Page 64 - New Zealand: Natural Wonders North & South

• Ethnicity: Australian: 25.4%, English: 25.9%, Irish: 7.5%, Scottish: 6.4%, Italian: 3.3%,
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• Location: Australia is bordered by three oceans and four seas.

• Geography: Situated in the Southern Hemisphere and south of Asia, Australia is an island
continent surrounded by three oceans and four seas. It is about 7,700 miles from Los
Angeles. Australia is roughly the same size as the continental United States, measuring
2,500 miles from east to west, and 2,000 miles from north to south. The Great Barrier
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marked by the Great Dividing Range, although the name is not strictly accurate, since
parts of the range consists of low hills. The western half of Australia consists of the
Western Plateau, which rises to mountain heights near the west coast and falls to lower
elevations near the continental center. This is the arid landscape commonly known as
the Outback.

• Population: 22,751,014 (estimate)

• Religions: Protestant 30.1%, Catholic 25.3%, Orthodox 2.8%, other Christian 2.9%,
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• Time Zone: Australia has three primary time zones, four when Daylight Savings Time
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Washington D.C., it is 8pm in Canberra.

National Holidays: Australia

In addition to the holidays listed below, 01/01 New Year’s Day
Australia celebrates a number of national
01/26 Australia Day
holidays that follow a lunar calendar, such
as Easter. Each state in Australia also 04/25 Anzac Day
has a certain latitude in setting its own
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during these holidays, please visit www.
12/26 Boxing Day
timeanddate.com/holidays.

Historical Overview of Australia
Early History

Australia’s Aborigines believe that their people have lived here since the dawn of time—the
Dreamtime—when their spiritual ancestors brought the land into being with song.
Anthropologists believe that Aborigines have lived in Australia for at least 40,000 years,
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time, the ancestors of many groups now lumped together under the term “Aborigines”

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