Australia’s Naturals Resources

Natural Resources: Any part of the natural environment that can be used by humans.

Minerals and Energy Resources

 Gold discovered in the 1850’s, brought an influx of immigrants to Australia.

 More recent discoveries of minerals in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s.
 Coal and iron ore are mainly exported to Japan.
 Other minerals found in Australia include bauxite, copper, nickel, uranium, lead and zinc.
 Australia has significant deposits of oil and natural gas, however large quantities are required
to produce petrol for motor vehicles.

These resources are non-renewable meaning they cannot be used again.

Soil

 Australia has shallow soils with low fertility due to climatic factors such as varying seasonal
rainfall.
 Best soils are found on river floodplains and on the slopes and plains west of the Great Divide
(Eastern Highlands).
 Soil formation is a very slow process, which makes it virtually a non-renewable source.

Water

 Australia is deficient in water as two-thirds of the country suffers form inadequate rainfall.
 Australia is a country that is prone to droughts therefore water conservation is important.
 Australians consume more than 24000 gigalitres of water per year.

Forests

 Australia’s forest resources are concentrated along the east coast of the continent, the
southwest tip of WA and the west coast of Tasmania.
 Land clearing is threatening this natural resource.
 Sustainable forest management planning is required.

Fishing Grounds

 Australia’s fish resources are not large by world standards.

 Overfishing of fishing grounds, oceans and rivers is a problem.
 The value of Australia’s exports of fisheries products in 2005-2006 was $1.5billion.