Economy of Australia

Industry. About 98% of all manufacturing firms of Australia are small businesses. The main industries are chemicals, aerospace, electrical and electronics, information technology, engineering, food processing, motor vehicles, iron and steel, paper, woodchips and forestry.
Due to a sizeable resource base, Australia has developed an efficient and internationally competitive agricultural industry. Agricultural ouput contributes about 2.5% to GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Australia leads the world in wool production and is a significant supplier of cereals, dairy produce, meat, sugar and fruit.
Australian wines are receiving increasing attention due to their high quality and distinctive flavour. Exports have grown rapidly in recent years.
Fisheries products are exported mainly to East Asia and the USA.
The services industry, the largest segment of the economy is the fastest growing industry. It covers construction, trade, property, finance, communications, education, tourism, business services and it accounts for 70% of GDP. Tourism is the largest and fastest growing sector of the services industry.
Resources and energy. Australia is a major producer and exporter of energy resources and is one of the world’s biggest producers of minerals and metals. More than 60 different minerals are mined such as bauxite, mineral sands, diamonds, black and brown coal as well as ores containing gold, silver, lead, zinc, iron, copper, nickel, tin, manganese and uranium. Although Australia imports heavy crude, it exports light crude oil and liquefied natural gas.
Australia is also an important producer of precious and semiprecious stones such as diamonds, sapphire, opal and pearls.
Most electricity is produced using coal fired power plants and the large coal deposits enable Australia to produce electricity at a relatively low cost.
Transport. Although Australia is a vast country it is easily explored by airplane, train and tourist bus. The need to overcome long distances contributed to the development of transport that has evolved rapidly and Australia has made advances in this field. About 810, 000 km of roads and 40,000 km rail networks span the continent.
Trains operate in all states except Tasmania and there are interstate 2 lines offering exciting journeys into the Outback or along the east coast, as well as commuter services in the most capital cities.
Australia has about 70 ports of commercial significance and it trades with about 200 countries around the world exporting almost 320 million tons of freight by sea annually.
The biggest cities of Australia are Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide. Canberra, as the capital of the country, is the seat of Parliament and other branches of goverment. Sydney is the largest city and port and it is the chief commercial and industrial centre not only of New South Wales, but of all Australia. Main rail lines and coastal shipping facilities connect Sydney with Brisbane, Melbourne and other harbour cities. Sydney’s manufacturing activities are particularly notable for their wide variety. There are slaughter-houses, canneries, wool-scouring works, flour-mills, sugar refineries, tanneries, dairy plants, breweries, textile and clothing mills, saw-mills, oil refineries, and automobile assembly plants and others. The Sydney area is famous for its sandy beaches around which several resort suburbs have grown, attracting tourists for swimming and surf-boarding.