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Australia
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Australia was the last great landmass to be discovered by the Europeans. Long before the British claim it as their own, European explorers and trades had been dreaming of the riches to be found in the unknown some said mythical southern land (terra australis) that was supposed to form a counterbalance to the landmass north of the equator. The continent they eventually found had already been inhabited for tens of thousands of years.
Official name Commonwealth of Australia (the states federated in 1901 to form
the Commonwealth of Australia)
Status Independent federative state, within the Commonwealth headed
by the British Queen
Monarch Queen Elizabeth II
Government Parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy
Governor-General Michael Jeffery
Prime Minister Julia Gillard (since June 24, 2010)
Area 2, 941, 299 sq.mi. (7, 617, 930 sq.km.)
Population 19, 855, 288 (2006). Most Australians live in cities along the
eastern and south-eastern coastal plains
Nationality Australian
Australian natives Aborigines/Koori
Capital Canberra (in the Australian Capital Territory ACT)
Largest cities Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide
Anthem Advance Australia Fair (a frequently heard but unofficial anthem
is the popular folk song Waltzing Matilda)
Language English, Aboriginal languages (almost 15% of Australians
speak a language other than English at home)
Religions Anglicans 36%, Protestants 25%, Roman Catholics 25%
Currency Australian dollar (AUD)
The flag The Australian national flag has a royal blue background with
five white stars (the Southern Cross) on the right, a large white
seven-pointed star (the Federation Star) on the bottom left and
the British flag (the Union Jack) on the top left. The Union Jack
represents Australias historical link with Britain, the Federation
Star represents Australias six states and its territories, and the
Southern Cross is a prominent feature of the southern hemis-
phere night sky.
Coat of arms The official emblem of the Australian Government consists of
a shield containing the badges of the six states. The supporters
are native Australian fauna a kangaroo and an emu. A yellow-
flowered native plant, wattle, also appears in the design. The
Crest of the Arms is a seven-pointed gold star symbolic of natio-
nal unity on a gold and blue wreath.
National day Australia Day January 26 (in 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip,
of the British Royal Navy, commanded a fleet of 11 ships and
sailed into Port Jackson (Sydney Cove).
National Colours In 1984 Australia officially adopted green and gold as its national
colours colours its prominent athletes had worn unofficially for
many years.
Location: Australia is unique an island continent of 7.7 million square kilometers, and a single nation. It is some 4, 000 kilometres wide and 3, 000 kilometres from north to south.
Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere south of Asia comprising the mainland of the worlds smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and a number of other islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the sixth largest country in the world and the lowest of all the continents: only 2% of its land area is over 1, 000 metres; Lake Eyre, in central Australia, has the lowest point of 16 metres below sea level. Australias landmass is on the Indo-Australian Plate.
It is bounded on the north by the Torres Strait and the Timor Sea, on the east by the Coral and Tasman seas, and on the south and west by the Indian Ocean. Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas.
The neighbouring countries are Indonesia, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia to the north-east and New Zealand to the south-east.
The coastline is approx. 34, 218 km. and is washed by three oceans and four seas.
The Great Barrier Reef, the worlds largest coral reef lies a short distance off north-east and extends for over 2, 000 kilometres. It is not only the most extensive reef system in the world, but the biggest structure made by living organisms. Drilling on the reef has indicated that the coral may be more than 500 metres thick. Most of the reef is about two million years old, but there are sections dating back 18 million years.
Australia has six states, two major mainland territories, and other minor territories.
The states and their capital cities are: New South Wales (Sydney), Queensland (Brisbane), South Australia (Adelaide), Tasmania (Hobart), Victoria (Melbourne), and Western Australia (Perth). The two major mainland territories are the Northern Territory (Darwin) and the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra).
Features:
A land of mainly subdued relief, Australia has vast areas of gently sloping plateaus and plains dissected only at their edges.
Australias main regions are: (1) the ancient western plateau, which covers more than half the continent; (2) the central plains; (3) the Great Dividing Range in the east, which rises to 7, 310 ft (2, 228 metres) Mount Kosciuszko (the highest mountain on the Australian mainland, in south-eastern New South Wales); (4) the Eastern coastal plain, where most of the large towns are; (5) the tropical northeast coast, which is protected by the Great Barrier Reef.
Australian landscapes have a deep richness of colour: bronze, yellow and olive green are the dominant tones. By far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid. Australia is the flattest continent, with the oldest and least fertile soils, and is the driest inhabited continent.
The weather: Only the south-east and south-west corners of the continent have a temperate climate. The landscapes of the northern part of the country, with a tropical climate, consist of rainforest, woodland, grassland, mangrove swamps, and desert. The climate is significantly influenced by ocean currents, including the EL Nino southern oscillation, which is correlated with periodic drought, and the seasonal tropical low pressure system that produces cyclones in northern Australia. The continent extends over more than 30 parallels of latitude, from northern tropics to southern cool temperatures and alpine regions. About 40% of the continent is in the tropics. The climate is tropical in the north, with heavy rain in summer (December to February); the southeast coast and the southwest area of Queensland have a Mediterranean climate, with moderate rain. The rest of the continent is dry. Much of the west is semi-desert or desert.
The wildlife: Australia as a land mass has been isolated from the rest of the world for 50 million years and has animals and plants found nowhere else. Because of the continents great age (and consequent low levels of fertility), its extremely variable weather patterns, and its long-term geographic isolation, much of Australias biota is unique and diverse. About 85% of flowering plants, 84% of mammals, more than 45% of birds, and 89% of in-shore, temperate-zone fish are endemic.
In the arid interior are sparse desert grasses and scrub, including the saltbush. With increasing rainfall the plant cover ranges from scrub forests, savannah, and woodlands to the cooler rain forests of the east coast and Tasmania with beech, conifers, and tree ferns. Acacias and eucalypts, known respectively as wattles and gums, are the predominant scrub and forest types; both are represented by hundreds of species, nearly all of which are peculiar to Australia. Most Australian woody plant species are evergreen and many are adapted to fire and drought (including many eucalypts and acacias). Australia has a rich variety of endemic legume species that thrive in nutrient-poor soils because of their symbiosis with Rhizobia bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi.
Australia has 70% of the worlds marsupials; all of the worlds monotremes; a small percentage of the worlds placentals; an enormous diversity of parrots and other birds; a fascinating range of reptiles, amphibians and fish; many unusual invertebrates.
The native animals of Australia include some of the strangest mammals on earth marsupials, or pouched mammals, such as the kangaroo, wallaby, koala, wombat, possum, carnivorous marsupials numbat, mole, native cat; they are remarkable for their method of reproduction, such as the production of very tiny young which complete their development in a pouch; monotremes the platypus and echidna, which lay soft-shelled eggs, but suckle their young; placentals whale, dolphin, native rats and mice, bats, dingo, seal. The dingo, or wild dog, is the main representative of the more familiar order of mammals and is a serious menace to sheep. There are also reptiles - barking and frilled lizards, the saltwater and freshwater crocodiles. Australia is home to the largest number of venomous snakes in the world. Tasmania has many unique mammals found nowhere else in the world. Some, like the Tasmanian devil, and Tasmanian tiger are well-known. Others, such as the eastern quoll, pademelon and bettong are less well-known, but equally fascinating.
The koala and eucalyptus form an iconic Australian pair.
Australia must also be the bird lovers paradise. Bird life includes a great variety of parrots, cockatoos, the unmistakable kookaburra, or laughing jackass, the emu, the black swan. The lyrebird, with its unusual plumage, and the brush turkey, which incubates its eggs in mounds of decaying vegetation, are other interesting species.
Many of Australias ecoregions, and the species within those regions, are threatened by human activities and introduced plant and animal species.
Of the animals introduced into Australia, the fox and the rabbit became serious pests. Long fences were built in attempts to control the spread of rabbits, but they continued to invade most of the grazing-lands of the continent. Some measure of control has been achieved by closer fencing, poisoning, trapping and the introduction of the virus disease myxomatosis.
The federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is a legal framework for the protection of threatened species. Numerous protected areas have been created under the national Biodiversity Action Plan to protect and preserve unique ecosystems; 64 wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention, and 16 World Heritage Sites have been established. Australia was ranked 13th in the world on the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index.
Location Vocabulary:
P. 1
counterbalance ;
equator [i' kweitə ]
waltz [wo: ls]
kangaroo [, kæ ngə 'ru: ]
shield [∫ i: ld]
wattle ['wotl] .
badge ,
fauna ['fo: nə ]
emu ['i: mju: ]
Australian Capital Territory (. )
Adelaide ['æ dleid]
risbane ['brizbə n]
Canberra ['kæ nbə rə ] K
Melbourne ['melbə n]
Perth[pə: ө ]
Sydney ['sidni]
. 2
crest ; .
wreath [ri: ө ] ,
plateau ['plæ tou]
to slope ,
to dissect
The Arafura sea [ a: ra: 'fu: ra]
The Coral Bea ['korə l]
Hobart ['houba: t]
Mount Kosciusk [, kozi' Λ sku]
New Caledonia [ kæ li'douniə ] Papua New Guinea [ pæ puə nju: gini]
Vanuatu [væ nu'a: tu]
The Tasman sea ['tæ zmə n]
Tasmania [tæ z'meiniə ]
The Timor Sea [ti'mo: ]
Torres Strait
P.3
arid ['æ rid]
fertility ,
fertile ['fə: tail] ,
woodland
grassland
mangrove ['mæ ŋ grouv]
swamp [swomp] ,
acacia [ə 'kei∫ ə ]
oscillation [ osi'lei∫ ə n] , ,
eucalyptus [ju: kə 'liptə s] (pl-ti es)
to c o rrelate
gum tree
drought [draut]
species ['spi: ∫ i: z] ,
alpine ['æ lpain] ,
legume ['legju: m]
variable ['vε ə riə bl] ,
thrive [Ө raiv] ,
biota ['bai'outə ] o,
nutrient ['nju: triə nt]
symbiosis [simbai'ousis] (pl.-ses)
diverse [dai'və: s]
fungus ['f Λ ngə s] (pl- gi) ,
mammal ['mæ mə l]
marsupial [ma: 'sju: pjə l]
'in-'shore
monotreme
endemic [en'demik]
placental [plə 'sentə l]
reptile ['reptail]
interior [in'tiə riə ]
amphibians [æ m'fibiə nz]
sparse [spa: s] ,
invertebrate [in'və: tibrit]
scrub ,
wallaby ['wolə bi]
beech [bi: t∫ ]
conifer ['kounifə ]
fern [fə: n]
wombat ['wombæ t] ( )
possum ['posə m]
carnivorous [ka: 'nivə rə s]
numbat [Λ ]
mole
El Ni-ñ o [el'ni: njou] a change in the weather that happens every three to seven years, caused by a rise in the temperature of a large area of the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of South America. El Ni-ñ o has severe effects on the weather (can cause drought, storms)
P. 4
pouch [paut∫ ] ,
cockatoo [kokə 'tu: ] (pl s)
platypus ['plæ t(i) (ə)pə s]
echidna [e'kidnə ]
kookaburra ['kukə bΛ rə ] = laughing jackass [' d¯ æ kæ s] (), -
soft shelled
to suckle
emi ['i: mju: ]
whale [weil]
lyrebird ['laiə bə: d]
dolphin ['dolfin]
plumage ['plu: mid¯ ]
seal [si: l] ,
i ncubate ()
order . ,
mound [maund] ,
menace ['menə s] ,
pest , , (.)
lizard ['lizə d]
frilled , (.)
venomous ['venə mə s]
koala [kou'a: lə ] ( )
iconic [ai'konik]
myxomatosis [miksə mə 'tousis]
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