Geography of Australia

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Geography of Australia
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Basic Facts

• Worlds largest island
• Worlds smallest continent
• 22 million people
• 3 million square miles
• 25 million years ago broke off from Asia
• Made up of a plateau, lowlands, highlands, and a
  coastal rim

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Landforms

• East of the Great Dividing Range lies a narrow
  coastal rim and is home to Australias largest
  cities
• 87 of Australians live in cities or near the
  coasts
• Outback Dry interior of Australia

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Climate

• Northern third of the continent lies in the
  tropics
• Rest of Australia lies in the temperate zone
• Eastern coastal rim gets a lot of rainfall
  because of rain shadow created by Great Dividing
  Range
• Outback Sand, gravel, dry

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Resources and Animals

• Sheep graze in the interior 150 million
• Exports wool and meat
• Beef cattle
• Irrigation for wheat, sugarcane, cotton
• Natural resources Iron ore, copper, zinc,
  uranium, lead
• Oil and natural gas deposits
• Only place with kangaroos, koala bears, and
  duck-billed platypus

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