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Introduction
View from Connors Hill in Shire of East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia -
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Comprising six states and ten territories, Australia has a total area of 7,688,287 km2 (2,968,464 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest country in the world and the largest country by area in Oceania. It is the world's oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with some of the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates including deserts and tropical rainforests.
The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the last glacial period. They settled on the continent and formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with Dutch exploration of most of the coastline in the 17th-century. British colonisation began in 1788 with the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales. By the mid-19th century, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and five additional self-governing British colonies were established, each gaining responsible government by 1890. The colonies federated in 1901, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. This continued a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, and culminating in the Australia Acts of 1986.
Australia is a federal parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. Its population of over 27 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous cities are Sydney and Melbourne, both with a population of over 5 million. Australia's culture is diverse, and the country has one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world. It has a highly developed market economy and one of the highest per capita incomes globally. Its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy. It ranks highly for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights.
Featured article -
Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.
Silverchair was an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Newcastle, New South Wales, with Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars, Ben Gillies on drums, and Chris Joannou on bass guitar. The group got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo competition conducted by SBS TV show Nomad and ABC radio station Triple J. The band was signed by Murmur and were successful in Australia and internationally. Silverchair has sold over 10 million albums worldwide. (Full article...)
Selected biography -
Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.
Daisy Jugadai Napaltjarri (c. 1955–2008) was a Pintupi-Luritja-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region, and sister of artist Molly Jugadai Napaltjarri. Daisy Jugadai lived and painted at Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory. There she played a significant role in the establishment of Ikuntji Women's Centre, where many artists of the region have worked. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Anna Burke was the second woman to give birth while a member of the Australian House of Representatives?
- ... that John Dique constructed the machine used by the first Australian patient to receive dialysis?
- ... that Mark Hutton was the first Australian to be a starting pitcher in a Major League Baseball game?
- ... that the United Ukrainian Ballet Company, consisting of exiled dancers based in The Hague, has toured the UK, Singapore, Australia and the US?
- ... that the search for a lost radioactive capsule along a 1,400-kilometre (870 mi) stretch of road in Western Australia was likened to looking for a needle in a haystack?
- ... that Ged Kearney represented Batman in the Parliament of Australia from 2018 to 2019?
- ... that politics in The Simpsons have caused controversy in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, and Japan?
- ... that pumices erupted by the Protector Shoal volcano in 1962 floated to Australia and South America?
In the news
- 30 September 2024 – Australia–Tuvalu relations, Climate change in Tuvalu
- Tuvalu's climate minister denounces the Australian Labor government's decision to expand three coal mines as an existential threat to the nation, due to the role of the mines in causing rising sea levels that have forced mass displacement across Tuvalu's low-lying islands. (The Guardian)
- 28 September 2024 – 2024 AFL premiership season
- The Brisbane Lions defeat the Sydney Swans 120–60 in the Australian Football League Grand Final to win their fourth AFL premiership title. (The Guardian Australia)
- 26 September 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict
- Israel rejects proposals from the United States, Australia, and the European Union to initiate a temporary 21-day ceasefire with Hezbollah. (Reuters) (Reuters 2)
- 23 September 2024 – 2024 AFL season
- In Australian football, Patrick Cripps wins his second Brownlow Medal with 45 votes, the most votes since the current voting system was introduced, and also becomes the seventeenth player to win the award more than once. (ABC News Australia)
- 18 September 2024 –
- Alleged Ghost developer and administrator Jay Je Yoon Jung is arrested in Sydney, Australia, on five charges related to the encrypted communication network's development and operation. (The Register)
- 11 September 2024 – Israel–Hamas war protests
- Victoria Police arrest 39 people and fire stun grenades, rubber bullets, and pepper spray at anti-war and pro-Palestinian protestors picketing outside a military weapons expo in Melbourne, Australia. (Al Jazeera)
Selected pictures -
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Photo credit: ChmouelThe Sydney Opera House in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Situated on Bennelong Point at Sydney Harbour, the Sydney Opera House is one of the most distinctive and famous 20th-century buildings, and one of the most famous performing arts venues in the world. -
Photo credit: Fir0002Two whole Cripps Pink apples and a cross-section of a third. More commonly known by the trademarked name "Pink Lady", this apple cultivar was originally bred by John Cripps by crossing the Australian apple Lady Williams with a Golden Delicious. The apple shape is ellipsoid, it has a distinctive pink hue mixed with a green "background," and taste is tart. -
Photo credit: James Francis HurleySoldiers of an Australian 4th Division field artillery brigade on a duckboard track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in the Ypres salient, October 29, 1917. The photo was taken in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, which was one of the major battles of World War I. -
Government House, the residence of the Governor of Western Australia.
Government House in Perth is the official residence of the Governor of Western Australia and was built between 1859 and 1864. The building is a mansion in the Jacobean Revival style set on 3.2 hectares of English gardens in the centre of the Perth business district, between St. Georges Terrace and the Swan River. The buildings and gardens are listed on the Western Australian Register of Heritage Places and are open to the public from time to time. The building has 16 rooms on the ground floor and 25 on the first floor.
Photo credit: Greg O'Beirne -
Photo credit: Fir0002The Common bluetail (Ischnura heterosticta) is a small Australian damselfly of the family Coenagrionidae. Most males have blue eyes, blue thorax and a blue ringed tail. The females are green or light brown. -
Photo: JJ HarrisonThe Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) is a nocturnal species of Australian frogmouth commonly mistaken for an owl. Males and females look similar, growing to 35–53 cm (14–21 in) long and up to 680 g (1.5 lb) in weight. The Tawny Frogmouth is almost exclusively insectivorous, feeding rarely on frogs and other small prey. It generally sits very still on a low perch and catches food with its beak. -
A Beautiful Firetail (Stagonopleura bella) male (top) and female. In this common Australian species of estrildid finch, nest-building and raising children is done collaboratively. -
Photo: JJ HarrisonThe Dusky Robin (Melanodryas vittata) is a small passerine bird native to Tasmania. A member of the Australian Robin family, it is not related to European or American Robins. It is a brown-plumaged bird of open woodland, measuring 16–17 cm (6.3–6.7 in) in length. -
The western part of the Park. To the right is the rock formation known as The Fortress.
The Grampians is a mountain range and national park in Victoria, located 235 kilometres west of Melbourne. The ranges were named in 1836 by Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Mitchell, after the Grampian Mountains in his native Scotland, but are also known by the name Gariwerd, from one of the local Australian Aboriginal languages.
Photo credit: Stevage -
The Australian War Memorial is the national memorial in Australia for the members of all its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died in wars. The memorial includes an extensive national military museum and is located in the capital Canberra. It is the northern terminus of the city's ceremonial land axis, which stretches from Parliament House on Capital Hill along a line passing through the summit of the cone-shaped Mt Ainslie to the northeast.
Photo credit: Fir0002 -
Photo credit: Frank HurleyA group of Australian infantry wearing Small Box Respirators (SBRs) at the Third Battle of Ypres in September 1917. After the introduction of poison gas in World War I, countermeasures were developed. SBRs represented the pinnacle of gas mask development during the war, a mouthpiece connected via a hose to a box filter (hanging around the wearer's neck in this picture), which in turn contained granules of chemicals that neutralised the gas. The SBR was the prized possession of the ordinary infantryman; when the British were forced to retreat during the German Spring Offensive of 1918, it was found that while some troops had discarded their rifles, hardly any had left behind their respirators. -
Photo: Steven Rasmussen; edit: KeraunoscopiaAustralian artistic gymnast Lauren Mitchell (b. 1991) performing a layout step-out on the balance beam during the 41st World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in London, United Kingdom, on 14 October 2009; at the Championships, Mitchell won two silver medals, one for the balance beam and another for floor exercises. Since her first medal in 2007, Mitchell has placed in the World Championships, World Cup, and Commonwealth Games, and competed in two Olympic Games. -
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne, Australia (1927)
Flinders Street Station is the central railway station of the suburban rail network of the Victorian capital of Melbourne. It is on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets next to the Yarra River in the central business district, stretching from Swanston Street to Queen Street and covering two city blocks. This 1927 photo shows a mix of motor vehicles and horse drawn carts on the streets, as well as both electric and non-electric trams. The station opened in 1910, replacing an ad hoc collection of weatherboard train sheds.
Photo credit: Victoria State Transport Authority -
Photo credit: LiquidGhoulThe head of a Coastal Carpet Python, the largest subspecies of Morelia spilota, a non-venomous Australian python, showing its forked tongue, a feature common to many reptiles, who smell using the tip of their tongue. Having a forked tongue allows them to tell which direction a smell is coming from. -
Photo credit: John O'NeillA Common Grass Blue (Zizina labradus), a small Australian butterfly. This specimen, perched on a rose, is approximately 10 millimetres (0.4 in) in size. Females generally have a larger wingspan compared to males (23 and 20 mm or 0.9 and 0.8 in respectively). -
View over Macquarie Island beach (with Royal and King penguins).
Macquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between Australia and Antarctica. Politically, it has formed part of the Australian state of Tasmania since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a World Heritage Site. The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) maintains a permanent base on the island. The base's residents, the island's only inhabitants, range in numbers from 20 to 40 people throughout the year.
Photo credit: M. Murphy -
Corymbia flowers
Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of trees (rarely shrubs), the members of which dominate the tree flora of Australia. There are more than 700 species of Eucalyptus, mostly native to Australia, with a very small number found in adjacent parts of New Guinea and Indonesia. Eucalypts can be found in almost every part of the continent, adapted to all of Australia's climatic conditions; in fact, no other continent is so characterised by a single genus of tree as Australia is by eucalyptus. Many, but far from all, are known as gum trees; other names for various species include mallee, box, ironbark, stringybark, and ash.
Photo credit: Fir0002 -
Photo credit: Noodle snacksA view of the greater Hobart area, as seen from Mount Wellington. The state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania, Hobart is located in the state's south-east, on the estuary of the River Derwent. -
Photo: John O'Neill; edit: JJ HarrisonBrian Nankervis (b. 1956), an Australian comedian and writer, shown here during a live performance. Nankervis rose to popularity while playing Raymond J. Bartholomeuz on Hey Hey It's Saturday; since 2005 he has been a host of the gameshow RocKwiz. -
Photo: John O'NeillAn officer of the Victoria Police, the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian state of Victoria. The agency was founded in 1835 from an existing colonial police force of 875 men. As of 2011, the Victoria Police has over 12,190 sworn members, and over 2,900 civilian staff across 393 police stations. -
Blue Lake.
Blue Lake is a large lake located in an extinct volcanic caldera in Mount Gambier. It is known as Waawor in the local Aboriginal language. During summer and the surrounding months, the lake takes on a vibrant blue colour, returning to a colder steely-grey colour for winter. The exact cause of this phenomenon is still a matter of conjecture but it is generally considered likely that it revolves around the warming of the surface layers of the lake during the summer months to around 25 degrees celsius, causing calcium carbonate to precipitate out of solution and enabling micro-crystallites of calcium carbonate to form. This results in a scatter of the blue wavelength of sunlight. The movement of planktonic life-forms within the lake during the seasons and during the day may also play a part in the visibility changes.
Photo credit: Aaron Allen -
Photo credit: Noodle snacksThe Tasmanian Native-hen (Gallinula mortierii) is a flightless rail between 43 to 51 cm (17 to 20 in) in length, one of twelve species of birds endemic to the Australian island of Tasmania. Although flightless, it is capable of running quickly and has been recorded running at speeds up to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h).
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On this day
- 1892 – The Australian Cricket Council announces an intercolonial cricket competition to be known as the Sheffield Shield.
- 1903 – Samuel Griffith is appointed as the first Chief Justice of Australia.
- 1933 – Diane Cilento, theater and film actress was born in Brisbane.
- 1979 – Vince Grella, football (soccer) midfielder, and member of Australia's 2006 World Cup team was born in Dandenong, Victoria.
- 1990 – After one hundred and fifty years, The Herald broadsheet newspaper in Melbourne is published for the last time as a separate newspaper. The first edition of the Herald-Sun appears on the 8th of October.
- 1990 – The Daily Mirror in Sydney is published for the last time as a separate newspaper. The first edition of The Daily Telegraph-Mirror appears on the 8th of October.
General images
The following are images from various Australia-related articles on Wikipedia.
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PCA of Orang Asli (Semang) and Andamanese, with worldwide populations in HGDP. (from Aboriginal Australians) -
House in Killara, New South Wales (from Culture of Australia) -
A typical Queenslander house in Brisbane (from Culture of Australia) -
Portrait of Madame Melba by Rupert Bunny (from Culture of Australia) -
Corroboree at Newcastle by convict artist Joseph Lycett, ca. 1818. Aboriginal Australian religious practices associated with the Dreamtime have been practised for tens of thousands of years. (from Culture of Australia) -
Cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1860s (from Culture of Australia) -
South Australian suffragette Catherine Helen Spence (1825–1910). The Australian colonies established democratic parliaments from the 1850s and began to grant women the vote in the 1890s. (from Culture of Australia) -
Founded in 1993, Sydney's Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival. (from Culture of Australia) -
An Eastern Arrernte man of the Arltunga district, Northern Territory, in 1923. His hut is decked with porcupine grass. (from Aboriginal Australians) -
A Luritja man demonstrating method of attack with boomerang under cover of shield (1920) (from Culture of Australia) -
Didgeridoo performers (from Culture of Australia) -
Sheep grazing in rural Australia. Early British settlers introduced Western stock and crops and Australian agriculture now produces an abundance of fresh produce. (from Culture of Australia) -
Anzac Day dawn services are held throughout Australia every April. (from Culture of Australia) -
Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly (from Culture of Australia) -
Actor playing the bushranger Ned Kelly in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), the world's first feature film (from Culture of Australia) -
Countries of birth of Australian estimated resident population, 2006 (from Culture of Australia) -
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Dwellings accommodating Aboriginal families at Hermannsburg Mission, Northern Territory, 1923 (from Aboriginal Australians) -
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Donald Bradman is often cited as statistically the greatest sportsman of any major sport. (from Culture of Australia) -
The initial human settlement of Oceania is estimated to have been between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. Archaeogenetic results indicate a colonisation of southern Sahul (Australia) before 37,000 years ago and an incubation period in northern Sahul (Papua New Guinea), followed by westward expansions within Australia after about 28,000 years ago. (from Aboriginal Australians) -
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The Bulletin, founded by J. F. Archibald (left), nurtured bush poets such as Henry Lawson (right). (from Culture of Australia) -
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A commemorative statue of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a famous stretcher bearer who was killed in the Gallipoli Campaign. (from Culture of Australia) -
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An Aboriginal encampment near the Adelaide foothills in an 1854 painting by Alexander Schramm (from Aboriginal Australians) -
Cover of Old Bush Songs, Banjo Paterson's 1905 collection of bush ballads (from Culture of Australia) -
Nan Tien Temple, a Buddhist temple in Wollongong. Multicultural immigration has increased Australia's religious diversity. (from Culture of Australia) -
A swagman in bushman's apparel, wearing a brimmed hat and carrying swag and billy can (from Culture of Australia) -
Golden Wattle, Australia's floral emblem and the source of Australia's national colours, green and gold (from Culture of Australia) -
William Wentworth (1790–1872) was among the first to articulate a vision of Australian nationhood. (from Culture of Australia) -
Convict architecture at Port Arthur, Tasmania (from Culture of Australia) -
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The Wiggles performing in the United States in 2007 (from Culture of Australia) -
The Matildas, Australia's national women's football team (from Culture of Australia) -
Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney (from Culture of Australia) -
The SBS building in Melbourne's Federation Square. SBS is Australia's multicultural broadcaster. (from Culture of Australia) -
A group of Australian men wearing speedos (from Culture of Australia) -
The Princess Theatre in Melbourne (from Culture of Australia) -
Governor Arthur Phillip hoists the British flag over the new colony at Sydney Cove in 1788 (from Culture of Australia) -
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Historical image of Aboriginal Australian women and children, Maloga, New South Wales around 1900 (in European dress) (from Aboriginal Australians) -
The University of Sydney (from Culture of Australia) -
Statue in Fremantle of an Australian rules footballer taking a spectacular mark (from Culture of Australia) -
Skiing in Australia began in Kiandra, a goldmining town in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, in the 1860s. (from Culture of Australia) -
The surf lifesaving movement originated in Australia. (Pictured: surf lifesavers, Bondi Beach, 1930s). (from Culture of Australia) -
The Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne (from Culture of Australia) -
St Mary Mackillop established an extensive network of schools and is Australia's first canonised saint of the Catholic Church. (from Culture of Australia) -
Interior of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney (from Culture of Australia) -
Men from Bathurst Island, 1939 (from Aboriginal Australians) -
Kylie Minogue, one of Australia's most successful pop musicians (from Culture of Australia) -
Noongar traditional dancers in Perth (from Aboriginal Australians) -
Parliament House, Canberra (from Culture of Australia) -
The first State of Origin shield (from Culture of Australia) -
A billycan used for heating water (from Culture of Australia)
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Consider joining WikiProject Australia, a WikiProject dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of topics related to Australia. The project page and its subpages contain suggestions on formatting and style of articles, which can be discussed at the project's notice board. To participate, simply add your name to the project members page.
As of 5 October 2024, there are 205,123 articles within the scope of WikiProject Australia, of which 594 are featured and 877 are good articles. This makes up 2.98% of the articles on Wikipedia, 5.37% of all featured articles and lists, and 2.18% of all good articles (see WP:AUSFG). Including non-article pages, such as talk pages, redirects, categories, etc., there are 524,432 pages in the project.
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