Australia

Australia

Australia, the smallest continent and one of the largest countries on Earth, lying between the Pacific and Indian oceans in the Southern Hemisphere. Australia’s capital is Canberra, located in the southeast between the larger and more important economic and cultural centres of Sydney and Melbourne.

The Australian mainland extends from west to east for nearly 2,500 miles (4,000 km) and from Cape York Peninsula in the northeast to Wilsons Promontory in the southeast for nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km). To the south, Australian jurisdiction extends a further 310 miles (500 km) to the southern extremity of the island of Tasmania, and in the north it extends to the southern shores of Papua New Guinea. Australia is separated from Indonesia to the northwest by the Timor and Arafura seas, from Papua New Guinea to the northeast by the Coral Sea and the Torres Strait, from the Coral Sea Islands Territory by the Great Barrier Reef, from New Zealand to the southeast by the Tasman Sea, and from Antarctica in the far south by the Indian Ocean.

Australia has been called “the Oldest Continent,” “the Last of Lands,” and “the Last Frontier.” Those descriptions typify the world’s fascination with Australia, but they are somewhat unsatisfactory. In simple physical terms, the age of much of the continent is certainly impressive—most of the rocks providing the foundation of Australian landforms were formed during Precambrian and Paleozoic time (some 4.6 billion to 252 million years ago)—but the ages of the cores of all the continents are approximately the same. On the other hand, whereas the landscape history of extensive areas in Europe and North America has been profoundly influenced by events and processes that occurred since late in the last Ice Age—roughly the past 25,000 years—in Australia scientists use a more extensive timescale that takes into account the great antiquity of the continent’s landscape.

Name Control

Featured Destinations

Denmark
Denmark

Destination Denmark, a virtual guide to the Kingdom of Denmark, a Scandinavian country situated on the Jutland Peninsula and several islands, north of Germany.

United States
United States

The major characteristic of the United States is probably its great variety.

United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The origins of the United Kingdom can be traced to the time of the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan, who in the early 10th century CE secured the allegiance of neighbouring Celtic kingdoms and became “the first to rule what previously many kings shared between them,” in the words of a contemporary chronicle.

More Blogs

Cost of living in the UK for international students
Cost of living in the UK for international students

Great Britain holds great expectations for international students. But, what is the cost of living in the UK? What will be the average monthly cost in the UK for an international student?

5 ways to improve yourself
5 ways to improve yourself

Studying in Australia will provide you with numerous educational and personal benefits where you can gain experiences and skills that employers from all over the world will be looking for.

Introduction to the Danish education system
Introduction to the Danish education system

If you are curious and would like to know more about the Danish education system, then this publication is definitely for you.