Australia,
officially the Commonwealth of Australia,
is a country in the Southern Hemisphere
comprising the world's smallest continent
and a number of islands in the Southern,
Indian and Pacific Oceans. Neighbouring
countries include Indonesia, East Timor
and Papua New Guinea to the north; the
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the French
dependency of New Caledonia to the northeast;
and New Zealand to the southeast. The
continent of Australia has been inhabited
for over 42,000 years by Indigenous Australians.
After sporadic visits by fishermen from
the north and by European explorers and
merchants starting in the seventeenth
century, the eastern half of the continent
was claimed by the British in 1770 and
officially settled as the penal colony
of New South Wales on 26 January 1788.
As the population grew and new areas were
explored, another five largely self-governing
Crown Colonies were successively established
over the course of the nineteenth century.
On
1 January 1901, the six colonies federated
and the Commonwealth of Australia was
formed. Since federation, Australia has
maintained a stable liberal democratic
political system and remains a Commonwealth
Realm. The capital city is Canberra although
the current population of around 20.5
million is concentrated mainly in the
large coastal cities of Sydney, Melbourne,
Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. The name
Australia is derived from the Latin Australis,
meaning of the South. Legends of an "unknown
land of the south" (terra australis
incognita) date back to the Roman times
and were commonplace in mediaeval geography,
but they were not based on any actual
knowledge of the continent.
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