Australia is known for its mining and for its production of wool. Australia is the world's largest producer of bauxite.
Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and other islands on the Australian tectonic plate are together called Australasia. They form one of the world's great ecozones. When other Pacific islands are included, the term is Oceania.
23–24 million people live in Australia, and about 80% of them live on the east coast. About 60% live in and around the mainland state capitals of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Australia's capital city is Canberra.
Tourism
Tourism in Australia is an important component of the Australian economy. In the financial year 2014/15, tourism represented 3.0% of Australia's GDP contributing A$47.5 billion to the national economy. Domestic tourism is a significant part of the tourism industry, representing 73% of the total direct tourism GDP.
Popular Australian destinations include the coastal cities of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as other high profile destinations including regional Queensland, the Gold Coast and the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest reef. Uluru and the Australian outback are other popular locations, as is the Tasmanian wilderness. The unique Australian wildlife is also another significant point of interest in the country's tourism.
Major Attractions
Hervey Bay is a popular tourist town with ample opportunities for whale watching, although there are plenty of other places along the Australian coastline to see whales.
Fraser Island (K'gari) The island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world at 1840 km2. It is also Queensland's largest island. Fraser Island has been inhabited by humans for as much as 5,000 years.The island has rainforests, eucalyptus woodland, mangrove forests, wallum and peat swamps, sand dunes and coastal heaths. The island can be reached by a ferry from River Heads (South of Hervey Bay) to Kingfisher Bay and Wanggoolba Creek or Inskip Point to north of Rainbow Beach to Hook Point, or by chartered flight from Maroochydore Airport.
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef attracts up to two million visitors every year. Careful management, which includes permits for camping and all commercial marine tourism within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, has so far ensured that tourists have a very minimal impact on the reef. Uluru, Kakadu National Park and Fraser Island are major natural attractions. Uluru won the 2013 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards and was named Australia's best major tourist attraction.
Sydney Opera House
Another attraction that appeals to many tourists is the Sydney Opera House. Shopping and casinos are a major drawcard for wealthy Chinese visitors. Wine, indigenous culture and nature tourism also generate travel in Australia.
Great Ocean Road
Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia 112 km (70 mi) southwest of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Point in Backstair Passage which is 13.5 km (8.4 mi) from the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Byron Bay, New South Wales
Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area
The area is one of the largest conservation areas in Australia, covering 15,800 km², or almost 20% of Tasmania after extensions in 1989 and 2013. It constitutes one of the last expanses of temperate wilderness in the world, and includes the South West Wilderness.
The Tasmanian Wilderness, a network of parks and reserves with steep gorges, underwent severe glaciation. Human remains dating back more than 20,000 years have been found in limestone caves in the area.
Fraser Island
Fraser Island is a heritage-listed island located along the southern coast of Queensland, Australia, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Brisbane. It is a locality within the Fraser Coast local government in the Wide Bay–Burnett region. Its length is about 120 kilometres (75 mi) and its width is approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi). It was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992. The island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world at 1,840 km2. It is also Queensland's largest island, Australia's sixth largest island and the largest island on the East Coast of Australia.
The island has rainforests, eucalyptus woodland, mangrove forests, wallum and peat swamps, sand dunes and coastal heaths. It is made up of sand that has been accumulating for approximately 750,000 years on volcanic bedrock that provides a natural catchment for the sediment which is carried on a strong offshore current northwards along the coast. Unlike on many sand dunes, plant life is abundant due to the naturally occurring mycorrhizal fungi present in the sand, which release nutrients in a form that can be absorbed by the plants. Fraser Island is home to a small number of mammal species, as well as a diverse range of birds, reptiles and amphibians, including the occasional saltwater crocodile. The island is protected in the Great Sandy National Park.
Blue Mountains
The region borders on Sydney's metropolitan area, its foothills starting about 50 kilometres (31 mi) west of the state capital. The public's understanding of the extent of the Blue Mountains is varied, as it forms only part of an extensive mountainous area associated with the Great Dividing Range. Officially the Blue Mountains region is bounded by the Nepean and Hawkesbury rivers in the east, the Coxs River and Lake Burragorang to the west and south, and the Wolgan and Colo rivers to the north. Geologically, it is situated in the central parts of the Sydney Basin.
Namadgi National Park
The national park protects part of the northern end of the Australian Alps with its spectacular granite mountains. Its habitat ranges from grassy plains over snow gum forests to alpine meadows. The fauna is also varied: Eastern Grey Kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, magpies, rosellas and ravens are commonly seen. The water catchment area of the park supplies approximately 85% of Canberra's water.
In this sub-alpine region the weather ranges from cold winter nights to warm summer days, and it can change very quickly. Snow normally falls on the Bimberi and Brindabella Ranges during winter, and is not uncommon throughout most of the park. The highest mountain is Bimberi Peak at 1,911 metres (6,270 ft) which is the highest peak in the Australian Capital Territory.
Gippsland
Covering an area of 41,556 square kilometres (16,045 sq mi), Gippsland lies to the east of the eastern suburbs of Greater Melbourne, to the north of Bass Strait, to the west of the Tasman Sea, to the south of the Black-Allan Line that marks part of the Victorian/New South Wales border, and to the east and southeast of the Great Dividing Range that lies within the Hume region and the Victorian Alps. The region is best known for its primary production such as mining, power generation and farming as well as its tourist destinations— Phillip Island, Wilsons Promontory, the Gippsland Lakes, Walhalla, the Baw Baw Plateau, and the Strzelecki Ranges.
Gippsland is an economic rural region that occupies much of the south-eastern part of Victoria, Australia.
As at the 2011 Australian census, the Gippsland region had a population of 255,718, that is generally broken down into the East Gippsland, South Gippsland, West Gippsland, and the Latrobe Valley statistical divisions. The principal centres of the region, in descending order of population, are Traralgon, Moe, Warragul, Morwell, Sale, Bairnsdale, Drouin, Leongatha, and Phillip Island.
Kakadu National Park
The park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory. It covers an area of 19,804 km2 (7,646 sq mi), extending nearly 200 kilometres from north to south and over 100 kilometres from east to west. It is the size of Slovenia, about one-third the size of Tasmania, or nearly half the size of Switzerland. The Ranger Uranium Mine, one of the most productive uranium mines in the world, is surrounded by the park.
Australian Alps
The Australian Alps are part of the Great Dividing Range, the series of mountains, hills, and highlands that runs about 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) from northern Queensland, through New South Wales, and into the northern part of Victoria. This chain of highlands divides the drainage of the rivers that flow to the east into the Tasman Sea from those that flow west into the drainage of the Murray–Darling basin (and thence to the Southern Ocean) or into inland waters, such as Lake Eyre, which lie below sea level, or else evaporate rapidly. The Great Dividing Range reaches its greatest heights in the Australian Alps.
See also
- Visa policy of Australia
- List of World Heritage Sites in Australia
- Tourism in Sydney
- Tourism in Melbourne
- Tourism in Brisbane
- Tourism in Perth
- Passenger Movement Charge
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