Portal:Australia
Showcase | Content | Interesting facts | Contributing |
Introduction
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Flag_of_Australia_%28converted%29.svg/175px-Flag_of_Australia_%28converted%29.svg.png)
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, tropical savannas in the north, and mountain ranges in the south-east.
The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the last glacial period. They settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with European maritime exploration. The Dutch were the first known Europeans to reach Australia, in 1606. British colonisation began in 1788 with the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales. By the mid-19th century, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and five additional self-governing British colonies were established, each gaining responsible government by 1890. The colonies federated in 1901, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. This continued a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, and culminating in the Australia Acts of 1986.
Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states and ten territories: the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia; the major mainland Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory; and other minor or external territories. Its population of nearly 27 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous cities are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, which each possess a population of at least one million inhabitants. Australian governments have promoted multiculturalism since the 1970s. Australia is culturally diverse and has one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world. Its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy, which generates its income from various sources: predominantly services (including banking, real estate and international education) as well as mining, manufacturing and agriculture. It ranks highly for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights.
Featured article -
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Cscr-featured.png/23px-Cscr-featured.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Association_Ground_Sydney.jpg/300px-Association_Ground_Sydney.jpg)
Selected biography -
Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (11 July 1916 – 21 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), of which he was the longest-serving. He was notable for being the head of a reformist and socially progressive administration that ended with his controversial dismissal by the governor-general of Australia, Sir John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 constitutional crisis. Whitlam is the only Australian prime minister to have been removed from office by the governor-general. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the memorabilia of Jennie Scott Griffiths, a Texan who died in California, are housed in the National Library of Australia?
- ... that Mark Hutton was the first Australian to be a starting pitcher in a Major League Baseball game?
- ... that Eva Duldig, who was interned by Australia during the Second World War, later represented the country at the Wimbledon Championships?
- ... that audience members interrogated suspects in an Australian Cluedo game show based on the board game?
- ... that the dominant species in the Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grassland of South Australia are often not grasses at all?
- ... that the United Ukrainian Ballet Company, consisting of exiled dancers based in The Hague, has toured the UK, Singapore, Australia and the US?
- ... that the government of Victoria, Australia, has a program to remove 110 level crossings by 2030, the fastest rate in the state's history?
- ... that Australian politicians may face the pub test?
In the news
- 29 July 2024 –
- Sakina Muhammad Jan become the first person to be jailed under Australia’s forced marriage laws, after ordering her 21-year-old daughter to wed a man who later murdered her. (BBC)
- 28 July 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict
- Several nations, including the United States, Australia, and multiple European nations release travel advisories urging all their citizens not to travel to Lebanon, and for those residing there to leave as soon as possible in anticipation of an Israeli attack against Hezbollah. (Anadolu Ajansı)
- 13 July 2024 – Australia–Russia relations
- Russia accuses Australia of inciting "anti-Russian paranoia" after Australia charges a Russian-born Australian couple with espionage. (Reuters)
- 10 July 2024 –
- Two Australian tourists and a Filipino woman are killed during a mass stabbing at a hotel in Tagaytay, Philippines. (AP)
- 3 July 2024 – Israel–Hamas war protests
- Pro-Palestinian protesters climb the roof of the Australian Parliament building in Canberra, Australia. (Al Jazeera)
- 2 July 2024 –
- Australia issues statements to several social media and search engine websites ordering the websites to draft and enforce guidelines to prevent minors from seeing inappropriate material before October 3 or face national restrictions. (Reuters)
Selected pictures -
On this day
![La Mama Theatre, Carlton](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/La_Mama_Theatre%2C_Carlton%2C_Victoria%2C_Australia.jpg/100px-La_Mama_Theatre%2C_Carlton%2C_Victoria%2C_Australia.jpg)
- 1947 – Joseph Cook, sixth Prime Minister of Australia dies, aged 86.
- 1967 – The La Mama Theatre in Melbourne opens in a former factory building.
- 1997 – The Thredbo landslide occurs, killing 18 people.
- 2002 – The HyShot project of the University of Queensland, produces the first successful flight of a scramjet engine.
General images
Topics
More portals
WikiProject
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Consider joining WikiProject Australia, a WikiProject dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of topics related to Australia. The project page and its subpages contain suggestions on formatting and style of articles, which can be discussed at the project's notice board. To participate, simply add your name to the project members page.
As of 29 July 2024, there are 203,998 articles within the scope of WikiProject Australia, of which 593 are featured and 882 are good articles. This makes up 2.97% of the articles on Wikipedia, 5.41% of all featured articles and lists, and 2.2% of all good articles (see WP:AUSFG). Including non-article pages, such as talk pages, redirects, categories, etc., there are 521,026 pages in the project.
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus