Australia map

Australia's 7,617,930 square kilometres landmass is on the Indo-Australian Plate. Surrounded by the Indian, Southern and Pacific oceans, Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas. Australia has a total 34,218 kilometres of coastline and claims an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone of 8,148,250 square kilometres.

By far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid. Australia is both the flattest continent and, except for Antarctica, the driest. It has the oldest and least fertile soils, and is the driest inhabited continent. Only the south-east and south-west corners of the continent have a temperate climate. The northern region fronts partly on the Timor Sea, separating Australia from Indonesia; it also belongs to the plateau, with tropical temperatures and a winter dry season.

The coastal rim is, almost everywhere, exempted from the prevailing flatness and aridity. In particular the east coast, where European settlement began and where the majority of Australians now live, is topographically quite diverse and is comparatively well watered and fertile.

Australia, remote from any other continent, has many distinctive forms of plant life-notably species of giant eucalyptus-and of animal life, including the kangaroo, the koala, the flying opossum, the wallaby, the wombat, the platypus, and the spiny anteater; it also has many unusual birds.