Geography Of Australia

Australia is smallest continent in the world, but sixth largest country. It is an island surrounded by water. Australia is a continent in Oceania located between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean at 27° S 144° E. Total area is 7,686,850 square kilometers (2,967,909 sq. mi) (including Lord Howe Island and Macquarie Island), making it slightly smaller than the contiguous 48 states of the United States and 31.5 times bigger than the United Kingdom.

Australia has a total 25,760 kilometers (16,007 mi) of coastline and claims an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone of 8,148,250 square kilometers (3,146,057 sq. mi). This exclusive economic zone does not include the Australian Antarctic Territory. It has no land borders

Australia is situated in the middle of the tectonic plate, and therefore has no active volcanism, although it may sometimes receive minor earthquakes. The terrain is mostly heavily weathered, low plateau with deserts, rangelands and a fertile plain in the south-east. Tasmania and the Australian Alps do not contain any permanent ice fields and Glaciers although they may have existed in the past. The Great Barrier Reef, by far the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast. Mount Augustus, in Western Australia, is the largest monolith in the world. Erosion and weathering have heavily weathered Australia's surface and it is one of the flattest countries in the world.

From the political point of view Australia is divided into six states and three union territories. The states originated as separate British colonies prior to Federation (in 1901). Their powers are protected by the Australian constitution, and Commonwealth legislation only applies to the states where permitted by the constitution. The territories, by contrast, are from a constitutional perspective directly subject to the Commonwealth government. The Australian Parliament has powers to legislate in the territories that it does not possess in the states.

By far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid – 40% of the landmass is covered by sand dunes. Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate: part is tropical rainforests, part grasslands, and part desert. Rainfall is highly variable, with frequent droughts lasting several seasons. Occasionally a dust storm will blanket a region or even several states and there are reports of the occasional large tornado. Rising levels of salinity and desertification in some areas is ravaging the landscape.

Australia's tropical/subtropical location and cold waters off the western coast make most of Western Australia a hot desert with aridity, a marked feature of greater part of the continent. These cold waters produce precious little moisture needed on the mainland. A 2005 study by Australian and American researchers [1] investigated the desertification of the interior, and suggested that one explanation was related to human settlers who arrived about 50,000 years ago. Regular burning by these settlers could have prevented monsoons from reaching interior Australia.

Natural resources include: bauxite, coal, iron ore, copper, tin, gold, silver, uranium, nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, zinc, diamonds, natural gas, petroleum.
Land use:
• Arable land: 6%
• Permanent crops: 0%
• Permanent pastures: 54%
• Forests and woodland: 19%
• Other: 21% (1993 est.)
Oil and Gas: Australia saw its oil production drop more than 14 percent in 2003, almost twice the average decline rate since it peaked in 2000. An oil shale deposit called the Stuart Deposit is located near Gladstone. It has a total resource of 2.6 billion barrels and the capacity to produce more than 200,000 barrels each day. The country also suffers from some natural hazards. Cyclones along the northern coasts; severe thunderstorms, droughts and occasional floods; frequent bushfires. Fire bans, drought status and water use restrictions exist in some areas.