Terms to know for Australia: You will use the following terms to complete the
attached questions. All questions should be answered in complete sentences.
Groovy Facts:
Total population is 31 million in Oceania
Australia’s population is only 22 million—by 2050 projected at 42 million w/ most
new people coming from immigration
It is the smallest continent with only 7 ppsm (people per square mile) but the 6th
largest country
Australia is the flattest, driest, and lowest continent
Oceania has the 2nd youngest country—East Timor (2002)
Australia is 92 % urban and most people live along the coast
Australia has only 6% arable land
Oceania is composed of tens of thousands of islands
Oceania is crossed by the IDL (International Date Line) at 180 degrees
Vegemite first made in 1923
Surfing in 1915
Ned Kelly hung in 1880
Colonized by Britain; originally a penal colony (colony for prisoners)
Capt. James Cook sailed in the Endeavor
NEW ZEALAND “new sea land” (Dutch name) “Aotearoa”—”Land of the Long
White Cloud” (Maori name)
3 groups of islands in Pacific—Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia
Sahul—continent created in the last Ice Age between Australia and New Guinea
New Zealand—North & South Islands; discovered by Abel Tasman; gained
independence in 1911
Maori—natives of New Zealand
Mount Cook—highest mountain in New Zealand; 12316’; named after Capt. James
Cook
Great Barrier reef—longest in world at 1250 miles long
Nullabor Plateau—southern Australia; flat plain
Great Dividing Range—rain shadow effect; mountain range in eastern Australia
Mount Ossa—Highest mountain on Tasmania; 5305’
Abel Tasman—explorer for which Tasmania got its name; 1642
Bass Strait—water body that connects two larger bodies of water (Australia & New
Zealand)
Marsupial—animal that carries its young in a pouch
Monotreme—mammal that lays eggs; platypus
Marsupial—kangaroo; “joey”
Dingo—Australian wild dog
Aborigine tribes of Australia; over 500,000; right to vote given between 1962-65 and
citizenship in 1967
Aborigine: “Religion”—Dreamtime Art--X-ray style
Lake Eyre-lowest point in elevation in Australia; -52’ below sea level
Matthew Flinders—first to circumnavigate Australia in 1806
Outback—desert interior of Australia
George Bass—explored southern Australia in 1797
Alice Springs—main city in central Australia; pop. 26,000
MacDonnell Mountain Range—400 miles
Uluru (Ayers Rock)—large monolith in central Australia; 1.5 miles long and 1000’
high; first sighted in 1873
Canberra—capitol of Australia with 373,000 people established in 1917
Murray—longest river in Australia; 1609 miles long
Western Australia: Perth—”City of Lights”; est. 1829; pop.
1.4 million
Sydney—largest city with over 4.6 million people
Sydney Opera House built in 1973
Sydney—settled as a penal colony in 1788
Sydney—bridge completed in 1932
Coober Pedy (“white man’s hole”—Opal mining town in South Australia;
“dugouts”; population 3,500
Livestock 94 million chickens and 94 million sheep Anna Creek—world’s largest
cattle station