Australia in a nut shell

Playing in the background  is Australia's National Anthem. Click to download.

    Wedged between the Indian and Pacific oceans, Australia lies south of the Eurasian landmass. It is an island continent and, like the island continent of Antarctica, it is located entirely in the Southern Hemisphere. Australia is also the only continent occupied entirely by a single nation. Tasmania, a much smaller island off the southeast coast, is also considered to be a part of the continent of Australia.
    Australia is the smallest, flattest, most arid, and least populated of the inhabited continents. The cold Antarctic Ocean washes its southern coasts, while warm, shallow, tropical seas separate Australia's northern coasts from the archipelagoes of Southeast Asia. Although Australia is a small continent, it is a large country. Only Russia, Canada, the United States, China, and Brazil have larger areas. Of Australia's 17.7 million inhabitants, about 23 percent were born elsewhere, and 1.5 percent are of aboriginal descent. Over 86 percent of Australia's people live in cities, yet only 10 percent of its area is cultivated. Two thirds of the continent is desert or partial desert.
    Australia has a diverse, technologically advanced industrial economy, with very productive primary industries, and abundant mineral and other resources. It leads the world in wool production and coal exports, and its iron ore and bauxite mines also make significant contributions to world production. With a gross national product per capita of $17,070 in 1992, Australia enjoys one of the world's highest standards of living, ranking sixteenth among the industrialized nations.
    Australia Day is celebrated on January 26, commemorating the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788. Other public holidays observed throughout Australia include Anzac Day, April 25, to honor war veterans; Good Friday; Easter Monday; Queen's Birthday; Christmas Day; and Boxing Day (December 26). Different States observe Labor Day, or Eight-Hour Day; Bank Holiday; Proclamation Day, in South Australia; Foundation Day, in Western Australia; Remembrance Day; and Melbourne Cup Day, in Victoria, to permit attendance at Australia's richest and most popular horse race.
The school year extends from late January or early February into mid-December. Students attend class for about 120 days per year. Literacy stands at 99.5 percent of the population. The summer months are December through February.
    Australia has three standard time zones. The eastern states are ten hours ahead of Greenwich (15 hours ahead of New York). South Australia, the Northern Territory, and the city of Broken Hill are 30 minutes behind the eastern states, which are two hours ahead of Western Australia. They converted to the metric system by 1981, and decimal currency, (dollars and cents) replaced pounds, shillings, and pence in 1966.