Australia
Australia is the only country that is also a continent.
Australia lies between the South Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. The name
Australia comes from the Latin word australis,
meaning southern. The country’s official name is the Commonwealth of Australia.
Australia is a dry, thinly populated land. The South eastern coastal region has
the most people by far. Australia is famous for its vast open spaces, bright
sunshine, enormous numbers of sheep and cattle, and unusual wildlife.
Kangaroos, koalas, wombats and platypuses are some of the
animals that live in Australia. The country was once a British colony, and most
of the Australian people are of British ancestry.
English is the official language of Australia. But they have
a weird accent and some of their words are not found in the English of either
Britain or America. Australian English differs from British English in certain
ways The British who settled in Australia had to develop a vocabulary to
describe the many unfamiliar animals and plants in their new environment.
Australia has a population of about 17, 000, 000. Most
Australians are European immigrants or descendants of European immigrants.
Aborigines make about 1 per cent of the population. Australia has about 206,000 Aborigines.
Each Australian State and the Northern Territory and the
Australian Capital Territory have their own laws concerning education. About
three-fourths of students attend state schools. Australia has 33 universities.
Australia is surrounded by water, like an island. But
geographers class it as a continent rather than as an island because of its
great size. Tasmania was part of the mainland until about 12,000 years ago.
Most of Australia is low and flat. The highest and most mountainous land lies
along the East Coast.
Australia can be divided into three major land regions. They
are, from east to west: the Eastern Highlands, the central lowlands, and
western plateau.
Australian highest mountains rise in the Australian Alps in
the extreme southern part of the Eastern Highlands. The Australian Alps
consists of several ranges. The Snowy Mountains are the best known. Australian
highest peak rises 2, 228 metres above sea level in the Snowy Mountains.
Deserts cover about a third of Australia. The country has
four major deserts. All the deserts except the Gibson consist of swirling
sands, which often drift into giant dunes.
Rivers are on of Australia’s most vital resources. Rivers
provide the towns and cities with drinking water and they supply farmers with
much-needed water for irrigation. The Murray River is Australia’s longest
permanently flowing river.
Australia’s only large permanent lakes have been
artificially created. Most of Australia’s natural lakes are dry for months or
years at a time. Most of the time, a dry lake is simply a dry bed of salt or
clay. It fills with water only after heavy rains.
Australia has fairly plentiful underground water. But most
of it is too salty for people to drink or for use as irrigation.
The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef and
one of Australia’s most popular tourist attractions. The waters around the
Great Barrier Reef are warm all year round.
The northern third of Australia lies in the tropics and so
is warm or hot the year round. The rest of the country lies south of the
tropics and has warm summers and mild or cool winters. Tasmania is the only
area of the country where temperatures remain below freezing for more than a
day or so at a time. Australia receives most of its moisture as rain. Snow
falls only in Tasmania and the Australian Alps. About a third of the country is
desert and receives less than 25 centimetres of rain a year.
Australia lies south of the equator, and so its seasons are
opposite those in the Northern Hemisphere. Winter, the wettest and coolest season
in Australia, lasts from June through August. Summer, which is the hottest and
driest season, lasts from December through February. Tropical northern Australia has only two seasons - a wet season
and a dry one.
Two main kinds of native plants, acacias and eucalyptuses,
dominate Australia’s landscape. Australia has about 500 species of
eucalyptuses. Palms and trees that resemble palms grow in many parts of
Australia. Australia has thousands of wildflowers.
Australia is one of the world’s rich, developed countries.
The processing of farm and mineral products makes up a major part of
Australia’s manufacturing industry.
Only about 5 per cent of the country’s workers are farmers.
Australia’s leading farm products by far are cattle and calves, wheat, and
wool, followed by dairy products, fruit, and sugar cane.
Unlike most other developed countries, Australia imports
more manufactured goods than it exports. Australia’s iron and steel industry
produces enough of the metals to meet the needs of other industries. The
leading manufactured products are processed foods; metals, including cars;
paper, chemicals, textiles and household appliances.
Forests cover about 6 per cent of Australia. The northeast
coast has tropical rain forests.
Although Australia is surrounded by water, its fishing
resources are limited. Thousands of species of fishes live in the coastal
waters, but only a few are both plentiful and good too eat.
Service industries are the economic activities that produce
services, not goods. Service industries provide about two-thirds of Australia’s
jobs and make up nearly two-thirds of Australia’s gross domestic product – the total value of goods and services
produced annually.
Australia has a variety of tourist attractions. They include
wildlife sanctuaries, sandy beaches, the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian
Alps, and numerous points of historical
interest.
Except in the outback, nearly every Australian household has
a telephone. In the remotest parts of the outback, many people use two-way
radios in place of telephones.
Commercial broadcasters own and operate about half the radio
stations and about a third of the TV stations.
Australia has about 60 daily newspapers, all of which are
privately owned.
Cars are the chief means of passenger transportation in
Australia. Nearly every family owns a car and uses it for most local travel.
Australia has two major domestic airlines. Air
transportation is particularly important in the outback. Australia is a
beautiful country and one day I would
like to visit it myself.
Kasutatud
kirjandus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_%28disambiguation%29
http://www.csu.edu.au/australia/
National Geographic 1988/ 02
National Geographic 1987/ 03