The Discovery of Australia and New Zealand Chronological Table for Australia and Tasmania ... AREA AND PHYSICAL CONFIGURATION. THE HE Australasian colonies comprise the continent of Australia, the adjacent island of Tasmania, and the islands of New Zealand. The group was formerly subdivided politically into seven colonies; but on the 1st January, 1901, the five mainland states and Tasmania became the Commonwealth of Australia, New Zealand retaining its position as a separate colony. The respective areas of the six states and New Zealand are as follow: To the area of the Commonwealth shown in the table might be added that of New Guinea, comprising 90,000 square miles. This would bring the area of territory controlled by the Commonwealth to 3,062,906 square miles, and the total area of British Australasia to 3,167,377 square miles. The British Empire, exclusive of territories under protectorates and spheres of influence, extends over an area of 8,856,000 square miles, so that about 35 per cent. of its area lies within the limits of Australia and New Zealand. Australasia is more than twenty-six times as large as the United Kingdom; more than fifteen times as large as France; more than half as large again as Russia in Europe; and almost equal in extent to the continent of Europe or to the United States of America. AUSTRALIA. THE HE sea-girt continent of Australia is situated in the Southern Hemisphere, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and lies in that portion of the globe extending from lat. 10° 39' S. to lat. 39° 11' S., and from long. 113° 5' E. to long. 153° 16′ E. On the north it is bounded by the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea, and Torres Strait; on the east by the Pacific Ocean; on the south by Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean; and on the west by the Indian Ocean. From north to south the greatest length measures 1,971 miles, and the greatest breadth east and west is about 2,400 miles. Its superficial area is approximately 2,946,691 square miles, with a coast-line measuring about 8,850 miles. The coastal perimeter is equal to 1 mile for every 333 square miles of area the smallest proportion shown by any of the continents. The Tropic of Capricorn divides Australia into two unequal parts, and in its vast area the continent contains every variety of climate from temperate to tropical. As regards the general appearance of its land surface, Australia may be described as a plateau, fringed by a low-lying well-watered coast, with a depressed and, for the most part, arid interior. In its mean height, the land mass of the continent rises to a less elevation than that of any other of the continental surfaces of the globe. Fully 500,000 square miles of the area of Australia consist of a great central plain, the vast bulk of which is situated to the south of the 22nd degree; but portions of it stretch upward to the low-lying country in the region south of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The vast cordillera of the Great Dividing Range originates in the south-eastern corner of the continent, and runs parallel with and close to the eastern shore, through the states of Victoria and New South Wales, right up to the far-distant York Peninsula of Queensland. In Victoria the greatest elevation is reached in the peaks of Mount Hotham and Mount Smyth, each over 6,000 feet in height, with various other summits exceeding 5,000 feet. The loftiest portion of the range is in the region near the confines of Victoria and New South Wales, where Mount Kosciusko reaches an altitude of over 7,000 feet. The Dividing Range, with its lateral spurs, receives various sectional names in the states through which it passes. More detailed reference to these will be found in the chapters dealing with the physical characteristics of particular states. The seaward slope of the range is On generally sharp and precipitous, and in places marked by chasms and precipices unequalled in grandeur in any other part of the world. the western side, the descent is more gradual, the table-land merging by easy degrees into the great plain region towards the centre of the continent. In Victoria, the mountain range known as the Grampians commences near the south coast at Portland Bay, and runs in a north and south direction connecting with the Dividing Range by the Pyrenees and Australian Alps. In South Australia, a chain of mountains of no great elevation runs northward from Cape Jervis to the region occupied by Lake Torrens and other salt-water lakes. The plateau in Western Australia is traversed by ranges in various localities, and these, while of no great altitude, possess a certain grandeur in some instances, from the fact that their rugged masses rise abruptly from a level plain. Little accurate knowledge is at present possessed of the mountainous region in the "Nor'-west" district of Western Australia, and in the Northern Territory of South Australia. The continent possesses no mountains clothed with perpetual snow, nor are there any active volcanoes on its surface. More or less conclusive signs of past glacial action have been reported from the Southern States, and there is also evidence of convulsive volcanic movements in some regions. In Victoria certain peaks in the western district have been in eruption posterior to the arrival of the aboriginal. Perfectly shaped cones may be seen, together with beds of ash and scoriæ little affected by denuding agencies. In the Mount Gambier district of South Australia there are some beautiful little crater lakes occupying the crater hollows of extinct volcanoes. Considerable outpourings of lava took place in late Tertiary times from many points in the Great Dividing Range of Eastern Australia. In the Illawarra district of New South Wales the irruption of an igneous dyke turned portion of the coal seams into a natural coke, the article being largely used on the old metropolitan steam trams. The sandstone in the vicinity of Sydney has in places been hardened by similar means. It is noticeable, however, that all recent volcanic action was confined to the coastal area, no evidence of late lava flows being met with in the plain district of the interior. For a long time Mount Wingen in New South Wales was looked upon as a volcano, but the fires of this burning mountain result from the slow combustion of coal seams in its interior, probably ignited in the first instance by the agency of lightning. It has been customary to regard the central portion of the continent as being a vast desert, but later knowledge has caused a considerable modification of this idea. There is undoubtedly a large area occupied by barren sandhills, or covered for miles with deposits of peculiar rounded boulders. Then there is the spinifex country, which looks fair enough from a distance, but is actually more hopeless for settlement purposes than what is sometimes called the "Stony Desert," which in good seasons is covered with fine pasturage, and has been occupied for pastoral purposes. |