Australian Geography

Australia’s land mass is vast. It’s the only country that is also a continent. At 7,686,850 sq km compared to the UK’s 244,110 sq km, you could fit the British isles into Australia 32 times! In fact, the whole of Europe could squeeze into Australia twice!

Most of central Australia is arid and flat, but there are pockets of ancient rocky mountain ranges such as Macdonnells and the Flinders Ranges, offering a respite from the desert with wonderfully steep gorges, magnificient waterfalls and great basins.

The coastal regions support the vast majority of the population, being very different from the hot, dry interior, and much more habitable. Around the country’s perimeter you’ll find a stunning diversity of rainforests, wetlands, beaches and dunes, inland waterways, mountains, canyons and, above all, ‘the bush’. Bushland, found all over Australia in huge areas, typically consists of medium to low-density virgin eucalypt forest, grassland and creeks, supporting a vast array of wildlife and pockets of human habitation. The bush is a landscape rich in folklore and is central to the national psyche.

Australia’s major cities all lie on or close to the coast – with the exception of Canberra, the national capital, which was purpose-built midway between Sydney and Melbourne to solve the argument about which of them should be the capital.

Timezones

Because of Australia’s size there are, as you would expect, three time zones.

AUSTRALIAN STANDARD EASTERN TIME = GREENWICH TIME MINUS 10 HOURS

(Australian Capital Territory, NSW, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria.)

CENTRAL STANDARD TIME = GREENWICH MEAN TIME MINUS 10 HOURS 30 MINS

(South Australia, Northern Territory)

WESTERN STANDARD TIME = GREENWICH MEAN TIME MINUS 12 HOURS

(Western Australia)