AUSTRAALIA

Aime Männaste Valga Gümnaasium Juhendaja: Igor Jallai 4.kooliaste ( 10.- 12. klass)

Keyfacts

   The Commonwealth of Australia is made up of six states— New South Wales , Queensland , South Australia , Tasmania, Victoria , and Western Australia —and two territories—the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory . Australia's external dependencies are the Australian Antarctic Territory , Christmas Island , the Cocos Islands , the Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island Coral Sea Islands Territory. , the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, and the Canberra is the capital of Australia.

The number of population- around 20 million people.

The national currency is the Australian dollar $ 1= 100 cents.

Where in the world

 Australia, island continent located between the Indian and South Pacific oceans south-east of Asia and forming, with the nearby island of Tasmania , the Commonwealth of Australia, a self-governing member of the Commonwealth of Nations . The continent is bounded on the north by the Timor Sea , the Arafura Sea , and the Torres Strait ; on the east by the Coral Sea Tasman Sea ; on the south by the Bass Strait and the and the Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Indian Ocean. The area of Australia, including Tasmania, is 7,682,300 sq km (2,966,200 sq mi). The area of the continent alone is 7,614,500 sq km (2,939,974 sq mi), making Australia the smallest continent and one of the largest countries in the world.

Symbols

 The coat of arms of Australia contains a shield in the centre with six badges, each representing one of the six states. The shield is supported by a kangaroo and emu, well known Australian animals.

Flag

 Australian early links with the UK are shown by the national flag, which has the Union Flag in one corner. The Southern Cross stars and the southern pole star are also shown as both can only be seen in the skies of the Southern Hemisphere.

Wildlife

ANIMALS

 The kangaroo is unique to Australia- there is nothing like it anywhere else. There are , in fact, some 90 kinds of kangaroos and wallabies * the name for some small species of kangaroo*  In addition to kangaroos there are: sand goannas ( a species of lizards), crocodiles, koalas,dingoes or wild dogs and a great number of different marsupials.

Birds

BIRDS

 Australia has more than 800 species of birds, including the emu, kookaburra and budgerigar.The emu is the second largest bird in the world.

 Kookaburra- with the nickname laughing jackass is a member of the kingfisher group of birds and lives mainly in forests.Its song is very special.

Cities

  Canberra, capital city of the Commonwealth of of the Territory Australia is situated on the Molonglo Australian Capital and is made up of seven statistical subdivisions. , seat of the Federal Government and the nation's largest inland centre River. Canberra is the only city (ACT), which is about 2,400 sq km (926 sq mi) in area Surveyor-General Charles Scrivener chose the location for the national capital in 1908 after about forty proposed sites had been reduced to a shortlist of seven.

Sydney

 The oldest and largest Australian city, Sydney was established as a British penal settlement. The city is situated on the southern shore of its harbour, Port Jackson, and has a foreshore of 240 km (149 mi), consisting of inlets, tributary rivers, bays, coves, and promontories. Climatically, Sydney has warm summers and mild, though sometimes rather wet, winters, with mean temperatures ranging from 12.6

° C (55 ° F) to 21 ° C (70 ° F) and an average annual rainfall, fairly evenly distributed through the year, of 1,194 mm (47 in).

Other cities of importance are Melbourne and Adelaide in the south- east, Perth in the south west, Darwin in the north and Alice Springs in the centre of Australia.

80 % of Australian people live in cities and towns.

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People

The population of Australia has increased up to 20 million people.  The first Europeans started to arrive at the end of 18- th century. expansion of Australia the aborigenes).

The gold rush, which started in 1851 led to a rapid ´s tiny population. In the 10 years following 1851 the population grew from 405,000 to 1,200,000( excluding   Aborigines, indigenous peoples of Australia , make up just over 1.5 per cent of the country's population.

Australian Aborigines, in common with most indigenous peoples , have strong links to the land and the past. There are 17 or 18 cultural regions in Aboriginal Australia. However, they can conveniently be divided into 7 main areas—northern, southern, eastern, western, central, Tasmania and Torres Strait.

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