Geographic location

The German meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1912 presented the theory of continental drift. He deduced that late in the Palaeozoic Era, which ended 225 million years ago, all the continents were united into a vast supercontinent which he called Pangaea. Later, this broke into two supercontinental masses: Laurasia, which existed in the northern hemisphere and contained North America (formerly Laurentia) and Eurasia, and Gondwana (or Gondwanaland) which included Australia, Antarctica, India, Africa, and South America. Alfred Wegener proposed that Pangaea began to split up as a result of continental drift in the Jurassic Period, and that the fragments eventually became the continental masses we know today.

Gondwana began to split and drift apart some 85 to 100 million years ago. The plate carrying Australia is still drifting northward by about 7 centimeters per year. The Australian continent has remained separate for the past 40 million years, during which its distinctive flora and fauna evolved in isolation.

The continent of Australia is the only nation that is a continent. It is also the smallest and the flattest continent.

The continent is bounded on the north by the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea, and the Torres Strait; on the east by the Coral Sea and the Tasman Sea; on the south by the Bass Strait and the Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Indian Ocean.

A long way from anywhere: It is sometimes claimed that Perth is the most isolated major city on earth. Perth's nearest neighbor of any size is Adelaide, which is 2120 kilometres to the east, a distance that is only slightly less than that between London and Moscow (2198 kilometres). The closest foreign capital city to Perth is Jakarta, which is 3000 kilometres away.

The distance by air between Sydney and London is 17 036 kilometres,

New York 16 028 kilometres,

Singapore 6301 kilometres,

Manila 6262 kilometres,

and Auckland 2145 kilometres.

Territory

The commonwealth extends for about 4000 km from east to west and for about 3700 km from north to south. Its coastline measures some 25,760 km. The area of the commonwealth is 7,682,300 sq km, and the area of the continent alone is 7,614,500 sq km. In land area Australia is the sixth largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, the USA and Brazil. Australia could contain 2.3 Indias, 14 Frances, 21 Japans, 26 Italys or 32 Great Britains.

Australia covers about 5% of the earth's land area (excluding Antarctica). The island of Tasmania, which lies about 209 kilometers south of the Australian mainland, is considered part of the continent. Tasmania was part of the mainland until about 12,000 years ago. It became separated because the level of the ocean rose and covered the land connection.

The Commonwealth of Australia comprises six states and two territories. The states and their capitals are

New South Wales (Sydney),