Australia

JUST THE ESSENTIALS

This outline provides an overview of important topics and concepts that need to be covered in this unit.

Physical Geography • Desert & Steppe Climate

• Only country occupying a whole continent. • Two climates that cover most of
• Driest continent on earth. Australia.
• World’s smallest continent, but largest • Interior to the coast of Western
island. Australia.
• 6th largest country in the world. • Less populated interior- “the outback.”
• Government type: democratic, federal- • Around desert is a steppe climate
state system. dominated by scrub bushes.
• The sea breeze that occurs along the
6 States & 2 Territories west coast in summer is known as “the
1. Queensland doctor.”
2. New South Wales • Tropical Savanna Climate
3. Victoria • Northern Territory’s coast and Cape
4. Tasmania York Peninsula.
5. South Australia • Has distinct wet (flooding) and dry
6. Western Australia (drought) seasons.
7. Northern Territory • Tropical Climate & Rainforest Climate
8. Australian Capital Territory • Northeast Corner of coastal
Queensland
• Australia is the world’s smallest, flattest, and • Humid-Subtropical Climate
lowest continent. • Coastal Queensland and New South
Wales
3 Major Land Form Regions • Marine-West Coast Climate
• Western Plateau • Coastal Victoria, Northward in
• Nullarbor Plain: Flattest land form region on mountains of New South Wales, and
earth. southward over all of the island of
• Ayers Rock: Huge rock formation, Tasmania.
Central Lowlands, Eastern Highlands • Lush Temperate Forest Climate
• Great Dividing Rangeà Highest elevation in • Western side of Tasmania
Australia • Mediterranean Climate
• Southwest coast of Western Australia
Climate and coast of south Adelaide.
• Straddles the tropic line so in their winter • Characterized by wet winters that are
one can ski in the southern states one day mild and rainy, and long dry summers.
and be diving at the Great Barrier Reef in
Queensland the next.
• Seasons are the opposite of the northern
hemisphere.
• Summer à December
• Autumn à March
• Winter à June
• Spring à September

©Learned Lessons Teaching Materials

 Australia
JUST THE ESSENTIALS
This outline provides an overview of important topics and concepts that need to be covered in this unit.

Water Resources Alien Species

• Long dry spells make all of Australia subject
to drought, therefore causing water
shortages, brushfires, and dust storms.
• Severe tropical cyclones (hurricanes)
threaten north and northeastern coasts.
• Murray & Darling Rivers
• Only major river system in Australia.
• Known as “Australia’s Mississippi.”
• Artesian Wellsà Largest source of
underground well water.
• Located in the Great Artesian Basin of
interior Queensland.
• Wells which water rises toward the
surface w/out being pumped.
• Water is of poor quality so used only to
water sheep.
Biogeography
• The study of the geographic distribution of
plants and animals.
• Because Australia is an island their
biogeography is very different from other
countries.
• Species introduced to a particular region by
humans.
• Aborigines brought the dingo, a dog from
Asia.
• Europeans brought sheep, rabbits, foxes,
water buffalo, birds, and hundreds of
plants.
The Great Barrier Reef
• Located in the Coral Sea.
• World’s largest coral reef. Stretches more
than 1200 miles.
• Except for tropical rain forest, no ecosystem
on earth is as complex as the Great Barrier
Reef. World’s greatest variety of ocean life,
including fish, shellfish, and birds.
• Made a national park by the government
b/c of the damage tourism and offshore oil
drilling could cause.

Endemic Species
• Plants or animals that originate only in a
particular geographic region.
• B/c of its isolation Australia has many
endemic species. Most of their plants and
animals are found nowhere else on earth.

Marsupials
• Mammals that carry their young in
• pouches.
• Kangaroo: there are 50 varieties which
range from mouse like to human size.
• Koala: tree-dwelling vegetarian found in
the forest areas of the eastern Australia.
• Platypus & Spiny Anteater: only egg-laying
mammals in the world.
• Plants of Australia are unusual b/c
dominated by a single plant variety, the
Eucalyptus.

©Learned Lessons Teaching Materials

 Australia
JUST THE ESSENTIALS
This outline provides an overview of important topics and concepts that need to be covered in this unit.
Cultural Geography
Population
• Urban Geographyà 85% of all Australians
live in urban areas.
• Each state is dominated by a
functional region,
• An area distinguished by the
movement or activities that take
place in and around it
• Nodeà the region’s center or point of
activity. In Australia each state has a nodal
capital city and seaport.
• Southeastern corner of Australia is the
country’s heartland.
• Sydney: oldest and largest city.
• Melbourne: busy seaport, commercial and
industrial center.
• Canberra: nation’s capital.
• Brisbane: third largest city, agriculture and
tourism flourish here.
©Learned Lessons Teaching Materials
History of Australia
• Australia has a brief recorded history
(213yrs.).
• Only continent whose discovery was fully
documented.
• Last great landmass to be discovered by
European explorers and traders.
Aborigines
• First inhabitants of Australia. 50,000 years
ago they migrated from Southeast Asia.
• Originally a nomadic hunting-and-gathering
people. Usually lived in the desert inland,
where they ate insects, birds, reptiles,
mammals, and fruits. Others lived in non-
desert areas, the coast, and Tasmania,
where they ate roots, fruits, small animals,
reptiles, fish, and shellfish.
• Their hair and skin are dark in color. They
lived in family groups and clans.
• In the 1700s, with the arrival of Europeans,
300,000 Aborigines lived in Australia.
Disease, brought by Europeans, and murder
by Europeans greatly reduced this number.
• Make up only 1% of the population today.
• 1960s Aborigines rights were finally
recognizedà Now have full citizenshipà
Lands in Northern Territory have been
returned to them.
1607 - Europeans first land
• 1770 - Captain Hook mapped the shores of
Australia and claimed it for Britain.
• 1788 - settled by Great Britain as a prison
colony (Irish and English petty thieves).
• After the American colonies declare
independence from Britain, Australia’s
isolation looks appealing to Britain.
• Independence gained in 1901, but are still
part of the British Commonwealth.
• 1999, a vote to change Australia’s status to
an independent republic was defeated.
 Australia
JUST THE ESSENTIALS
This outline provides an overview of important topics and concepts that need to be covered in this unit.
Modern Australia
• White Australia Policyà policy that Asians
banned from migrating to Australia.
• Only British, Irish, Greeks, Italians, and other
Europeans were allowed to immigrate to
Australia.
• Ethnic composition todayà Asia, especially
Vietnam, Malaysia, China, and Cambodia.
• 1/4 or more of all Australians were born
outside the country.
• Asianizationà welcomes the Asian
population and their culture into Australia
Major Issues
• Immigration Growthà Challenges due to
increasing competition from global trade.
• Becoming a Republic.
Economy
• Australia has a prosperous Western-style
capitalist economy.
• Rich in natural resources.
• Major exporter of agricultural products,
minerals, metals, and fossil fuels.
• Commodities (products of agriculture
or mining) account for about 57% of
the value of total exports.
• The government is trying to push for
increased exports of manufactured
(made from raw materials by hand or
machinery) goods, but competition is
severe in the international market.
• Labor Force By Occupation (1997 est.)
• Services 73%
• Industry 22%
• Agriculture 5%
Agriculture
• Only about 6% of their land is arable
(suitable for crops, used for farming), but
Australia is self-sufficient in food and is a
major exporter.
• 3 Contributors To Agricultural Success
• Small population, efficient
farmers, different climates
©Learned Lessons Teaching Materials
• Exports
• Wool: produces about 1/3 of the
world’s wool supply. Mainly to Japan
and China.
• Beef: leading beef exporter in the
world.
• Wheat: the nations major crop, which
covers more than half of Australia’s
cropland. One of the world’s largest
wheat exporters.
• Wheat Belt: stretches across the
plains west of the Great Dividing
Range in Victoria and New South
Wales. This area provides a
grazing ground for the many
sheep that provide Australia’s
large wool supply.
• Other Export Cropsà Sugar, rice,
cotton, bananas, pineapples, other
tropical fruits, citrus fruits, olives, wine
grapes, corn, apples, peaches, pears
Mineral Resources
• Australia’s Outback is a storehouse of
mineral wealth.
• World leader in iron-ore, bauxite, and coal
export and in diamond and opal mining.
• Produces about 70% of its own oil.
Industries
• Nation is highly industrialized and a
consumer society.
• Types Of Industry
• Iron and steel: declining due to Asian
competition.
• Coal mining, wine, and food
processing are progressing in Australia.
• Automobiles and computer
technology.
• Service industries, such as banking,
universities, transportation, and tourism
are growing.
• Chemicals