Australia is the southernmost continent in the southern hemisphere with the exception of Antarctica. It is also the smallest and by far the most unique in terms of climate, animals and plant life.
The continent is said to have been populated by humans sometime between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago, but the first Europeans didn't arrive to settle until 1788 when the British established a penal colony in New South Wales.
The population gradually grew from that humble start and five additional self-governing British crown colonies came to be during he 19th century.
The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 from the six original British colonies. It remains a commonwealth today and has a total population of about 21 million who reside mainly in the mainland state capital of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth Adelaide and Brisbane. Politically, Queen Elizabeth of England is also the Queen of Australia, a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government system.
The Governor-General is officially the queen's representative at he federal level, as the individual state governors are at the state level.
Australia has a land mass of over 2,900,000 square miles not including offshore islands like Tasmania and is surrounded by the Pacific, Indian and Southern oceans. Most of the land has a desert or semi-arid climate. It is also the oldest continent and has soils with poor fertility.
The only areas with temperate climates are found in the continent's southeast and southwest corners. The northern sector of the country is actually a tropical rain forest which also includes mangroves, swamps, grasslands and desert topographies.
There are, nevertheless, a select few areas with mountains high enough and temperatures cold enough in winter to support some skiing and snowboarding activities.
Further evidence of Australia's uniqueness, is exemplified by the diverse animal and plant life, many of which are found nowhere else on the planet.
A good example includes marsupials such as Koalas, kangaroos and wombats. Unique birds like the Emu and Kookaburra are also native only to Australia.
The representative plant species are far too numerous to name, but many, many are also found nowhere else on Earth.
Most of the 21 plus million Australians are descendents of European settlers who emigrated during the 19th and 20th centuries. Indigenous peoples such as the Aborigines and Torr's Strait Islanders number somewhat more than 400,000 or 2 plus percent of the population.
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