Australia is huge. This is the first thing I have learned about our new home. Its total area is 7.7 million square kilometres.
Australia is about 30 times bigger than the UK, but its population is one-third that of the UK. It is also about three-quarters the size of the USA, but Australia's population is only about 7% of that of the USA.
This really useful website shows how Aus compares to other countries in size.
The state of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, is about the same size as the UK but only has 5 million population as compared to 60 million in the UK. Even still it is Australia's most densely populated state! The Great Ocean Road is one of the state's biggest attractions - the famous 12 Apostles are a central feature of this National Park in western Victoria.
Victoria has quite a diverse landscape - it has desert in the north-west, but the mountains in the north-east are famous for their ski resorts. Not to mention the surf beaches!
The interesting thing about Melbourne is that the city is not Australia's wettest capital city! Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin and Perth all receive much higher annual rainfalls. However, Melbourne does have the highest number of rainy days. Click here for more Melbourne trivia.
One statistic I have in my mind which helps me understand the size of Australia, is that it is almost the same distance from Sydney to Perth as it is from London to Baghdad!
Four out of ten people living in Australia are immigrants or first-generation children of immigrants, so I guess we won't have too much trouble fitting in.
The Australian bank notes are actually made of plastic, which means it is no problem if you forget to empty your pockets before doing the laundry!
The good news is that our life expectancy will increase by about 3 years in Aus, but the bad news is that our average earnings are likely to go down...
Here are a few other interesting links for you to browse:
Detailed map of Australia
Map of the state of Victoria
Australian Geography and History
The Stolen Generations
Thursday, September 15, 2005
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