Australia topic (0)

Geography
The name Australia means „southland“. It is both a country and a continent , with an area of 7,617,930  square kilometres and it is also an island, separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas. But Australia is also surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef. It lies off the north - eastern coast and extends for over 2000 kilometres. The famous mountain range in the eastern part of Australia is the Great Diving Range and it’s highest peak is Mount Kasciusco’s – 2230m. In the continental part, there are the Macdonnell ranges. Other smaller mountain ranges are the Musgrave Mountains, the Hammessley Mountains and the Darling Mountains. The continental part of Australia is mostly covered with deserts and these deserts are the Great Sandy Desert in the north- western part, the Great Victoria dessert in the southern part and Gibson desert and the Simpson desert. The Murray River is the largest river of the country and it is 2,375 kilometres long, it rises in the Australian Alps and flows to the south - west . The waters of Murray flow through several lakes , such as Lake Alexandrina and The Coorong. Other Lakes are L. Eyre and L.Mackay.
Climate
The seasons in Australia are the opposite of ours. It has summer while we have winter and the other way round . Australia has 4 climate zones: temperate, subtropical, tropical , equatorial. The northern shores are very hot, cause being close to the equator and the northern part gets plenty of rain. The western coast is dry and barren. In most parts of Autralia rainfall is very low.
History
Two hundred years ago, there were no white men in Australia, except the dark -skinned native Australians, called the Aborigines. Their only weapons were stone knives, simple spears and boomerangs. They raised no crops and had no herds. For food, they hunted and fished and gathered wild fruits and nuts. But their had very well-worked-out customs. A few Aborigines still live in the emptier part of the continent and follow the thousands-of-years-old customs of their ancestors.
The discovery of Australia goes back to the 17th century . The first discoverers were Dutchmen, who visited the north, west and north-west coasts of Australia. The discovered continent was called New Holland . Therefore no interest was taken in it for more than 150 years, cause the land was described as sandy and waterless.
In 1770 Captain James Cook , the famous sailor and explorer , reached Australia from the south- east and it differed from the other parts of Australia. He landed in a place , great of beauty , with lots plants and flowers, which James Cook named Botany Bay. From there, J. Cook sailed along the east coast as far as Cape York , where he put up the British flag. The eastern part of Australia became a British Colony.
The colonization of Australia began at the end of the 18th century. The first settlers were convicts from England, who were taken to a prison camp at Botany Bay, where they led a hard life.
At the beginning of the 19th century free settlers began to arrive from Britain in large numbers . The south and east were settled before the north and the west because of tropical conditions and these areas remained unpopulated for a long time. As the colonies along the south and east coast developed , they refused to receive any more convicts. From the middle of the 19th century no convicts were brought from Britain to Australia.
Wildlife
Australia is the only continent on earth where marsupials live; they are also known as pouched mammals and egg- lying mammals. Ordinary mammals live also in Australia and these mammals are mostly imported there. Marsupials are kangaroos, wombats, koalas, Tasmanian wolves and Tasmanian devils. Their cubs are born before they are fully developed. Today marsupials are dying out, cause cats and dogs and rabbits, who were exported to Australia many, many years ago, are destroying the gentler marsupials. There is only one marsupial still alive in the USA today- the opossum . But there are also very strange kind of animals , they have hair, like dogs and cats but they also lay eggs - these are the spiny anteater and the platypus. They are only found in Australia and nowhere else in the world and they are called reptile-mammals.
Economy
The Australian economy is dominated by its services sector, yet it is the agricultural and mining sectors that account for 65% of its exports. Rich in natural resources, Australia is a major exporter of agricultural products , particularly grains and wool , and minerals, including various metals, coal , and natural gas.

Agriculture

Agriculture in Australia is a major industry. Most of the farmland in Australia is pasture for raising cattle and sheep . Farmland covers about 65 per cent of Australia. However , most of this land is dry grazing land. Crops are grown on only about 5 per cent of the farmland. But farmers use modern agricultural methods and so make the cropland highly productive.
Australia's leading farm products are cattle and calves, wheat and wool. Australia is the world's largest producer and exporter of wool and leading producer and exporter of beef, sugar and wheat. Fruits like apples and pears are grown in all the states . South Australia also produces large quantities of grapes that are used for making wine. Sheep and cattle are raised in all the states and wheat is grown in all areas of Australia that have medium rainfall and moderate temperature.
Mining
One of the worlds major mining. Leading producer of coal, copper , gold , iron , silver, tin etc. Firstly there came the gold rush after in 1851 , while news spread quickly. Men rushed towards the gold fields and gold was dug by hand but the consequences were bad, normal work stopped and cattles were left to die. Soon there was found, that Australia has other riches, such as copper, iron, lead etc. The forests have much good timber . Along shores pearl shell and tortoise shell can be gathered.
Manufacturing
Of course , people were needed to buy and sell what was raised. Others were needed to manufacture such things as butter, cheese , flour, steel , farm machinery, mining tools , shoes and clothing .
Political System
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. 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. ). The party which gains the majority of seats in the House of Representatives forms the government . The leader of this party becomes the prime minister.
The federal parliament of Australia is democratically elected by all Australian citizens. Voting is compulsory at elections, and citizens who d not vote are fined . Voting is carried out at polling booths set up around the nation . Often in local schools and community halls – and ballot papers are completed in special little enclosed booths to ensure privacy . When all the ballot papers have been counted, the local candidate who gains most votes wins a seat in the state or federal parliament – depending on whether the election is for a state or for the whole nation. The political party that has the most seats wins government. . The largest political party that does not win becomes the official Opposition. In Australia, governments are usually formed by the Australian Labor Party or by a coalition between the liberal Party and the National Party.
Culture
The modern culture of Australia draws from many sources including native Australians, the United Kingdom and the immigration of a different range of people with the Australian gold rushes. Nowadays Australian culture is strongly influenced by western culture. Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world. Australian Aboriginal culture is complicated and very diverse. It is one of the world’s longest surviving cultures which goes back at least 50, 000 years
Sports
Australians are well-known sportsmen. They have achieved much recognition in diving, golf, skiing , surfing, boating and especially in swimming. They’ve won numerous Olympic medals in that category . Some of Australia’s traditional sporting events receive worldwide attention .