The British Commonwealth of Nations

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
/Commonwealth of Australia/

Geography
Australia is the smallest continent and the biggest island in the world. It is situated between the Pacific and the Indian Ocean.
There are two greatest deserts in Australia: the Great Sandy Desert and the Great Victoria Desert. They are red, orange, and brown and strenge rocks can be found there. Ayers Rock, the largest piece of rock in the world, is the most famous of them. Australia has two big rivers, the Murray and the Darling, and three lakes: Lake Eyre, Lake Torrensand Lake Gairdner. The highest mountain is Mount Kosciusko /2,228 m/.
Australia has many different kinds of climate: tropical in the north, continental in the interior, sub – tropical or temperate in the rest of the continent. The south – east coast has pleasantly warm summers and mild winters; the Australian Alps have snow for almost half the year. A long tine of mountains in the east, known as the Great Dividing Range, divides the wet coast of eastern Australia from the dry lands in the centre.
Australia is famous for its animals. The kangaroo is a strange animal whose female has a pouch in which its young are carried. The koala is a treeclimbing mammal. The emu is a large bird that runs well but cannot fly. And the platypus is probably the world’s strangest animal. New Zealand is to be found south – east of Australia. It consists of two large islands, the North Island and the South Island. New Zealand is mainly mountainous. Mount Cook in Southern Alps in the South Island is 3, 764 m high. The North Island is predominantly famous for its volcanic area. It also has many small lakes. The climate is very pleasant. Population
Australia and New Zealand were discovered by the Dutch in the 17th century /Abel Tasman/. Later Captain James Cook explored the coasts of the islands. When the first white people from Europe came to Australia, about 300,000 Australian Aborigines were living there.They understood and loved their land but Europeans wanted it, many of them died. Now there are about 200,000 Aborigines, they live in government reserves, but also in some cities.
In Australian english a lot of words are made by shortening everyday words: Oz – Australia , barbie – barbecue, ta – thank you ...Australians prefer short words.
Sheep and cattle farmers live on isolated farms called stations in Australia. The farmers do not often go to towns.