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Schule > Englisch > Landeskunde > AUD - Australien allgemein > Australien: Eine kurze Einführung (auf Englisch)

Australia

Australia is the flattest , driest and smallest of the five continents. It's also the biggest island of the world and surrounded by the Indian Ocean in the west and the Pacific Ocean in the east.
The distance from east to west is 4.000 km s and from north to south is about 3.200km s. The country is extremely big and there live only 19 million people. Most of them live in the big cities like: Melbourne, Brisbane, Darwin, Perth ,in the biggest city Sydney with 4 million inhabitants and in the capital Canberra.
The continent consists of six colonies:

1.Western Australia
2.Northern Territory
3.South Australia
4.Queensland
5.New South Wales
6.Victoria and the island Tasmania.

Most of the country is desert but in the east is also rainforest. That explain that the cities were built nearly the cost. There are four climate zones tropics subtropics dry season and continental climate. Important mountains are: the Blue Mountains, the Olgas and the Ayers Rock it's a holy place for the Aborigines. In 1770 the British discoverer James Cook took A. into the British Empire. The black natives were called by the white people "Aborigines". They were treated like animals. The white people shot them down, abused the women and kidnapped their children . The British Empire took the colony New South Wales for its convicts. Later the English people founded their the city Sydney. The gold rush had a big influrence on the population in A..
On the 1.1.1901 Australia became a member of the Commonwealth. That means the community of states which belonged to the British Empire. Today A. is independent from the UK but the Queen is still the head of the continent. Australia has got lots of interesting and special animals, like, the wombats, the koalas, the wallabies, the Tasmanian Devils, the kangaroos with there very small babies. They were only 1,5cms high and live in the pouch of her mother. The dingoes are very dangerous for sheep. A big income for the Australian people is tourism, there are lots of advertisement about the beautiful country side and the special towns like Sydney. There are lots of sights: -the Sydney Opera House. It was specially designed, looks like an open shell and was built by the Danish architect, Joern Utzon.
Another attraction is the Sydney Harbour Bridge it is called as the "Hanger".- A nature attraction is the Great Barrier Reef. It's the largest deposit of corals in the world.- It gives only one important river: the Murray river.

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