Australia (pronounced /əˈstreɪljə, ɒˈstreɪljə/^[7], or formally /ɔːˈstreɪliə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is south of the equator—the word hemisphere (from the greek word σφαιρα +ημι(half)) literally means 'half ball'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere south of the celestial equator comprising the mainland Australia is the smallest of the geographic continents, though not of geological continents. There is no universally accepted definition of the word "continent"; the lay definition is "One of the main continuous bodies of land on the earth's surface." . By that definition, the continent of Australia includes only the Australian, which is both the world's smallest continent A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents – they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia and the world's largest island An island or isle (/ˈaɪl/) is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, /ˈaɪ.ət/. There are two main types of islands: continental islands and oceanic,^[8] the island of Tasmania Tasmania is an Australian island and state of the same name. It is located 240 kilometres south of the eastern side of the continent, being separated from it by Bass Strait. The state of Tasmania includes the island of Tasmania, which is the 26th largest island in the world, and other surrounding islands. The state has an estimated population of 50, and numerous other islands This is a list of islands of Australia. Australia has 8,222 islands within its maritime borders. The largest islands are, Tasmania 68,332 km²; Melville Island 5,786 km²; Kangaroo Island, 4,416 km²; Groote Eylandt, 2,285 km²; Bathurst Island, 1,693km²; Fraser Island 1,653km²; Flinders Island, 1,359 km²; King Island 1,091 km²; Mornington in the Indian The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean (or, traditionally, by Antarctica). One component of the all- and Pacific Oceans The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the.^N4 Australia is the only place that is simultaneously considered a continent, a country and an island. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia The Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands, and with an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, and has the largest Muslim population in the world, East Timor East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor. The small country of 15,410 km² (5,400 sq mi) is located about 640 km (400 mi) and Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea ( /ˈpæpuːə njuː ˈɡɪni/ , also /ˈpɑːpuːə/ or /ˈpæpjuːə/; Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini) (PNG), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands (the western portion of the island is a part of the Indonesian to the north, the Solomon Islands The Solomon Islands /ˈsɒləmən ˈaɪləndz/ is a country in Melanesia, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. Together they cover a land mass of 28,400 square kilometres (10,965 sq mi). The capital is Honiara, located on the island of Guadalcanal, Vanuatu Vanuatu /ˌvɑːnuːˈɑːtuː/ , officially the Republic of Vanuatu (French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some 1,750 kilometres (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres (310 mi) north-east of New and New Caledonia New Caledonia (French: officially: Nouvelle-Calédonie; colloquially: Calédonie; popular nicknames: (la) Kanaky, (le) Caillou), is a "sui generis collectivity" of France located in the region of Melanesia in the southwest Pacific. It comprises a main island (Grande Terre), the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands. Approximately to the north-east and New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud. The Realm of New Zealand also includes the Cook to the southeast.

For around 40,000 years before European settlement commenced in the late 18th century, the Australian mainland and Tasmania were inhabited by around 250 individual nations^[9] of indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands, and these peoples' descendants. Indigenous Australians are distinguished as either Aboriginal people or Torres Strait Islanders, who currently together make up about 2.6% of Australia's population.^[10] After sporadic visits by fishermen from the immediate north, and European discovery by Dutch The traditional art and culture of the Dutch encompasses various forms of traditional music, dances, architectural styles and clothing, some of which are globally recognizable. The Dutch also have a strong presence in the international scene of modernist, and post-modern arts explorers in 1606,^[11] the eastern half of Australia was claimed by the British The Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801. It was created by the merger of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, under the Acts of Union 1707, to create a single kingdom encompassing the whole of the island of Great in 1770 and initially settled through penal transportation Transportation or penal transportation refers to the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony, for example by France to Devil's Island and by Britain to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and Australia between 1788 and 1868 to the colony of New South Wales New South Wales is Australia's most populous state, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland and east of South Australia. It was founded in 1788 and originally comprised much of the Australian mainland, as well as Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. New Zealand was not initially part of the colony, although, founded on 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in the following years; the continent was explored, and during the 19th century another five largely self-governing Self-governance is an abstract concept that refers to several scales of organization. It may refer to personal conduct or family units but more commonly refers to larger scale activities, i.e., professions, industry bodies, religions and political units, up to and including autonomous regions and aboriginal peoples . It falls within the larger Crown Colonies The name "British overseas territory" was introduced by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002, and replaced the name British-Dependent Territory, which was introduced by the British Nationality Act 1981. Before that, the territories were known as colonies or Crown colonies. The British overseas territories are also referred to as were established.

On 1 January 1901, the six colonies became a federation The federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed a federation. When the Constitution of Australia came into force, on 1 January 1901, the colonies collectively became states of the Commonwealth of, and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Since Federation, Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic Liberal democracy is the dominant form of democracies in the 21st century. During the Cold War, liberal democracies were contrasted with the Communist People's Republics or "Popular Democracies", which claimed an alternative conception of democracy. Today, constitutional democracies are mostly contrasted with direct democracy and/or political system and remains a Commonwealth realm A Commonwealth realm is any one of 16 sovereign states within the Commonwealth of Nations that each have Elizabeth II as their respective monarch. The realms have a combined land area of 18.8 million km² , and a population of 132 million; all but about two million live in the six most populous states, namely the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia,. The population is just over 21.7 million, with approximately 60% concentrated in and around the mainland state capitals of Sydney Sydney is the largest city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million (2008 estimate). It is the state capital of New South Wales, and was the site of the first British colony in Australia. Situated on an inlet of the Tasman Sea, Sydney is built on low hills surrounding Port Jackson. It was established in 1788, Melbourne Melbourne is the capital and largest city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographic region and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area—of which Melbourne is the common name. In 2008, it had a population of approximately 3, Brisbane Brisbane is the state capital of the Australian state of Queensland and is the largest city in that state. With an estimated population of approximately 2 million, it is also the third most populous city in Australia. The city is situated on the Brisbane River on a low-lying floodplain between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range in south-, Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. With a population of 1,650,000 (2009), Perth ranks fourth amongst the nation's cities, with a growth rate consistently above the national average, and Adelaide Adelaide is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of South Australia, and is the fifth-largest city in Australia, with a population of more than 1.1 million. It is a coastal city situated on the eastern shores of Gulf St. Vincent, on the Adelaide Plains, north of the Fleurieu Peninsula, between the Gulf St. Vincent and the low-. The nation's capital city is Canberra Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth largest Australian city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory, 280 km (170 mi) south-west of Sydney, and 660 km (410 mi) north-east of Melbourne. The site of Canberra was, located in the Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and its smallest self-governing internal territory. It is an inland enclave in New South Wales, and regularly referred to as Australia's 'Bush Capital' (ACT).

Technologically advanced and industrialised, Australia is a prosperous multicultural The term multiculturalism generally refers to the acceptance of various cultural divisions for the sake of diversity that applies to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the scale of an organization such as a school, business, neighborhood, city or nation country and has excellent results in many international comparisons of national performance Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the mainland, which is both the world's smallest continent and the world's largest island, the island of Tasmania, and numerous other islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.N4 Australia is the only place that is simultaneously considered a such as health care, life expectancy, quality-of-life, human development, public education, economic freedom, and the protection of civil liberties and political rights.^[12] Australian cities also routinely rank among the world's highest in terms of livability, cultural offerings, and quality of life. It is a member of the United Nations The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and, G-20 major economies The G-20 is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies: 19 of the world's largest national economies, plus the European Union (EU). It also met twice at heads-of-government level, in November 2008 and again in April 2009. Collectively, the G-20 economies comprise 85% of global gross national product, 80% of world, Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, usually known as the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly parts of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values and goals, as outlined in the Singapore Declaration. These include the promotion of democracy,, ANZUS The Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty is the military alliance which binds Australia and New Zealand and, separately, Australia and the United States to cooperate on defense matters in the Pacific Ocean area, though today the treaty is understood to relate to attacks in any area, OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (in French: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, OCDE) is an international organisation of 30 countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and free-market economy. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a high HDI and are regarded as, and the WTO The World Trade Organization is an international organization designed by its founders to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, replacing the General agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), wich commenced in 1947. The World Trade Organization deals with.

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