| |
|
About
Australia
Australia
unlike
anywhere else
on
earth
|
|
 |
Australia is an
enormous country offering a wealth of travel experiences:
the drama of the outback, the spectacle of the Great Barrier
Reef, the rainforests of Cape York and the hyper-modern cosmopolitanism
of Sydney... and with arguably the best beaches in the world...
No other continent can offer the discoveries open to you:
but it's not a dream, it's Australia.
"Fair dinkum" facts
The continent of Australia is:
- The only nation that is a continent
- The smallest continent
- The flattest continent
- The driest continent (except for Antarctica)
- See
more facts
Which explains why:
- Less than 10% of the land is arable
- The largest lake, Eyre 9,324 km ( 3,600
square miles), is usually bone-dry
- Where a bar will do for a billabong, Australians
are the greatest consumers of alcohol in the English speaking
world
Roughly the size of the contiguous United
States at 2,966,368 square miles, Australia is also among the
world's least densely populated countries, averaging only five
people per square mile. Thus:
- There are ten times as many jumbucks as
people
- In the arid outback, where it takes 16
ha (40 acres) to graze a single sheep, are the world's
largest stations, including Anna Creek cattle station in
South
Australia, at 31,080 km (12,000 square miles)
- Australia leads the world in export of
beef and veal - 886,400 tons in 2003-04 - as well as mutton
and lamb producing
7.4% of the world's needs at 349,397 tonnes
- Wool production is 30% of the world's entire
output
Australia is flat, the highest peak, Kosciusko,
being only 7,310 feet - but its Great Barrier Reef is the world's
longest at (1,250 miles), more than half as long as its longest
river system, the Murray-Darling (2,300 miles). Elsewhere are
rocks, not just any rocks, but:
- The oldest known fragments of the earth's
crust, from the Jack Hills at 4.5 billion years
- 28% of the free world's uranium, along with
coal reserves that match Saudi Arabia's oil in potential
energy
- Formations that supply nearly 90% of Australia's
oil needs
- Almost all the world's opals
Small wonder that 80% of Australia's 20
million people (including 366,429 Aborigines), live in cities,
mainly along the fertile coast between Brisbane and Adelaide.
Sydney is the continent's "downtown" with 4,390,000
inhabitants, followed by competitor, Melbourne with 3,730,000
and Brisbane with 1,840,000. Perth weighs in at 1,076,000,
Adelaide at 1,079,200 and Canberra, the planned capital city,
at 324,000. In statistical terms, Australians have it better
than most:
- Per capita income, at $22,291, is one of
the world's highest
- Life expectancy, 80 years, is one of the
world's longest
- Literacy is virtually 100%
- Workers earn from four to six weeks of holiday
time annually
- Some 70% own their homes
- Voting is compulsory
- Which may or may not explain why Australians
spend twice as much on gambling as on national defence
How to speak strine
Billabong - water hole
Billy - container for boiling tea
Bloke - man
Bonzer - great, terrific
Bush - country, away from the city
Chook - chicken
Dingo - Australian wild dog
Dinkum, fair dinkum - honest, genuine
Dinki-di - the real thing
Fossick - to prospect for gold or gems
Grazier - rancher
Jumbuck - sheep
Make a good fist - do a good job
Ocker - basic down-to-earth Aussie
Outback - remote bush
Pom - English person
Shout - buy a round of drinks
Station - sheep or cattle ranch
Strine - what Aussies speak
Swag - bedroll and belongings
Tucker - food
Ute - Utility or pickup truck
Waltz matilda - carry a swag
Australia's size compared
Australia comprises just five percent of the
world's land area, yet it is the planet's sixth largest country
after Russia, Canada, China, USA, and Brazil. Australia is
also the smallest continental land mass (or largest island).
Europe's population is 30 times larger than
Australia's. Japan's population density is 336 persons per
km² and the United Kingdom's is 244 persons per km²,
compared to Australia's 2.5 persons per km².
Australia/British Isles
 |
Australia/Japan
 |
Australia/United States
 |
Australia/Europe
 |
| Country |
Population |
Land area (km²) |
Arable land area (%) |
Arable land area (km²) |
| Australia |
19,913,144 |
7,617,930 |
6.55% |
498,974 |
| United Kingdom |
60,270,708 |
241,590 |
23.46% |
56,677 |
| Japan |
127,333,002 |
374,744 |
12.19% |
45,681 |
| USA |
293,027,571 |
9,161,923 |
19.13% |
1,752,676 |
| European Union (includes 25 countries) |
456,285,839 |
3,788,027 |
26.13% |
989,999 |
|
Oceanic
bareboat liability insurance
)
