Mostly low plateau with deserts, rangelands and a fertile plain in the southeast; mountain ranges in the east and south-east. The geography of Australia encompasses a wide variety of biogeographic regions being the world's smallest continent, while comprising the territory of the sixth-largest country in the world.
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands.
Australia is one of the world's leading producers of bauxite (aluminium ore), iron ore, lithium, gold, lead, diamond, rare earth elements, uranium, and zinc. Australia also has large mineral sand deposits of ilmenite, zircon and rutile.
Australia is known for many things, including swathes of tropical beaches, marine reserves, Aboriginal culture, cute koalas, rolling wine country, and lush rainforests.
The first one goes like this: The Australian continent consists of three sovereign countries which are Australia (the country) itself, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. It also encompasses portions of the island of New Guinea which are under the jurisdiction of Indonesia, namely Papua and West Papua.
Examples of first world countries include the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Several Western European nations qualify as well, especially Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Scandinavian countries.
With a land size of 7,682,300 sq km, Australia is only slightly smaller than the United States. It is the smallest continent on our planet and the 6th largest country. The United States is 9,833,517 sq km making it the fourth largest country in the world.
Australia ranks amongst the highest in the world for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights.
There are also a number of terms for Australia, such as: Aussie, Oz, Lucky Country, and land of the long weekend.
For starters, mainland Australia is the world's largest island that also tops as a continent. In fact, Australia is considered the 2nd driest continent after Antarctica. The busy Sydney harbour or the skyline of metropolitan Melbourne make it seem unbelievable that nearly 40% of Australia's land is uninhabitable.
Australians wanting to be in the country's top 1% for wealth need to have an individual net worth of US$5.5 million ($8.3 million), Knight Frank's 2023 Wealth Report has found.
Australia's average wealth is just 1.8 times our median wealth; by contrast the UK's is 2.2 times greater, while the US is second worst out of the top 50, at 6.7 times.
Australia is a highly developed country with a mixed economy. As of 2023, Australia was the 13th-largest national economy by nominal GDP (gross domestic product), the 19th-largest by PPP-adjusted GDP, and was the 20th-largest goods exporter and 24th-largest goods importer.
Earth's oldest known piece of continental crust dates to the era of the moon's formation. Australia holds the oldest continental crust on Earth, researchers have confirmed, hills some 4.4 billion years old.
Australia's amazing nature!
Because of its remote location, many animal species that occur here are found nowhere else on Earth, such as the platypus, kangaroo, echidna and koala. Australia has 516 national parks to protect its unique plants and animals. There are several types of rainforests in Australia.
Australia/Oceania is the smallest continent of the seven continents and although some consider Australia as the largest island in the world, Australia is commonly referred to as a country and a continent. (Greenland is the biggest island in the world). Australia is also the driest inhabited continent of the world.
Australian English can be described as a new dialect that developed as a result of contact between people who spoke different, mutually intelligible, varieties of English. The very early form of Australian English would have been first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the early colony in Sydney.
Why Do Aussies Use So Many Abbreviations? Nenagh Kemp, a psychologist at the University of Tasmania, told Australian Geographic her theories behind why Australians use these shortened words so often. Her theory is that Australians use them as a way of coming across as more friendly and less pretentious.
Why is Australia called Oz? The word Australia when referred to informally with its first three letters becomes Aus. When Aus or Aussie, the short form for an Australian, is pronounced for fun with a hissing sound at the end, it sounds as though the word being pronounced has the spelling Oz.
Australia has plentiful supplies of natural resources, including the second largest accessible reserves of iron ore in the world, the fifth largest reserves of coal and significant gas resources. For a long time, commodities have made up a sizeable share of our exports.
Australians are the richest people in the world, with a median wealth three times that of the average American, a new report has shown.
United States. The United States of America is a North American nation that is the world's most dominant economic and military power.
Australia has a much better quality of life. Sydney is considered the most beautiful and one of the most livable cities in the world. 4 of the States capital cities: Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide are all in the top 10 most livable cities in the world. Whilst no cities of America are on that list.
In 1901, Australia became a nation, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. One year later, Australia became one of the first countries in the world to give women the right to vote. In 1945, Australia became a founding member of the United Nations.