Geography Yr 9

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Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Geography By: Unknown

Australia is at the same time:
An Island     largest in the world
A Continent     Flattest and second driest
A country     6th largest

Australia is located in the southern hemisphere between latitudes 0s and 90s and between longitudes 113e and 154e. Spatially Australia is part of the Asia pacific region. Our nearest neighbors are New Zealand and Papua-New-Guinea.

Australia is one of the seven contents of the world. The landmass of the Australian continent over an area of about 7683 million square kilometers. Australia’s east coast to west coast at widest is about 4000 km and you would pass over two time zones!
Going from north to South Australia is over 3000 km.

Australia is located in the southern hemisphere along with Africa, South America, Antarctica and several south pacific islands. It can also be said that Australia along with New Zealand an south East Asia is located in the east hemisphere… the line that cuts the east and west hemisphere is the PRIME MERIDIAN.

Australia's Gross national income per capita is US$20 000

What makes Australia unique…?

Landforms
Many landforms in Australia have resulted due to the impacts of weathering have occurred. The break down of rocks by water and temperature changes the earths surface. On a continental scale, weathering contributes to only minor landforms. Nevertheless, the breaking down of rocks to form small granules in turn leads to other processes moving and depositing the granules to forms large bodies such as river beds etc.

There are 4 major areas in which landforms are divided into.
  • Costal plains

  • Eastern highlands

  • Central lowlands

  • Western plateau

Rivers and lakes
Australia has
  • The lowest amount of run-off

  • The lowest percentage of rainfall

  • Least amount of water in rivers

  • The smallest area of permanent wetlands

  • The most variable rainfall and stream flow.

The Murray Darling is the largest river system in Australia but other significant systems are:
  • The Burdekin                              Queensland

  • The Hunter                              NSW

  • The Murchison                              North western region

  • The Victoria and the Dale rivers               Northern Territory

  • The Leichhardt, Norman, Gilbert, Mitchell          Gulf of Carpentaria

  • The Tamar, Derwent and Gordon               Tasmania









Climate and temperature
The size and location of the Australian continent ensues that there is a very large and assorted varieties regarding its climate.
Australia's’ many climates include:
  • Tropical wet and Dry

  • Tropical wet

  • Subtropical wet

  • Subtropical dry

  • Mild wet

  • Mild dry

  • Hot semi desert

  • Hot desert

The reason why Australia is so dry is primarily that most of the landmass lies in areas dominated by high-pressure systems most of the year. The high-pressure systems bring dry, stable, sinking air, that result in atmospheric conditions not favorable to rainfall.

Flora and Fauna

Due to the generally low amounts of rainfall and unreliability, most of the floras in Australia are characterized by drought resistant qualities. There are over 12 000 native land flora in Australia that are endemic meaning that the grow nowhere else in the world. An example of this is Australia’s 500 species of Eucalyptus trees are endemic.

Plants in Australia may also be unique to places only in Australia for example some wattle trees/shrubs only grow in certain places.

Most of the worlds Marsupials are found in Australia. They include the bandicoot, Koala, kangaroo, wallaby, wombat and the Tasmanian devil.
Despite the number of unique marsupials in Australia most of Australia's animal population is not made up of marsupials.

Monotremes are unique they are mammals that lay eggs examples of this are the echidna and the platypus which are the only 2 species of  mammals on the planet to lay eggs.

In addition, Australian animals have learnt to adapt to their environments. Such as the koala that is capable of eating the eucalyptus leaves from a gum tree. The Eucalyptus leaves are filled with chemicals that are actually quite dangerous but the koala manages to digest these leaves as its salivary glands produce a chemical that neutralizes the poison in the leaves.

WETHER MAPS
Measured in Hectopascles or mille-bars
Lines are called isobars
High-pressure means dry climate
Low pressure means wet climate (remember…high means dry low means H2O)
For wind direction, it is to the dot.

Contour maps
Isobars colour is usually brown
Check legend

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