# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tasmania, formerly Van Diemen's Land, island state of Australia. It lies about 150 miles (240 km) south of the state of Victoria, from which it is separated by the relatively shallow Bass Strait. Structurally, Tasmania constitutes a southern extension of the Great Dividing Range. The state comprises a main island called Tasmania; Bruny Island, nestling close to the southeastern coast of the main island; King and Flinders islands in Bass Strait; numerous smaller islands off the coast of the main island; and subantarctic Macquarie Island, about 900 miles (1,450 km) to the southeast. The main island is roughly heart-shaped, with a maximum length and width of about 200 miles (320 km), and its latitude and climate are broadly comparable to those of northern California and northwestern Spain. With an area slightly larger than that of Sri Lanka, Tasmania is the smallest of Australia's states. Hobart is the state capital.

The state owes its name to the Dutch navigator-explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 became the first European to discover the island. Until 1856, however, the island was known as Van Diemen's Land, named for Anthony van Diemen, the governor of the Dutch East Indies who had sent Tasman on his voyage of exploration. The island of Tasmania contains some of the most spectacular mountain, lake, and coastal scenery in the country, and much of its land is protected in national parks and reserves. The state also produces a major portion of Australia's hydroelectric power and possesses a great diversity of natural resources. Nevertheless, Tasmania has remained among the poorest of Australia's states, with a steadily decreasing share of the country's population. Although insularity renders much of its political, economic, and social life distinctive, proximity to Melbourne and air travel make Tasmania less isolated and more cosmopolitan than is often assumed in other Australian states. Area 26,410 square miles (68,401 square km). Population (2021) 557,571.

Land

Relief

Tasmania is essentially a mountainous island. In the west, where the highest peak on the island, Mount Ossa, reaches 5,305 feet (1,617 metres), the landscape comprises several parallel northwest-southeast ridges and valleys. Eastward lies a series of plateaus at various elevations; the highest point is Ben Lomond in the northeast, which rises to 5,161 feet (1,573 metres) at Legges Tor. But the dominant feature of Tasmanian geography is the glaciated, lake-studded Central Plateau, bounded on the north and east by a 2,000-foot (610-metre) fault scarp and sloping gently southeastward from 3,500 to 2,000 feet (1,070 to 610 metres). Much of the east is made up of a low, dissected plateau averaging about 1,200 feet (370 metres). Extensive plains are confined to the far northwest, the lower South Esk River valley, and the northeast. The Bass Strait islands represent outliers of the northern coastal platforms. Fossil-laden cliffs on the northern shore of Tasmania and on Maria Island off the eastern coast indicate areas that once lay beneath the sea. Conversely, postglacial submergence in the southeast has produced one of the finest examples of a drowned coastline.

Drainage

There are two major river systems in Tasmania-the Derwent in the southeast and the South Esk in the northeast. Many smaller systems, especially in the western region, flow to the west coast. The Central Plateau is studded with more than 4,000 lakes in a landscape similar to that of northern Canada and Finland; almost all, including Great Lake, are shallow. Lake St. Clair, the deepest lake in Australia (reaching more than 700 feet [215 metres]), is a piedmont lake similar to the lakes of northern Italy. Several of the state's lakes, notably Lake King William, are artificial reservoirs created as a part of hydroelectric power development.

Soils

Most Tasmanian soils are leached, acidic, poorly drained, high in humus, and low in fertility. Least fertile and most extensive are the soils of the west and northeast, especially the moor peats. Fertile areas occur extensively in the northwest and locally elsewhere, notably in the northeast and southeast. Brown earths occupy the drier areas east of the Central Plateau; black earths, the southeast; and alluvial soils, the narrow valley floors to the east. Other fertile soils are those of former swamps in the far northwest and the Bass Strait islands.

Climate

Tasmania, located in the midlatitude westerly wind belt and dominated by southern maritime air masses, generally enjoys a moist, equable climate, with mild to warm summers, mild winters in most settled areas, and rain during all seasons. However, the southwest has much rugged weather, and the southeast can suffer drought. Collision between tropical air masses-in summer from the continent and in spring and autumn from the eastern Tasmanian coast-and the mountainous surface results in greater climatic variety than in other parts of Australia. Annual precipitation, seasonal moisture deficiencies, and temperatures range widely and irregularly across the state. Average annual precipitation exceeds 100 inches (2,500 mm) on the western ranges and declines eastward to less than 20 inches (510 mm) in some places; along the north coast it exceeds 30 inches (760 mm) in all locations. The seasonal incidence in the north and west is greatest in winter, and in the south and east it is greatest in spring. Summer rainfall may vary markedly from year to year, especially in the drier east. Mean January temperatures are higher in the north and east than elsewhere, reaching 64 °F (18 °C) at Launceston; mean July temperatures are 46 to 49 °F (8 tο 9 °C) in all coastal stations, declining sharply with elevation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tasmania | History, Capital, Map, Climate, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Geographical and historical treatment of Tasmania, including maps and a survey of its people, economy, and government.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Table of Contents

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Kangaroo Island, third largest Australian offshore island, located at the entrance to the Gulf St. Vincent, South Australia, 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Adelaide. Its formation is that of a low cliffed plateau (structurally a continuation of the Mount Lofty-Flinders ranges on the mainland) measuring 90 by 34 miles (145 by 55 km) and rising to nearly 920 feet (280 metres). Visited in 1802 by the English explorer Matthew Flinders, the island-named for its abundance of kangaroos -was often also visited by whalers and sealers. Nepean Bay, its best harbour, was the site of the state's first (temporary) settlement in 1836.

With fertilization, the poor soils of the island's western sector can yield crops of oats and barley and supply pasturage for cattle and sheep. There are air and sea links to the mainland from Kingscote, the island's principal settlement. Tourism, based on ocean fishing and on visits to Flinders Chase National Park at the island's western end, furnishes an important ancillary source of income. Established in 1919, Flinders Chase covers 285 square miles (738 square km) of low wooded hills, cliffs, and beaches. A sanctuary and breeding ground for the Australian fur seal is located on the southern coast at Seal Bay. There are significant deposits of gypsum. Area 1,680 square miles (4,350 square km). Pop. (2006) 4,259; (2011) 4,417.

Amy Tikkanen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kangaroo Island | Wildlife, Nature Reserve, Conservation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kangaroo Island, third largest Australian offshore island, located at the entrance to the Gulf St. Vincent, South Australia, 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Adelaide. Its formation is that of a low cliffed plateau (structurally a continuation of the Mount Lofty-Flinders ranges on the mainland)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Great Barrier Reef | Map, Animals, Bleaching, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Great Barrier Reef, world’s largest coral reef complex, located in the Pacific Ocean off northeastern Australia. It extends for more than 1,250 miles (2,000 km) in a northwest-southeast direction, and its width ranges from 37 to 155 miles (60 to 250 km). It has an area of some 135,000 square miles (…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Uluru/Ayers Rock | Location, Map, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Uluru/Ayers Rock, giant monolith, one of the tors (isolated masses of weathered rock) in southwestern Northern Territory, central Australia. It has long been revered by a variety of Australian Aboriginal peoples of the region, who call it Uluru. It is oval in shape and rises 1,142 feet above the sur…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The landscape

The city site

Metropolitan Melbourne is situated at the northern end of Port Phillip Bay, 30 nautical miles (55 km) from the bay's narrow entrance. Most of the flat terrain is less than 390 feet (120 metres) above sea level. The expansion of Melbourne from its origins at the mouth of the Yarra River to its present shape displays a strong correlation with the geology and drainage of the land. West of the original city site, basalt flows during the Cenozoic Era (i.e., the last 65 million years) filled the existing valleys and left flat, uniform plains. The eastern region, however, consists of undulating and dissected beds of sandstones, shales, and conglomerates laid down in the Silurian and Devonian periods (about 445 to 360 million years ago). The thicker soils of the eastern region, together with its higher annual rainfall, supported a much denser cover of trees than on the basalt plains. Not surprisingly, the development of Melbourne has been mainly eastward into the broad reaches of land between Darebin Creek, the Plenty and Yarra rivers, and Koonung and Gardiners creeks. In a strikingly asymmetrical fashion, Melbourne's urban development presently lines the entire eastern shore of Port Phillip Bay, from the mouth of the Yarra River to Point Nepean, 60 miles (97 km) distant, while corresponding development on the west coast of the bay extends for only 10 miles (16 km).

Climate

Melbourne's weather results from the eastward flow of high-pressure cells separated by low-pressure troughs. These patterns follow a course that passes south of the continent in summer and over northern Victoria in winter. The annual rainfall of 26 inches (660 mm) is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, with October usually the wettest month and January the driest. Temperatures are moderate, only rarely falling below freezing; average daily maximum temperatures vary from 55 °F (13 °C) in July to 79 °F (26 °C) in January. Winds associated with the eastward passage of weather systems ensure that Melbourne is spared the serious air pollution of some other large cities.

The city layout

The area of original settlement in Melbourne, which today forms its financial, legal, administrative, and ecclesiastical heart, was laid out in a rectangular pattern that has not changed. The area has a frontage along the Yarra River. Within this core are the major suburban and interstate railway stations, Victoria's Houses of Parliament, the Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, arts and entertainment venues, museums, the Law Courts, the State Library, and many financial institutions, including the Melbourne Stock Exchange and the headquarters of major banks. Central to this area are two major destinations, Bourke and Swanston streets, which have been transformed into pedestrian malls, closed to automobile traffic. Most of the city's buildings are modern, but the Town Hall, the Law Courts, and the Exhibition Building provide excellent examples of 19th-century official architecture. The city is divided into 14 precincts, sectors identified by ethnic concentration, commercial clusters, or attractions.

The earliest suburbs-Carlton, Collingwood, Richmond, Prahran, St. Kilda, and Brighton-also have a generally rectangular pattern of streets. Row houses, often with verandas decorated with iron lacework, were common features in the suburbs close to the city's centre, and in parts of Carlton and South Melbourne some of these traditional terraces have been preserved.

The people

Patterns of immigration

The first official census of Melbourne, in 1836, numbered 177 persons, of whom 35 were females. In the 1850s the gold rush in nearby areas of Victoria sparked the city's first major period of immigration. Newcomers came principally from other Australian colonies and Britain. By the 1920s Melbourne had become the home of more than half the residents of Victoria, and toward the end of World War II it reached a population of 1,000,000. This trend continued throughout the 20th century. By 2000 the Melbourne metropolitan area comprised nearly three-fourths of Victoria's population.

The second great wave of immigration came in the 1950s, when the Australian government pursued a deliberate policy of encouraging migration from Europe to provide workers for Australia's developing industries. The government provided assistance with travel costs and helped the immigrants to settle in Australia, learn English if necessary, and find employment. At first migrants were drawn mainly from the Baltic states and eastern Europe, many of these people being war refugees. Then larger numbers began coming from the United Kingdom and Ireland. Immigration agreements were signed with the Dutch, Maltese, West German, Italian, Greek, and Austrian governments. These programs sowed the seeds of Melbourne's present multicultural character. Italians, Greeks, and Yugoslavs formed the largest numbers of non-English-speaking migrants, and by the mid-1970s one-fifth of the city's population regularly spoke a language other than English. Immigration from Southeast Asia, in particular refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia, increased during the early 1980s.

Move to the suburbs

In the 1940s about 90 percent of Melbourne's residents lived within 10 miles (16 km) of the central business district. This proportion fell to less than 50 percent by the 1980s as the outer suburban areas grew correspondingly. By 1966 the population of the Melbourne area had exceeded two million, and the city limits were rapidly being pushed eastward. The migrants from southern Europe were at first concentrated in the older industrial suburbs, where they found lower rents and nearby job opportunities. In those areas support was available from earlier immigrants and the associations they had established. As these people prospered, they embraced the Australian dream of owning a home on a quarter-acre plot and began to move to the outer suburbs. By the mid-1990s the area's population had surpassed the three million mark. By the end of the 20th century, however, the trend of moving to the suburbs had begun to reverse itself. The central city became increasingly residential as many aging buildings were rehabilitated and repurposed as housing. Melbourne's suburbs, on the whole, represent a fairly even mixture of social classes and occupations, although some western sections can be typified as working-class districts.

The economy

Industry and trade

That Melbourne dominates the economic life of Victoria is not surprising-the city contains the bulk of the state's population. It is Victoria's financial centre and seat of government and is at the hub of the communications network linking the state to the rest of Australia and the world.

The city's original core offers the most employment, but employment is growing at a faster rate in the outer suburbs. The central city mainly holds service activities such as banking, insurance, retailing, entertainment, public accommodation, and railway transportation. Surrounding this core is an incomplete ring of inner industrial suburbs, where the first clothing and metal factories were established in the 19th century. In the outer suburbs, particularly to the east, small manufacturing areas began to develop after World War II, when these suburbs could offer large areas of inexpensive land, few problems of traffic congestion, and an increasing population.

In the 1990s an ambitious project was launched to develop Docklands, a 500-acre (200-hectare) site of crumbling industrial and port facilities, into a multiuse complex featuring high-technology businesses, parks and public spaces, restaurants, a theme park, and apartment buildings and other housing. Docklands was expected to become home for 15,000 people and a workplace for 20,000. The first major facility, Colonial Stadium, a sports and entertainment venue, opened in 2000.

Melbourne's most important industries, in terms of numbers employed, are metal processing, including the manufacture of transportation equipment, and engineering. Other major industries include textile and clothing manufacture; food processing; papermaking and printing; and the manufacture of chemicals, furniture, and building materials. Melbourne is also one of Australia's leaders in the manufacture of computers and is developing as a centre for biomedicine and biotechnology.

The port of Melbourne occupies an area of level excavated land at the mouth of the Yarra River, southwest of the central business district. It is the nation's largest general-cargo port. The chief products handled are foodstuffs, crude oil and petroleum products, chemicals, and iron and steel.

Beginning in the 1960s, large regional shopping centres sprang up throughout Melbourne's outer suburbs, and the central city lost its dominant retail function. Nonetheless, major department stores and fashionable shops still exert a considerable pull on both residents and visitors.

Transportation

Melbourne is well served by an integrated public transportation system of electric trains, buses, and tramcars, the latter a signature sight in the city. A network of national highways links Melbourne with adjoining states, and a system of freeways was greatly upgraded in the 1990s, including the creation of the Western Ring Road as a bypass route. The City Link project joined three major freeways with a bridge, tunnels, highway extensions, and interchanges to facilitate traffic movement. An underground rail loop serves the central business district. Melbourne's international and domestic airport is located at Tullamarine, 14 miles (23 km) northwest of the city's centre.

Administration and social conditions

Government

The Victoria state government has the ultimate responsibility for Melbourne's major planning decisions and for providing its principal health, educational, and transport services. Local government in the Melbourne Statistical Division is provided by more than 30 entities. Councillors, led by a lord mayor, are elected under a system of compulsory voting conducted by mail. Councillors receive a stipend and represent the city at large. The councils pass local ordinances and control a number of services connected with building regulations, community welfare, garbage collection, and vehicle parking. Revenue for these purposes is raised by property taxes (rates).

Health and education

Since the system of free public hospitals was started in 1846, it has grown to encompass numerous special facilities, which deal with either particular ailments or categories of patients, as well as general hospitals. There are, in addition, many private hospitals.

The University of Melbourne, one of the oldest in Australia, was established in 1853 (though the first students were admitted in 1855); Monash and La Trobe universities were established in the 1960s, and Deakin University, established in 1974, maintains three campuses. Melbourne also has colleges of advanced education that offer degrees or diplomas in a variety of technical and academic subjects.

Cultural life

Arts

Melbourne's already rich cultural life was greatly enhanced during the period between 1968 and 1984, when the Victorian Arts Centre was created on the south bank of the Yarra River close to the city's centre. It encompasses the National Gallery of Victoria, the Melbourne Concert Hall, and several theatres, among other facilities for the arts.

The National Gallery of Victoria was originally opened in 1861 and moved to its present site in the arts centre in 1968. It houses several outstanding collections, including, most notably, Australian art ranging from the colonial period to modern times; European art, with 18th-century works particularly well represented; and decorative arts.

The Melbourne Concert Hall seats 2,600. Its patrons appreciate not only the technical brilliance of the acoustic engineering but also the hall's superb decoration in colours derived from the gemstone and mining industry, which makes the hall appear to have been carved out of a hillside.

Performance spaces of the arts centre include the State Theatre, the Playhouse, the George Fairfax Studio, and the Black Box, providing facilities for opera, ballet, musical theatre, drama, stand-up comedy, cabaret, and a variety of music. The Sidney Myer Music Bowl, in King's Domain Gardens opposite the arts centre, is an outdoor venue seating 13,000. Yearly seasons of opera, ballet, and concert music include performances by international artists. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1949 and has toured North America, Japan, and New Zealand, as well as major Australian cities.

Recreation

Automobile license plates in Victoria carry the identification "Victoria-Garden State." Melbourne is worthy as the capital of a garden state, with more than one-fourth of its inner-city area consisting of public parks and reserves. These spaces were set aside in the mid-19th century, at a time when many civic leaders in other cities were concerned with commercial development rather than with the quality of life. Extensive tracts have also been allotted as parklands in the newer outer suburbs.

The most famous park in Melbourne is the Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG). This area of 89 acres (36 hectares) was established in 1846 and today contains lakes, lawns, and thousands of named trees and shrubs. The associated National Herbarium of Victoria, which houses a collection of 1,200,000 pressed plant specimens, is internationally recognized and used by scholars. The RBG also maintains a separate 200-acre (80-hectare) facility at Cranbourne, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of central Melbourne.

Melbourne has hundreds of sports fields, tennis courts, swimming pools, and golf courses for active sports participants. Spectators find good accommodations at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which holds 100,000 and is used for both cricket and Australian Rules football, and at the Flemington Racecourse, where the valuable Melbourne Cup race is held every November. Melbourne hosted the 1956 Summer Olympic Games. New sports facilities, including a large tennis stadium near the Melbourne Cricket Ground, have been added since the Olympics. Sailing and fishing on Port Phillip Bay and surfing on the ocean beaches are also popular, and the winter ski slopes around Mount Buller are within easy reach.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Melbourne | History, Population, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Melbourne, city, capital of the state of Victoria, Australia. It is located at the head of Port Phillip Bay, on the southeastern coast. The central city is home to about 136,000 people and is the core of an extensive metropolitan area-the world's most southerly with a population of more than 1,000,000.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Table of Contents

Climate

Sydney is situated on latitude 34° S and has an average mean temperature ranging from 72 °F (22 °C) in January to 55 °F (13 °C) in July. Its warm, sunny, but temperate climate has encouraged its citizens to develop a pleasure-loving and easygoing attitude to life and to make full use of the opportunities for sailing, swimming, and surfing at their doors. The average annual precipitation (all falling as rain) is 47 inches (1,200 mm), spread relatively evenly throughout the year. The greatest amount falls in late autumn and the least in early spring, with short tropical deluges in summer (December-February). Sydney is unbearably hot for only a few days each year, when a westerly wind brings hot dry air from the desert. Extreme summer heat is tempered from time to time by the arrival of a cold front from the Tasman Sea, heralded by a stiff wind from the south known locally as the "Southerly Buster." In winter (June-August), however, the westerly wind is cool.

City layout

Greater Sydney is spread over a vast area that stretches from the Blue Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east and from the southern shore of Lake Macquarie in the north to south of Botany Bay. Only about one-third of this region is classified as urban, but the great bulk of the region's population lives in the urban area. A pattern of suburban sprawl, caused partly by the cheapness of land in earlier days and by the determination of ordinary Australians to own their own houses and gardens, has caused problems for the authorities responsible for sewerage and transport. The sprawl is also in marked contrast to the comparatively small and compact central business district, which is crammed into a narrow rocky peninsula between two arms of the harbour within the City of Sydney proper.

The same contrast can be seen in the style of buildings. Whereas most of the houses in the suburbs are one-story bungalows built of brick or wood, numerous buildings in the central business district-where land costs are much higher-are tall multistory structures. The rapid development initiated in the 1960s has transformed the city centre, which now looks like a smaller Manhattan rising from the shores of the harbour, though in fact most of the buildings are not high by North American standards. Soaring above downtown is the Sydney Tower (completed 1981; spire added in 1991), which reaches a height of more than 1,000 feet (305 metres) and contains restaurants and an observation deck. Additional business centres have sprung up in North Sydney, which is linked to the City of Sydney by the Harbour Bridge, and Parramatta, about 15 miles (25 km) west of the city centre.

The standard of architecture in the city is generally mediocre, though there are a few handsome buildings surviving from the 19th century and a few contemporary buildings of distinction, including the brilliantly designed Opera House. The magnificent Macquarie Street, which leads down from Hyde Park to the Opera House, is lined by all of the important government buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet the general effect of Sydney is attractive, and the innumerable bays and arms of the harbour, stretching into the land and providing unexpected views from almost every street, make it a most pleasing city.

The Sydney region is fortunate to be almost completely ringed by dozens of national and regional parks and recreation areas-a unique distinction for so large a city. Sydney Harbour, Garigal, and Lane Cove national parks are in the city itself; Kur-ring-gai Chase National Park is just to the north; and Botany Bay and Royal national parks are just to the south. The mouth of the Hawkesbury River, with its many fingerlike inlets, provides a superb expanse of sheltered water for yachting, while a string of magnificent sandy beaches stretches along the Pacific coast both north and south of the city and is a haven for enthusiasts of aquatic sports.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sydney | History, Population, Climate, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sydney, capital of the state of New South Wales, Australia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Canberra is the capital of the country of Australia. The city is also the center of a district called the Australian Capital Territory. Canberra lies at the foot of the Australian Alps mountain range. The Molonglo River flows through the city. Many people in Canberra work for the Australian government or in tourism.

Aboriginal peoples have lived in the Canberra region for thousands of years. Europeans founded a settlement there in the 1820s. The government selected Canberra to be the new capital of Australia in 1908. The government held a competition to choose the design for the new city. The American architect Walter Burley Griffin created the winning design.

Canberra officially became the capital in 1927. Wildfires damaged the city in 2003. Population (2016 census), urban area, 432,369.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Canberra is the capital of the country of Australia. The city is also the center of a district called the Australian Capital Territory. Canberra lies at the foot of the Australian Alps mountain range. The Molonglo River flows through the city. Many people in Canberra work for the Australian government or in tourism.