Australia

AUSTRALIA Australia is big 7,686,848 square kilometres, the biggest island in the world. In fact, only five countries in the world are larger than Australia. The journey from Perth in the west to Sydney in the east takes four to five hours by plane. It is... More

AUSTRALIA Australia is big 7,686,848 square kilometres, the biggest island in the world. In fact, only five countries in the world are larger than Australia. The journey from Perth in the west to Sydney in the east takes four to five hours by plane. It is hot and dry too; in the west and the centre the temperature is often 35° in the summer months. This enormous country has only seventeen million people, and most of them live in the south and south-east parts of the country. AUSTRALIA’S PAST The first people in Australia were the Aborigines, who came more than 40,000 years ago. Then in 1770 the British sailor and said Australia now belonged to Britain. Nobody asked the Aborigines about this-it was the beginning of a terrible time for them. Life was very difficult, and the convicts had to work very hard, making roads, buildings and farms. In 1851 gold was found in New South Wales and Victoria. In 10 years the population grew from 400,000 to 1,200,000. On 1 January 1901 the six Australia Less