Geography
Here you will find details about Australia’s geographic features.
Back to GEOGRAPHY
Climate and Landscapes of Australia
Australia is a very dry and arid country, with the semi-arid land and desert concentrated in the centre of the country. Much of the land receives well below ideal rain levels each year. As a result, droughts are common, often with devastating results for the agricultural sector (a large part of Australia’s production and export industry), as well as to those living in country towns or isolated farmsteads. For the same reason, the east coast of Australia is densely populated, due to its more moderate climate.
Australia is an island continent with a wide variety of landscapes and climate. Despite being a dry, island continent, Australia has many beautiful landscape views to offer, including The Outback, dense bush areas, desert, the Great Dividing Range of mountains which separates the east coast from the rest of the nation, as well as coastal beaches and the Great Barrier Reef. Australia is also home to many unique species of flora and fauna, found nowhere else on the planet. One major issue due to Australia’s climate is the prevalence of bushfires during summer, with its soaring temperatures and high humidity. Fire alerts and preparation during this season is necessary to help prevent fires occurring or becoming worse. The most recent devastating bushfires to occur in Australia were the Black Saturday bushfires, which ravaged Victoria on the 7th of February 2009. The number of deaths was approximately 170 with 150 injured. Around 2000 homes were destroyed, and numerous livestock and native animals were killed or injured. The following video shows Sam, a koala, found by firefighters, and who despite being half burnt, drinks water from the firefighter’s drink bottle. Sadly, Sam later died from a disease, urogenital chlamydiosis, which is common amongst koalas.