Australia

Australia is the name of the smallest of the seven continents and the nation that occupies it. The westernmost landmass of Oceania, it lies south of Papua New Guinea, with the Indian Ocean to the west, the South Pacific Ocean to the east, and the Southern Ocean between it and Antarctica.

The Commonwealth of Australia is the only sovereign nation to occupy an entire continent. It includes the island of Tasmania and seven external territories, including the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Aborigines inhabited Australia for tens of thousands of years, and it was only relatively recently discovered by Europeans (1606) and claimed for Great Britain by Captain James Cook in 1770. The British established the first European settlement in Australia at Sydney on 26 January 1788.

The six British colonies on the continent federated to form the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901.

Australia is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations, and a close ally of the United States of America.

Population

In August 2008, the population of Australia is estimated to be around 21.4 million.

Population distribution

In 2006, more than two-thirds (68%) of the Australian population (20.7 million at that time) lived in major cities, the remaining 32% living in regional and remote areas. The only part of Australia in which a significant proportion of the population is considered to live in remote (21.7%) or very remote (23.5%) areas is the Northern Territory. For all other states and territories, populations in those categories are in single digits (or even fractions of percentage points).

Population growth

Between 1996 and 2006 the Australian population grew by 2.4 million at an average annual rate of 1.2%. The greatest growth took place in the major cities, at an average annual rate of 1.6%. The population of inner regional areas continued to grow (0.8%) and that of outer regional areas remained generally stable, but in remote and very remote areas the population underwent a decline (-0.4% and -0.3% respectively) over the decade. Over the last five years of the decade, however, population growth slowed in the major cities and increased in the other areas.

Demographic characteristics

In 2006, the ratio of males to females in Australia was 99 to 100. There were more women than men in the major cities and inner regional areas, but this situation was reversed in more remote areas. The highest ratio of males to females was in very remote areas (113 males for every 100 females), probably because of the types of male-dominated industries common in those areas – agriculture, mining, etc.

The median age of the Australian population in 2006 was 37 years. In major cities, the median age was 36, in inner regional areas 39, and outer regional areas 38.

Australia's population is ageing. Between June 2001 and June 2006 the proportion of males and females aged 19 years and younger decreased, while the proportion of the population aged 55 or older generally increased. The median age of the population (the age at which half the population is younger and half older), was 36.6 years in June 2006, up from the 35.7 years in June 2001 and 34 years in June 1996.

Indigenous Australian population

At 30 June 2006, the preliminary estimated population of Indigenous Australians (Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders) was 517,200, some 2.5% of the total population. In marked contrast with the population as a whole, in 2006 only 32% of Indigenous people lived in major cities, significantly lower than the 68% of the general population who do so. Some 43% of Indigenous people lived in inner or outer regional areas, 10% in remote areas and 16% in very remote areas. Indigenous people therefore made up 48% of the overall population in very remote areas and 16% in remote areas.

The majority of Indigenous people live in New South Wales (29%), Queensland (28%), Western Australia (15%) and the Northern Territory (13%).

Indigenous Australians comprise only a small percentage of the total population in the states and the Australian Capital Territory. In the Northern Territory, by contrast, almost one-third of the population is of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin.

Geography

One of about 210 countries in the world, at 7,610,930 km² comprises 5% of the land area of the globe, but is the sixth-largest country on the planet (after Russia, Canada, China, the USA and Brazil).

Dimensions and extremities

Of the six largest countries, Australia is the only one surrounded by water and has a total coastline length of 59,736 km. Of that, almost 40% (23,859 km) is made up of island coastlines, with the remaining 35,877 km surrounding the mainland.

Australia is almost 3700 km long from its most northerly point (Cape York, on the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, latitude 10º41'21"S longitude 142º31'50" E) to its most southerly point in Tasmania (South East Cape, 28º38'15"S 153º38'14"E). The southernmost mainland point of Australia is South Point, on Wilson's Promontory, Victoria (39º08'20"S 146º22'26"E).

From east to west, Australia is almost 4000 km wide. The easternmost point is Cape Byron, at Byron Bay, NSW (28º38'15"S 153º38'14"E), while the western extremity of Australia is at Steep Point, Shark Bay, WA (26º09'5"S 113º09'18"E).

States and territories

Australia comprises five states and two major territories, as well as several smaller territories with varying degrees of habitation. Each state and major territory has a capital city, which is the seat of the state or territory government. The Australian Capital Territory has at its capital Canberra, which is also the national capital of the Commonwealth of Australia.

State/Territory	Abbreviation	Capital	Population (2007 est.)	Area (km2)
Australian Capital Territory	ACT	Canberra	340,800	2,358
New South Wales	NSW	Sydney	6.9 million	800,642
Northern Territory	NT	Darwin	217,600	1,349,129
Queensland	Qld	Brisbane	4.2 million	1,730,648
South Australia	SA	Adelaide	1.6 million	983,482
Tasmania	Tas	Hobart	495,800	68,401
Victoria	Vic	Melbourne	5.2 million	227,416
Western Australia	WA	Perth	2.1 million	2,529,875

Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Geoscience Australia (see notes below)

External territories

Australia has seven external territories, which range from hundreds to thousands of kilometres from the mainland. These include:

• Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (14 km²)
• Territory of Christmas Island (135 km²)
• Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands (2 km²)
• Coral Sea Islands Territory (approx. 81 km²)
• Norfolk Island (35 km²)
• Australian Antarctic Territory (5.9 million km² excluding sea, 6.1 million km² including sea)
• Territory of Heard and McDonald Islands (370 km²)

Oceans and seas

Australia retains the right to explore and exploit the seabed and waters in the nation's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which totals 8,148,250 km² (one of the largest EEZ's in the world, the total area exceeding the country's land area). The EEZ generally extends to a limit 200 nautical miles from Australia's coastline, including her external territories.

Economy

Australia a strong economy and a per capita GDP (US$37,500, 2007 est.) comparable with the four most powerful European economies. The economy has in recent years been buoyed by strong business and consumer confidence, and by robust export prices for raw materials and agricultural produce. Over the past almost two decades the Australian government has emphasised economic reform and low inflation, encouraged a booming housing market, and strengthened ties with China, which has led to relatively consistent expansion of the economy.

An extended drought across much of rural Australia, high demand for imports, and a strong currency have, however, led to an increased trade deficit in recent years. Constraints on export growth and inflation concerns have been created by infrastructure bottlenecks and a tight labour market.

Despite this, however, strong revenue growth has seen the Australian budget remain in surplus since 2002.

Politics

Australia is a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. She is represented by the governor-general, who holds broad, but for the most part nominal, executive powers.

Australia’s head of government is Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The Deputy Prime Minister is Julia Gillard. The Opposition is the Liberal Party, led by Brendan Nelson.

The Australian system of government is based on that of the United Kingdom (the Westminster system), with elements of that of the USA. Parliament comprises two houses. The House of Representatives (lower house) is where most legislature is initiated. Members of Parliament in this house are elected to represent seats based on population. The Senate (upper house) is generally considered a house of review. Each state of the Commonwealth of Australia elects an equal number of Senators. Unlike many other countries, voting is compulsory for all Australian citizens aged 18 or over.

Australia has close relations with the United States and Asia, and has special trade treaties with both. Australia currently has a free-trade agreement with the United States.

History

Precolonial Aboriginal history

According to archaeological evidence, Aborigines were living in Australia at least 40,000 years ago. However, a skeleton found at Lake Mungo, NSW, is believed perhaps to have been buried between 57,000 and 71,000 years ago. While it is unknown exactly how Aborigines first reached Australia, recent DNA evidence strongly suggests that they originated from Africa and then continued to evolve in relative isolation.

The Aborigines, like many other indigenous and ethnic groups, have a rich oral tradition based on the Dreaming (the Aborigines' preferred term for what is often also referred to as the Dreamtime or Dreamtimes), when the ancestral beings moved across the land, creating life and significant geographic landmarks. Translated from the Arrernte language, the Dreaming is known as Tjurkurrpa, meaning also "to see and understand the law". Dreaming stories perform a critical role in Aboriginal culture, passing crucial knowledge, cultural values and belief systems from one generation to the next. These stories, passed on through storytelling, painting, song and dance, provide a link for modern Aborigines between ancient times and now.

Prior to the arrival of European colonists, Aborigines lived as hunters, fishers and gatherers, often nomadic across large areas, in groups of between 25 and 50 people. Estimates of the Aboriginal population at European settlement vary, but there may have been around 750,000 people speaking some 700 languages. These numbers dropped sharply after 1788 because of diseases introduced by Europeans, and the killing of large numbers of Aborigines by settlers.

Precolonial contact and exploration

Although traditional 19th- and 20th-century tellings of Australian history had Captain James Cook "discovering" the Great South Land in 1770, there is a much longer history of Aboriginal contact with people from other nations. It is now well-documented that Macassan traders, from the eastern part of modern Indonesia, were visiting and trading with northern-Australian Aborigines for at least 100 years prior to European settlement in 1788.

Nor was Cook the first European to set eyes on the southern continent. A number of European explorers sailed the coast of Australia in the 17th century. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, for example, charted the coast of what is now Tasmania in 1642, and of northern Australia during a second voyage in 1644. English explorer and sometime buccaneer William Dampier explored the western and north-western coastline during voyages in 1688 and 1699. Although Tasman claimed Tasmania for the Netherlands (a claim never followed through), it was Cook who first claimed part of mainland Australia for a European nation, when, in 1770, he charted the east coast and claimed it for England.

Settlement

The British established a penal colony at Port Jackson (now Sydney) on 26 January 1788 (and event now celebrated annually as Australia Day). Another penal colony was established in Tasmania (then called Van Diemen's Land) in 1803.

Free settlers began to arrive in the colony from the 1790s, and wheat and merino sheep were also introduced in the late 18th century. The government initially granted land to settlers, but by 1831 the sale of land had been introduced, with the proceeds helping to finance the passage of more migrants. It is estimated that the land sales paid for the migration of some 50,000 settlers over the next ten years.

As settlement spread and the country opened up, squatters began to occupy grazing land. The government recognised these squatters in 1836 and introduced a licence fee of £10 a year.

Meanwhile, free settlers had begun to resent competition for their jobs with convicts, and the policy of transporting felons began to fall out of favour in Britain. Transportation to NSW ceased in 1840, and to Tasmania in 1853. It was reintroduced briefly in WA – between 1853 and 1867 – to provide labour in the settlement there. In total, some 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia between 1788 and 1867.

Growth and self-government

Many of the free settlers arrived with notions of representative government in mind, and demand for self-government grew throughout the 1830s and 1840s. This was granted in 1850, with the British passed the Australian Colonies Government Act, which allowed the colonies a significant degree of independence. Under the Act colonies could, for example, amend their constitutions, determine electoral franchise and fix tariffs.

The discovery of gold in NSW and Victoria in 1851 led to a large influx of migrants. The population of Victoria quadrupled by 1855. The Australian economy was now firmly based on wool and gold.

The large holdings of squatters were now preventing small farmers from purchasing land, so most colonies tried to break them up, although with limited success. Trade unions also began to emerge, particularly among miners and shearers, and the 1880s saw intermittent industrial unrest.

In 1890 wharf labourers went on strike over the issue of employers' rights to engage non-union labour, and miners and farm workers also became involved. The strike was put down by troops and special police, but this did not deter further strike action over the same issue in the 1890s. During this period labour became a political force and the Australian Labor Party emerged; after the 1891 elections it held the balance of power in NSW.

The final decade of the 19th century was difficult for Australia. An extended drought combined with industrial unrest, overexpansion and excessive borrowing to cause bank failures and a financial crisis.

It was becoming apparent that, too, that the independent nature of the various colonies caused problems, such as differing postal systems and railway gauges, and the absence of a unified defence policy. When Victoria (soon followed by all colonies except NSW) introduced a trade protection policy in 1866, it began to become clear that some form of intercolonial cooperation was needed.

In 1883 the first of a series of intercolonial conferences aimed at closer ties was held, but it failed to make any significant headway. The first Australian Federal Convention then met in 1891, and made initial moves towards a unified nation. The convention, comprising members of the colonial parliaments, worked out a draft constitution that later became the basis for federation.

On 1 January 1901 the colonies of NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania federated to become the Commonwealth of Australia. (The Northern Territory, at that time under South Australia governance, was transferred to commonwealth control in 1911.)

From federation to war

Under the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia, the federal government was to control foreign affairs, defence, trade, and so on. The first piece of legislation passed by the new parliament was the Immigration Restriction Act (1901), which put in place what became known as the White Australia Policy. This was aimed especially at keeping out Chinese immigrants, who had arrived in large numbers to work the goldfields, but also caused the repatriation of Pacific Islanders, many of whom were working on sugar plantations in Queensland.

A great deal of social legislation was also passed during this period, however. In 1902 women were given the vote in federal elections. An industrial arbitration court, which established the principle of a basic wage, was set up in 1906. Free and compulsory education was introduced, as were old-age and invalid pensions.

The first ship of the Australian navy was ordered in 1909. The Commonwealth Bank was established in 1911, and in the same year the Commonwealth bought land from NSW to form the federal capital, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory. Parliament first met there in 1927.

World War I: Baptism of fire

Australia's role during World War I, although relatively minor in global terms, is considered very significant taking into account the size of the nation and the toll of the war on its population. The war remains the most costly conflict in the nation's history, in terms of deaths and casualties. Of a population of fewer than 5 million, 416,809 men enlisted. Of those, more than 60,000 died and 156,000 wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.

The initial reaction to the outbreak of war was, in Australia as in many other places, one of exuberant enthusiasm. Such were the numbers of volunteers for the armed services that the authorities were able to be very particular about physical standards for recruits. (These standards were significantly lowered later in the war, as casualties and decreasing numbers of volunteers took their toll.)

The new soldiers expected to be sent straight to Europe, but instead found themselves in Egypt, training to meet the threat the Ottoman Empire posed to British interests in the Middle East. After four and a half months of training near Cairo, the Australians boarded ships for the Gallipoli peninsula, together with troops from Britain, France and New Zealand. They were to take part in an ambitious campaign with the multiple aims of knocking the Ottomans out of the war, exposing the "soft underbelly" of their German and Austro-Hungarian enemies in Europe, and opening a passage for shipping supplies and munitions to the Russians via the Black Sea.

World War II: Defending the nation

During World War II, Australia raised forces of 858,000 men out of a population of 7 million. It sent the AIF with most of the army to help the British in Libya and the Middle East, and part of the air force to Britain; it sent troops to Singapore just before it was captured. Japan's thrust to the south, including a "little Pearl Harbor" at Darwin, seemed to threaten an invasion, as the Australians drew up plans to hold the line at Brisbane if invaded. The Japanese did invade New Guinea but when they moved south it was stopped by the U.S. Navy at the Battle of Coral Sea. The Japanese did not plan to invade Australia, but did want to cut the trans-Pacific shipping lines. Australia then shifted to a close alliance with the United States, welcoming theatre commander Douglas MacArthur and putting its combat forces under his command as a million Yanks came through (with 500,000 at the peak in May 1944). Years of jungle fighting drove the Japanese out of New Guinea, and at war's end the Australian army had invaded Borneo.

Living in a Cold War world

Australia took part in both the Vietnam War and second Iraq War. The government supports the "War on Terrorism", although, as in the United States, this campaign has both its supporters and detractors in the general population.

The Whitlam era

Many Aborigines exist today, and there is a large ethnically mixed population with Aboriginal inheritance as well. Some Aborigines are able to continue their native traditions and some have been assimilated into the larger society, while others remain at odds with society in general and feel that they have not been been adequately compensated for many years of disenfranchisement and mistreatment. Recently, many initiatives have been taken to increase the quality of life of the Aborigines. An important step in improving relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians was Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's speech of 13 February 2008. Rudd apologised for past wrongs against Aborigines and spoke of a future in which Australians of all races were united.

Further reading

• Bambrick, Susan ed. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Australia (1994)
• Appleton, Richard, and Barbara Appleton. The Cambridge Dictionary of Australian Places (1993)
• Barker, Anthony. What Happened When: A Chronology of Australia from 1788. Allen & Unwin. 2000. online edition
• Clarke, Frank G. The History of Australia (2002). online edition
• Davison, Graeme, John Hirst, and Stuart Macintyre, eds. The Oxford Companion to Australian History, (2001) excerpt and text search
• Firth, Stewart. Australia in International Politics: An Introduction to Australian Foreign Policy (2005). online edition
• Hughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding (1988).
• Jupp, James, ed. The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins (2nd ed. 2002) 960pp excerpt and text search
• Moran, Anthony. Australia: Nation, Belonging, and Globalization (2004) online edition
• O'Shane, Pat et al. Australia: The Complete Encyclopedia (2001)
• Penney, Barry. Australia - Culture Smart!: a quick guide to customs and etiquette (2006)
• Shaw, John, ed. Collins Australian Encyclopedia (1984)
• Serle. Percival, ed. Dictionary of Australian Biography (1949)online edition

External Links

Australian Government Website

Indigenous Australians Government Website