Geography and Climate
If you are planning to live in Australia, plan to be amazed. An island continent just southeast of Asia, Australia is surrounded by the Indian Ocean to its west, the Pacific to its east, the Southern Ocean to its south and the Arafura and Timor seas to its north. Australia is divided into the states of Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania and the two territories of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. Australia is the smallest continent in the world but the sixth largest country by area, only slightly smaller than the continental United States. The country also owns over 8,000 islands, including the state of Tasmania.
Australian terrain generally falls into four characteristic regions. The eastern coastal plain is low and sandy, but the eastern highlands range from about 1,000 feet to around 7,000 feet, extending from Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland southward to Tasmania. Australia’s vast central plains include the Great Artesian Basin, over 676,000 square miles of territory, and the most extensive area of internal drainage in the world. The western plateau stretches across the western half of the continent to the Indian Ocean and is covered with great deserts and plains that rise to 2,000 feet.
As you would expect from a country almost the size of the continental U.S., Australia’s climate varies widely. The climate is strongly influenced by the hot, sinking air of the subtropical high-pressure belt, which moves north and south with the seasons. This causes the rainfall pattern to be highly seasonal. The country’s rainfall is the lowest of the seven continents. Rainfall is variable and generally occurs in the tropic and coastal areas. The hottest months of the year are January and February, while the coldest are in July. June is the driest month and October the wettest.
There also has been a wide range of natural disasters in Australia, including drought, bushfires, heat waves, cyclones, floods, severe storms, earthquakes and landslides.
Surprisingly, given the size of the country, Australia just has only three time zones. Australian Eastern Standard Time is 17 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time in the U.S. and includes Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Australian Central Standard Time oddly is 16 and a half hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time and covers the state of South Australia, the town of Broken Hill in western New South Wales and the Northern Territory. Lastly, Australian Western Standard Time is 15 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time and includes only Western Australia. Daylight saving time is observed in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, but not in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.