Exploring Our World: Latin America and Canada, Europe, and Australia © 2012 Georgia Edition

Chapter 11: Geography and History of Australia

Chapter Overviews

Australia is an island, a continent, and a single country. Its land is mostly flat with a few low mountains. The interior of Australia is desert or steppe and has a dry climate. Coastal areas have more moderate temperatures and receive more rainfall than inland areas. Most Australians live near the southeastern coast, where summers are warm and winters are cool and rainy.

Australia is rich in natural resources. Its mines yield minerals, such as bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, and uranium. Australia also is a source of gems, such as diamonds, sapphires, and opals. The country has some oil and large deposits of coal, which supplies its energy. Wind and solar energy are not widely developed. Because Australia remained separate from other continents for millions of years, unique plants and animals have developed there.

People from Southeast Asia settled Australia thousands of years ago during an Ice Age. Their descendants, the people now called Aborigines, organized into clans. The Aborigines became hunters and gatherers. They greatly respected the land. The religion of the Aborigines focused on the relationship of people to nature.

During the late 1700s, Captain James Cook claimed Australia for Great Britain. The British government sent prisoners to found settlements in the island continent. By the mid-1800s, this prison system had ended, and free British settlers arrived to farm the land and raise sheep for wool. As settlers took more land, the Aborigines were forced to defend their traditional grounds. By the late 1800s, war and disease had greatly reduced the Aborigine population.

In the 1800s, Great Britain divided Australia into five separate colonies that made their own laws. Every adult male was allowed to vote, paving the way for democracy for the colonists. In 1901 the Australian colonies united to form an independent country known as the Commonwealth of Australia. Women soon won the right to vote, but Aborigines did not have the rights of citizens. In the 1900s, Australia fought in two world wars as an ally of Great Britain.

In recent decades, Australia's economy has shifted more to manufacturing. The country has prospered, and Australians enjoy a high standard of living. Asians and other non-Europeans have immigrated to Australia. The Aborigine population has grown, and Aborigines have been able to vote since the 1960s. Today, Australia is a parliamentary democracy with a federal form of government. The head of Australia's national government is the prime minister, chosen from the majority party in Parliament.