Australia is lying south-east of Asia between the Indian Ocean on the west and Pacific Ocean on the east. The island of Tasmania forms part of the Australian commonwealth.The original inhabitants of Australia were people called Aborigines. The continent was discovered by a Dutch navigator William Jansz on the northern coast in 1606.And in 1643 the captain Abel Tasman landed on the island ,which was eventually named after him -TASMANIA.In 1770 James Cook became the first European to sight and explore Australia’s east coast.The first white settlement there was made up of about 730 prisoners sent there to relieve overcrowding in British prisons. They landed on east coast and near by settlement was the beginning of the city of Sydney.1860 was in the south-west discovered the gold and most people which didn’t find enough gold to pay their passage to home stayed there.Australia is divided into four regions: the low narrow plain along the coast,the eastern highlands,the central plains,the arid western-covering most of the western half of the continent. There are two big desserts-the Great Sandy and Great Victoria Desert.The only fertile western area is the Swanland and south-east which has some rainfall throughout the Year.Australia is also divided into three mayor land regions: from west to east 1.THE WESTERN PLATEAU-mostly vast desert, covered approximately 2/3 of Australia and covers the entire state of western Australia. 2.THE CENTRAL LOWLANDS-cover roughly the eastern half of Australia. This area is quite hot, dry and flat. 3.THE EASTERN HIGHLANDS-cover eastern edge of Australia. More rain falls on the coastal plain than anywhere in the country.Australia isn’t densely populated. There are only about 15 million inhabitants mostly of British original and about 125 000 aborigines living in Australia. The most heavily populated part of Australia is area from Brisbane to Melbourne.The commonwealth of Australia is an independent self covering country within the British commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth 2 is Head of State.The capital Canberra is the seat of Federal Parliament, which consist of two houses The SENATE and THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. The largest cities are Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.Australia’s highest mountain are Australian Alps in the extreme southern part of the eastern Highlands.MONT KOSCIUSKO,2228 meters high in the Snowy Mountain range.