Australian Geography

- The lowest annual rainfall occurs at Lake Eyre in South Australia, with an annual mean precipitation of about 100mm.
- The highest annual rainfall occurs at Tully in Queensland, with an annual mean precipitation of 4400mm.
- The lowest overnight ground temperatures recorded in Australia were at Canberra with -15.1 degrees, and Stanthorpe in Queensland with -11.0 degrees.
- The foggiest capital city in Australia is Canberra with an annual average of 47 fog days, Brisbane with 20 days, and Darwin with 2 days.
- Melville Island (5698km square), near Darwin, is the largest Island in Australian Waters (apart from Tasmania).
- The highest point in Australia is the top of Mt Kosciusko in New South Wales (2230 metres).
- The lowest point in Australia is 15 metres below sea level at Lake Eyre in South Australia.
- The largest lakes in Australia include Lake Eyre (9500km2), Lake Torrens (5900km2) and Lake Gairdner (4300km2) which are all in South Australia.
- The largest artificial lake in Australia is Lake Argyle (700km2) which is in Western Australia.
- The Deepest lake in Australia is Lake St Clair.
- The Murray River is the longest river in Australia at 2520km, combining with the Darling and Upper Darling Rivers to form the Murray-Darling basin. The Murray Darling extends over 15% of the continent, and serving 4 States and the ACT with water. The Murray also supports about 1/3 of Australia’s agricultural production, supports 50% of Australia’s sheep and croplands, and 25% of beef and dairy herds, contains about 62% of the country’s irrigated land and supplies 50% of South Australia’s water.
- The continental shelf below Australia varies in width between 30km and 240km.