Australia's populous says nothing of its huge landmass of 7,617,930 sq km. In fact, Australia is the sixth biggest country in the world. Due to the large size of the country, the main cities are spread out over some considerable distance with the country broken up into states as follows: New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The capital of Australia is Canberra, but many people believe it to be Sydney, which is in fact Australia's largest city. Canberra serves as Australia's administrative and political pillar. Australia is an island, south of the hot tropics of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and north west of New Zealand. Much of its central landmass is not populated as the majority of the population are city dwellers. The deserts of central Australia and the Outback are some of the most hot, dry and arid areas on earth and are home to all manner of poisonous creatures. On the north East Coast of Queensland, is the Great Barrier Reef, home to an immense variety of marine life and both fascinating and colourful coral.

Australia has such a wide variety of wildlife including some very dangerous varieties. There are poisonous snakes including the highly venomous Taipan, and then there are poisonous spiders like the Red-Back, Funnel-Web and Black-Widow. The rivers and estuaries of Northern Queensland in particular, are home to some of the world's most dangerous crocodiles, and many people have been killed or injured by these fearsome reptiles. The waters around Australia house other dangerous creatures from Great White Sharks and Sting Rays to the highly venomous Box Jellyfish. All that said, Australia is also home to the cute and cuddly Koala.

The country is representative of a Western-style capitalist economy with industries such as mining, industrial and transportation equipment, food processing, chemicals and steel. 73% of the national workforce works within services. Australia's largest export partner is Japan. The national unit of currency is the Australian dollar. The transport network consists of 33,819 km of railways and 913,000 km of highways.

The climate can best be described in regional sectors: Far Northern Queensland enjoys a year round, tropical climate where the south of the state enjoys sunny year round days. In fact the state of Queensland is know as the 'Sunshine State'. The north of Queensland is subject to a monsoon every July and August. In New South Wales and the southern states, people get a mild climate but it gets considerably cooler during the winter months of June, July and August. It never seems to freeze in Australia.