Facts about Australia

Each major city has daily newspapers, and there are two national daily newspapers, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review.

A large number of Australians (759,849 for the period 2002–2003) live outside their home country.

Erosion has heavily weathered Australia's surface, making it one of the flattest countries in the world.

Agriculture and natural resources comprise only 3 percent and 5 percent of GDP respectively, but contribute substantially to Australia's export performance.

From the time of European settlement, a common theme in Australian art has been its landscape.

The world's largest monolith, Mount Augustus, is located in Western Australia.

Government grants have helped establish and fund Australia's 38 universities.

The dingo was introduced by Austronesian people that traded with indigenous Australians around 4000 B.C.E.

Perceived racial inequality is an ongoing political and human rights issue for Australians.

Australia has a sign language known as Auslan, which is the main language of about 6,500 deaf people.

The final constitutional ties between Australia and the United Kingdom ended in 1986 with the passing of the Australia Act 1986, ending judicial appeals to the United Kingdom Privy Council.

Two major mainland territories are the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.

Australia's largest export markets include Japan 18.7 percent, People's Republic of China 9.2 percent, the United States 8.1 percent, South Korea 7.7 percent and New Zealand 7.4 percent.

A total of 40,400 Australians died in that war.

Australian Aboriginal music, dance and Australian Aboriginal art influence contemporary Australian visual and performing arts.

The traditions of indigenous Australians are transmitted orally.

Australia has a total 25,760 kilometers (15,970 miles) of coastline and claims an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone of 8,148,250 square kilometers (3,259,300 square miles).

Australia's film industry has achieved critical and commercial successes, as have quite a number of its actors and actresses.

Indigenous Australians have higher rates of imprisonment and unemployment, lower levels of education and shorter life expectancies.

The United Kingdom formally claimed the western part of Australia in 1829.

Much of Australia's diplomatic energy is focused on international trade liberalization.

Many Australians regard the defeat of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) at the Battle of Gallipoli as the birth of the nation.

Australia has two public broadcasters, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Special Broadcasting Service, three commercial television networks, three pay TV services, and numerous public, non-profit television and radio stations.

In 2001, the five largest groups of the 27.4 percent of Australians who were born overseas were from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Vietnam and China.

After the Australian referendum in 1967, the federal government gained the power to implement policies and make laws with respect to Aborigines.

Australia's armed forces—the Australian Defence Force—comprise the Royal Australian Navy, the Australian Army, and the Royal Australian Air Force.

Australia has hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics and 2000 Summer Olympics, and has ranked among the top five medal-takers since 2000.

On January 1, 1901, the colonies federated and the Commonwealth of Australia was born as a Dominion of the British Empire.

The Statute of Westminster (1931) formally ended most constitutional links between Australia and the United Kingdom, but Australia did not adopt the statute until 1942.

The 2001 census identified that 68 percent of Australians call themselves Christian: 27 percent identifying themselves as Roman Catholic and 21 percent as Anglican.

The shock of the United Kingdom's defeat in Asia in 1942 and the threat of Japanese invasion caused Australia to turn to the United States as a new ally and protector.

In 1983, the Labor Party, led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating, started economic reform by floating the Australian dollar, and deregulating the financial system.

Australia has also hosted the 1938 British Empire Games, 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, 1982 Commonwealth Games and 2006 Commonwealth Games.

The Commonwealth of Australia is a nation strategically located between the Indian and Pacific Oceans with strong cultural and political ties to North America and Europe.

Australia has a long history of visual arts, starting with the cave and bark paintings of its indigenous peoples.

Australia has developed a robust economy and high living standard.

Climate is influenced by ocean currents, including the El Niсo southern oscillation, which brings periodic drought, and the seasonal tropical low pressure system that produces cyclones in northern Australia.

Australian music includes classical, jazz, and many popular music genres.

Approximately 58 percent of Australians between the ages of 25 and 64 have vocational or tertiary qualifications.

The indigenous Australian population, estimated at about 350,000 at the time of European settlement, declined steeply for 150 years following settlement, because of infectious disease, forced re-settlement and cultural disintegration.

Sport originated as a leisure activity and has evolved, in many cases, into a fierce, competitively-played activity which has risen to the top of the global popularity chart.

Australian literature has also been influenced by the landscape; the works of writers Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson captured the experience of the Australian bush.

The Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) and the Royal Military College, Duntroon are near the suburb of Campbell in Canberra's inner northeast.

Australian English is a major variety of the English language.

The first Australians, ancestors of the current indigenous Australians, arrived via land bridges and short sea-crossings from Southeast Asia between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago.

American popular culture, particularly television and cinema, has had a heavy influence over the past 50 years, as has large-scale immigration from non-English-speaking countries, and Australia's Asian neighbors.

Australia is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Australia's population has quadrupled since the end of World War I, spurred by an ambitious immigration program.

Australian voters rejected a move to become a republic in 1999 by a 55 percent majority.

Australia, pronounced “ors-trial-ya” by the country's inhabitants, is a 7,686,850 square kilometer (3,074,740 square mile) landmass on the Indo-Australian Plate, slightly smaller than the contiguous 48 states of the United States.

The treatment of indigenous people is hotly debated within Australia.

External territories include: Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and the largely uninhabited Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island, and McDonald Islands, and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

In 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast of Australia, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Britain.

Australia has particularly strong international teams in cricket, field hockey, netball, rugby league, rugby union, and performs well in cycling and swimming.

Australia willingly participated in World War I in which 59,330 Australians lost their lives.

The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy and has a parliamentary system of government.

The character of colonial Australia, as embodied in early literature, shows an emphasis on egalitarianism, mateship, and anti-authoritarianism.

Once considered geographically isolated, Australia today benefits from its proximity to both East Asia and South Asia, and overall plays an increasingly important role in the Asia-Pacific.

Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas.

The culture until the mid-twentieth century was Anglo-Celtic, although distinctive Australian features had been evolving from the environment and Australian Aborigine culture.

Australia has participated in every summer Olympic Games and every Commonwealth Games.

In 1973, Patrick White was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the only Australian to have achieved this.

Traditional ownership of land—native title—was not recognized until the High Court of Australia case Mabo v Queensland (No.

School attendance is compulsory between the ages of six and 15 years (16 years in South Australia and Tasmania, and 17 years in Western Australia), contributing to an adult literacy rate of 99 percent.

Australia has a prosperous, Western-style mixed economy, with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) slightly higher than those of the UK, Germany, and France.

Other sports include Australian rules football, soccer, and motor racing.

Tectonic uplift of mountain ranges or clashes between tectonic plates occurred in Australia's early history, when it was still a part of Gondwana.

Within Oceania itself, Australia exercises crucial leadership, both as a benefactor to island nations and through its ability to project military power.

Australia consists of six states: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia.

Separate colonies were created from parts of New South Wales: South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, and Queensland in 1859.

Other major international events held regularly in Australia include the Australian Open, one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the Formula One Australian Grand Prix.

The vigor and originality of the arts in Australia—films, opera, music, painting, theater, dance, and crafts—are achieving international recognition.

The Northern Territory was founded in 1863 as part of the Province of South Australia.

Most Australians are descended from nineteenth and twentieth-century immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland.

Most Australian woody plant species are evergreen and many are adapted to fire and drought, including many eucalypts and acacias.

The Australian economy has not suffered a recession since the early 1990s.

Australian English is the only language spoken in the home for around 80 percent of the population.

The transportation of convicts to Australia was phased out between 1840 and 1864.

After World War II, Australia encouraged mass immigration from Europe.

Beginning in the 1970s and the abolition of a White Australia policy, immigration from Asia and other parts of the world was encouraged.

Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia, and is represented by the Governor-General of Australia, at federal level, and by the governors at state level.