Map
Most people in Australia live in coastal areas such as southeastern Australia. The continent itself is under the equator in the southern hemisphere. People call Australia the "Land Down Under" because of Australia being under the equator. The capital of Australia is Canberra. Although, the city with the largest population is Sydney.
Physical Features
- Ayers Rock: The world's largest free standing rock (monolith). Rises 1,134 feet above the surrounding desert. Aborigines consider it sacred and call it Urulu. The rock was created nearly 600 years ago and sat at the bottom of the ocean. Ayers rock was named by William Gosse in 1873 after Sir Henry Ayers.
- Great Victoria Desert: The largest desert in Australia named for England's Queen Victoria. It is a bare area of hills, salt lakes, and grasslands in southwest Australia. This desert only gets around 6 to 10 inches of rain this year. It's very hot in the summer and gets very cold in the winter. Nighttime temperatures may drop to below freezing. Not many people live in this desert and the government of Australia uses some parts of this desert for weapon testing.
- Great Barrier Reef: The largest living thing on Earth and can be seen from outer space. This coral system is home to 6 species of turtles, 215 species of birds, 17 species of sea snakes and more than 1,500 species of fish! The Great Barrier Reef is known to be around 20,000,000 years old. It gets around 2,000,000 visitors each year. The size of the Great Barrier Reef is around 70 million football fields and is larger than Tasmania and Victoria combined! In the Great Barrier Reef there are thousands of reefs and hundreds of islands.
- Coral Sea: The sea containing the Great Barrier Reef and located off the northeastern coast of Australia. It is formed by coral and undersea mountains. The Coral Sea is home to dozens of marine fish and coral reefs. It is over one million square miles which is four times the size of Great Britain.
Climate
The climate in Australia varies. In the north regio