Australia

Relief, population and regions:

Australia is a large country with the size of a continent, but with a low population comparative with its surface because the most part of the territory has a relief composed by a very dry area with deserts like the Great Sand Desert in north-west, Gipson and Great Desert Victoria in West Australia, Tanami Desert in North Territory and Simpson and Stuart Deserts in center. In all senses, it’s one of the most developed countries in the world and one of the most prosperous where the people have a high standard of living and a life expectancy of more than 70 years.

The largest island that is part of Australia is Tasmania Island in south-east, separated from Australia by the Bass Strait. The mountains are represented in south-east, towards the Pacific Ocean, where is the Australian Cordillera with the maximum height in peak Kosciusko of 2.230 m height. Otherwise, more than 90% of Australia’s surface has a height under 500-600 m. While more than 60% of the territory is a dry desert area, approximately a third is low plains and hills. They are situated especially close to the coasts like Nullarbor Plain in south, Buckland Plateau in east and Barkly and Kimberley Plateaus in north. (Find more journeys on blog.worldlifetimejourneys.com) Australia is split in many regions: West Australia, North Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

Relief, climate, agriculture, tourism, population and resources of West Australia:

West Australia is the largest Australian region, whose 80% surface has a relief covered by deserts and a dry plateau with low elevations. Only the north part (the Kimberley Plateau) and the south one are more fertile and can be cultivated. The only mountains present here are the Hamersley Mountains. The climate of West Australia is droughty, with a relatively low rainfall under 300 mm per year and high temperatures frequently passing 32º C. The winters are droughty and the summers are wet with the north-west part of the region that has a tropical climate with the monsoons presence in the rainy season and a rainfall that can exceed 1.200 mm annually. Speaking about a desert area, the difference between daily and nightly temperature is very big, because during the night the temperature can drop below 0º C.

The inhabitants cultivate wheat, peanuts, barley, sugar cane, citrus (oranges, bananas and others), potatoes, oil plants, sorghum and many other fruits and vegetables on the arable lands, but a good part of these cultures need irrigations. Fishing is another activity for West Australian people and also the wood work and timber producing from the south forests. Besides agriculture, fishing and mining, the tourism contributes more and more for the blowing economy in West Australia whose capital is the city of Perth, the 4th largest in Australia. More than three quarters of this low population are living in the urban area and the most part of them are here since the 19th century when large reserves of gold were discovered.

Relief, climate, flora, agriculture, tourism and the inhabitants of South Australia and the North Territory (Central Australia):

South Australia and the North Territory compose what we call Central Australia, also another territory with relief covered more than 70% with desert. Adelaide, South Australia’s capital and Darwin, the North Territory’s capital are two large blowing port cities. However there are small mountain chains with heights over 1.200 m like the Mc Donell, Musgrave and Flinders Mountains. These two region’s climate is temperate, but dry, with temperatures that increase from south to north, with frequently over 40º C temperatures in the desert. But in north, the climate becomes tropical with a high humidity and the rainfall can pass 1.500 mm per year. Many of the coast areas are covered with moors, mangrove forests and to the interior with tropical forests.

Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park in Central Australia

The north part covered with savannas is more used as pastures for millions of cattle and sheep and South Australia is used in agriculture where locals cultivate rice, vine (Australian wine is renowned in the entire world), wheat, orchards, barley, beans, sunflower, lentil, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, citrus and many other fruits and vegetables. Besides agriculture, these territories get their earnings from fishing, mining and more and more from tourism. (Find more journeys on blog.worldlifetimejourneys.com) The first Australian inhabitants that established here several dozen thousands of years ago are the Aboriginals and most of them are living in isolated villages in Central Australia. This native land for them is saint and is left further from generation to generation to be worked. Many tourists come here to see and to understand the rich culture and the life of these Aboriginals who in the present have more than 200 different dialects.

Population, relief, cities, capital Canberra and the agriculture of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria regions (East Australia):

Not the last, the most populated part of Australia, composed by Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria regions is the East Australia at the Pacific Ocean where more than three quarters of the entire population are living. It’s also the first region colonized by Europeans that arrived here through Dutch and British people (William Dampier and James Cook) at the end of the 17th and 18th centuries. The relief of this eastern part is more generous, because the fertile plain and hill areas are more extended. On the other hand, the Australian Cordillera or the Australian Alps, the highest mountains of this country-continent are extending like an ark at the ocean.

The only desert area is in west: the Stuart Desert. The agriculture is the main activity of these people who grow more than 100 million of sheep (Australia is a world’s leader in wool production) and more than 25 millions of cattle (Australia is a world’s leader in the cattle meat export). The largest cities, real metropolis are here in East Australia like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the capital Canberra. Actually, more than 90% of Australia’s total population is composed by descendants of European colonizers and the Aboriginals that a few thousands of years ago were populating the entire country, today are isolated and don’t represent more than 2% from the population. The rest are Asian or Indian in origins.

Resources, tourism, tourist objectives and attractions:

Australia is a rich country in natural and mineral resources. Among the most numerous and most important are the forests and the reserves of coal (world’s leader), copper, gold, uranium, bauxite, nickel, iron, diamonds (among the world’s first producers), oil, natural gas, silver, opal, zinc and many other rare elements. The tourism is a better and better developed domain, because Australia is visited by more than 6 million tourists every year.

The main reasons for which the tourist come here are:
A beautiful and warm climate with many sunny days per year.
Quiet and sunny resorts and beaches.
Generous and sociable people.
Enchanting landscapes which hide many wonderful places.
Large metropolis full of culture and history.
Beautiful and well known tourist objectives of Australia.
The life and the culture of Aboriginals.
Numerous national parks.
A unique in the world fauna and flora.
The great coral reef barrier.

The last one is a natural wonder of the world composed by several thousands of coral reefs, extended on a distance of more than 2.000 km closed to the north-east coast of Australia in the Pacific Ocean. The Great Coral Reef Barrier includes thousands of marine species, some of them in danger of extinction. (Find more journeys on blog.worldlifetimejourneys.com) Unfortunately this world’s wonder is more and more affected by pollution, by global warming and by millions of tourists that visit it every year.

Fauna and flora and the national parks and reservations:

Australian fauna and flora are unique in the world because here evolved some species of plants and animals unprecedented anywhere else in the world. Among the plants are eucalyptus with more than 600 species, myall or locust with more than 800 species, palm trees, conifer forests, tree ferns, fruit trees and many hundreds of other species. Among the animals are marsupials which most of them are only here in Australia like red kangaroos, koala bears, Australian wombats, emu birds, kiwi birds, wild dogs Dingo, marsupial bears, echidnas, platypuses, spiny anteaters, wild camels, hundreds of reptile species, hundreds of bird species, thousands of insect species, the Taipan snake with the most poisonous bite in the world, wallaby kangaroos, saltwater crocodiles, freshwater crocodiles and more than 1.500 species of fish and other marine species.

There are several dozens of National Parks and Reservations and the best are: Kakadu National Park, Great Coral Reef Barrier, Uluru or Ayers Rock National Park, Shark Bay National Park or Wet Tropics National Park. Australia obtained the independence from the Great Britain at 01 January 1901. Visit Australia!