Australia/ Austraalia (0)

Australia
Australia is surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas. Australia presents an enormous range of climatic conditions , since it covers thirty degrees of latitude. It is mostly temperate, but one third of the continent is tropical, and there are large desert areas . The two largest cities are Sydney and Melbourne. The capital of Australia is Canberra . It is a small city and was built in the early 1900s.
History. Two hundred years ago there were no white people in Australia. The only inhabitants were dark-skinned people who were still living in a Stone Age. Their only weapons were stone knives and boomerangs. But their tribes had very well-worked-out customs. A few aborigines still live in the emptier part of the continent. In 1770, the British explorer Captain Cook raised the British flag. Cook found there a pleasant climate and beautiful forests . The British initially used Australia as a gigantic prison camp for convicts from Britain . Then other people from Britain began to settle there as well. The Aborigines were cruelly suppressed, and it is only recently that white Australians have begun to acknowledge Aborigines’ rights to their sacred lands.
 
Population and people. In 1901, all the separate parts of Australia united into one country . Many of the people, who came to Australia to find gold , stayed there on to other kinds of work . They found that Australia has other riches such as coal , copper , iron , lead . The forests have much good timber . People were needed to buy and sell what was raised. Cities grew. But even today the big country is far from crowded. Its population is around 20 million people and is a rich blend of various ethnic groups, with substantial populations from Italy , Greece , the Far East and Africa . There are about 40000 aborigines. The people of Australia speak English . Service industries provide about two-thirds of Australia’s jobs . Australians are making a name for themselves in sports. They are especially well known for their swimming and tennis . Australia has become popular with European students for Study Holidays or exchange visits.
 
Political System. The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional democracy based on a federal division of powers. The political system is a federation of six states (Queensland, New South Wales , Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria). The capital city is Canberra in New South Wales. Australia is a parliamentary democracy. Queen Elizabeth II is formally head of state, but she is represented in Australia by a Governor General. There are two houses of Parliament : the Senate and the House of Representatives. Prince Charles has said that Australians should be able to have a Republic if they want one.
 
Animals and plants . Sixty million years ago Australia and its nearby islands were separated from the other world by a great upheaval. They were cut off from Asia by the ocean . Almost no animals visited Australia before English colonists began to settle there. Now a strange thing happened when the ocean blocked off this island continent. The ancestors of cats and tigers , of dogs and wolves, of elephant and sheep just were not there. As a result, the reptile like mammals that have died out everywhere else in the world are very much alive in Australia. Australia is, in fact , a continent-sized museum of ancient animals, modernized along certain lines by their own separate evolution. Two of the strangest animals in the world – the spiny anteater and the platypus, only live in Australia. They are reptile-mammals. Another group of Australian mammals are the marsupials. These are the kangaroo and the wombat , for example. They do not lay eggs , but their young are born before they are fully developed. A little kangaroo crawls into its mother ’s pouch and stays there for almost three months. Dogs, cats, and rabbits brought to Australia by men are rapidly destroying the gentler marsupials. There is only one marsupial still alive in the United States today – it is the opossum . Many of the plants of Australia aren ’t found anywhere else.
 
Agriculture .  Australia’s farms are highly mechanized and therefore require the minimum of human labour . Only about 5 per cent of the country’s workers are farmers. Farmland covers about 65 per cent of Australia. However , most of this land is dry grazing land . Crops are grown on only 5 per cent of the farmland. About 10 per cent of the cropland is irrigated. Australia’s leading farm products are cattle , calves, wheat and wool . Also fruit and sugar cane. Australia is a leading producer and exporter of beef, sugar and wheat. Other major farm products include barley, chicken and eggs, cotton, oats, rice , potatoes, sheep and vegetables. Sheep and cattle are raised in all the Australian states. Victoria is the leading producer of dairy products. Wheat is grown in all areas that have medium rainfall and moderate temperatures . Such fruits as apples and pears are grown in all the states. New South Wales and South Australia produce most of country’s oranges. South Australia also produces grapes for use in making wine.
 
Mining . Australia is rich in mineral resources. But roads and railways have to be constructed to the mining sites, so that the mining industry depends heavily on foreign capital. During the 1950’s, geologists found huge deposits of coal and iron ore in Australia. Manganese, natural gas and petroleum were discovered in the 60’s. Australia has got minerals like: copper, gold, silver , zinc, iron, nickel.
 
Manufacturing . Australia imports more manufactured goods than it exports. The nation has to import many of its producer goods – factory machinery, construction equipment and so on. Australia’s iron and steel industry produces enough of the metals to meet the needs of other industries. The leading manufactured products are food, cars, paper , chemicals, clothing and shoes . Most of the factories are located in and around Sydney ad Melbourne.
 
Forestry and fishing . Forests cover about 6 per cent of Australia. The majority of Australia’s trees are eucalyptuses. The wood of eucalyptus is used for making paper, floorboards and furniture. Although Australia is surrounded by water, its fishing resources are limited. They catch shellfish, lobsters, oysters, prawns and scallops, also salmon and tuna.
 
Tourism . Australia has a variety of tourist attractions. They include wildlife sanctuaries, sandy beaches , the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian Alps and much more. Tourism aids the economy . About half of Australia’s visitors come from nearby, especially New Zealand , Japan and Southeast Asia. These places are also the ones most visited by Australian tourists.
 
Foreign trade. Farm exports remain vital to the nation’s economy. For many years, Great Britain was Australia’s chief trading partner. But today, Japan is Australia’s biggest customer. It especially buys coal, iron ore, and other minerals. China and other Asian countries have become major purchasers of Australian farm products, especially wheat. The United States imports large amounts of Australian beef, shellfish, sugar and alumina .