ABOUT AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA - THE ISLAND CONTINENT
Mainland Australia, with an area of 7.69 million square kilometres, is the largest island and the smallest continent on Earth. It stretches some 3700 km from its most northern to its most southern point, and about 4000 km from east to west.
In area, Australia is the sixth largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, the United States of America, and Brazil. Its population, however, is relatively small (now estimated at just over 20 million). Australia's average elevation is 330 m, the lowest of all the continents, and its highest point, Mount Kosciuszko, is only 2228 m. What its landforms lack in height they more than compensate for in variety. The giant monolith Uluru (Ayers Rock) and the striking beehive mountains of Purnululu (the 'Bungle Bungles') in Western Australia attract visitors from many parts of the world.
AUSTRALIA STATES AND TERRITORIES
The responsibilities of governing such a vast land area are shared by Australia's federal government and the governments of the six States and two self-governing Territories.
European settlement began in New South Wales in 1788, at Sydney, the nation's largest city and host of the 2000 Olympic Games. Sydney's Harbour Bridge and Opera House are national icons, and its airport is the country's major international gateway.
Victoria is the smallest of the mainland States but the second most populous and the most densely populated. Its capital, Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, hosted the Olympic Games in 1956. Victorians' enthusiasm for sport is legendary and the nation stops each November for the Melbourne Cup, Australia's premier horse race.
Queensland stretches from the tropical rain forests of Cape York into the temperate zone. Its north-eastern coastline is fringed by the Great Barrier Reef. The capital of Queensland is Brisbane. Three international airports, in Brisbane, Cairns, and Townsville, service visitors from overseas.
South Australia was established by a private Colonisation Commission and received no convicts. The Adelaide Festival, held in the capital every two years, is an international cultural event.
Western Australia is about the size of Western Europe. Almost three-quarters of the State's population of 1.85 million live in its capital, Perth.
Separated from the continent by the waters of Bass Strait, Tasmania and its many companion islands form the smallest Australian State. Hobart, the capital, is the destination for the nation's premier blue water sailing classic, the annual Sydney-Hobart yacht race.
The Northern Territory has more than twice the land area of France but only a population of less than 200 000. Darwin is the capital and Alice Springs the principal inland town. The Territory contains the Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Kakadu national parks.
The Australian Capital Territory was established within New South Wales in 1911 as the site for the national capital, Canberra. It is home to a number of national institutions including the federal Parliament, the National Library, the National Gallery of Australia, the High Court, and the Australian War Memorial.
AUSTRALIA LANDSCAPE AND CLIMATE
The Australian landscape is highly distinctive with vast stony and sandy deserts and tablelands in the west and the centre, and sweeping plateaus and plains flanking narrow coastal slopes to the east. The coastal areas feature broad sandy beaches and lush vegetation backed by a great variety of landforms, ranging from the steep cliffs of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and the tall, graceful, eroded volcanic plugs of the Glasshouse Mountains north of Brisbane, to flat plains on the southern coast west of Adelaide.
The Murray and Darling rivers, the longest river system in Australia, form the Murray-Darling Basin covering more than one million square kilometres or 14 per cent of the mainland area. Lake Eyre, a great salt lake more than 9000 square kilometres in area near the centre of the continental land mass, is dry for lengthy periods.
About one-third of the mainland lies north of the Tropic of Capricorn with the remainder stretching to 39° south.
Much of the country, about 70 per cent, is arid or semi-arid, and a large part of the centre is unsuitable for settlement. Eleven principal deserts make up some 20 per cent of the mainland area. More than one-third of the continent is virtually desert owing to its low rainfall.
The national average annual rainfall of 465 mm varies greatly year by year, and is distributed unevenly around the continent. The driest area is the Lake Eyre drainage basin, which averages less than 125 mm annually. The wettest regions are in the tropical north-east and in the south-west of Tasmania.
However, Australia does have well-watered fertile areas close to the coast, where the bulk of the population is settled. Here Australians experience a range of climates from wet and humid tropical conditions in the far north, through warm and temperate on the central east and west coasts, to cooler conditions in the southern coasts and Tasmania. All parts of Australia enjoy warm summers and relatively mild winters, and it seldom snows in or near the large centres of population.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Australia was at Cloncurry, in the north-eastern inland, which registered 53°C in 1889, while the coldest was -23°C at Charlotte Pass, in the snowfields near Mount Kosciuszko, in 1994.
AUSTALIA EVENTS
AUSTRLIA FESTIVALS
Australians are a nation of festival-goers, always keen to celebrate the nation's comedy and arts, food and wine, music and culture, sport and heritage. Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra each boast major arts festivals which spotlight the best in dance, jazz, theatre, opera and more.
The Sydney Festival in January every year features music, dance, visual arts and cinema from around the world. The Sydney Festival echoes the egalitarian nature of Australian society with its free public concerts and outdoor events.
The nation's major international biennial food and wine festival takes place in October. Australian food and wine ingredients are conjured into taste sensations by the world?s finest chefs, writers, producers and educators.
Held in the centre of Alice Springs, the Henley on Todd, a waterless regatta, is a fun and hilarious event. All sorts of weird and wonderful competitors turn up to race in bottomless boats, bathtubs and yachts in deep sand.
For over 50 years, the Melbourne International Film Festival has been introducing new films from around the world to Australian audiences. More than 300 films from 40 countries are screened yearly between July and August.
The annual February Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney attracts up to 500,000 people to the Oxford Street parade. Glitzy and loud, the parade is a celebration of gay and lesbian rights and lifestyle.
Tasmania, known as the festival island is well known for its festivals and events. Highlights include the Hobart Summer Festival, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and Launceston's Festival of the Senses.
AUSTRALIA SPORT
Australians are sports crazy and the country has produced some world class athletes in almost every sport. Australia has hosted the Olympic games and the Commonwealth games. Some of the more famous annual sports events include the Australian tennis open, which is held in January and is the opening tennis event of the year, and the Ashes cricket series between Australia and England.
Gaelic football, Aussie ingenuity and a round pitch helped create Aussie Rules or AFL, Australia's own fast-scoring brand of football. A hundred thousand fans yell themselves hoarse each September at the Aussie Rules Grand Final.
The Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix is held at the beautiful Phillip Island motor racing circuit, a two hour drive from Melbourne. It includes a round of the FIM World Motorcycle Championships for 500cc, 250cc and 125cc classes.
Melbourne's Spring horse Racing Carnival is held annually in October and November. The gem of this racing and social festival is the Melbourne Cup, Australia's most renowned thoroughbred event, on the first Tuesday each November.
Australia golf events include the Australian open and the Tasmanian open championship.
The Hahn Premium Race Week at Hamilton Island is Australia's largest offshore yachting event. This event consistently attracts record numbers of competing yachts both nationally and internationally in August every year.
'Indy Go' is the catch-cry for the Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast. Nothing will compare to being in Surfers Paradise when the Indy racers roar through the streets in October every year.
Cricket's original leisurely pace, gentlemanly white garb and tea breaks have given way to a faster, more colourful sport. The Australians are obsessed with cricket and their national team is ranked as one of the best teams in the world. Australia has hosted the cricket world cup and there are regular international tours to Australia to challenge the Australian team.
AUSTRALIA ARTS AND CULTURE
The Australian Ballet is the largest ballet company in Australia, employing more than 70 dancers and giving some 200 performances each year. The company has a classical as well as contemporary repertoire.
The Australian Chamber Orchestra is a national orchestra with an outstanding international reputation for artistic excellence. It is a vibrant ensemble of some of the finest young musicians in Australia.
Bangarra Dance Theatre is based at the Wharf, a converted finger wharf at Sydney's Walsh Bay. The company performs extensively around Australia and tours overseas.
In a beautiful Sunshine Coast valley, visitors experience the diversity of Australian life through music, spoken word, films, arts and crafts, dance and theatre at the Woodford folk festival at the end of December every year.
Late January brings hundreds of musicians and thousands of country music fans to Tamworth, New South Wales, for the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival and some 2,500 events.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival draws together the very best performers from Australian and international comedy for a month-long celebration that will have you rolling in the aisles.