12. Maturitní téma - Australia

AUSTRALIA

Australia is situated in the south east part of the Globe. It lies on separated continent between the Indian Ocean in the west and the Pacific Ocean in the east. The countries closest to Australia are New Zealand and Indonesia. The capital city of Australia is Canberra and other big cities are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Australia is subdivided into 6 states and 2 territories. It takes up area of 7.6 million sq. km.

In Australia live about 20 million inhabitants. 300 000 of them are the natives inhabitants called aborigines. There live lot of people with British or Irish descent and lot of immigrants especially from south eastern Asia.

The main symbols of Australia are flag, specific fauna and flora such as Kangaroo, emu, koala; currency – Australian dollar, anthem and the Oprah house in Sydney and Uluru. Flag consist of Union Jack in the top left corner, which represents, that Australia used to be a colony. On blue background are 6 stars. 5 of them represent Constellation of Southern Cross and the biggest one under the Union Jack represents Australia itself.

Political system of Australia is similar as PS of Canada. Officially Australia is constitutional monarchy but in practice it is parliamentary democracy. Head of the state is British monarch and Governor General represents monarch in their absence. Country is led by prime minister, who led government at the same time. The Parliament consists of 2 chambers – the Senate and the Houses of representatives.

Australia is member of international organizations such as Commonwealth, UN, WHO, WTO, OECD (organization for economic co-operation and development) and some regional pacts.

Australia is rich and highly economically developed country with many industries such as fishing, agriculture (mainly they produce breeding and cattle), Australia is the biggest producer of wool in the world, mining (coal, gold, iron) and tourism.

In the North there is tropical part with Jungles, rain forests and monsoons. Central part of Australia there is subtropical part where there is dry climate and it is inhabitable. In the south is subtropical part but it is good for living.

In Tasmania, there is mild climate.

Mostly Australia has flat landscape. There is one big range, The Great Dividing Range. There are huge areas which are occupied by deserts and which are inhabitable. There is also lot of rain forests in the north. Main rivers in Australia are the Darling and the Marring.

History:

In 1648 the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered Tasmania. 1770 James Cook explored the south east of Australia. Later Australia became a convict’s colony and there was also gold fever and it resulted into the massive influx of immigrants. In 1901 it became a dominium of Australia. In 1927 the capital city – Canberra – was founded because Melbourne and Sydney couldn’t decided, which one will be a capital so they built new city as a compromise.
1956 and 2000 Australia hosted the Olympic Games.