Australia

Facts

In land area, Australia is the sixth largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, USA and Brazil.

It has, however, a relatively small population.

only nation to govern an entire continent and its outlying islands.

• The mainland is the largest island and the world’s smallest, flattest continent.
• Australia is called the land down under because it is below the equator.
• Australia is made up of 6 states and 2 territories.
• 18.3 million people live there.
• Canberra is the capital of Australia.
• The weather in Australia is warm and pleasant.
• Apart from Antarctica, Australia is the driest continent.
• Coastline stretches almost 50,000 kilometres & is linked by over 10,000 beaches
• More than 85% of Australians live within 50 kilometres of the coast
• The middle part of the country is called the outback.
• There are about 10 times more sheep than people in Australia. Sheep are raised for wool and for meat.
• A ranch is known as a station. Stations are very big.
• The first people to live in Australia were aborigines. Aboriginal means first.
• Most famous animals are marsupials, a mammal that has a pouch to carry its young.
  

Australian Flag
In 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was formed.

Until this time, Australia used Britain's flag.

A competition was held to find the design for Australia's own flag.

Five designers shared the prize because they came up with similar ideas for the Australian flag.

The Aboriginal Flag
The Aboriginal Flag was designed by Harold Thomas, an artist and an Aboriginal, in 1971.
The black represents the Aboriginal people, the red the earth and their spiritual relationship to the land, and the yellow the sun, the giver of life.

Australia's National Anthem:
Advance Australia Fair

Fun Facts

The Sydney Opera House roof weighs more than 161,000 tons.

There are 1500 species of Australian spiders.

Australia has the world's largest population of wild camels with one hump.

• Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.
• The Great Barrier Reef has a mailbox. You can ferry out there and send a postcard, stamped with the only Great Barrier Reef stamp.

Opals in our eyes

produces 95% of the world's precious opals and 99% of its black opals.

World’s largest opal, weighing 5.27 kg, was found in 1990

Merinos and cattle calls

Australia's 85.7 million sheep (mostly merinos) produce most of the world's wool.

With 25.4 million head of cattle, Australia is also the world's largest exporter of beef.

Natural legends
Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef is home to

-World’s largest oyster, weighing up to 3 kilograms,
-World’s longest earthworm, stretching up to 4 metres or 13 feet.

-Heaviest crab weighs up to 14 kilograms

Aboriginal people have lived and thrived on this continent for more than 50,000 years.

-invented the aerodynamic boomerang & type of spear thrower called the woomera.

Other Inventions

notepads (1902), penicillin (1940), aspirin (1915), plastic disposable syringe (1949), wine cask (1965), bionic ear (1978), dual-flush toilet flush (1980), long-wearing contact lenses (1999), surf lifesaving reel (1906)

Koala
is a unique Australian marsupial.
are only active for around 2 hours a day
get all their fluids from eating eucalyptus leaves.
sometimes stays in the same tree for days.

Possum

are small marsupials with brown or grey fur.
hide in a nest in a hollow tree during the day & foraging for food at night.
Aboriginal people used possum-skin to make cloaks

Kookoburra
Is the world’s largest kingfisher.
kookaburras have a stout and compact body, short neck, long & pointed bill and short legs.
are best known for their hysterical, human-sounding laughter at dusk and dawn.
They also often sing as a chorus to mark their territory and will eat almost everything.

Lyrebird

is a ground-dwelling Australian bird, known for its ability to mimic any sound it hears– from car engines and fire alarms to crying babies.
The lyrebird is named after the male’s spectacular, 16-feathered tail, which was thought to resemble a lyre in the 1800s.

Tasmanian Devil
appearance of a small, stocky dog.
has a broad head, thick tail and coarse, black fur.
was given name by early European settlers,
world’s largest carnivorous marsupial

who were haunted at night by its screeches & demonic growls.
is actually a shy creature.

Dingo

is Australia’s wild dog, though is not native to the continent.
are carnivores, commonly feeding on kangaroos, wallabies, cattle, wombats and possums.
are highly social creatures and form stable packs with clearly defined territories where possible.
communicate through howling and whimpering and bark less than domestic dogs.

Kangaroo

Kangaroos are the only large animals to travel by hopping & breeding adult males often fight by boxing with their front paws & kicking their back legs.
There are 55 kangaroo species spread across Australia.
Some kangaroos can jump 30 feet.

Emu
is a large, brown, soft-feathered, flightless bird.
Emus grow up to two metres tall and have three toes and long legs that allow them to run very fast, up to 50km per hour.
The female emu is larger than the male and lays up to 20 large, dark green eggs. Emu feeds on grass, leaves and small insects.

Platypus
are small, dark-brown, furry, egg-laying mammals with webbed paws and a duck-like beak.
live in burrows which they dig into the banks of rivers.
are diving animals, & can stay under water for up to 15 mins.

Wallaby

name comes from Sydney’s Eora Aboriginal tribe.
are smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo.
Very small forest-dwelling wallabies are known as pademelons.