THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=JD3SKTYXZCE

ALBERT NAMATJIRA

An Australian artist The best known Aboriginal painter Best known for his watercolour desert landscapes

A. NAMATJIRAS LANDSCAPES

Do you know: Who was Clancy (mentioned in the song)? Who was Ned Kelly? What does waltz Matilda mean? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BOfmQQ YWdk

(original version of the song by Banjo Patterson)

ETYMOLOGY
Australia derived from the Latin australis, meaning "southern The country has been referred to colloquially as Oz since the early 20th century.
is common colloquially, as an adjective and noun for "Australian".

Aussie

THE FLAG OF AUSTRALIA

A blue field with the Union Jack in the canton (upper hoist quarter), and a large white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Star in the lower hoist quarter. The fly contains a representation of the Southern Cross constellation, made up of five white stars one small five-pointed star and four, larger, seven-pointed stars.

THE FLAG OF AUSTRALIA:

The Union Jack reffers to Australian historical links with Great Britain

Southern Cross

Commonwealth Star ( Star of Federation)

FACTS ABOUT AUSTRALIA:

A land of big contrasts

The smallest, flattest, driest and most sparsely populated continent on earth after Antarctica
Situated below Asia and bordered by the Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans Is about the same size as the United States (not including Alaska) Total area: nearly 7.7 million square km

FACTS ABOUT AUSTRALIA

Two thirds of Australia is desert, yet it has one of the richest ecosystems to be found anywhere Australia was isolated for at least 55 million years so it created a sanctuary for plants and wildlife with many species not found anywhere else on earth Australia has all five of the worlds temperature zones: tropical, subtropical, temperate, subpolar and polar

MAP OF AUSTRALIA
Australia Includes: Tasmania and numerous other islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Neighbouring countries:

- Indonesia - East Timor - Papua New Guinea (the nearest country to Australia (!) not New Zealand) - the Solomon Islands - Vanuatu - New Caledonia - New Zealand

Population: Capital:

over 21 million inhabitants Canberra

Six states: - New South Wales (Sydney) - Queensland (Brisbane) - South Australia (Adelaide) - Tasmania (Hobart) - Victoria (Melbourne) - Western Australia (Perth)

Two territories:
- the Northern Territory (Darwin) - the Australian Capital Territory ACT (Canberra)

TOPOGRAPHY
The continent of Australia is divided into four general topographic regions:

Eastern Coastal Plain

the Eastern Highlands ranging from 300 to more than 2,100 m in altitude and extending from Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland southward to Tasmania (the Great Dividing Range) the Central Lowlands, consisting largely of a north-south series of drainage basins, including the Great Artesian Basin, which is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world the Western Plateau, covered with great deserts and bigger plains regularly spaced sand ridges and rocky wastes

THE GREAT DIVIDING RANGE

Its the fourth longest mountain range in the world The Great Dividing Range does not consist of a single mountain range it consists of a complex of mountain ranges and plateaus (The Australian Alps, Blue Mountains)

Running along the eastern/southeastern edge of the country and extending on into Tasmania, these mountains separate the dry Australian interior from the coastal areas The highest point is Mt. Kosciusko in the Australian Alps (2,228 m)

THE GREAT DIVIDING RANGE

THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS- THE ONLY PLACE COVERED WITH SNOW

 AND THE ONLY PLACE WHERE TO GO SKIING (THE LARGEST: PERISHER BLUE SKI RESORT)

MOUNT KOSCIUSZKO 2 228M

LAKE COOTAPATAMBA (2050M)

MEANS "THE LAKE WHERE THE EAGLES DRINK
an alpine lake in the Kosciuszko National Park, formed by the action of an ancient glacier leaving a moraine The lake is just below Mount Kosciuszko

MOUNT BOGONG 1 986M

The second highest peak in The Great Dividing Range, located in the Australian Alps

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS THREE SISTERS

GREAT ARTESIAN BASIN

http://www.gabcc.org.au/tools/getFile.aspx?tbl=tblContentItem&id=77

Provides the only reliable source of water for most of inland Australia
The basin is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world It covers a total of 1,711,000 square kilometres It underlies 23% of the continent, including most of Queensland, the southeast corner of the Northern Territory, the north-east part of South Australia, and northern New South Wales The basin is 3,000 metres deep in places and is estimated to contain 64,900 cubic kilometres of groundwater

Hot water bore hole into the Great Artesian Basin in Thargomindah

THE CENTRAL LOWLANDS

The Central Lowlands account for 25 percent of the continent The flattest part of Australia

The Central Lowlands begin at the Gulf of Carpentaria and stretch past the Great Artesian Basin to the southwest of the Great Dividing Range One of the most significant landforms in the Central Lowlands is Lake Eyre, the lowest point of the Australian continent, sitting 15 metres below sea level The Central Lowlands also receive the least amount of rain a year out of all the regions, less than 125 millimetres per year, and contain large deserts and salt plans.

CENTRAL LOWLANDS

THE AYERS ROCK ULURU (SOUTHERN PART OF THE NORTHERN

TERRITORY)

Listed as a World Heritage Site 470km from Alice Springs in Australias red heart centre The second largest monolith (single upright block of stone) in the world 348m tall, 3.6km long, 2.4km thick That is only the top third, the other two thirds of it is underground Across the face of Uluru is a sacred Aboriginal dreaming track = local people do not climb Uluru

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

WESTERN AUSTRALIA DESERT CALLED THE PINNACLES

THE PINNACLES

Limestone pillars formed around 80,000 years ago by seashells in sand dunes There are about 150,000 pillars

THE PINNACLES WAVE ROCK

EVEN IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA THERE ARE LIFEGIVING SPRINGS

GREAT WESTERN AUSTRALIAN COAST

TASMANIA

TASMANIA THE ISLAND OF INSPIRATION

Separated from Australia by a 240-kilometre stretch of water called Bass Strait This channel is notoriously rough and hundreds of ships have been wrecked here Also planes have disappeared without a trace giving Bass Strait the reputation of a supernatural phenomenon similar to that of the Bermuda Triangle.

HISTORY

First English Fleet Arrives in Australia 1788 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bD933tBZvQ

Captain James Cook: http://video.answers.com/learn-about-the-explorer-captain-jamescook-304218472 Australian Aboriginal genocide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7eubc-Yk3M The White Australia policy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fs4kN0S2Bk&feature=related Or: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptxlehKaBE4