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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. Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, tropical savannas in the north, and mountain ranges in the south-east.
The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had 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 the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. This began a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, and culminating in the Australia Act 1986.
Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and ten territories. Australia's population of nearly 27 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous city and financial centre is Sydney. The next four largest cities are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. It is ethnically diverse and multicultural, the product of large-scale immigration, with almost half of the population having at least one parent born overseas. Australia's abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy, which generates its income from various sources including services, mining exports, banking, manufacturing, agriculture and international education. Australia ranks highly for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights.
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Selected biography -
John Hadley (born 27 September 1966) is an Australian philosopher whose research concerns moral and political philosophy, including animal ethics, environmental ethics, and metaethics. He is currently a senior lecturer in philosophy in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. He has previously taught at Charles Sturt University and the University of Sydney, where he studied as an undergraduate and doctoral candidate. In addition to a variety of articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections, he is the author of the 2015 monograph Animal Property Rights (Lexington Books) and the 2019 monograph Animal Neopragmatism (Palgrave Macmillan). He is also the co-editor, with Elisa Aaltola, of the 2015 collection Animal Ethics and Philosophy (Rowman & Littlefield International). (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that politician John D'Orazio helped to secure a three-year trial of daylight saving time in Western Australia?
- ... that the newly founded Family First Party has access to the former Family First Party's database of 6,000 supporters, according to The Australian?
- ... that although the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was cancelled, Iceland's planned entry for that year was chosen as the alternative winner in several countries, including Sweden and Australia?
- ... that Collingwood coach Robert Harvey gave Anton Tohill his AFL debut in 2021, having played International Rules Series against Tohill's father in the 1990s?
- ... that the dominant species in the Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grassland of South Australia are often not grasses at all?
- ... that the Victoria State Government has ordered 100 G-class trams, which is the largest domestic order in Australian history?
- ... that constable Joseph Luker, the first police officer killed on duty in Australia, was a former convict?
- ... that Wendy Solling was a nun, a sculptor and one of the first women ordained in the Anglican Church of Australia?
In the news
- 26 September 2023 –
- Daniel Andrews announces his resignation as Premier of Victoria, Australia, after nine years in office. (The Guardian)
- 18 September 2023 –
- Three people are taken to hospital after a mass stabbing at the Australian National University in Canberra. The attacker has been detained. (ABC News Australia)
- 12 September 2023 –
- The New South Wales government in Australia bans logging in a 8,400-hectare forest area, identified as home to 106 "koala hubs", as part of a conservation effort to establish a 315,000-hectare Great Koala National Park. (AFP via RFI)
- 8 September 2023 – Australia–Philippines relations
- Australia and the Philippines upgrade their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership. (Reuters)
- 8 September 2023 –
- One person is killed and five others are injured when a car crashes into pedestrians and two other vehicles in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The driver is arrested at the scene. (ABC News Australia)
- 30 August 2023 – 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces that the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum will be held on 14 October. (ABC News)
Selected pictures -
On this day

- 1935 – John Curtin replaces James Scullin as leader of the Australian Labor Party.
- 1964 – Gladesville Bridge (pictured) opened—the world's longest concrete arch at the time.
- 1981 – Luke Wilkshire, Australian football (soccer) player, was born in Wollongong.
- 1990 – Opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland announces her retirement.
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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 1 October 2023, there are 200,272 articles within the scope of WikiProject Australia. Including non-article pages, such as talk pages, redirects, categories, etcetera, there are 503,798 pages in the project.
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