Australia Topic (1)

AUSTRALIA
Tallinn 2008
Only one country in the world fills a whole continent . That country is Australia . The continent it fills is Australia, too. Australia, then, is both a country and a continent. Australia is one only continent except Antartctica that is all south of the equator. Since it is south of the equator, its seasons are just the opposite of ours. It has summer while we have winter , and the other way round . Sometimes Australia is called the island continent. There is a good reason why. It is an island . It is 1800 miles from the mainland of Asia and almost half way round the world from Europe . More than 6000 miles of ocean separate it from the America.
Australia is the world’s smallest, flattest and driest continent. It is also the oldest – some of the rocks are more than 3,000 million years old. It is the 6th largest country. Its territory is 7 700 000 km2.
Australia is an island continent, washed by the South Pacific Ocean, The Australia Sea, the Timor Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the Tasman Sea. As a result , its seasons are the opposite of ours.
Australia consists of six states , two major mainland territories, and other minor territories. The states are New South Wales , Queensland , South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. The two major mainland territories are the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.
English is the offical language , and is spoken and written in a distinct variety known as Australian English. It is the only language in the home for around 80% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Chinese , Italian and Greek . An Aboriginal language remains the main language for about 50,000 people.
Population
Its population is around 20 351 000 people and is a rich blend of various ethnic groups, with substantial populations from Italy, Greece , former Yugoslavia, the Far East and Africa . There are 120 000 Aborigines. The density is 2.8 persons per km2.
Climate
Because of the country’s great size , the climate in australia ranges from tropical regions of the Northern Territory to the cool temperate conditions in the southeast and Tasmania, where it often snows in winter.
  In the north , half the year is wet and half is dry. And its a popular place for winter holidays in the sun. Western has dry, hot, deser climate. Eastern has temperate, wet, and rainfall occurs all year round.
Mountains , Rivers and Lakes
The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast and extends for over 2,000 kilometres. Mount Augustus, claimed to be the world's largest monolith, is located in Western Australia. At 2,228 metres , Mount Kosciuszko on the Great Dividing Range is the highest mountain on the Australian mainland, although Mawson Peak on the remote Australian territory of Heard Island is taller at 2,745 metres. The highest mountain ranges are The Macdonnal Mountains, The Musqrave Mountains, The Hamersley Mountains and The Darling Mountains.
Australia’s longest river is the Darling, which flows into Southern Ocean and is 2,700 kilometers long. The other long river is The Murray River. Australia’s only large permanent lakes have been artificially created. Most of the natural lakes are dry for months or years at a time.  Lake Eyre is the largest lake in Australia and is the lowest point in Australia. It’s about 15m below sea level. The biggest deserts are The Great Sandy Desert and The Victoria Desert.
History
Two hundred years ago there were no white people in Australia. The only inhabitants were dark-skinned people who were still living in Stone Age. Their only weapons were stone knives, simple spears and boomerangs. They raised no crops and had no herds of tame animals . For food they hunted and fished and gathered wild fruits and nuts. But their tribes had very wellworked-out customs. A few aborigines still live in the emptier part of the continent and follow the thousand -of-years-old customs of their ancestors.
Dutch sailors stopped at several places on the northen and western coasts in the 1600s. They brought back word that the land was ’’ of very little use ’’.
First people in Australia were the ancestors of the current Aborigenes, who arrived from present -day Southeast Asia over 40,000 years ago. Most of these   people were hunter -gatherers, with their own oral culture and spiritual values . They had a great respect of the land and a belief in the Dreamtime.
As the population grew and new areas were explored , five largely self- governing Crown Colonies were established over the course of the 19th century . On the 1 January 1901, the colonies became states linked by one federal government – the Commonwealth of Australia.
Settlers came from Britain and Ireland , and the people of Australia are still mainly of British or Irish origin , with a culture and outlook similar to that of the United Kingdom and the United States. After World War II , Australia encouraged mass immigration from Europe. Since the 1970s immigration from Asia and other parts of the world was also encouraged.
Culture
Australians are making a name for themselves in sports. They are especially well-known for their swimming and tennis . They are good horseman and yachtsmen, too.
Sport in an important part of Australian culture thanks to a climate that favours outdoor activities . At an international level, Australia has practicularly strong teams in cricket, field hockey, netball, rugby league , rugby union, and performs well in cycling and swimming. Australia has participated in every summer Olympic Games of the modern era, and every Commonwealth Games. Australia hosted the 1956 and 2000 Summer Olympics . The Australian Open is one of the four major tennis tournaments played in the world each year.
Economy
Australia is leading producer of coal , copper , gold , silver , iron ore, managanese, nicker, tin.
Mineral resources are: lead , zinc, bauxite, natural gas, petroleum , uranium, diamonds .
Agriculture :
10% of cropland is irrigated
5% of workers are farmers
highly mechanized farms
Leading farm products : wool , wheat , sugar cane, cattle , meat , carves, fairy products, fruit(grapes, pineapples, bananas, apples, pears).
Others are: barley, rice, oats, cotton, chicken and eggs , sheep and lambs.
Manufacturing.
Iron and steel production
Factory machinery
Farm machinery
Construction equipment
Consumer goods
Household articles
Processed food
Politics
The official name of Australia is The Commonwealth of Australia. The federation was formed in 1901.
The political system is a federation of six states (Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria). The capital is Canberra , in New South Wales. Australia is a parliamentary democracy and a monarchy. Queen
Elisabeth the second is formally a head of state, but she is represented by a Governor General. There are two houses of Parliament: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Australia is still closely tied to its mother country. It is an independent nation , but it belongs to thee British Commonwealth of Nations.
Nature
Since Australia separated from the rest of the world nearly 60 million years ago, it has plants and animals that are found nowhere else in the world. The kangaroo is the best known of Australian animals. The biggest of the 50 different kinds is the red kangaroo. They have srong back legs and tails , they can jump more than 4 meters and travel at 70 kilometers an hour . Tke koalas live in eucalyptus trees , sleeping for 18 hours , and eating one kilo of leaves, each day. They drink almost nothing . Like kangaroos, they have a pouch on their front for their babies. Two very strange animals are the echidna and the plantypus. Their babies are born from eggs but drink milk from their mothers. There are more than 800 kinds of birds in Australia. The emu is a flightless bird . It is up to two meters tall and can run very fast.
The birds are emu, black swan and cassowary, that are native to Austalia.
The dingo was introduces by the aborigines.
European settlers introduced cattle, sheep, horses , deer, foxes, rabbits, pigs and cats .