Australia is considered in the area as the sixth largest country with a land mass of almost 7.7 million square km, after Russia, Canada and China. It is also the driest of continents and flattest after Antarctica. The continent is considered as the flattest land as it is near the middle of a tectonic plate.
Australia is also known to have a quite dramatic landscape. It is hot and dry.
The Eastern side of Australia has lot of grasslands which was in the past used for cattle and sheep ranches.
Australia has also mountainous areas throughout the country, there is for example the “Blue Mountains”, located in the south east of the continent and got its name from the blue haze caused from the eucalyptus trees that gave off oil droplets.
As Australia is also an island it has a lot of beautiful beaches.
Australia has in the past formed part of the Gondwanaland, which formed part the continent called Pangaea. The geological history is quite ancient, the oldest rock formations is over three billion years.
More than 70% of the inhabitants of Australia live in the 10 largest cities, most of them are found on the east and south coast and also around Perth.
Australia is considered as a legend for its deserted areas; someone can travel from Sydney to Perth which is over 2000 miles and find no cities or towns.
In the North of Australia there are vast plains and rainforests, in the southeast there are snowfields, fertile land in the south, southwest, and east and in the centre the desert.
One third of Australia lies in the tropics. More than one fifth of the Australian land is desert, and over two third is arid or semi-arid, which is not recommended for settlement.
The highlands, the south east of the mainland and tablelands of Tasmania are considered as the coldest. The hottest temperature was recorded in Queensland (53 degrees) in 1889.
Australia has no current volcanic activities; the last eruption was at the Mount Gambier for around 1400 years ago.
As Australia is geographically apart from the rest of the world, it has a variety of distinctive animals and plants that are found nowhere else. More than 90% from the 22,000 species of plants in Australia exist naturally there. Around 840 species are in extinction, 83 have already extinct since the European settled.
There is a domination of Eucalyptus forest on the coast of Australia, but Eucalyptus is also found in all region of the continent.
The largest known coral formation in the world is the Great Barrier Reef. From 2.012 km along the east coast, this chain of reefs forms a natural breakwater for the ships passage.
The water surrounding has a large variety of aquatic mammals, fish as different whales’ species, around 70 species of shark, lot of them which are dangerous for human beings.
There is also a large variety of reptile, which includes two crocodiles’ species and over 500 lizards’ species, as the giant goanna, the gecko and the skink.
Some 100 snakes’ species are found throughout Australia. The well known and poisonous snakes are black snake, the copperhead, the taipan, the tiger snake, the death adder.
Australia has also about 751 known birds’ species from the primitive to develop as the cassowary, the emu (largest bird in Australia relative to the Ostrich), the parrots and the cockatoos.
Australia is also the home of a variety of unique animals as monotremes, an example the platypus, an aquatic mammal, the echidna or spiny anteater.
The most native mammals of Australia are marsupials.
The most well known and common marsupials are of the famous kangaroos, which count around 50 species, some of their relatives are the kangaroo rat smaller than the kangaroo and the wallaby.
The bandicoot, the pouched mouse and the wombat are also well known marsupials.
The phalangers are herbivorous marsupials mostly living in trees, including the koala and the possum.
The koala bear is protected throughout Australia.