Portal:Australia
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Introduction
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The population of 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
Indigenous Australians inhabited the continent for about 65,000 years prior to the first arrival of Dutch explorers in the early 17th century, who named it New Holland. In 1770, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain and initially settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788, a date which became Australia's national day. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the time of an 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing crown colonies established. On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and ten territories.
Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It has a landmass of 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi). A megadiverse country, its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east. Australia generates its income from various sources, including mining-related exports, telecommunications, banking, manufacturing, and international education.
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General images
Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne.
Cover of Old Bush Songs, Banjo Paterson's 1905 collection of bush ballads
Tasmania's Port Arthur penal settlement is one of eleven UNESCO World Heritage-listed Australian Convict Sites.
The koala and the eucalyptus form an iconic Australian pair.
C. J. Dennis, poetic humorist of Australian English
Australia has one of the world's most highly urbanised populations with the majority living in metropolitan cities on the coast, such as Gold Coast, Queensland.
Birdsville Hotel, an Australian pub in outback Queensland
Australian soldiers deployed to Iraq in 2017
Commonwealth of Australia, including the Australian territorial claim in the Antarctic
Portrait of Captain James Cook, the first European to map the eastern coastline of Australia in 1770
A vineyard in the Barossa Valley, one of Australia's major wine-producing regions. The Australian wine industry is the world's fourth largest exporter of wine.
Sidney Nolan's Snake mural (1970), held at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania, is inspired by the Aboriginal creation myth of the Rainbow Serpent, as well as desert flowers in bloom after a drought.
Skiing in Australia began in Kiandra, a goldmining town in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, in the 1860s.
Portrait of Madame Melba by Rupert Bunny
Nan Tien Temple, a Buddhist temple in Wollongong. Multicultural immigration has increased Australia's religious diversity.
A group of Australian men wearing budgie smugglers.
The Princess Theatre in Melbourne
Köppen climate types of Australia.
Phar Lap winning the Melbourne Cup, "the race that stops a nation"
Didgeridoo performers
The surf lifesaving movement originated in Australia. (Pictured: surf lifesavers, Bondi Beach, 1930s).
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.
Countries of birth of Australian estimated resident population, 2006
Parliament House, Canberra
The Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
A swagman in bushman's apparel, wearing a brimmed hat and carrying swag, and billy can.
A billycan used for heating water
Federation Bungalow in Killara, Sydney
Actor playing the bushranger Ned Kelly in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), the world's first feature-length narrative film
Donald Bradman is often cited as statistically the greatest sportsman of any major sport.
Anzac Day dawn services are held throughout Australia every April.
Parliament House, Canberra
A Luritja man demonstrating method of attack with boomerang under cover of shield (1920)
Sydney Opera House (foreground) and Sydney Harbor Bridge
The meringue-based pavlova is generally eaten at Christmas time.
Kylie Minogue is hailed as one of Australia's most successful pop musicians
Founded in 1993, Sydney's Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival.
Sheep grazing in rural Australia. Early British settlers introduced Western stock and crops and Australian agriculture now produces an abundance of fresh produce.
Golden Wattle, Australia's floral emblem and the source of Australia's national colors, green and gold
Basic geological regions of Australia, by age
Actor playing the bushranger Ned Kelly in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), the world's first feature film
Heron Island, a coral cay in the southern Great Barrier Reef
A commemorative statue of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a famous stretcher bearer who was killed in the Gallipoli Campaign.
A map of Australia's states and territories
Convict architecture at Port Arthur, Tasmania
Five Australian universities rank in the top 50 of the QS World University Rankings, including the Australian National University (19th).
The Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne was the first building in Australia to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.
Uluru in the semi-arid region of Central Australia
The Wiggles performing in the United States in 2007
Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly
Statue in Fremantle of an Australian rules footballer taking a spectacular mark
Dame Edna Everage, a comic creation of Barry Humphries
A typical Queenslander house in Brisbane
Elle Macpherson, 2011
The Boddington Gold Mine in Western Australia is the nation's largest open cut mine.
The Last Post is played at an Anzac Day ceremony in Port Melbourne, Victoria. Similar ceremonies are held in many suburbs and towns.
Aboriginal rock art in the Kimberley region of Western Australia
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is strongly associated with the history and development of cricket and Australian rules football, Australia's two most popular spectator sports.
The SBS building in Melbourne's Federation Square. SBS is Australia's multicultural broadcaster.
Bush tucker harvested in Alice Springs
Victorian era buildings in Collins Street, Melbourne
Cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1860s
Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney
The Bulletin, founded by J. F. Archibald (left), nurtured bush poets such as Henry Lawson (right).
Governor Arthur Phillip hoists the British flag over the new colony at Sydney in 1788.
Interior of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
St Mary Mackillop established an extensive network of schools and is Australia's first canonized saint of the Catholic Church.
Corroboree at Newcastle by convict artist Joseph Lycett, ca. 1818. Aboriginal Australian religious practices associated with the Dreamtime have been practized for tens of thousands of years.
Topographic map of Australia. Dark green represents the lowest elevation and dark brown the highest
The first State of Origin shield
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Categories
On this day
- 1940 – Three members of the Australian Cabinet, Air Minister James Fairbairn, Information Minister Sir Henry Gullett and Army Minister Brigadier Geoffrey Street, were killed, along with the Chief of the General Staff of the Australian Army, General Sir Brudenell White in the Canberra air disaster.
- 1989 – Thirteen people die in a hot air balloon accident near Alice Springs, Northern Territory.
In the news
- 12 August 2020 – COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
- Australia suffers the deadliest day of the pandemic when Victoria reports 21 deaths in the last 24 hours. (9 News)
- 9 August 2020 – COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
- Victoria reports Australia's deadliest day since the pandemic began in the country, with 17 deaths reported aside from 394 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. (The Guardian)
- 6 August 2020 – COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
- Melbourne enters Stage 4 lockdown, which is Australia's toughest lockdown yet, following a spike of COVID-19 cases within the city and surrounding Victoria. (France 24)
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