Australia - The Big Country

The Australian population today is a mix of European, Asian and Aboriginal. Since the nineteenth century, millions of people have emigrated to Australia from other countries. Although Aborigines have lived in Australia for over 40,000 years, only one per cent of the population today is Aboriginal. After the first European settlers arrived in the eighteenth century, many Aborigines died of disease and hunger. Today only about 100,000 Aborigines survive.

Eighty per cent of the population live in cities. Nearly all the large Australian cities are on the coast and the distances between them are vast. Perth, in Western Australia, is over 2700 kilometres from its closest neighbour, Adelaide.

Sydney is Australia's largest city. It has a spectacular harbour, harbour bridge and modern opera house.

The landscape of the south and south-east is green and fertile.

Central Australia is called 'the Outback'. It is a huge area of desert, small trees and bushes, where very few people live. In the centre of the Outback is Uluru or Ayer's Rock, a giant red sandstone rock.

The Great Barrier Reef, a chain of coral reefs and islands, runs for over 2000 kilometres along the east coast.

Australia is separate from other continents and has its own unique species of wildlife. These include 'marsupials' - the kangaroo, wallaby and koala bear - which keep their young in a pouch. In the northern territories, you can also find crocodiles and aligators.

You can go to Australia flying low cost.