Australia: An introduction

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 Western Europe.

Natural environment

Australia has a remarkable diversity of life forms seen nowhere else in the world. Australian plants and animals evolved in isolation from other parts of the world. When the super-continent of Gondwanaland split up about 160 million years ago, Australia joined Antarctica and drifted towards the South Pole, where glaciers formed a barrier between it and other land masses.
Over the past 45 million years, Australia has moved away from Antarctica towards the equator and become warmer and more arid. About 35 million years ago, eucalypts began to displace the dense forests of the cool, damp Tertiary era.

Today Australian eucalypts account for more than half of all eucalypts found throughout the world.
The marsupials native to Australia have a different chromosome structure than mammals in other parts of the world. Typically, they suckle their young in a pouch.
Like the eucalypts, marsupials occupied a wide range of ecological niches in Australia. The first kangaroo marsupials seem to have appeared about 15 million years ago. They vary enormously in size and adaptation. A species of tropical kangaroo lives in trees, but most kangaroos are tough, efficient users of dry bush.

As the world climate warmed and glaciers melted, oceans gradually rose to their current level and the land bridges to New Guinea and Tasmania were cut. Corals colonised a flooded coastal plain, forming the Great Barrier Reef of Queensland.
Ancient plants still grow in the wild. Large 'Antarctic' tree ferns are common in damp, shaded gullies on the south sides of ridges. Cycad palms form an understorey to tall, silvery spotted gums (eucalypts) along the south-east coast. Rare relics from earlier geological eras are found in small, special habitats, such as desert canyons.

Pressure on native habitats from agriculture and introduced pests like the fox and rabbit have resulted in extinctions of some native species in the past 200 years. Australia now has a strong scientific and legal framework to deal with these issues. Australians care about their unique environment.

History

More than 60 000 years before the arrival of European settlers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples inhabited most areas of the Australian European settlement in 1788. However, there were an estimated 300 000 Indigenous Australians living on the continent.
Until recently, Western historians focused on early European contact with the Australian continent during the 16th and 17th centuries.

In recent years this approach has been balanced by the recognition that Asian and Oceanic explorers and traders had contact with Indigenous Australian people long before the European expansion into the eastern hemisphere.

After the American War of Independence, Britain looked to establish new penal settlements to replace the north Atlantic colonies. The First Fleet of 11 ships with 1500 aboard, half of them convicts, arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788. Sydney grew from that first British penal settlement.

Transportation of British convicts to New South Wales ceased in 1840, but continued to Western Australia until 1868. About 160 000 convicts arrived over 80 years. That compares with free settler arrivals as high as 50 000 a year.

During the 1850s, settlement was boosted by gold rushes. Scarcity of labour, the vastness of the bush, and new wealth based on farming, mining and trade all contributed to the development of uniquely Australian social institutions and sensibilities.

In 1901 the Australian colonies federated to become the Commonwealth of Australia. As in Canada, the British monarch remains the monarch of Australia, which is now an independent, democratic nation with a tradition of religious tolerance and free speech.

Immigration

Australia's culturally diverse society includes its Indigenous peoples and settlers from countries all around the world.

Immigration is an important feature of Australian society. Since 1945, over six million people from 200 countries have come to Australia as new settlers. Migrants have made a major contribution to shaping modern Australia. People born overseas make up almost one quarter of the total population.
The federal government sets immigration intake numbers on a yearly basis. Australia's immigration policies are non-discriminatory and all applicants to migrate must meet the same selection criteria.


Area and population of Australian States and Territories
 

State/Territory	Area in square kilometres (mainland only)	Population *
		State/Terr.	Capital
Queensland	1 723 936	3.64m	Brisbane (1.65m)
New South Wales	800 628	6.61m	Sydney (4.15m)
Australian Capital Territory (Jervis Bay Territory)	2 358(72)	0.32m	Canberra (0.32m)
Victoria	227 010	4.82m	Melbourne (3.49m)
Tasmania	64 519	0.47m	Hobart (0.20m)
South Australia	978 810	1.51m	Adelaide (1.11m)
Western Australia	2 526 786	1.90m	Perth(1.38m)
Northern Territory	1 335 742	0.20m	Darwin (0.11m)
AUSTRALIA	7 659 861	19.47m	12.41m

Sources: area-Auslig; population-Australian Bureau of Statistics
* Estimated resident population as at 30 June 2001.


Economy

Australia has had one of the most outstanding economies of the world in recent years. As a high-growth, low-inflation, low interest rate economy, it is more vibrant than ever before. There is an efficient government sector, a flexible labour market and a very competitive business sector.

With its abundant physical resources, Australia has enjoyed a high standard of living since the nineteenth century. It has made a comparatively large investment in social infrastructure, including education, training, health and transport.

The Australian workforce has seen many improvements over the last decade, leading to the surge in productivity in the 1990s. The complex and centralised award based industrial relations system has given way to a more decentralised one with many employees working under workplace agreements tailored to meet enterprise needs.