Australia: position, relief, climate and nature

Australia is the smallest continent (area about 7.6–7.7 million km²), lying entirely in the Southern Hemisphere; its name comes from the Latin “australis” — southern. The Tropic of Capricorn crosses its middle; the Indian and Pacific Oceans surround it and it is far from other continents, so it is also called an island-continent. Among the inhabited continents it was discovered last: in 1606 the Dutchman W. Janszoon saw the Cape York Peninsula, in the same year L. Torres passed the strait named after him, in 1642 A. Tasman and in 1770 J. Cook explored the east coast. Australia was once part of Gondwana; its base is an ancient stable platform, so there are no strong earthquakes or volcanoes. Minerals: iron ore, bauxite, lithium, lead, zinc, copper, nickel, gold, uranium, coal, oil and gas; most lie near the surface and are mined in open pits. The relief has three parts: the Western Australian Plateau (the MacDonnell Ranges, Mount Zeil about 1 531 m), the Central Lowland (Lake Eyre North — about –15 m, the lowest point of the continent; dry river beds called creeks) and the Great Dividing Range in the east (the highest point is Mount Kosciuszko, 2 228 m, in the Australian Alps).