New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, New Guinea and New Britain. The term is also popularly used for the Australian col-oaies of Great Britain, including Tasmania, New Zealand, Fiji, etc.
Australia (as-trā'lĭ-ἁ), the great island continent of the southern hemisphere, belonging to Great Britain. It lies between latitude 10° 41' and 39° 11' south, longitude 113° 5' and 153° 16' east. It is washed on the west and south by the Indian Ocean, on the east by the South Pacific and on the north by the Timor, Arfura and Coral Seas. Its greatest length from east to east is 2,400 miles, and its breadth from north to south 1,970 miles. Its area, including Tasmania, is 2,972,573 square miles. Population, in 1909, 4,374,138.
Surface and Drainage. The coast line is almost unbroken. Parallel with the east coast stretches for 1,200 miles the Great Barrier reef, offering but one safe opening for ships. The absence of rivers between the coast and the interior is remarkable, there being only one large river, the Murray, 2,345 miles long. The mountain ranges are on the east coast, divided into the Australian Alps, whose peak, Mt. Kosciusko, is the highest on the continent (7,308 feet); the Blue Mountains; the Liverpool Range; MacPherson Range; Herries Range; the dividing range of Queensland; the great dividing range of Victoria; the Grampians and the Pyrenees. From the head of the Gulf of Carpenteria stretches a tableland westward. A large part of the interior is a barren tract of salt or mud plains. To the north of Spencer Gulf is an area of some thousand square miles, set with lakes, the Lake District of Australia. Eyre, Torrens, Gairdner and Amadeus to the northwest are the largest. These dead masses of salt water change as the season is wet or dry; now sheets of water and now almost grassy plains.
Climate. The climate of Australia is healthful though subject to high temperature. The coast regions generally have a sufficient rainfall, but the interior is subject to extreme drought and large areas are practically arid.
Vegetation. Plant life is modified by the dryness of the climate; the trees have a scanty foliage and large areas are covered with scrubby bushes, and, in the arid regions, with a hard, coarse plant, called porcupine grass. There are forests which afford valuable timber trees, including gum, of which there are 150 species, and acacia or wattle 300 species. Palms, of which there are 24 species are found on the north and east coasts. Various fruits and vines have been introduced and produce well. There are also large areas which produce nutritious grasses, affording pasturage for immense flocks of sheep.
Minerals. Gold was discovered in Australia in 1851, attracting a rush of gold* seekers. Since that time the mines nave produced more than $1,350,000,000. There are also rich deposits of silver, coprjer, tin, lead, zinc, etc.; also coal, iron, granite, marble, limestone and sandstone.
Animal Life. The higher orders of wild animals found in other countries are almost wholly lacking in Australia, those here found being mostly marsupials, or animals which generally carry their young in an external pouch. Of these there are more than 100 kinds, of which the best known are the kangaroo, wombat, koala, bandicoot, wallabies and opossums. Birds are in great number and variety. The largest is the emu, which is nearly as large as the ostrich, reaching a height of six or seven feet. Eagles, falcons, hawks and owls are numerous; also many kinds of parrots and cockatoos of brilliant plumage. Other birds are the pelican, Australian goose, the magnificent lyre bird, with pigeons, ducks, geese, quail, etc. Reptiles include the alligator, more than 60 species of snakes, lizards, frogs, etc.
Native Peoples. The natives are of a dusky, coffee-brown complexion. They are not much shorter than the average European, but are of a much slimmer and feebler build. They are mainly interested in hunting and getting food, at which they show great cunning, and they easily learn to chatter foreign languages; but outside of this limit all is blank to the Australian. His only idea of right and wrong is that each man's property is his own, wives being one item in a man's chattels. In summer they go naked; in winter they wrap themselves in kangaroo skins. They eat roots of the wild yam, the opossum, lizard, snakes, white ants, etc. The boomerang, their favorite weapon, is a flat stick, three feet long, curved at the middle, which, when thrown, jerks in a zigzag fashion and usually comes back to the thrower. They also have flint-pointed spears, shields, and stone hatchets. Before Europeans settled in the island, there were about one hundred and fifty thousand natives, but there are now less than 50,000.
History. It is not known just when Australia was discovered, but it is found on a French chart of 1542. A Spaniard, in 1606, passed through the Torres Strait, to which his name is given; while early Dutch explorers made known Tasmania, called at first, in honor of the Dutch governor of the East Indian colonies, Van Diemen's Land. In 1664 the states-general gave to the western part of the continent of Australia the name of New Holland; it is known also to have been visited by the mariner William Dampier. It was not until 1768, however, that the country became really known to the English. It was visited in that year by an
