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Australia is a vast island continent situated south
of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
The world's sixth largest country, Australia measures some 4000 km
east to west and 3200 km north to south. Much of the interior of the
country is flat, barren and extremely sparsely populated. The bulk
of the population lives on the narrow, fertile eastern coastal plain
and on the southeastern coast. The continent-long Great Dividing Range
runs north-south down the eastern seaboard, separating the coastal
plain from the drier inland areas. The Great Barrier Reef lies between
50-300 km offshore and extends 2000 km from the Torres Strait to Gladstone.
Australia is blessed with a fascinating mix of native flora and
fauna. Its distinctive plants include the ubiquitous gum tree or
eucalypt, of which there are some 700 species. Other common plants
are wattle, banksia, waratahs, bottlebrushes, paperbarks and tea
trees. Endemic animals include the iconic kangaroo, koala and emu,
and the platypus, echidna, possum, wombat and dingo. There are also
a number of interesting birds, such as parrots, cockatoos and kookaburras.
Fauna to be wary of include Australian spiders (especially the redback
and funnel-web), snakes (notably the venomous brown, tiger, death
adder, copperhead and red-bellied black varieties) and bothsalt
and freshwater crocodiles. There are more than 500 national parks,incorporating
rainforests, deserts, mountain ranges and coastal dunes.
Australian seasons are the antithesis of those in Europe and North
America: summer starts in December, autumn in March, winter in June
and spring in September. Seasonal variations are not extreme and
it's rare for temperatures to drop below zero on the mainland except
in the mountains. As you head north, the seasonal variations become
even less distinct. Darwin, in the far north, is in the monsoon
belt, where there are just two seasons: hotand wet, and hot and
dry.
The southern states are popular during the summer months, but the
best time to visit is probably the shoulder seasons of spring or
autumn when the weather in the south is mild, Queensland is still
warm, the humidity is not too draining in the north and there are
less flies in the bush. Spring in the outback can be spectacular
if rains encourage wildflowers. |
