Treasury

A long line of mountains runs from the north to the south of the east coast. It is called the Great Dividing Range, because it divides the green, wet coast of eastern Australia from the hot dry lands in the centre.

Australia has three different climates. In the north the weather is tropical — hot and wet.

In the centre, the climate is very dry, and the land is mainly desert. In the south, it is pleasant with cool winters and warm summers.

The four great deserts of central Australia cover 2,000,000 square kilometres.

There are six different states in Australia: Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. There are also two territories: Northern Territory, and Australian Capital Territory, with Canberra, the nation's capital city, in it.

Each Australian state has its own government and its own capital city. The state capitals are Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, and Adelaide.

Where do all the Australians live? In fact most of them (85 per cent) live in the cities of the east coast. But even these cities are not very big. There are only 16 million people in Australia, and it's a very big country.

Australia is sometimes called 'the lucky country'. One reason is the wonderful riches under the earth: gold, silver, iron, coal and many precious metals. Oil and natural gas have helped to build big industries. Victoria, the south-eastern state, has a large number of industries. Oil is no problem for them.

Sydney is the best known place in New South Wales. In fact, it's the best known place in Australia. But New South Wales has more than cities. There are, for example, the Blue Mountains. They are covered with forests of blue-coloured eucalyptus trees. The air above the forest contains millions of microscopic drops of eucalyptus oil. When the sun shines, the air of the Blue Mountains is a real, beautiful blue.

The Great Barrier Reef on the coast of Queensland is a garden under the sea. There are 1,400 different kinds of fish, and more than 300 kinds of coral. Tropical fruit and flowers grow on the beautiful islands. It's not surprising that more holiday-makers come to Queensland every year.

South Australia is the driest of all the states, but it does have the Murray River. The river brings greenness and life to the state's south-east corner.

There are two kinds of gold in Western Australia. First, there's the real kind — the kind that comes out of the ground. Gold was found in Kalgoorlie in 1893. Kalgoorlie still exports some gold, but the new gold of Western Australia is wheat. Big farms grow millions of tons of wheat every year, and wheat has become Australia's second biggest export.

Tasmania, the island south of Australia, is small. It is the same size as England. It is also very different from the other states. There are no deserts in Tasmania. It often rains, both in winter and summer. Only half a million people live in Tasmania and a large part of the islands is still covered with wild, beautiful rain forests. These forests are full of wonderful flowers and interesting animals, like the little Tasmanian devil.