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Geography of Australia

The geography of Australia encompasses a wide variety of biogeographic regions being the world's smallest continent but the sixth-largest country. The population is concentrated along the eastern and southeastern coasts; regular, tropical, invigorating, sea breeze known as "the Doctor" occurs along the west coast in the summer.

Area and boundaries

Location: Oceania, continent between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean

Geographic coordinates: 27 00 S, 133 00 E

Map references: Oceania

Area:

• total: 7,686,850 km²
• land: 7,617,930 km²
• water: 68,920 km²

note: includes Lord Howe Island and Macquarie Island

Area comparative

• Canada comparative: about 4 times bigger than Nunavut
• United Kingdom comparative: about 31.5 times bigger than the UK
• United States comparative: slightly smaller than the US contiguous 48 states

Land boundaries: 0 km

Coastline: 25,760 km

Maritime claims:

• contiguous zone: 24 nautical miles
• continental shelf: 200 nautical miles or to the edge of the continental margin
• exclusive economic zone: 200 nautical miles
• territorial sea: 12 nautical miles

Climate and terrain

By far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid — 40% of the landmass is covered by sand dunes. Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate: part is tropical rainforests, part grasslands, and part desert.

The terrain is mostly low plateau with deserts; and fertile plain in southeast. The Great Barrier Reef, by far the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast. Uluru, in central Australia, is the largest monolith in the world.

Elevation extremes:

• lowest point: Lake Eyre: -15 m
• highest point: Mount Kosciuszko: 2,229 m

See also:

• List of rivers of Australia,
• Lakes of Australia
• Mountains of Australia

Natural resources and land use

Natural resources include: bauxite, coal, iron ore, copper, tin, gold, silver, uranium, nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, zinc, diamonds, natural gas, petroleum.

Land use:

• arable land: 6%
• permanent crops: 0%
• permanent pastures: 54%
• forests and woodland: 19%
• other: 21% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 21,070 km² (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: cyclones along the coast; severe droughts and occasional floods; frequent bushfires

Environment

Current issues: soil erosion from overgrazing, industrial development, urbanization, and poor farming practices; soil salinity rising due to the use of poor quality water; desertification; clearing for agricultural purposes threatens the natural habitat of many unique animal and plant species; the Great Barrier Reef off the northeast coast, the largest coral reef in the world, is threatened by increased shipping and its popularity as a tourist site; limited natural fresh water resources

International agreements:

• party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban 1963, Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 1994, Wetlands, Whaling
• signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification

Reference

• Much of the material in this article comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000.

Related topics

• Australia
• National parks (Australia)
• List of Australasia ecoregions
• List of regions in Australia