Australia Amazing Continent: Australia Facts

Australia Facts

Australia - just the facts
In land area, Australia is the sixth largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, the United States of America and Brazil. It has, however, a relatively small population. Australia is the only nation to govern an entire continent and its outlying islands. The mainland is the largest island and the smallest, flattest continent on Earth. It lies between 10° and 39° South latitude. The highest point on the mainland, Mount Kosciuszko, is only 2228 metres. Apart from Antarctica, Australia is the driest continent. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth. Its interior has one of the lowest rainfalls in the world and about three-quarters of the land is arid or semi-arid. Its fertile areas are well-watered, however, and these are used very effectively to help feed the world. Sheep and cattle graze in dry country, but care must be taken with the soil. Some grazing land became desert when the long cycles that influence rainfall in Australia turned to drought. The Australian federation consists of six States and two Territories. Most inland borders follow lines of longitude and latitude. The largest State, Western Australia, is about the same size as Australia in brief
Australia is an independent Western democracy with a population of more than 20 million. It is one of the world’s most urbanised countries, with about 70 per cent of the population living in the 10 largest cities. Most of the population is concentrated along the eastern seaboard and the south-eastern corner of the continent. Australia’s lifestyle reflects its mainly Western origins moreWestern Europe.

Australia facts directory
Queensland facts - New South Wales facts
Australian Capital Territory facts
Victoria facts - Tasmania facts - South Australia facts
Western Australia facts - Northern Territory facts

Australia is the Worlds Largest Exporter of:
Coal - Wool - Alumina - Diamonds - Sheep - Lead
Refined zinc ores - Mineral sands - Other Exports Include:
Veal - Lamb - Sugar - Nickel - Beef - Mutton - Cereals - Iron Ore

Principal Trading Partners Include:
Japan, USA and EC member states

Australian Craft

Australian craft
"But perhaps the greatest acknowledgement is due to the people I did not meet; the photographers, diarists, artists, commentators, craftsmen of yesteryear who, in letters, literature and art/craft works, left an enduring, human account of how people wrested life from a harsh land and came to love it." Murray Walker 1978
Along with opal jewellery and red wine, craft is one of the few examples of high culture in Australia. It is refined in style, highly skilled in the production process and unique to Australia.

Native animals Pets

Keeping Australian Native Animals as Pets
Living with the Australian environment
It is being argued that with 59 mammals at risk of extinction, the survival of many Australian species relies on bringing them into the family home as pets. Not only would pet ownership result in a vast increase in the population of native animals, it would also result in an ideological shift in the Australian community that would bring it closer to Australian native animals. Instead of seeing themselves as disconnected from the ecosystem, keeping native animals as pets would help Australians feel a part of it.

The native animal survived the ecosystem's collapse

The Rise of Firestick Farming
The native animals that survived the ecosystem's collapse were those that humans found difficult to hunt. The Kangaroo was one such animal. Although it congregates in groups, unlike a sheep or cow, the Kangaroo is not a herd animal. If a mob of Kangaroos is attacked, individuals run in different directions which makes them difficult to kill on mass. Humans soon adapted by using fire in hunting. With fire, a mob of Kangaroos could be herded towards a group of people waiting with spears.
Unfortunately, the use of fire further contributed to the drying of Australia and continued the expansion of the desert. Eventually, eucalyptus forests, which recover quickly from fire damage, were all that remained in Australia. Koalas aside, eucalypts are not suitable for large browsing animals. A bountiful land of rainforests and large animals had become a land of desert, eucalyptus and small animals adept at avoiding humans.

Australian Prehistory

Australian Prehistory

The Lost World of the BradshawsThe world's oldest depictions of a decorated and ornate people can be found spread over 50,000 square kilometres of northern Australia. The exact age of the paintings can't be determined as the pigment has become part of the rock. A fossilised wasp covering one painting has been dated at 17,000 years.
CitiesAt the time of European settlement, the Australian continent lacked a high-yield agricultural crop as well as animals that could be enclosed in pens. As a consequence, it was not possible for farming communities to develop using native flora and fauna. Tens of thousands of years ago; however, Australia had animals that could have been enclosed in pens, and may have had high-yield agricultural crops. If so, farming communities may have developed.

Australian animals

The KangarooAn unusual Australian
"To compare it to any European animal would be impossible as it has not the least resemblance of any one I have seen." Sir Joseph Banks
The DingoUnfairly judged?
"On the evidence, juries have always convicted the dingo, but it is a largely circumstantial case," Dr Stephen Wroe
It is hard to define whether the Dingo is a native or introduced species. Unlike the marsupials, it didn't evolve on the Australian continent - being introduced between 3,000 and 10,000 years ago. But since its introduction, the Australian continent has shaped the Dingo so that it it unlike any other canine around the world.
Curiously, its behaviour has evolved to more closely resemble that of the Tasmanian Tiger, the marsupial wolf that it is said to have eliminated from mainland Australia.
Tasmanian Devil - The marsupial bites back
"We'd be able to achieve two goals - separating the devils from the cancer, and restoring the ecological balance on the mainland. Devils prey on fox cubs and compete with adult foxes for food." Chris Johnson, an ecologist at James Cook University.
Since European colonisation, mainland Australia has lost 50 per cent of its marsupial species. Tasmania, however, has only lost one species of marsupial - the Tasmanian Tiger. The preservation of Tasmania's marsupials has been attributed to the Tasmanian Devil preventing foxes from ever being able to gain a foothold, and keeping the population of feral cats under control.
The Emu
A curious wanderer
"If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world." Major Meredith
Emus have been walking the plains of Australia in something reasonably close to their present form for about 80 million years. The Emu was around when the dinosaurs still walked the plains. They knew Australia when it was covered in rainforest. They saw the McDonald Ranges when they were the height of the Himalayas.
The Emu's ability to survive such changes says much about its adaptability. According to folklore, Emus have a mysterious mechanism that tells them where the rain is, and will travel for hundreds of kilometers to take advantage of a deluge.

Brief Description By UNESCO

Brief Description

The 239,723 ha Purnululu National Park is located in the State of Western Australia. It contains the deeply dissected Bungle Bungle Range composed of Devonian-age quartz sandstone eroded over a period of 20 million years into a series of beehive-shaped towers or cones, whose steeply sloping surfaces are distinctly marked by regular horizontal bands of dark-grey cyanobacterial crust (single-celled photosynthetic organisms). These outstanding examples of cone karst owe their existence and uniqueness to several interacting geological, biological, erosional and climatic phenomena.

Australia Facts

The climate of Australia varies widely, but by far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid – 40% of the landmass is covered by sand dunes. Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate: part is tropical rainforests, part grasslands, and part desert.
Rainfall is highly variable, with frequent droughts lasting several seasons thought to be caused in part by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Occasionally a duststorm will blanket a region or even several states and there are reports of the occasional large tornado. Rising levels of salinity and desertification in some areas is ravaging the landscape.
Australia's tropical/subtropical location and cold waters off the western coast make most of western Australia a hot desert with aridity a marked feature of a greater part of the continent. These cold waters produce precious little moisture needed on the mainland. A 2005 study by Australian and American researchers[1] investigated the desertification of the interior, and suggested that one explanation was related to human settlers who arrived about 50,000 years ago. Regular burning by these settlers could have prevented monsoons from reaching interior Australia.
See also: Drought in Australia and Wet season
The rainfall patterns across Australia are highly seasonal. Compared to the Earth's other continental landmasses Australia is very dry. More than 80 percent of the continent has an annual rainfall of less than 600 millimetres; only Antarctica receives less rainfall than Australia. From one extreme to another, parts of the far North Queensland coast annually average over 4000 mm, with the Australian annual record being 12461 mm, set at the summit of Mount Bellenden Ker in 2000. There are four main factors that contribute to the dryness of the Australian landmass:
Cold ocean currents off the west coast
Low elevation of landforms
Dominance of high-pressure systems
Shape of the landmass