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Australia
The continent of Australia has an area of approximately 7.7 million square kilometres and its landform is the lowest, flattest and the driest of all inhabited continents.
Australia is a land rich in resources and natural beauty, which brings with it some unique environmental challenges. Many of Australia’s natural tourist attractions are ecologically fragile and under threat from the level of tourism itself. Finding a balance between protecting the environment and fostering primary industries such as farming and mining has long been a topic of discussion among the population.
There are 15 UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Natural) in Australia. One of them, the Great Barrier Reef, is the world’s largest coral reef. The 2000-kilometre long reef lies a short distance off the north-east coast and is a prime destination for both national and international tourists. Uluru (Ayers Rock), an icon of Australia’s dry inland, rises from the red sands of the world heritage listed Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory. It was previously thought to be the world’s largest monolith, but it is neither a monolith nor as large as the almost 50 square kilometre Mount Augustus, located in Western Australia.
Australia has 3 major landform features: the western plateau, the central lowlands and the eastern highlands. The western half of the continent consists of a great plateau at an altitude of 300–600 metres. The central lowlands include the channel country of south-west Queensland, which drains into Lake Eyre, and the Murray-Darling drainage system in the south, which flows into the Southern Ocean near Adelaide. The eastern highlands consist of a broad belt of varied widths extending from north Queensland to Tasmania. This largely comprises of tablelands, ranges and ridges, with only limited mountain areas above 1,000 metres.
The weather varies greatly over the expanse of the continent. The south-east and south-west corners are temperate, while the northern part of the country is tropical. Large areas away from the coastal fringe are semi-arid or arid. The weather in the south is generally cooler, while the north is warmer and often subject to cyclones and other large storms during the Australian summer (December to February). Other natural hazards include bushfires, droughts and floods depending on location.
Australia has many environmental issues with which it is dealing, including soil erosion and high salinity levels from overgrazing and deforestation; general urbanisation; clearing for agricultural purposes, which threatens the natural habitat of many unique animal and plant species; the Great Barrier Reef off the north-east coast, the largest coral reef in the world, is threatened by increased shipping and its popularity as a tourist site; limited natural fresh water resources and threats from invasive species.