About Australia

Australia is the sixth largest country in the world. It's about the same size as the 48 mainland states of the USA and 50 per cent larger than Europe, but has the lowest population density in the world - only two people per square kilometre. Australia became a federated nation after the union of the six colonies on 1 January 1901. Bound by one parliament, one constitution and one flag, Australia celebrated its Centenary of Federation in 2001. Australia has a prosperous Western-style capitalist economy, with a per capita GDP at the level of the four dominant West European economies. Talk of this mystical land and the riches it held, inspired explorers to sail into the unknown. It wasn't until Captain James Cook arrived in Botany Bay in 1770 that the great southern land was officially discovered by Europeans.

Rich in natural resources, Australia is a major exporter of agricultural products, minerals, metals, and fossil fuels. Commodities account for 57% of the value of total exports, so that a downturn in world commodity prices can have a big impact on the economy. While Australia has suffered from the low growth and high unemployment characterizing the OECD countries in the early 1990s and during the recent financial problems in East Asia, the economy has expanded at a solid 4% annual growth pace in the last five years.

Australia's biggest attraction is its natural beauty. The landscape varies from endless sun-baked horizons to dense tropical rainforest to chilly southern beaches. Scattered along the coasts, its cities blend a European enthusiasm for art and food with a laid-back love of sport and the outdoors. Visitors expecting to see an opera in Sydney one night and meet Crocodile Dundee the next will have to re-think their grasp of geography in this huge country. It is this sheer vastness that gives Australia - and its diverse population - much of its character.

Australia is famous for the remote outback of its interior but with unspoilt beaches, tropical rainforest, rugged mountain ranges and vast deserts, Australia is in fact a country of contrasts. It features a wide range of climatic zones from the tropical regions of the north, through the arid interior, to more temperate regions in the south.

With the reverse seasons of the northern hemisphere, Australia enjoys a largely temperate climate with more than 3,000 hours of sunshine a year, or an amazing 70 per cent of the total possible hours. As the Australian landmass separated from the other continents over 50 million years ago, indigenous animals have developed a range of individual and unusual characteristics in a unique habitat. The result is a wealth of wildlife not found anywhere else in the world.

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