Australia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Commonwealth of Australia is the sixth largest country in the world (geographically), the only one to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in Australasia. Australia includes the island of Tasmania, which is an Australian State. New Zealand is to the southeast; and Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor to its north. The name 'Australia' comes from the Latin phrase terra australis incognita ("unknown southern land", see Terra Australis).

Commonwealth of Australia

(In Detail) (Full size)
National motto: None
Official language	English
Capital	Canberra
Largest City	Sydney
Queen	Elizabeth II
Governor-General	Michael Jeffery
Prime Minister	John Howard
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 6th 7,686,850 kmē 1%
Population  - Total (2003)  - Density	Ranked 53rd 20,003,249 3/kmē
GDP  - Total (2002)  - GDP/head	Ranked 16th $525.5 billion $26,631.88
Independence - Constitution Act - Statute of Westminster - Australia Act	From the UK: 1 January 1901 December 11, 1931 3 March 1986
Currency	Australian dollar
Time zone	UTC +8 to +11
National anthem	Advance Australia Fair
Internet TLD	.au
Calling Code	61

Table of contents

1 History 2 Government 2.1 Legal basis 3 Politics 4 States and Territories 5 Geography 6 Flora and Fauna 7 Economy 8 Demographics 9 Culture 10 See also 11 Miscellaneous topics 12 External links

History

Main article: History of Australia

Australia is thought to have been inhabited for at least 50,000 years, since the remote ancestors of the current Australian Aborigines arrived from present-day Southeast Asia.

The land was not discovered by Europeans until the 17th century, when it was sighted and visited by several expeditions: the Spanish Luis Vaez de Torres (1606) and the Dutch explorers Willem Jansz (1606), Jan Carstensz (1623), Dirck Hartog and Abel Tasman. The Dutch called the continent New Holland.

The first English explorers were Willem Dampier in 1688 and James Cook, who in 1770 claimed the eastern two-thirds of the continent for Britain, despite orders from King George III to first conclude a treaty with the indigenous population. His report to London that Australia was uninhabited provided impetus for the establishment of a penal colony there following the loss of the American colonies. The colony of New South Wales was established in Sydney by captain and governor Arthur Phillip on January 26, 1788 as a British Crown Colony. The date of arrival of the First Fleet later became the date of Australia Day. The Colony of Van Diemen's Land (i.e. the present day Tasmania) was founded in 1803. The rest of the continent, that is Western Australia, was formally claimed by the United Kingdom in 1829. Following the spread of British settlement, separate Colonies were created from parts of New South Wales: South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851 and Queensland in 1859. The Northern Territory was founded, as part of the Colony of South Australia, in 1863.

During the period of 1855-1890, the six Crown Colonies each successively became self-governing colonies, which managed most of their own affairs. The British government retained control of some matters, especially foreign affairs, defence, international shipping. Despite its heavily rural based economy Australia remained highly urbanised, centred particularly around the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. In the 1880s 'Marvellous Melbourne' was the second largest city in the British Empire. Australia also gained a reputation as a 'working man's paradise' and as a laboratory for social reform, with the world's first secret ballot and first national Labour Party government.

On 1 January 1901, federation of the Colonies occurred and the Commonwealth of Australia was born, as a dominion of the British Empire. The Australian Capital Territory, centred on the new federal capital of Canberra, was separated from New South Wales in 1911. Although Australia had become independent, the British government retained some powers over Australia until the Statute of Westminster in 1931, and the authority of the UK Parliament was not completely severed until 1986). Aboriginal inhabitants were also generally denied both citizenship and the vote until the Constitution was altered by referendum in 1967.

Australia is a constitutional monarchy, with Elizabeth II reigning as 'Queen of Australia'. In 1999, a referendum was held on constitutional change to a republic, with an appointed President replacing the Queen as head of state, but this was rejected.

See also: Australian Constitutional History

Government

The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy: the Queen of Australia is considered to be the head of state, although that term is found nowhere in the Constitution or the law. The Queen is represented by the Governor-General. Under the Australian Constitution the role of the monarch is almost entirely ceremonial. Although the constitution gives significant executive power to the Governor-General, these powers are rarely used and are usually delegated to the Cabinet, whose members are chosen by the governing party or by the Prime Minister alone, from amongst the current members of the parliament.

Government is undertaken by three inter-connected arms of government:

• Legislature - Commonwealth Parliament
• Executive - Ministers and their Departments
• Judiciary - High Court of Australia and subsidiary Federal courts.

Separation of Powers is the principle whereby the three arms of government undertake their activities separate from the others:

• the Legislature makes the laws, and supervises the activites of the other two arms with a view to changing the laws when appropriate;
• the Executive enacts the laws;
• the Judiciary interprets the laws, using as a basis the laws as enacted and explanatory statements made in the Legislature during the enactment;
• the other arms cannot influence the Judiciary.

Legal basis

The legal basis for the nation changed with the passage of the Australia Act 1986, and associated legislation in the parliament of Great Britain. Until the passage of this act, Australian cases could be referred to the highest courts of Great Britain and even to the Privy Council for final appeal. With this act of parliament, Australian law was made unequivocally the law in the nation, and the High Court of Australia was confirmed as the single highest court of appeal. The theoretical possibility of the British Parliament enacting laws to override the Australian Constitution was also removed.(Act:pdf) (http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/1/973/pdf/AustraliaAct86.pdf)

Politics

Main article: Politics of Australia

Australia has a bicameral federal Parliament, comprising a Senate (or upper house) with 76 Senators, and a House of Representatives (or lower house) with 150 Members. Members of the lower house are elected on a population basis from single-member constituencies, known technically as 'divisions' but more commonly, as 'electorates' or 'seats'. The more populous the state, the more members it will have in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, each state regardless of population is represented by twelve Senators, and each mainland territory by two. Elections for both chambers are held every three years, usually with only one half of the Senate being eligible for reelection, as the Senators have overlapping terms of six years each. The government is formed in the lower house, and the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives is the Prime Minister. On only one short-lived occasion has a Senator become Prime Minister.

An exception to the constitutional conventions occurred on November 11, 1975, when Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam. This remains the single most controversial event in Australian political history.

See also: Republicanism in Australia

States and Territories

Main article: Australian States and Territories

Australia is divided into six states and several territories. The states are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. The two major territories are the Northern Territory (NT) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The ACT also incorporates a separate area within New South Wales known as Jervis Bay Territory which serves as a naval base and sea port for the national capital.

Australia also has several inhabitated external territories (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands) and several largely uninhabited external territories: Coral Sea Islands Territory, Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

The Australian Capital Territory was created at the chosen site of the capital city Canberra. Canberra was founded as a compromise between the two largest cities, Melbourne and Sydney. The name 'Canberra' is derived from the indigenous Ngunnawal language.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Australia

By far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid — 40% of the land mass is covered by sand dunes. Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate: part is tropical rainforests, part grasslands, and part desert. The Great Barrier Reef, by far the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast and extends for over 1,200 kilometres. Uluru (until 1986 known as Ayers Rock), is the largest monolith in the world and is located in central Australia.

See also: Protected areas of Australia, List of regions in Australia, List of mountains in Australia

Flora and Fauna

Main articles: Australian fauna, Australian flora

Although most of the continent is desert or semi-arid, Australia nevertheless includes a diverse range of habitats, from alpine heaths to tropical rainforests. Because of the great age of the continent, its very variable weather patterns, and its long-term geographic isolation, much of Australia's biota is unique.

See also: Australian birds

Economy

Main article: Economy of Australia

Australia's economic development was slow at first and based on the export of wool. This all changed with the discovery of gold in 1851 and mining has, overall, been the most important sector of the Australian economy. By the late 20th Century, Australia had a prosperous Western-style mixed economy, with a per capita GDP on par with the four dominant Western European economies. In recent years, the Australian economy has been resilient in the face of global economic downturn, with steady growth. Rising output in the domestic economy has been offsetting the global slump, and business and consumer confidence remains robust. Australia's emphasis on reforms is another key factor behind the economy's strength.

The Australian economy has not suffered a recession or "trough" in the business cycle in 13 years. Even the downturn of the early 2000s did not affect its consistent GDP growth.

Many raw materials (including resources postulated to exist but yet to be discovered) remain mostly unexploited. Australia is often referred to by economists as the "world's farm", but despite this emphasis on the agriculture sector, in recent years the Australian government has been focusing on the tourism, education and technology markets.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Australia

Most of the Australian population descends from 19th and 20th century immigrants, most from Britain and Ireland to begin with, but from other sources in later years. Although Australia was founded as a penal colony, the transportation of British convicts to Australian colonies was gradually phased out between 1840 and 1868. During the "gold rush" of the late 19th century, the convicts and their descendants were rapidly overshadowed by hundreds of thousands of free settlers from many different countries: for example, in the 1850s about two per cent of the combined populations of Britain and Ireland emigrated to New South Wales and Victoria.

By the late 20th century many inhabitants were of Greek, Italian or Asian descent. The indigenous population, the Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, make up 2.2% of the population, according to the 2001 Census. In common with many other developed countries, Australia is currently experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population, with more people retiring and fewer people of working age.

Because of the ageing population, Australia maintains one of the most active immigration programs in the world, absorbing tens of thousands of immigrants from all over the world every year. Most permanent resident visas are granted on the basis of professional skills or family associations.

New Zealanders are granted Special Category Visas on arrival in Australia, which allow them to remain in Australia to live or work indefinitely. However, New Zealand citizens are excluded from government subsidised tertiary education or other advantages granted to Australian citizens and permanent residents. Until 2001, New Zealanders were entitled to unemployment benefits in Australia on arrival in the country, but now they may only claim these after two years, as is the norm for permanent residents of other nationalities.

English is the main official and spoken language in Australia, although some of the surviving Aboriginal communities maintain their native languages, and a considerable number of first and sometimes second-generation migrants are bilingual.

Although the nation is broadly secular and few are church-goers, three-quarters of Australians are nominally Christian, mostly Catholic or Anglican. A diverse range of other religions are practised.

See also: List of cities in Australia

Culture

Main article: Culture of Australia

See also

• Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Federal Government funded national TV and radio
• Art of Australia
• Cinema of Australia
• Music of Australia
• Australian public holidays

Miscellaneous topics

• List of Australians
• Communications in Australia
• Transportation in Australia
• Foreign relations of Australia
• Military of Australia
• Stamps and postal history of Australia
• List of Australian Awards
• Australian of the Year Award
• RACA - motoring organisation
• Australian English
• Australia's Big Things

External links

• Australian Tourist Commission (http://www.australia.com)
• Australian government information (http://www.fed.gov.au/)
• Australian History (http://www.austemb.org/history.htm) — from the Washington Embassy
• Open Directory Project: Australia (http://dmoz.org/Regional/Oceania/Australia/)
• Interactive real story of Nineteenth century emigration from Britain to Australia (http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/nof/emigrants/)
• Gallery of Australia Photographs (http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/gallery/lcatntoc.htm#Australi) Attractions primarily in Queensland and the Northern Territory
• Guide to Australia (http://www.csu.edu.au/australia) Provides essential information about Australia
• Backpacking in Australia (http://www.ausmag.net) Insider information about backpacking in Australia
• CIA - The World Factbook — Australia (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/as.html) - CIA's Factbook on Australia