberra was being constructed.) The Northern Territory was transferred from the control of the South Australian government to the Commonwealth in 1911.

Australia in WW1
In 1914 Australia joined Britain in fighting World War I, with support from both the outgoing Liberal Party and the incoming Labor Party. The Australians took part in many of the major battles fought on the Western Front. Many Australians regard the defeat of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) at Gallipoli as the birth of the nation its first major military action. The Kokoda Track Campaign is regarded by many as an analogous nation-defining event during World War II

Formal end of most of the constitutional links between Australia and the UK:
Britain's Statute of Westminster 1931 formally ended most of the constitutional links between Australia and the UK. Australia adopted it in 1942, but backdated it to the beginning of World War II to confirm the validity of legislation passed by the Australian Parliament during the war. The final constitutional ties between Australia and the UK were severed with the passing of the Australia Act 1986

Australia Act 1986

Australia's demography, culture, and self-image have been transformed. The final constitutional ties between Australia and the UK were severed with the passing of the Australia Act 1986, ending any British role in the government of the Australian States, and ending judicial appeals to the UK Privy Council.

United States as a new ally and protector

The shock of the UK's defeat in Asia in 1942 and the threat of Japanese invasion caused Australia to turn to the United States as a new ally and protector. Since 1951, Australia has been a formal military ally of the US, under the ANZUS treaty. After World War II, Australia encouraged immigration from Europe; since the 1970s and the abolition of the White Australia policy, immigration from Asia and elsewhere was also encouraged.

Challenge of arid or semi-arid land

Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth. Its interior has one of the lowest rainfalls in the world. About three-quarters of the land is arid or semi-arid. These arid areas extend from the large central deserts to the Western coast.

Challenge of variety of regions

Soils in these areas are characteristically very infertile compared to other deserts of comparable aridity. This has presented Australians with the challenge of how best to manage the variety of regions the continent possesses. Managing to meet the competing demands of agriculture, economy and conservation is the theme of the struggle.

Commonwealth of Australia
Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and remains a Commonwealth realm.

Approximately 60% of the population is concentrated in and around the mainland state capitals of New South wales [Sydney], Victoria [Melbourne], Queensland [Brisbane], Western Australia [Perth], South Australia [Adelaide.] and Northern Territory [Darwin] The nation's capital city is Canberra, located in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

The Australian identity: people-1

The Australian identity is drawn from its people and its ancient and modern history set against a backdrop of a unique environment. Indigenous Australians have inhabited the continent for up to 60 000 years. Since 1788, Europeans have settled in towns and cities, usually located around river valleys, estuaries and along the coastline.

The Australian identity: people-2

Australias harsh terrain and dry climate claimed the lives of some of the early European explorers who attempted to open up the interior of the continent for settlement. Much of regional Australia was explored and settled between the 1820s and 1850s, when large tracts of land became available for agricultural development. The Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century brought new migrants to regional Australia.

Cosmopolitan Cities
Australian cities also routinely rank among the world's highest in terms of livability, cultural offerings, and quality of life. It is a member of the United Nations, G20 major economies, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, OECD, and the WTO.

Technologically advanced and industrialised nation

Australia is a prosperous multicultural country. It has excellent results in many international comparisons of national performance such as health care, life expectancy, quality-of-life, human development, public education, economic freedom, Curry bashing and the protection of civil liberties and political whites.