Important Facts about Australia

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Australia is the world’s smallest continent and is also known as an ‘island continent’ as it is surrounded by water on all sides.
The official name of Australia is the Commonwealth of Australia.
The continent of Australia is often called Sahul, Australinea, or Meganesia to differentiate it from the country of Australia.
Australia lies entirely on the south of the equator and is often called the country “down under”.

The name Australia comes from the Latin word ‘australis’ meaning ‘southern’.
Of all the continents in the world, Australia stands at the top of wool production and import. This is because the sheep population in the world’s smallest continent is 14 times that of its human population.
Australia is home to over 500 varieties of eucalyptus trees.
Two-thirds of Australia is desert land.
The world’s largest coral reef — the Great Barrier Reef — is around 2000 kilometres long.
The unique animals of Australia are — kangaroo, emu, and platypus.

River Murray and Darling is the main river system.
The temperate grassland of Australia known as the Downs is found in the Murray Darling basins of the South Eastern part. Cultivation is profitably done in the down areas where Mitchel grasses are grown.
Canterbury grassland is found in New Zealand.
Kulin is the Aboriginal tribe of Australia.
Lake Eyre is the largest lake as well as the lowest point in Australia.

Instead of Australia, the name of the region including and surrounding Australia is often called ‘Oceania’.
Oceania is a common term used for considering the smaller landmasses on the Pacific Ocean, primarily Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea.
It also includes the three island regions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia (including the US state of Hawaii).
Oceania can be divided into three island groups, where each group is made of different materials: continental islands, high islands, and low islands.
Geologically, Australia is one of the seven continents of the world and the term is very much used in physical geography. Australia includes the islands of Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania, Seram and a number of others.

On the other hand, Oceania, which is not a part of the geological continent, includes the micro-continent of Zealandia, Micronesia, Polynesia, non-continental parts of Melanesia etc.

Mountain Ranges: Facts about Australia

It has been divided into three major island groups Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
Melanesia: also known as Black Islands and congregated around north and east of Australia. some of the major islands are East Timor, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Micronesia: also called as Little Islands is the agglomeration of islands such as Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, etc.
Polynesia: also known as Many Lands which expands from the islands of Midway in the north to New Zealand in the south and includes a series of islands such as American Samoa Cook Islands, French Polynesia, etc.

Australia: Gibson Desert, Great Sandy Desert, Great Victoria Desert(sixth largest in the world), Simpson Desert, Little Sandy Desert, etc.
New Zealand: Rangipo Desert