Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the mainland of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and a number of other islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. ^N4 The neighbouring countries are Indonesia, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east.

The Australian mainland has been inhabited for more than 42,000 years by Indigenous Australians. After sporadic visits by fishermen from the north and then European discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, the eastern half of Australia was later claimed by the British in 1770 and initially settled through penal transportation as part of the colony of New South Wales, commencing on 26 January 1788. As the population grew and new areas were explored, another five largely self-governing Crown Colonies were established during the 19th century.

On 1 January 1901, the six colonies became a federation, and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Since federation, Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and remains a Commonwealth realm. The capital city is Canberra, located in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The population is just over 21 million, with approximately 60% of the population concentrated in and around the mainland state capitals of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.

Notes

1. ^   Australia also has a Royal anthem, God Save the Queen (or King) , which is played in the presence of a member of the British Royal Family when they are in Australia. In all other appropriate contexts, the National anthem of Australia, Advance Australia Fair , is played.
2. ^   English does not have de jure official status.
3. ^  There are minor variations from these three time zones, see Time in Australia.
4. ^   Australia describes the body of water south of its mainland as the Southern Ocean, rather than the Indian Ocean as defined by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). In 2000, a vote of IHO member nations defined the term "Southern Ocean" as applying only to the waters between Antarctica and 60 degrees south latitude.

References

1. ^ Official Population Clock
2. ^ Both Australian Aborigines and Europeans Rooted in Africa - 50,000 years ago
3. ^ MacKnight, CC (1976). The Voyage to Marege: Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia. Melbourne University Press
4. ^ Purchas, vol. iv, p. 1422–32, 1625. This appears to be variation of the original Spanish "Austrialia" . A copy at the Library of Congress can be read online
5. ^ Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language , second edition, 1966.
6. ^ Weekend Australian, 30-31 December 2000, p. 16
7. ^ Gillespie, R. (2002). Dating the first Australians. Radiocarbon 44:455–72
8. ^ Convict Records Public Record office of Victoria
9. ^ State Records Office of Western Australia
10. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics 1998 Special Article - The State of New South Wales
11. ^ Smith, L. (1980) , The Aboriginal Population of Australia, Australian National University Press, Canberra
12. ^ Smallpox Through History
13. ^ Tatz, Colin (1999). Genocide in Australia. AIATSIS Research Discussion Papers No 8 . Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Archived from the original on 2005-08-08. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
14. ^ Windschuttle, K. (2001). The Fabrication of Aboriginal History , The New Criterion Vol. 20, No. 1, September 20.
15. ^ Bean, C. Ed. (1941). Volume I - The Story of Anzac: the first phase, First World War Official Histories, Eleventh Edition.
16. ^ Australia Act text
17. ^ Australian Electoral Commission (2000).1999 Referendum Reports and Statistics, accessed 28 July 2007
18. ^ Parliamentary Library (1997). The Reserve Powers of the Governor-General
19. ^ What happens if I do not vote?. Voting Australia - Frequently Asked Questions . Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
20. ^ Australian Government. (2005). Budget 2005–2006
21. ^ Nation Master
22. ^ Australian Department of Defence (2006). Portfolio Budget Statements 2006–07. Page 19.
23. ^ Australia's Size Compared. Geoscience Australia. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
24. ^ State of the Environment 2006. Department of the Environment and Water Resources. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
25. ^ UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (1980). Protected Areas and World Heritage - Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. Department of the Environment and Heritage. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
26. ^ Mount Augustus. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
27. ^ No more drought: it's a "permanent dry"
28. ^ Australia's epic drought: The situation is grim.
29. ^ About Biodiversity. Department of the Environment and Heritage. Archived from the original on 2007-02-05. Retrieved on 2007-09-18.
30. ^ 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (pg.112). Yale University. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
31. ^ Sinha, Kounteya (25 Jul 2006), "No more the land of snake charmers...", The Times of India , <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1803026.cms>
32. ^ Savolainen, P. et al. 2004. A detailed picture of the origin of the Australian dingo, obtained from the study of mitochondrial DNA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 101:12387–12390 PMID
33. ^ Additional Thylacine Topics: Persecution. The Thylacine Museum (2006). Retrieved on 27 November 2006.
34. ^ National Threatened Species Day. Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australian Government (2006). Retrieved on 21 November 2006.
35. ^ Colebach, T. We're on a long and slippery slide to disaster, March 2, 2005, The Age
36. ^ Macfarlane, I. J. (1998). Australian Monetary Policy in the Last Quarter of the Twentieth Century. Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin , October
37. ^ Parham, D. (2002). Microeconomic reforms and the revival in Australia’s growth in productivity and living standards. Conference of Economists , Adelaide, 1 October
38. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics. Labour Force Australia. Cat#6202.0
39. ^ Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2003). Advancing the National Interest , Appendix 1
40. ^ ^{a b c d e} Australian Bureau of Statistics. Year Book Australia 2005
41. ^ 3105.0.65.001 - Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2006 (XLS). Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006-05-23). Retrieved on 2007-09-18. “Australian population: (1919) 5,080,912; (2006) 20,209,993”
42. ^ Background note: Australia. US Department of State. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
43. ^ Australian Population: Ethnic Origins
44. ^ The Evolution of Australia's Multicultural Policy. Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (2005). Archived from the original on 2006-02-19. Retrieved on 2007-09-18.
45. ^ Settler numbers on the rise
46. ^ Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year
47. ^ Australian Immigration Fact Sheet 20. Migration Programme Planning Levels
48. ^ Parliament of Australia, Senate (2005). Inquiry into Australian Expatriates
49. ^ Pluralist Nations: Pluralist Language Policies?. Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (1995). Archived from the original on 2005-07-17. Retrieved on 2007-09-18.
50. ^ NCLS releases latest estimates of church attendance, National Church Life Survey, Media release, 28 February 2004
51. ^ Education at Glance 2005 by OECD: Percentage of foreign students in tertiary education.
52. ^ Australian Film Commission. What are Australians Watching?, Free-to-Air, 1999–2004 TV
53. ^ It's an Honour - Symbols - Australian National Anthem and DFAT - "The Australian National Anthem"; (2002 (updated 2005)) "National Symbols", Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonw
    
    
    

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