AUSTRALIA
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the world's smallest continent and a number of islands in the Southern, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the French dependency of New Caledonia to the northeast, and New Zealand to the southeast.
NAME
The name Australia is derived from the Latin Australis, meaning of the South. Legends of an "unknown land of the south" (terra australis incognita) dating back to Roman times were commonplace in mediaeval geography, but they were not based on any actual knowledge of the continent. The Dutch adjectival form Australische was used by Dutch officials in Batavia to refer to the newly discovered land to the south as early as 1638.
The first use of the word "Australia" in English was a 1693 translation of Les Aventures de Jacques Sadeur dans la Découverte et le Voyage de la Terre Australe, a 1692 French novel by Gabriel de Foigny under the pen name Jacques Sadeur.
POLITICS
The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy and has a parliamentary system of government. Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia, a role that is distinct from her position as monarch of the other Commonwealth Realms. The Queen is nominally represented by the Governor-General at Federal level and by the Governors at State level. Although the Constitution gives extensive executive powers to the Governor-General, these are normally exercised only on the advice of the Prime Minister.
There are three branches of government:
• The legislature: the Commonwealth Parliament, comprising the Queen, the Senate, and the House of Representatives; the Queen is represented by the Governor-General, who in practice only exercises constitutional power on the advice of the Prime Minister.
• The executive: the Federal Executive Council (the Governor-General as advised by the Executive Councillors); in practice, the councillors are the Prime Minister and Ministers of State.
• The judiciary: the High Court of Australia and other federal courts. The State courts became formally independent from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council when the Australia Act was passed in 1986.
There are three major political parties: the Labor Party, the Liberal Party and the National Party.
STATES AND TERRITORIES
Australia consists of six states, two major mainland territories, and other minor territories. The states are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. The two major mainland territories are the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.
Each state and territory has its own legislature (unicameral in the case of the Northern Territory, the ACT and Queensland, and bicameral in the remaining states).
Australia also has several minor territories; the federal government administers a separate area within New South Wales, the Jervis Bay Territory, as a naval base and sea port for the national capital. In addition Australia has the following, inhabited, external territories: Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and several largely uninhabited external territories: Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory.
FOREIGN RELATIONS AND THE MILITARY
Over recent decades, Australia's foreign relations have been driven by a close association with the United States, through the ANZUS pact and by a desire to develop relationships with Asia and the Pacific, particularly through ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum. Australia is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, in which the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings provide the main forum for co-operation. Much of Australia's diplomatic energy is focused on international trade liberalisation. Australia is a founding member of the United Nations, and maintains an international aid programme under which some 60 countries receive assistance.
Australia's armed forces — the Australian Defence Force (ADF) — comprise the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the Australian Army, and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), numbering about 53,000 in all. All branches of the ADF have been involved in UN and regional peacekeeping (most recently in East Timor, the Solomon Islands and Sudan), disaster relief, and armed conflict, including the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
Australia's 7,686,850 square kilometres (2,967,909 sq. mi) landmass is on the Indo-Australian Plate. Surrounded by the Indian, Southern and Pacific oceans, Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas. Australia has a total 25,760 kilometres (16,007 mi) of coastline and claims an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone of 8,148,250 square kilometres (3,146,057 sq. mi). This exclusive economic zone does not include the Australian Antarctic Territory.
The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast and extends for over 2,000 kilometres (1,250 mi). The world's largest monolith, Mount Augustus, is located in Western Australia.
By far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid. Australia is the driest inhabited continent, the flattest, and has the oldest and least fertile soils. Only the south-east and south-west corners of the continent have a temperate climate. The northern part of the country, with a tropical climate, has a vegetation consisting of rainforest, woodland, grassland, mangrove swamps and desert. Climate is highly influenced by ocean currents, including the El Niño southern oscillation, which is correlated with periodic drought, and the seasonal tropical low pressure system that produces cyclones in northern Australia.
FLORA AND FAUNA
About 85% of flowering plants, 84% of mammals, more than 45% of birds, and 89% of in-shore, temperate-zone fish are endemic.
Numerous protected areas have been created under the country's Biodiversity Action Plan to protect and preserve Australia's unique ecosystems, 64 wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention, and 16 World Heritage Sites have been established.
Most Australian woody plant species are evergreen and many are adapted to fire and drought, including many eucalyptus and acacias. Australia has a rich variety of endemic legume species.
Well-known Australian fauna include monotremes (the platypus and echidna); a host of marsupials, including the kangaroo, koala, wombat; and birds such as the emu, and kookaburra. The dingo was introduced by Austronesian people that traded with Indigenous Australians around 4000 BCE.
ECONOMY
Australia has a prosperous, Western-style mixed economy, with a per capita GDP slightly higher than the UK, Germany and France in terms of purchasing power parity.
The Australian economy has not suffered a recession since the early 1990s. As of July 2006, unemployment was 4.8% with 10,223,300 persons employed. The service sector of the economy, including tourism, education, and financial services, comprises 69% of GDP. Agriculture and natural resources comprise 3% and 5% of GDP but contribute substantially to Australia's export performance. Australia's largest export markets include Japan, China, the United States, South Korea and New Zealand.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Most of the estimated 20.6 million Australians are descended from nineteenth- and twentieth-century immigrants, the majority from Great Britain and Ireland.
Following the abolition of the White Australia policy in 1973, numerous government initiatives have been established to encourage and promote racial harmony based on a policy of multiculturalism.
The indigenous population — mainland Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders — was 410,003 (2.2% of the total population) in 2001.
In common with many other developed countries, Australia is experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population, with more retirees and fewer people of working age. A large number of Australians (759,849 for the period 2002–03) live outside their home country. Australia has maintained one of the most active immigration programmes in the world to boost population growth. Most immigrants are skilled, but the immigration quota includes categories for family members and refugees.
LANGUAGE
English is the official language, and is spoken and written in a distinct variety known as Australian English. According to the 2001 census, English is the only language spoken in the home for around 80% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Chinese languages (2.1%), Italian (1.9%) and Greek (1.4%).A considerable proportion of first- and second-generation migrants are bilingual.
An indigenous language remains the main language for about 50,000 (0.02%) people. Australia has a sign language known as Auslan, which is the main language of about 6,500 deaf people.
RELIGION
Australia has no state religion. The 2001 census identified that 68% of Australians call themselves Christian: 27% identifying themselves as Roman Catholic and 21% as Anglican. Australians who identify themselves as followers of non-Christian religions number 5%. A total of 16% were categorised as having "No Religion" (which includes non-theistic beliefs such as Humanism, atheism, agnosticism and rationalism) and a further 12% declined to answer or did not give a response adequate for interpretation.
EDUCATION
School attendance is compulsory throughout Australia between the ages of 6–15 years (16 years in South Australia and Tasmania, and 17 years in Western Australia), contributing to an adult literacy rate that is assumed to be 99%. Government grants have supported the establishment of Australia's 38 universities, and although several private universities have been established, the majority receive government funding. There is a state-based system of vocational training colleges, known as TAFE Institutes, and many trades conduct apprenticeships for training new tradespeople.
CULTURE
The primary basis of Australian culture until the mid-20th century was Anglo-Celtic, although distinctive Australian features had been evolving from the environment and indigenous culture. Over the past 50 years, Australian culture has been strongly influenced by American popular culture (particularly television and cinema), large-scale immigration from non-English-speaking countries, and Australia's Asian neighbours.
From the time of European settlement, a common theme in Australian art has been the Australian landscape, seen in the works of Arthur Streeton, Arthur Boyd and Albert Namatjira, among others.
Australia has an active tradition of music, ballet and theatre; many of its performing arts companies receive public funding through the federal government's Australia Council. There is a symphony orchestra in each capital city, and a national opera company, Opera Australia, first made prominent by the renowned diva Dame Joan Sutherland; Australian music includes classical, jazz, and many popular music genres.
In 1973, Patrick White was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the only Australian to have achieved this; he is recognised as one of the great English-language writers of the twentieth century.
Australia's film industry has achieved critical and commercial successes. Each major city has daily newspapers, and there are two national daily newspapers, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review.
23.5% Australians over the age of 15 regularly participate in organised sporting activities. At an international level, Australia has particularly strong teams in cricket, hockey, netball, rugby league, rugby union, and performs well in cycling, rowing and swimming. Nationally, other popular sports include Australian rules football, horse racing, soccer and motor racing.
