An isolated island continent between the Indian and Pacific oceans, the flattest and driest inhabited continent, with no land borders
An island continent that shares no land border with any other country, Australia is dominated at its centre by the Outback, a vast, arid and very sparsely populated region of deserts (Great Sandy Desert, Gibson Desert) and iconic landforms such as Uluru. The Great Dividing Range runs along the east coast for nearly 4,000 km, while the Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral structure in the world, stretches for more than 2,300 km off Queensland. Most of the population lives on a narrow coastal fringe, mainly in the east, south-east and south-west.
7,688,287 km²
Area
2,228 m
Highest point · Mount Kosciuszko
0
Land borders
The main rivers of Australia. Click a river to see its length, source and mouth.
Climate
Highly varied, from the tropical north (monsoons, cyclones) to the temperate south, across a vast arid to semi-arid interior covering more than a third of the territory. With average national rainfall of about 419 mm a year, Australia is the driest inhabited continent after Antarctica.
Bordering countries
Administrative divisions
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federation of six states and two mainland territories (the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory). It also administers several external territories: three are permanently inhabited — Norfolk Island in the Pacific, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean — while others have no permanent civilian population, such as the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, the Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, or the Australian Antarctic Territory, a territorial claim in Antarctica which, like the other claims on the continent, is not recognised by the whole international community under the Antarctic Treaty System.
6
States
2
Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory.
3
Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
The 8 regions of the mainland territory of Australia.
Overseas territories
Territories separate from the mainland, each with its own institutional status.
Mainland territory (in colour) and 3 overseas territories, shown at their actual location on the globe.
Norfolk Island
External territory, run directly by an administrator appointed by the Commonwealth since its self-government was abolished in 2015
Christmas Island
Unorganised external territory, in the Indian Ocean
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Unorganised external territory, in the Indian Ocean