The Commonwealth of Australia is formed of Australia, Tasmania and several smaller islands (for example, Cocos Islands, Kangaroo Island and others).

Australia itself is made up of the mainland of Australia and the island of Tasmania in the South. It is located between the Pacific and the Indian oceans in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Australian continent is washed in the North by the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea, Gulf of Carpentaria and Torres Strait, in the East by the Tasman Sea and the Coral Sea of the South Pacific Ocean, in the South by Bass Strait and the Indian Ocean.

Australia’s neighbouring countries are Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea in the North, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia in the north-east and New Zealand in the south-east.

Australia is "the most" country in many ways. It is the world’s biggest island and the smallest continent at the same time. It is almost 25 times larger than the British Isles. And it is nearly as large as the territory of the USA without Alaska and Hawaii.

Australia is the only country in the world which has the territory of the whole continent. Australia’s total area is 7,690,000 sq kilometres.

It is also the oldest, the flattest and the driest continent in the world.

Australia is the oldest continent, because some rocks are more than 3 million years old.

Australia is the flattest continent of all. But still it has mountains.

Australia is the driest continent of all after Antarctica. Most of it is a semi-desert. South-east is not so dry compared to the rest of the land, so it is good for living.

Its main mountain chain is the Great Dividing Range which is known as "the Australian Alps". It runs along the western coast. Australia’s highest point, Kosciuszko in the Australian Alps is only about 2,000 metres high.

Other mountains include the Kimberly Range, the Hamersley Range and the Flinders Range in south Australia.

Australia is very dry. In the centre of the continent there are three deserts: Great Sandy Desert, Great Victoria Desert and Simpson Desert. In fact, Great Sandy and Great Victoria Deserts are among the largest deserts in the world.

There are not so many rivers and lakes in Australia. Its best known rivers are:

— the Murray (2,600 km long);

—the Darling (the Murray’s tributary; is the longest river in Australia — 2,740 km).

Massive salt lakes are often dry for long periods. They are fed by a large river system which carries water to fill them. The largest lake is Lake Eyre.

Climate

Australia is on the other side of the world. For us it is an upside-down world.

Australia is sometimes called "down-under" because of its geographical position.

The seasons here are the other way round. Summer is from December to February (New Year is in the middle of summer), autumn is from March to May, winter is from June to August (the middle of winter is in June) and spring is from September to November.

In Australia hot winds blow from the North and cold winds blow from the South.

Because of Australia’s great size there are different climatic regions here. The climate of Australia ranges from tropical in the North, to cool temperate in the south-east where it even often snows in winter.

There are such weather hardships in Australia as droughts, floods and cyclones along its coasts.

The continent suffers from the lack of fresh water. There is not much rain in many parts of the country and they are very dry. South Australia is the driest state of the driest continent on the Earth.

The isolated geographical position of Australia had great influence on its fauna and flora. That is why many animals and plants developed differently from those on other continents.

Australia is a land of birds and animals which can not be found anywhere else in the world.

Australia’s endemic animals and birds are:

• the kangaroo
• the koala
• the wombat
• the echidna
• the platypus
• the dingo (wild dog)
• the emu
• the kookaburra

The most peculiar feature of Australian animals is the pouch (that is a kind of a pocket). The best known of them are the kangaroo and the koala bear.

The kangaroo is a marsupial animal, i.e. an animal that carries babies in the pouch for eight months. It is the largest marsupial in the world. It can weigh 85 kilogrammes.

Australians call a male kangaroo "a boomer", a female kangaroo — "a flyer" and a baby kangaroo — "a joye".

Why a "kangaroo"? When European explorers first saw these strange hopping animals they asked a native Australian Aborigine about their name. He answered "kangaroo" to say "I don’t understand your question".

The explorers thought this was the animal’s name. That is how the kangaroo got its name.

The koala is a small bear - like animal which lives in the eucalyptus trees. Most of its time the koala spends in these trees sleeping. However, they like to eat only some kinds of eucalyptus trees that grow in Australia.

Koala has a black nose and thick furry coat. It can weigh 10 kilogrammes. Though it looks very cuddly it has very sharp teeth and very sharp claws.

The koala’s nickname is a "native bear".

Many people believe that koala is a bear but it is not even related to bears. The koala is related to the kangaroo and the wombat.

The reason why it is called "bear" is that it looks very much like a teddy bear.

The name "koala" is the Aboriginal name for "no water".

The echidna and the platypus are the only two egg-laying mammals in the world.

The echidna is a toothless ant-eater and is an egg-laying mammal.

The platypus is a small animal with a beak of a duck and it also lays eggs.

The dingo is a wild dog about 50 centimetres high and usually sandy-coloured.

There are also such endemic animals as the Tasmanian Devil and the opossum.

Tasmanian Devils live on their own, and come out at night to hunt for food. They eat small birds and mammals, as well as insects. They have black coat and a small bear-shaped head.

There are 800 varieties of birds in Australia. Among them there are emus, eagles, hawks, parrots, cockatoos, lyrebirds, bower-birds, kookaburras and black swans.

The emu is a large bird which runs well but cannot fly. The emu and the kangaroo are represented at the emblem of Australia.

The kookaburra is a popular Australian bird that sounds like a human laughing.

Many beautiful Australian birds have unmelodious voices.

Some of Australia’s fauna can be very dangerous to people. There are crocodiles in the North. There are also spiders and poisonous snakes (death-adder and tiger snake, for example).

Though the emu and the kangaroo are symbols of Australia, there is a very popular animal which is less exotic but it also symbolizes the country. It is a sheep merino which is famous for its fine wool. There is even a monument to the sheep in one of the Australian cities.

Because Australian climate is good for sheep-farming there are a lot of sheep farms (called "sheep stations") in many parts of the country where wool is produced for export. There are around 150 million of sheep.

The climate in Australia is very dry. Because of this there are places like deserts where very little or almost nothing grows.

In the North there are tropical forests, in the north-east there are savannahs and grassland, in the south-east there are forests of eucalyptus or other ever-green trees which never lose their leaves, even in winter.

Some plants cannot be found in other parts of the world either. They are endemic. Its main native plants are wattle (or acacia), eucalyptus (or gum), mulga (mimosa), palm, fern and cedar.

Australia is sometimes called "Kangarooland" and "the Land of wattle", "the Lucky country" or "Down Under".

Перевод некоторых слов и географических названий:

the Commonwealth of Australia — Австралийский Союз (Содружество); Australia — Австралия (страна, континент); the island of Tasmania — о. Тасмания; Cocos Islands — Кокосовые о-ва; Kangaroo Island — о. Кенгуру; the Southern Hemisphere — Южное полушарие; the Timor Sea — Тиморское море; the Arafura — Арафурское море; Gulf of Carpentaria — залив Карпентария;Torres Strait — Торресов пролив; the Tasman Sea — Тасманово море; the Corral Sea — Коралловое море; Bass Strait — Бассов пролив; Indonesia — Индонезия; East Timor Island — о. Восточный Тимор; Papua New Guinea — Папуа-Новая Гвинея; the Solomon Islands — Соломоновы о-ва; Vanuatu — Вануату (страна); New Caledonia — Новая Каледония; the Great Dividing Range— Большой Водораздельный хребет; Kosciuszco — гора Косцюшко; the Kimberly Range — горы Кимберли; the Hamersley Range — хребет Хамерсли; the Flinders Range — хребет Флиндерс; Great Sandy Desert — Большая Песчаная пустыня; Great Victoria Desert — Большая пустыня Виктория; Simpson Desert — пустыня Симпсон; the Murray — р. Муррей; the Darling — р. Дарлинг; endemic — эндемический; свойственный данной местности; the kangaroo — кенгуру; the koala bear — коала; the wombat — вомбат (травоядное сумчатое животное); the echidna — ехидна; the platypus — утконос; the emu — эму (страус); the kookaburra — кукабарра, смеющийся зимородок; marsupial — сумчатый; the Tasmanian Devil — тасманский дьявол; merino — меринос (порода овец); wattle — австралийская акация или мимоза; eucalyptus — эвкалипт; gum — камедное дерево (сорт низкорослого эвкалипта); mulga — акация безжилковая; fern — папоротник; cedar — кедр