Brief History of Australia

Australia is the only country in the world that occupies a whole continent. It is the most highly industrialised nation south of the equator, and it plays a leading role in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Australia is the world's leading wool producer, is one of the world's leading meat-exporting countries, and has a booming iron-ore mining industry.
Australia is sometimes called "the land down under" because it lies in the Southern Hemisphere. This great distance from large European population centres and heavily travelled trade routes also helps account for Australia's late discovery by Europeans and its being the last habitable continent populated by them.
Covering an area of almost 3 million square miles, Australia ranks sixth in area among the countries of the world, behind the Soviet Independent States, Canada, China, the United States, and Brazil. With a population of only 20 million, however, Australia is one of the world's most sparsely populated countries. Much of its land is almost uninhabited, with the bulk of the population concentrated along the east, southeast, and southwest coasts.
 

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