The Australian Continent
Chapter 1 Summary
Australia’s Geographical
Dimensions (1.1)
Australia is one of the seven continents of the world (Aust. is the smallest of the seven
continents.)
The landmass of the Australian continent extends over an area of about 7682 million
square kilometres .
Names of states and territories of Australia in order of size, from largest to smallest:
Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Antarctica, Australia.
Australia’s Geographical
Dimensions (1.1)
Name of capital cities of Australia in order of size, from largest to
smallest: WA, QLD, NT, SA, NSW, VIC, TAS, ACT.
List of Australia’s seven external territories:
- Heard Island and McDonald Islands
-
Norfolk Island
Territory
- The Coral Sea Islands
-
Christmas Island
Territory
- The Australian Antarctic
-
The Cocos (Keeling) Islands
And Cartier Islands
- The Territory Of Ashmore
Locating Australia (1.2)
Australia is located in the southern hemisphere, which it shares
with the continents of Africa, South America and Antarctica.
Australia is also referred as being located in the eastern
hemisphere, which it shares with East Asia and South Asia, New
Zealand, the Pacific Islands and part of Antarctica.
The dividing line between the eastern and western hemispheres is
the Prime Meridian.
Locating Australia (1.2)
Gross National Income (GNI): total value of goods and
services produced in a country in one year per person plus
net income from abroad.
Latitude: Imaginary lines drawn around the Earth from east
to west; they represent distance north or south of the
Equator, measured in degrees, minutes and seconds.
Longitude: Imaginary lines drawn around the Earth from
north to south; they represent distance east or west of the
Greenwich Meridian, measured in degrees, minutes and
seconds.
Origins Of The Continent:
Aboriginal Perspective (1.3)
Dreaming stories are important to Aboriginal people because it tells of a
Dreamtime when all things began. They explained how the world came to
be, providing a basic for people’s spirituality. They also provided rules to
live by and sometimes warned of danger.
There are many different Dreaming stories because people spoke many
different languages and had differing customs. The strong link between
the people and their land was common to all. The land provided
everything they needed to survive, and connected them and all living
things with their powerful ancestral beings.
Origins Of The Continent:
Geographical Perspective (1.4)
The broad shape of Australia and its distinctive landforms have been influenced
over long periods by earth movements associated with tectonic processes.
The Earth’s crust is cracked and made up of many individual moving pieces called
tectonic plates.
The plates are made of rock, but the rock, in general, compared with the denser,
fluid layer underneath. This allows the plates to ‘float’ on top of the denser layer of
rock.
Origins Of The Continent:
Geographical Perspective (1.4)
The name of the supercontinent that contains all present
continents is called Pangaea.
Fold Mountains are formed when one plate slides down under
another.
Fault Mountains are formed when layers of rock are fractured and
one section moves down and another section moves up.
Tectonic Processes And Volcanic Activity
(1.5)
Mountains can be formed by folding and faulting processes, and also
by volcanic activity.
The suggested reason of why Australia have volcanic activity is that the
volcanoes appeared and were formed there during the continental
drift.
Tectonic Processes And Volcanic
Activity (1.5)
The Continental Drift is the theory to Australia’s
volcanic landscapes however, there were hot spots as
well which were present as the tectonic plates moved
over the faults and there hot spots in the cause for this
theory.
Mantle: the layer of the Earth between the crust and
the core.
The caldera of the Tweed volcano is one of the biggest
erosion calderas in the world- it is over 1000 metres
deep and has a diameter of over 400 kilometres
Impacts Of Changing Climates And Sea
Levels (1.6)
Scientist think the ancestors of Aboriginal people began to
migrate to Australia about 50 000 years ago, during the Ice Age.
Australia is an ancient landmass. The Earth is about 4600 million
years old and the Australian continent is about 4300 million years
old.
Ice Age: a time in which the Earth is colder, resulting in the
expansion if glaciers and ice sheets and a fall in sea level.
Impacts Of Changing Climates
And Sea Levels (1.6)
During the last Ice Age, temperatures were much lower, and vast
amounts of water became trapped in ice sheets and glaciers. The
sea level was 100 metres lower than it is today.
With the end of the Ice Age, about 15 000 years ago, higher
temperatures led to the retreat of ice sheets and glaciers, and sea
levels gradually rose to their present levels.