Australia

Basic  Materially wealthy countries with small populations.

Information  Capital Canberra

  European colonial efforts reached Australia, New Zealand, and the
Pacific islands of Oceania in the 1800s.
 British established port and trade facilities on the coasts of
Australia, leading to complete westernization
History
 Culture, geographic situation, and established economic relations
kept the postcolonial Australia and New Zealand relatively in the
Eastern Hemisphere with both countries maintaining their primary
global connections with Europe and the United States.
Political Map
  Located in southeast of Asia, between the Pacific and Indian
oceans, surrounded by ocean (coastline 25,760 km (16,007 mi))
 Australia is bounded on the N by the Timor and Arafura seas, on
the NE by the Coral Sea, on the E by the Pacific Ocean, on the SE
by the Tasman Sea, and on the S and W by the Indian Ocean.
 World’s smallest continent
 Total area: 7,686,850 sq km (2,967,909 sq mi)
Locational  New South Wales, 801,600 sq km (309,500 sq mi);
Aspect  Queensland, 1,727,200 sq km (666,900 sq mi);
 South Australia, 984,000 sq km (379,900 sq mi);
 Victoria, 227,600 sq km (87,900 sq mi);
 Western Australia, 2,525,500 sq km (975,100 sq mi).
 The island state of Tasmania has an area of 67,800 sq km (26,200 sq
mi)
 Northern Territory, 1,346,200 sq km (519,800 sq mi)
 Australian Capital Territory, 2,400 sq km (900 sq mi)
  Australia was once joined to Africa, Antarctica, South America,
and the peninsula of India in the continent of Gondwanaland
 it now lies on the eastern portion of the Indian Plate
Australia the  The relief features of the western half of the Australian continent
Ancient are low plateaus and plains on the ancient shield rocks.
 Mountain ranges formed over 600 million years ago
Continent  The Great Dividing Range is Australia’s one significant mountain
chain, is a fault mountain
Geologic Map
of Australia
  Australia is a relatively low-lying island with low relief.
 (1) a low, sandy eastern coastal plain
 (2) the eastern highlands, ranging from 300 to more than 2,100 m (1,000–
7,000 ft) in altitude and extending from Cape York Peninsula in northern
Queensland southward to Tasmania. Great Dividing Range
 (3) the central plains, consisting largely of a north-south series of drainage
basins, including the Great Artesian Basin, which underlies about 1,751,480
sq km (676,250 sq mi) of territory and is the most extensive area of internal
drainage in the world
Physical
 (4) the western plateau, covered with great deserts and “bigger plains”
Aspect (regularly spaced sand ridges and rocky wastes), rising 300 to 600 m
(1,000–2,000 ft) high and constituting most of the western half of the
continent.
 Formed during Precambrian period and geologically is a shield. subdivided by
long, straight (or only slightly bowed) fractures called lineaments. These
fractures structurally divide the region
 the Kimberleys, the Mount Isa Highlands; dissection gives rise to mesa, butte
 Darling range, formed of granite and capped by laterite
 Western Australia has three large deserts: the Gibson Desert, Great Victoria
Desert, and Great Sandy Desert.
  Formed during Precambrian period and geologically is a shield.
subdivided by long, straight (or only slightly bowed) fractures called
lineaments. These fractures structurally divide the region
 the Kimberleys, the Mount Isa Highlands; dissection gives rise to
mesa, butte
 Darling range, formed of granite and capped by laterite
 Barkly Tableland is in reality a high plain of remarkable flatness, partly
eroded in Cambrian sedimentary rocks
Western  The Nullarbor Plain, a karst area, is approximately coincident with the
Plateau Eucla Basin.
 Western Australia has three large deserts: the Gibson Desert, Great
Victoria Desert, and Great Sandy Desert.
 Gibson Desert consists in large part of a laterite-capped plain
 Actively developing and moving sand ridges occupy the Canning Basin,
the Great Victoria Desert, the Amadeus depression, and large areas of
the Arunta-Sturt Complex.
 Mt. Augustus. It is considered to be the largest single rock in the world. 5
miles long. Mt. Augustus rises 2,352 feet above the desert landscape.
Uluru (Ayers Rock) is also a monolithic rock
  The Interior Lowlands are dominated by three major basins, the
Carpentaria Basin, the Eyre Basin, and the Murray Basin.
 Mount Brown and Mount Fort Bowen in northwestern Queensland
separates Carpentaria and Eyre Basin
 The Wilcannia threshold divides the Eyre and Murray basins
The Interior
 Carpentaria is partly inundated by the sea.
Lowlands  The catchment area of Lake Eyre extends over some 500,000
square miles (1,295,000 square km) of central and northern
Australia
 In the east of that region there are extensive alluvial plains
associated with major tributaries of the Murray.
  The Eastern Uplands are a complex series of high ridges, high
plains, plateaus, and basins that extend from Cape York Peninsula
in the north to Bass Strait in the south, extends up to Tasmania
 The uplands are the eroded remnants of an ancient mountain
range recently rejuvenated by block faulting.
The Eastern
 Granite batholiths were intruded into that region
Uplands  straight river courses reflect the control exercised by fault zones
 The Great Barrier Reef is related in important respects to the
Eastern Uplands