Short Notes - World Geography (Australia)
Category : UPSC
World Geography (Australia)
- World's largest island and smallest continent.
- The tropic of Capricorn cuts the continent almost into half.
- The Great Barrier Reef (largest coral reef in the world) is situated in Australia. The location of Australia is in between India and Pacific Ocean and it stretches west to east from 114° E longitude to 154° E longitude and from 10°S to 40°S Latitude.
The island was discovered by Captain cook in 1770.
- River- Murray and Darling.
- Deserts- Gibson Desert, Great Sandy Desert, Great Victoria Desert, Simpson Desert, Tittle sandy desert. Strzelecki Desert, Tanami Desert, Rangipo Desert.
- Both temperate and tropical climate is experienced in Australia.
- The winter lands of New South Wales of victoria, Tasmania, the south- eastern Australia, South west port of Australia comes within this temperate zone where 4 prominent seasons dominate the whole year. They are
- Summer
- Autumn
- Winter
- Spring
- Tropical wet and dry climate zone which is further divided into equatorial, tropical and sub-tropical etc.
Climate and Vegetation
Natural Vegetation:
The Predominant vegetation types are -
Tropical rain forest region with dense cover of coconut and palms, mangrove growing near shoreline
The deciduous forest region with tall and short tree , shrubs, small plants and mosses.
The dry desert and desert scrub: It is the region with vegetation such as cactic.
Grassland - Prominent Grasslands of Australia are Savanna and Downs.
- Crops- Wheat, Barley, oats, maize, sugarcane, tobacco and cotton.
- Largest number of sheep in the world.
- Largest producer of bauxite in the world.
- Industries- iron and steel, agricultural machinery, motor vehicles, electrical goods, chemical, ships, etc.
- Metals- Uranium (Kalgoorlie and Koolgardie), Lead, Zinc, Silver and Manganese
- Original Inhabitants. Aborigines.
