Lecture XIV. Australia. General information

LECTURE XIV.
Australia. General information.
The points to be discussed:
1. Geography
2. Population
3. Climate
4. Government
5. Capital
Proportionately, density, merge, possesses, ash, bauxite, peninsula, consumption, mutton, lamb, deficient, overexploited, unfit, immigration, specified, residual, suffrage, subterranean, bicentennial.

1. 
   Geography
   

Australia is the world’s smallest continent and sixth-largest country. With proportionately more desert land than any other continent, Australia has a low population density. Lying completely in the Southern Hemisphere, Australia is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the west and south and by the Pacific Ocean on the east. These oceans merge on the north in the Arafura Sea between Australia and Indonesia and New Guinea, and on the south in the Bass Strain. The coastline length, estimate at 19,200km, id remarkably short for so large an area a result of the relative lack of indentation. Major inlets other than the Gulf of CARPENTARIA and the great AUSTRALIAN BIGHT are few.
Australia is primarily a flat low-lying plateau, with about 95 percent of the land standing less than 600m above sea level. The continent was not affected by recent geological mountain building forces, and all its landforms are highly eroded; Australia’s mountains reach only 2,228m In Mount KOSCIUSKO in southeastern New South Wales.
Australia can be divided in to three major physical regions: the vast Western Plateau, the Eastern Highlands, and the GREAT ARTESIAN BASIN.
1.1.Mineral Resources
Australia possesses enormous mineral resources. Coal reserves are large, and although much is high in ash content, about a third is of coking quality. New discoveries of iron ore in the Hamersley Range (Pilbara region) of the northwest have helped to keep annual production increasing. Vast bauxite reserves are concentrates in the Grove and Cape York peninsulas. Other abundant metal ores include zinc, lead, nickel, and copper. Gemstones include sapphires from the northern Great Dividing Range and the distinctive Australia fire opals from inland fields in the southeast.
Petroleum, first exploited in Queensland, now comes chiefly from the continental shelf off northwestern Australia and the Bass Strain. Production is increasing and supplies about two-third of domestic consumption. Recoverable reserves of natural gas were little topped before 1969 but by 1990 output was about 20,090 million cu m a year. At double the present output and consumption rates, coal, oil, and gas would last 100 to 300 years.