Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the smallest continent and the state in the World too. Australia is the sixth largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, the United States of America and Brazil. It has a small population.

The major Island is Tasmania. Neighbouring countries include for example Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and New Zeland. The capital city is Canberra but this city is not so huge, it has only about 260000 inhabitants. The population of Australia is more than 20 million people and is concentrated in the large cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. The first human habitation of Australia is estimated 42,000 and 48,000 years ago. The first Australians were the ancestors of the Australians who know we today.

Politics

The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia. Nowadays queen is only a symbolic queen because Australia has own prime minister.

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. Australia has territoties far from its coast too. For example Christmas Island. An some territoris are uninhabitet.

Geography

We can find there the world's largest coral reef witch is more than 2000 kilometers long. The world's largest monolith, Mount Augustus, is located in Western Australia and and covers 47.95 km². The highest point on the mainland is Mount Kosciuszko, is only 2228 metres high. In these country we can find a lot of rainforests, woodlands, grasslands and swamps and deserts.

Flora and fauna

Australia is famous for it’s unique fauna and flora. The typical tree of Australia is eucalyptus and accacia. There are many strange animals: emu, bear, platypus, kangaroo. We can see there, parrots, black swans, nocturnal animals, dingos and marsupials. And from flowers for example cangaroo paw, and waratak.

Cities and buildings

In Canberra there are all important buildings like National University, National Library of Australia, High Court of Australia and the Australian National Gallery. Sydney is the largest city and the port of Australia. It lies in Port Jackson Bay, which is crossed by the long and famous bridge called the Harbour Bridge. The well known Opera House lies in the bay near the bridge. Sydney has two universities – Sydney University and University of South Wales. There are many skyscrapers in Sydney. The tower named Centre Point is 305 meters high and is the highest building in the southern hemisphere. Sydney has 3 million inhabitants. Sydney is rich in parks and it also has the Royal Botanic Garden with many exotic plants.