Geography of Australia

Australia is a country, a continent and an island, therefore it has no land borders. Australia is known as the land “Down Under”, this nickname is derived from the fact that Australia is located “down” the south, “under” the equator.

Australia has a total land area of almost 7.7 million square kilometres and is ranked the sixth largest country in the world. There are six states in Australia, they are, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia and their state capital cities are as follows: Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne and Perth.


Many people are attracted by Australia's amazing beaches, year long sunshine, the vast outback, the rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef just to name a few. So, yes, the geography of Australia is amazingly diverse.

You can find snow and mountains in the Australian Alps and Tasmania, you can find huge deserts that make up about 18 percent of the continent mostly near the central and north-western parts of the country, you can find vast areas of grasslands in the east, and you can also find tropical and temperate forests in the northern areas.
                                                                                                           

Geography and Animals  
 
However, even though Australia has such vast land, more than three- quarters of the Australian land mass is either classed as arid or semi-arid, therefore making quite a large area of Australia uninhabited by people, but you sure can find some of the native Australian animals living in these places instead. This is why the Australian population is mostly concentrated along the eastern and the south-eastern coasts with about 70 percent of its 20 million population living in the 10 largest cities of Australia, these cities include Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra.


Australia is also a good central point if you are keen to explore the Oceania. It is conveniently situated near many other countries that are also considered great holiday spots. You can find New Zealand close by in the south-east, you can find the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia in the north-east, you can also find Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea in the north.