Australia is a state on the continent of the same name. The outer areas under his administration are Norfolk Island and Christmas Island, Macquarie Islands, Cocos Islands and many more. With a total area of around 7.7 million square kilometers, Australia is also the sixth largest country in the world, the smallest continent and around 21 times larger than Germany.
The national nature of Australia is mostly flat. Only in the outskirts of the coastal regions are there larger elevations, including the MacDonnell Ranges in the center with 1,510 meters and the Musgrave Rangesat 1,513 meters are the exceptions. Based on its surface shape, Australia can be divided into three large geographic landscapes: the East Australian Highlands, the Central Australian Lowlands and the West Australian Tableland.
The East Australian Highlands extend over 4,000 kilometers across eastern Australia from Cape York in Queensland in the north to the Bass Strait, which separates the southern tip of the continent from Tasmania. In front of the Great Dividing Range(Great Scheidegebirge) there are coastal strips of different widths, which are up to 160 kilometers wide in southern Queensland and only 1.5 kilometers wide in places in southern New South Wales. The approximately 3,000 kilometer long mountain ranges of the Great Dividing Range are continued in the south by the Tasmanian Mountains. In the north, the Snowy Mountains replace the Scheidegebirge, which is the only alpine region on the continent also known as the Australian Alps. Here, at 2,229 meters, rises the highest mountain in Australia, Mount Kosciusko. In the west, the Great Dividing Range merges into the Central Australian lowlands, while the mountains in the east drop steeply towards the coast.
According to vaultedwatches, Central Australian lowlands are bounded by the Western Australian Plateau and the Eastern Australian Highlands. The region, also known as the central basin, runs from the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north to the Spencer Gulf in the south. The deepest point is Lake Eyre, which is 15 meters below sea level. The plains of the Darling and Murray Rivers join to the south. At 2,575 kilometers, the Murray is the longest river on the continent and also the most important source of drinking water in South Australia.
The Western Australian Tableland is a huge plateau with an average height of 200 to 800 meters. It stretches over half of Australia and its highest peaks are in the Darling Range, Hamersley Range and the Kimberley Region on the western edge. The Western Australian Plateau is interrupted to the east by the Musgrave Ranges and the MacDonnell Ranges. The island mountains Ayers Rock, Olgas and Mount Connor tower above the otherwise uniform table landscape. With the exception of the rivers in the north and south-west, the remaining areas of the Western Australian Tableland consist of the barren deserts of the Great Victoria Desert, Gibson Desert and Great Sandy Desert, in which the traces of the rivers that used to run here are still clearly visible.
The Australian coasts are poorly indented. Only the Great Australian Bight in the south and the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north are deeply cut into the country. On the peninsulas in the north, south, south-west and south-east, the country has so-called Ria coasts, some of which form excellent natural harbors. The Great Barrier Reef, which consists of corals and is very obstructive for shipping extends off the northeast coast of Australia.
Population distribution in Australia
This map of the population distribution in Australia was created by the Worldmapper team. Densely populated areas appear bloated, the area of sparsely populated areas is reduced. The shape of the grid has been preserved; an underlying map with the original geographic extent helps with the interpretation of the cartogram. The distorted map is intended to help visualize abstract statistical information.
Australia – how to get there
Airplane: the journey to Australia usually takes place by airplane. Australia’s international airline is Quantas Airways. Some of the European airlines that offer flights to and from Australia include Lufthansa (LH), KLM (KL) and British Airways (BA).
Popular flight routes to Sydney or Melbourne lead via Hong Kong, Bangkok or Singapore.
Airports: Australia has several international airports. The busiest are Sydney (SYD) and Melbourne (MEL). Other international airports are Adelaide (ADL), Brisbane (BNE), Cairns (CNS), Darwin (DRW), and Perth (PER).
