THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

The Commonwealth of Australia is a self-governing federal state. It has got six states: New South Wales, Victoria, Queens­land, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and two internal territories.

It is situated in the south-west of the Pacific Ocean.

The area of this country has got 7,687,000 square kilometres. Australia is the largest island in the world and it is the smallest continent. The Dutch were the first Euro­peans to visit Australia. In 1770 the Eng­lish captain James Cook discovered the east coast of Australia.

Nearly twenty million people live in Australia.

The capital of the country is Canberra. The city became the capital in 1927. Fe­deral Government works in Canberra in the government buildings. It is interesting to know, that there are no industrial plants in Canberra.

The population of Canberra is about 300,000 people.

There are many sights in the city. They are the Building of the Australian Academy of Sciences, the Australian National Univer­sity and others. There are two big industrial cities in Australia: Sydney and Melbourne.

Australia's climate is dry and warm. Aus­tralia is situated in the southern hemisphere and that's why it has summer, when we have winter and it has winter, when we have sum­mer. It is interesting to know, that January is the hottest month in Australia.

Australia is separated from many coun­tries. Australia is the home of the world’s strangest animals.

The koala is certainly one of the most popular.  It spends most of its life trees and eats leaves.

The dingo is one of Australia's wild an­imals. It is reddish, brown or yellow. The dingo is a wild dog, which kills other ani­mals at night, sheep, for example. They can kill hens, chickens and small dogs.

You can see the kangaroo there. The kangaroo has got the pouch in which it carries her cub. There are many birds in the country, too. One can see parrots and cockatoos. The emu is the most interesting bird in Australia. It is big and can't fly.

There are many rivers and lakes in the country.

Australia is an industrial country. It has coal, nickel, zinc, gold. Several factories and plants work in the country. Australia is one of the most important producers of metals and minerals. It exports wool production, meat, fruit, sugar.

The country is situated near the ocean. Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane are the ports of the country.

There are many universities, theatres and museums in Australia.