Australia

Australia is entirely situated in the Southern hemisphere. “Australis” means ‘Southern” in Latin. Australia is the only country occupying a whole continent, the smallest one, lying on and extending north and south from the Tropic of Capricorn. With an area covering 7,682,300 square kilometers it is the sixth largest country in the world.The coastline consisting of tranquil bays, wonderful beaches with pounding surf,rocky outcrops and dramatic sheer cliffs is 36,735 km long. Austalia is bounded by the dark blue waters of the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Arafura Sea to the north, lapped by the turquoise waves of the Indian Ocean to the west, and the mighty Southern Ocean to the south.Australia occupies one of the oldest landmass and the flattest of all continents, the highest point, Mount Kosciuszko being 2,228 m in the Australian Alps. The fertile coastal strip hides a dry and inhospitable centre, the Outback with its colours of red, brown, yellow and orange interspersed by green colour of low scrub and white trunks of gum trees. This endless land is broken by stark beautiful mountains like the MacDonnel Ranges near Alice Springs, Flinders Ranges in South Australia and the mysterious rock formations of Ayers Rok/Uluru, Mount Olga/Kata Tjuta, and Mount Augustus.The northern part of Australia is not far from Equator, the middle part is crossed by the Southern tropics.Spending Christmas at the beach or skiing in August may seem strange but the fact is, Australia’s seasons are the opposite of the northern hemisphere – summer starts in December, autumn in March, winter in June and spring in September. Due to its size, geographical location and the lack of extensive high mountain ranges Australia has a wide range of climates but generally no extremes. The fact that Australia is the driest continent on eurth makes this land a great all-year destination. It’s fact thet in winter one can ski in the southern states one day and be diving at the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland the next.Australia’s climate is generally pleasant, without extremes. Broadly there are two climate zones: tropical in the north and temperature below the Tropic of Capricorn.Average summer temperature in January is +300 C in the northern part, and +20° C in the southern part.In winter (July) the average temperature is correspondingly +20° C in the northern part and +10° C in the southern part.There are not many rivers there. The largest river Murray and its tributary Darling both rise in the mountains on the wet East and flow into the Indian Ocean. There are no flows of the inner rivers into the ocean, they are temporary, named сreeks and become dry often. The Eastern part suffers from wet seasons, when rains pour without stopping and become real plague for the country.