![]() In December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted. The first time that Australia appears to have been officially used was in April 1817, when Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledged the receipt of Flinders' charts of Australia from Lord Bathurst. The name Australia was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders, who said it was "more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the Earth". Terra Australis still saw occasional usage, such as in scientific texts. Until the early 19th century, Australia was best known as New Holland, a name first applied by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 (as Nieuw-Holland) and subsequently anglicised. When Europeans first began visiting and mapping Australia in the 17th century, the name Terra Australis was naturally applied to the new territories. Several sixteenth century cartographers used the word Australia on maps, but not to identify modern Australia. The name Australia (pronounced / ə ˈ s t r eɪ l i ə/ in Australian English ) is derived from the Latin Terra Australis ("southern land"), a name used for a hypothetical continent in the Southern Hemisphere since ancient times. It is a member of international groupings including the United Nations, the G20, the OECD, the WTO, ANZUS, AUKUS, Five Eyes, the Quad, APEC, the Pacific Islands Forum, the Pacific Community and the Commonwealth of Nations. Australia ranks amongst the highest in the world for quality of life, democracy, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties, safety, and political rights, with all its major cities faring exceptionally in global comparative livability surveys. Australia is a regional power, and has the world's thirteenth-highest military expenditure. In 2017, it ranked as fifth-highest Human Development Index. As of 2022, it was the world's twelfth-largest economy with the ninth-highest per capita income. Īustralia is a highly developed country with a high-income economy. Australia's abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy, which generates its income from various sources including services, mining exports, banking, manufacturing, agriculture and international education. Australia's demography has been shaped by centuries of immigration: immigrants account for 30% of the country's population, and almost half of Australians have at least one parent born overseas. The next four largest cities are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous city and financial centre is Sydney. Australia's population of nearly 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Politically, Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and ten territories. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. ![]() The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. With an area of 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi), Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. ![]()
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