AREA & POPULATION

Total Area : 7,659,861 sq km
Population: 20,090,437

The mainland comprises 5 states and 2 territories. The sixth state, Tasmania, is 200 kilometres south of Victoria and separated from the mainland by Bass Strait.

To the east, Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands are governed from Australia, as is the Antarctic holding based around Mawson.
It is the driest continent on earth with around 1/3rd considered desert. It is approximately 3,700 km. long (north to south) and 4,000 kilometres wide.

The mainland section is roughly divided in the east by the Great Dividing Range which lies inland from the eastern seaboard and runs from the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland to Melbourne in Victoria. Included in the range is Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciusko (2,229 metres) near the New South Wales-Victoria border in the snow capped alpine region of the Great Dividing Range.
West of the dividing range the land is mainly flat with a few low ranges including the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and the MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs.

The centre of the continent is mainly desert and sparsely populated. Around 80% of the Australian population lives within the eastern seaboard or the coastal fringes of the continent.

Massive salt lakes, often dry for long periods, will be found in the mid-north of South Australia and these are fed by a large river system which carries water for hundreds of kilometres to fill them. The largest of these, Lake Eyre (9,475 sq km.), was filled this year (1994) for the first time in over a decade. What water does not evaporate from these lakes is fed into the Central Australian Artesian Basin, a vast natural underground series of aquifers from which occasional springs bubble in the most remote desert areas, and from which Alice Springs draws its water supply.

Use your international cell phone rental to discover this vast and beautiful country.