Australia , officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. The population of 26 million, with a density is 3.2 inhabitants per square kilometre, is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia’s capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country’s other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
Surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans, Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas, with the Coral Sea lying off the Queensland coast, and the Tasman Sea lying between Australia and New Zealand. Australia’s size gives it a wide variety of landscapes, with tropical rainforests in the north-east, mountain ranges in the south-east, south-west and east, and desert in the centre. The desert or semi-arid land commonly known as the outback makes up by far the largest portion of land. Australia is the driest inhabited continent.
My visits to Australia:
1981: I first saw Australia from 30.000 feet when flying from Aucland in New Zealand to Singapore, crossing the continent from Brisbane in the East to Darwin in the North.
1989: My first visit to Australia was to visit a friend in Sydney. We drove along the East Coast all the way up to Townsville where I joined two diving trips to the Great Barrier Reef. I had bought my first video camera in Singapore on my way down – a Video 8 format camera (with low resolution and terrible colors compared to even today’s mobile phone cameras).
2007: My second visit to Australia was in connection with my work. I had to visit two ships – one in Gladstone on the East Coast, and one in Bunbury on the West Coast. While waiting for the ship to arrive in Bunbury I stayed in a hotel in Fremantle. From there I visited Perth and had a nice day at the Rotnest Island.