Climate of Australia
The climate of Australia varies widely, but by far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid – 40% of the landmass is covered by sand dunes. Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate, varied between tropical [...]
Geology of Australia
Australia is a continent situated on the Indo-Australian Plate. The geology of Australia includes virtually all known rock types and from all geological time periods spanning over 3.8 billion years of the Earth’s history. Australia’s geology can be divided into several main sections; the Archaean cratonic shields, Proterozoic fold belts and sedimentary basins, Phanerozoic sedimentary [...]
Environment of Australia
Although most of Australia is semi-arid or desert, it includes a diverse range of habitats from alpine heaths to tropical rainforests, and is recognized as a megadiverse country. Because of the continent’s great age, its extremely variable weather patterns, and its long-term geographic isolation, much of Australia’s biota is unique and diverse. About 85% of [...]
Economy of Australia
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru, and Tuvalu. After the 2006 merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange is now the 9th [...]
Economic history of Australia
The description ‘bridgehead economy’ was used by one of Australia’s foremost economic historians, N. G. Butlin to refer to the earliest decades of British occupation when the colony was essentially a penal institution. The main settlements were at Port Jackson (modern Sydney, 1788) in New South Wales and Hobart (1804) in what was then Van [...]
Etymology
The name Australia is derived from the Latin australis, meaning "southern". Legends of an "unknown land of the south" (terra australis incognita) date back to Roman times and were commonplace in medieval geography but were not based on any documented knowledge of the continent. The first recorded use of the word Australia in English was [...]
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