World Travel 4 Indians

Geography of Australia

Australia is an island continent and the geography of Australia is much varied.The major cities here are Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, and Adelaide.Australia is world's smallest continent but is also the sixth largest country in the world.As its area is much smaller in comparison to other continents so it is considered a country as well.

The geography of Australia is quite unique with the remote lands in the interior known as outback.

Australia's geography is marked with variations like there are deserts in the interiors of the continent with hot and barren lands.While the geography of Eastern Australia is shows full of grasslands which are mostly used for growing cattle and ranches.

There are rainforests and vast plains in the north, snowfields in the south east, desert in the centre and fertile croplands in the east, south and south west.

About one third of the country lies in the tropics. Australia has a coastline of 36,735km - if it were possible to drive non-stop along the entire coast at 60 km/h it would take about 24 days to complete the trip.

Queensland comprises the north-eastern part of Australia and ranges from the Tropics to more temperate areas.

The tip of Queensland's Cape York is the continent's most northerly point (latitude 10°41'S) and the most northerly town is Thursday Island.

Australia is the world's smallest continent and the sixth largest country being equal in area to the USA without Alaska or double the size of Europe excluding Russia.

The continent is one of the oldest land masses - continental bedrock exposed by erosion is more than 3,000 million years old - and is the flattest of the continents because it lies near the centre of

a tectonic plate. The average elevation is less than 300 metres, compared with the world’s mean of about 700 metres. The Australian Alps in the south east contain Australia’s highest ground, the highest point being Mount Kosciusko (2,228 metres).

Presence of mountains and plateaus dotted through out the country is another typical feature of the geography of Australia.

Here you have The Blue Mountains, which is located on the south-eastern edge .These mountains got their name from the blue haze which covers it ,caused by oil droplets precipitated from the eucalyptus trees.

The presence of beautiful coastal beaches is another great variation found in the geography of Australia which has desert,mountains,plateaus as well.

Another important aspect of geography of Australia is the Great Barrier Reef which is a stretch of 1200 miles of coral. This is the largest living structure in the world and has been formed millions of years ago.

Fast Facts of Geography of Australia:
Latitude and Longitude: 27 00 S, 133 00 E
Area: total: 7,686,850 sq km land: 7,617,930 sq km water: 68,920 sq km
Land boundaries: No land boundaries
Coastline:25,760 km

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