Australia is a country consisted of the Australian continent and the island of Tasmania, together with some smaller islands. Australia is very big – it is the 6th largest country in the world! Its territory is bigger than the whole of Europe. It is often called ‘the land down under’ because it is situated south of the Equator – the Southern Hemisphere. Australia’s capital is Canberra, although the biggest city there is Sydney. A strange fact – Australians do not have their own official language – they use English as one!!!
Just because Australia is so big – it is sometimes referred to as ‘the biggest island or the smallest continent’, it offers a variety of landscapes to its visitors. Very famous is the coastline, with beautiful beaches and a great diversity of sea life – whales, dolphins, sharks, enormous number of fish species, but also turtles and corals. A must-see is the Great Barrier Reef. That is the world’s largest coral reef, it is so enormous that it can be seen from space!!! Very well-known is also Ayers Rock. It is a giant rock formation – 348 m high, 3, 6 km long and it took millions of years for it to be formed. The biggest part of the territory of Australia is dry and desert-like and is called outback. There are almost no people who live there but it gives home to a lot of animals and different bird species. One of the most famous is the kangaroo. Kangaroos are marsupial which means that the mothers carry their babies in a pouch on their belly until they are ready to come out and take care of themselves. The other very popular animal in Australia is the koala. Those cute little bears love eating eucalypt leaves, sleep up to 20 hours a day and have become the symbol of Australia.
One of the most important features of Australia is Sydney Opera House. It has a really strange shape, is situated in the Sydney Harbour and because of that is yet another famous tourist attraction of the country. And if you say tennis, you immediately think of Australian Open. It is one of the biggest tennis tournaments in the world and it is held in Melbourne.
GALLERY
AYRES ROCK
BARRIER REEF
CORALS
EUCALYPT
KANGAROO
KOALA BEAR
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
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