AUSTRALIA
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GEOGRAPHY
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Location: Australia is located in Oceania, a continent between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean
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Total Area: 7,741,220 sq. km.
Australia is the 6th largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada, China, the United States and Brazil)
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Natural resources: Australia's most important natural resources are: bauxite, coal, iron ore, copper, tin, gold, silver, uranium, nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, zinc, diamonds, natural gas, petroleum
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Climate: The climate in Australia is generally arid to semiarid. It's temperate in the south and in the east and tropical in the north.
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Elevation extremes: Lowest point: Lake Eyre 15 m Highest point: Mount Kosciuszko 2,229 m
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PEOPLE
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Australia is a society of people from a rich variety of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have inhabited Australia for tens of thousands of years. Most Australians are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants who arrived during the past two centuries from more than 200 countries.
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Population: There are 21,262,641 people in Australia. (July 2009 est.)
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Indigenous Australia Australia’s indigenous population consists of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who are ethnically and culturally different from one another. Historically, Aboriginal people are from mainland Australia and Tasmania. Torres Strait Islanders come from the islands between the tip of Queensland and Papua New Guinea and share many cultural similarities with the people of Papua New Guinea and other Pacific islands.
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Religions: Catholic 25.8% Anglican 18.7% Uniting Church 5.7% Presbyterian and Reformed 3% Eastern Orthodox 2.7% Other Christian 7.9% Buddhist 2.1% Muslim 1.7% Other 2.4% Unspecified 11.3% None 18.7% (2006 Census)
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Languages: The most commonly spoken languages in Australia are English, Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Mandarin and Vietnamese.
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GOVERNMENT
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Government type: Australia has a democratic, federalstate system that recognizes the British monarch as sovereign. However, the Head of government is the Prime Minister.
Queen Elizabeth II
Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia
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Capital: The capital of Australia is Canberra
Parliament House
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Administrative divisions: Australia is divided in 6 states and 2 territories* Australian Capital Territory*, New South Wales Northern Territory* Queensland South Australia Tasmania Victoria Western Australia
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MAJOR CITIES
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Sydney, New South Wales
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Melbourne, Victoria
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Brisbane, Queensland
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Perth, Western Australia
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Hobart, Tasmania
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Adelaide, South Australia
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Darwin, Northern Territory
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HISTORY
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European settlement 1606 Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon charts the west coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. Spanish explorer Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the strait separating Australia and Papua New Guinea. 1688 William Dampier became the first British explorer to land on the Australian north west coast. 1770 Captain James Cook, an English explorer claimed Australia for the British Crown. Captain James Cook
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Britain decided to use Australia as a penal colony. The First Fleet of 11 ships carried about 1500 people half of them convicts. The fleet arrived in Sydney Harbour on 26 January 1788, and it is on this day every year that Australia Day is celebrated. About 160,000 men and women were brought to Australia as convicts from 1788 until penal transportation ended in 1868. The convicts were joined by free immigrants beginning in the early 1790s. The wool industry and the gold rushes of the 1850s provided an impetus for increasing numbers of free settlers to come to Australia.
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SPORTS
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Australians have always loved sport and have generally excelled at it. The number one team sport for Australian girls is netball. For boys it is soccer. Australia hosted the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 and Sydney in 2000.
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WILDLIFE
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Koala
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Kangaroo
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Echidna
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Dingo
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Platypus
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Crocodile
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Kookaburra
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Frilled lizard
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Wombat
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Possum
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Tasmanian Devil
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Great White Shark
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Let's watch a video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi7zUvagiLs
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Sources https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the足world足factbook/geos/as.html
http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib/society.html
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