The introductions of the country, dependency and region entries are in the native languages and in English. The other introductions are in English.
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Australia
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Australia |
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Australia - Commonwealth of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the world's smallest continent and a number of islands in the Southern, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Neighbouring countries include ► Indonesia, ► East Timor and ► Papua New Guinea to the north, the ► Solomon Islands, ► Vanuatu and the French dependency of ► New Caledonia to the northeast, and ► New Zealand to the southeast.
The Australian overseas territories are the ► Ashmore and Cartier Islands, ► Christmas Island, the ► Coral Sea Islands, the ► Cocos (Keeling) Islands, ► Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and ► Norfolk Island.
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| Short name |
Australia |
| Official name |
Commonwealth of Australia |
| Status |
Independent country since 1901 |
| Location |
Oceania |
| Capital |
Canberra |
| Population |
22,176,000 (est. 5 Mar 2010) inhabitants |
| Area |
7,741,220 km² |
| Major languages |
English (official) |
| Major religions |
Protestant Christianity, Roman Catholicism |
| More information |
Australia, Geography of Australia, History of Australia and Politics of Australia |
| More images |
Australia - Australia (Category). |
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General maps
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Location of Australia |
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Map of Australia |
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Topography of Australia |
Maps of divisions
This section holds maps of the administrative divisions.
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Map of Australian states and territories |
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Australian Capital Territory
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Australian Capital Territory
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History maps
This section holds a short summary of the history of the area of present-day Australia, illustrated with maps, including historical maps of former countries and empires that included present-day Australia.
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Australia discoveries by Europeans before 1813 |
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In 1770 Captain James Cook rediscovers the region and claims it for Britain. This leads in 1778 to the formation of the colony of New South Wales. This map shows Australia as part of the British Empire. |
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In the upcoming decennia parts of the colony become separate colonies: Van Diemen's Land in 1825 (later named Tasmania), South Australia in 1836, New Zealand in 1841, Victoria in 1851 and Queensland in 1859. Many but by no means all of the first settlers are convicts, condemned for offenses that today would often be thought trivial. The mid-19th century brings government policies to emancipate convicts and the government assists the immigration of free persons. Since 1850 the colonies are granted self-government. |
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In 1891 a proces of re-unification starts, that leads in 1901 to the merger of the colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and West Australia into the Commonwealth of Australia, which becomes a federal parliamentary democracy. Full independence is realized in 1931 by the Treaty of Westminster, ratified in 1942. This map shows the development of the Australian states and territories since the Federation. |
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Census of 1921 |
Old maps
This section holds copies of original general maps older than 70 years of this entry.
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First map of Australia (Jave la Grande) from Nicholas Vallard's atlas, 1547 |
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Le pôle antarctique, by Jacques de Vaux, Premières Œuvres (traité d'hydrographie), 1583 |
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A map of the East Indies, from William Dampier's New Voyage Round the World, published 1697 |
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New Holland Map by William Dampier, 1699 |
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Map of Sydney from 1789 |
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Pre 1904 map of Australia |
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Historical map of Australia, Bibliothek allgemeinen und praktischen Wissens für Militäranwärter, 1905 |
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Map of Australia from The New Student's Reference Work, 1914 |
Geological and similar maps
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Climate map |
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Basic geological regions of Australia, by age. |
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Seismicity map |
Other maps
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Distribution of boomerangs in Australia |
Satellite maps
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Satellite photo of Australia |
Notes and references
General remarks:
- The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons. The main page is therefore the portal to maps and cartography on Wikimedia. That page contains links to entries by country, continent and by topic as well as general notes and references.
- Every entry has an introduction section in English. If other languages are native and/or official in an entity, introductions in other languages are added in separate sections. The text of the introduction(s) is based on the content of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. For sources of the introduction see therefore the Wikipedia entries linked to. The same goes for the texts in the history sections.
- Historical maps are included in the continent, country and dependency entries.
- The status of various entities is disputed. See the content for the entities concerned.
- The maps of former countries that are more or less continued by a present-day country or had a territory included in only one or two countries are included in the atlas of the present-day country. For example the Ottoman Empire can be found in the Atlas of Turkey.
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Entries available in the atlas
