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Australia Facts

  australian flag Australia in Brief commonwealth coat of arms Australia in Brief

 

Australia is estimated to be over 7.6m sq kms in land area and the 6th largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, the USA and Brazil. It has, however, a relatively small population. The mainland is the largest island and the smallest, flattest continent on Earth. It lies between 10° and 39° South latitude.  The highest point on the mainland, Mount Kosciuszko, is only 2,228 metres above sea level.

 

Australia History

Before the arrival of the first European settlers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people inhabited most areas of the Australian continent. They spoke one or more of hundreds of separate languages, with lifestyles and cultural traditions that differed according to the region in which they lived. Their complex social systems and highly developed traditions reflect a deep connection with the land and environment.

 

Asian and Oceanic mariners and traders were in contact with Indigenous Australians

for many centuries before the European expansion into the Eastern Hemisphere.

Some formed substantial relationships with communities in northern Australia.

 

The first recorded European contact with Australia was in March 1606, when Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon (c.1570 – 1630) charted the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Later that year, the Spanish explorer Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the strait separating Australia and Papua New Guinea. Over the next two centuries, European explorers and traders continued to chart the coastline of Australia, then known as New Holland. In 1688, William Dampier became the first British explorer to land on the Australian coast.

 

It was not until 1770 that another Englishman, Captain James Cook, aboard the Endeavour, extended a scientific voyage to the South Pacific in order to further chart the east coast of Australia and claim it for the British Crown. Britain decided to use its new outpost 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.

 

In all, 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 from the early 1790s. The wool industry and the gold rushes of the 1850s provided an impetus for free settlers to come to Australia.

 

A Nation is Born

The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 through the federation of six states under a single constitution. The non-Indigenous population at the time of Federation was 3.8 million. Half of these lived in cities, three-quarters were born in Australia, and the majority were of English, Scottish or Irish descent.

 

While one of the first acts of the new Commonwealth Parliament was to pass the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, which restricted migration to people of primarily European origin, this was dismantled after the Second World War.

 

Today Australia has a global, non-discriminatory policy and is home to people from more than 200 countries. Western Australia continues to have the fastest

growing population in the country, increasing by 2.4% (55,800 people) in the year to 30 June 2011, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Over the same period, Australia's population increased by 1.4% (320,800 people) to 22.6 million (22,620,600) people. Net overseas migration accounted for 53% of the growth for the year ending June 2011, with the remaining 47% due to natural increase (births minus deaths).
 

AGEING POPULATION
Australia's population, like that of most developed countries, is ageing as a result of sustained low fertility and increasing life expectancy. This is resulting in proportionally fewer children (under 15 yrs of age) in the population. The median age (the age at which half the population is older and half is younger) of the Australian population has increased by 4.7 years over the last two decades, from 32.4 years at 30 June 1991 to 37.1 years at 30 June 2011. Over the next several decades, population ageing is projected to have significant implications for Australia in many spheres, including health, labour force participation, housing and demand for skilled labour.