Australia: General Information

Australia, island continent located between the Indian and South Pacific oceans south-east of Asia and forming, with the nearby island of Tasmania, the Commonwealth of Australia, a self-governing member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The continent is bounded on the north by the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea, and the Torres Strait; on the east by the Coral Sea and the Tasman Sea; on the south by the Bass Strait and the Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Indian Ocean. The Commonwealth of Australia extends about 4,000 km from Cape Byron in the east to Western Australia, and about 3,700 km from Cape York in the north to Tasmania in the south. Its coastline measures some 36,735 km. The area of Australia, including Tasmania, is 7,682,300 sq km.

Australia is one country with world-class cities, snowfields, deserts, rainforests and golden beaches. Australia’s awesome natural beauty is talked about worldwide with wonder. Being nearly 8 million km² in size, Australia has a lot of ground to cover.

Australia’s biggest attraction is its natural beauty. The landscape varies from endless sunbaked horizons to dense tropical rainforest to chilly southern beaches. Scattered along the coasts, its cities blend a European enthusiasm for art and food with a laid-back love of sport and the outdoors.

Visitors expecting to see an opera in Sydney one night and meet Crocodile Dundee the next will have to re-think their grasp of geography in this huge country. It is this sheer vastness that gives Australia - and its diverse population - much of its character.

In cities, visitors will experience a blur of fashion-festooned boutiques and plate-clattering restaurants, then lose themselves in a long fluid moment inside a beer or wine glass. In the interior, they might be harangued by the thump of rocks under their 4WD, only to be transfixed by a slow, silent swirl of outback dust. Around the coast, they’ll take an endless breath in the depths of a rainforest, then slowly realise they have an entire beach to themselves.

Australia, nicknamed the “Land Down Under,â€? is a country, an island and a continent. It is the world’s smallest continent and the sixth-largest country. It is located in the Southern Hemisphere, between the Indian Ocean and the Southern Pacific Ocean. This continent-country-island has an area of 2,966,368 square miles (7,682,300 square kilometers).

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. 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 Western Europe.