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Explore It. Australia
Н. А. Овсянникова
Д. С. Ведунова
© Н. А. Овсянникова, 2020
© Д. С. Ведунова, 2020
ISBN 978-5-0051-4256-6
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Geographical position and peculiarities of the country
Australia ([ə'streɪljə], from Latin austrālis – “southern”), the official form is the Australian Union, or Commonwealth of Australia is a state in the Southern Hemisphere, occupying the continent of the same name, the island of Tasmania and several other islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the sixth-largest country in the world. East Timor, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea are located to the north of the Commonwealth of Australia, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and the Solomon Islands to the northeast, and New Zealand to the southeast.
The mainland of the Commonwealth of Australia is separated from the main island of Papua New Guinea by the Torres Strait with a minimum width of about 150 km, and the distance from the Australian island of Boigu to Papua New Guinea is about 5 kilometers. The population as of 31.12.2018 was estimated at 25,180,200. The majority of population lives in cities on the east coast.
Australia is one of the developed countries, being the thirteenth largest economy in the world, and has the sixth largest GDP per capita in the world. Australia’s military spending is the twelfth largest in the world. With the second highest human development index, Australia ranks high in many areas, such as quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights. Australia is a member of the G20, WTO, APEC, UN as well as of the Commonwealth of Nations and the Pacific Islands Forum.
Geographical position
The Commonwealth of Australia is a state in the Southern Hemisphere with an area of 7,692,024 km². Australia is the sixth largest state in the world after Russia, Canada, China, the USA and Brazil, occupying about 5% of the Earth’s land surface. It includes: mainland Australia (including the island of Tasmania) with an area of 7 659 861 km² and other offshore islands with an area of 32 163 km². Australia controls several outer territories: the Cocos (Keeling) Islands with an area of 14 km², Christmas Island with an area of 135 km², Ashmore and Cartier Islands with an area of 199 km², the Coral Sea Islands with an area of 7 km² (water area about 780 thousand km²), Heard Island and the McDonald Islands with an area of 372 km² (part of the Australian Antarctic Territory), Norfolk Island with an area of 35 km² and the Australian Antarctic Territory with an area of 5 896 000 km² (Australia’s sovereignty over this territory is not recognized by most countries in the world). The total area of all external territories is 5 896 762 km² (without the Antarctic territory – 762 km²).
The northern and eastern coasts of Australia are washed by the seas of the Pacific Ocean: Arafur, Coral, Tasman, Indian Ocean – Timor; western and southern – Indian Ocean. The large islands of New Guinea and Tasmania are located near Australia. The Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef, stretches for more than 2000 kilometers along the north-eastern coast of Australia.
Australia stretches from west to east for about4,000 kilometers, and from north to south for almost 3,860 kilometers. The extreme points of the mainland are: in the north – Cape York (10° S), in the south – Cape South East Cape (43° S), in the west – Cape Steep Point (114° E), in the east – Cape Byron (154° E).
The length of Australia’s coastline is 59,736 km (of which the mainland is 35,877 km, the island is 23,859 km), and the area of the exclusive economic zone is 8,148,250 km².
Climate
Australia’s climate is heavily influenced by ocean currents, including the Indian Ocean dipole and El Niño, which create periodic droughts and seasonal tropical low pressures that lead to cyclones in northern Australia. These factors cause a marked change in rainfall from year to year. Most of the country’s north has a tropical climate with predominantly summer rainfall. Nearly three quarters of Australia are deserts and semi-deserts.