Darwin 90-3 (74-5); Melbourne 67-6 (50-0); Adelaide 72-9 (53-3); Hobart 61-9 (46-9); and the Federal Capital, Canberra 67-2 (44-9). The heaviest rainfall occurs on the north coast of Queensland (up to 160 inches) and in western Tasmania (up to 140 inches). A vast area of the interior, however, stretching from the far west of New South Wales and south-west Queensland to the western seaboard of Western Australia has a rainfall below 10 inches a year. Between these regions of heavy and very low rainfall are the extensive areas which experience useful to good rains, ranging from 10 to 50 inches a year.

The flora and fauna of Australia include many groups which do not occur elsewhere. Vegetation is colourful and varied. Forests are relatively small in area and occur mainly in the coastal area of high rainfall. The dominant tree is the eucalyptus, a hardwood of which there are more than 500 species, ranging from small shrubs to some of the tallest trees in the world; many are renowned for the strength and durability of their timber. Other hardwoods include the red cedar, Queensland maple, silky oak, walnut, rosewood and blackwood. The indigenous softwoods are limited; they include the kauri and bunya pines of Queensland, the hoop pine of Queensland and northern New South Wales, the huon, celery-top and King William pines of Tasmania and the cypress pines of the inland. Australia is also the home of a wide range of acacias.

The native animals of Australia are of primitive types. The land species are chiefly marsupial and include the kangaroos, native cats, opossums, koala, pouched mice and wombats. There are also two species of egg-laying mammals, the platypus and the spiny anteater. The dingo, or wild dog, is believed to have been introduced from Asia. Sheep, cattle, horses and other domestic animals have been introduced since the European settlement; imported animals also include rabbits, which have become pests. Birds, often more conspicuous for their gorgeous plumage than their song, include the emu, kookaburra, lyre bird, rosella and many kinds of parrots and cockatoos. Fish abound in the rivers and coastal waters.

At 31st December 1967 the population was estimated to be 11,928,889. This included an estimated 40,000 to 45,000 full blood aborigines, whose nomadic habits, and in some cases remoteness, have prevented a complete census. In 1967 the birth and death rates were 19-4 per 1,000 and 8-69 per 1,000 respectively. English is the official language and used by the population except for small minorities of the foreign-born. There are, however, many aboriginal languages: it is believed that at the time of the beginning of white settlement there were about 500. Many attempts have been made in the past to link the Australian languages with other parts of the world, i.e., South India, the Andaman Islands and Africa, but without success. It is now considered possible to explain the multiple form of languages on the basis of a single original. As yet a final grouping of the languages among themselves has not been achieved, and the following are the main groups which are clear at present: the prefixing languages of the Kimberleys and North Australian Regions; the languages of the Western Desert; the Aranda Group of Central Australia; the Victorian languages and the languages of Eastern Australia. In the 1961 census 88 per cent of the population acknowledged the Christian faith, 0-7 per cent were non-Christians and the balance were either indefinite, had no religion or made no reply. Primary education is available free throughout Australia. Education is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 14-16 years; the permissible school-leaving age varies slightly between State and State. Education, except in the Territories, is controlled by the

State Governments. In addition to the free Government schools, there are church and private schools, most of which charge fees. There are special schools, Government and non-Government, for the handicapped. Secondary education throughout Australia is extensive, covering a period of five to six years (again varying between the States) and including High (Grammar) and Technical schools to University entrance, plus numerous specialist schools and colleges in such particular fields as business and commerce, agriculture and home science. University and other tertiary education, including post-graduate institutions, is also extensive. Illiteracy is virtually non-existent in Australia, except for a minute percentage of persons so handicapped as to be ineducable. Some newly arrived immigrants know little English, but literacy in their own language is one of the requirements for entry to the country. A special education system helps them adjust to the new language.

There are about 66 ports of commercial significance in Australia, the principal being associated with State capital cities and industrial centres. In terms of cargo tonnage (weight and measurement combined) discharged and shipped in 1964-65, the 15 largest ports are:- Sydney (including Botany Bay) 15,921,739 tons; Melbourne 10,474,418 tons; Newcastle 7,950,424 tons; Fremantle (including Kwinana) 7,742,908 tons; Port Kembla 7,399,459 tons; Geelong 6,615,907 tons; Whyalla 4,904,542 tons; Port Adelaide 3,289,444 tons; Brisbane 3,125,872 tons; Port Stanvac 2,055,015 tons; Yampi 1,514,402 tons; Hobart 1,331,857 tons; Gladstone 1,300,444 tons; Port Pirie 1,331,857 tons; Launceston 877,717 tons. The principal shipping companies are: The Australian National Line, the Union Steamship Co. of New Zealand, the Associated Steamships Pty. Ltd., the Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd., Messrs. Burns Philp & Co. Ltd., The State Shipping Service of Western Australia, Messrs. Wm. Holyman and Sons Pty., Ltd., and Ampol Petroleum Ltd.

There are major airports at, or near, all capital cities and most of the larger cities and towns. All capital city airports cater for inter-State and intra-State services. The armed services-Navy, Army and Air Force-maintain their own bases, catering for their special needs. Thirteen major international airlines operate regular services to and from Australia. At March 1968 there were 663 licensed civil airports. The principal airports, with length of main runway in feet and distance from the centre of the city in miles, are Sydney, 8,300 (5): the 5,500 feet north-south runway at Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport is being extended into Botany Bay to 9,100 feet and was due to come into use by the end of 1968; Essendon 6,300 (8); a second major airport of international standard is at present under construction at Tullamarine near Melbourne and is scheduled to come into use for international operations in 1969 and for domestic airline operations in 1970; it occupies an area of 5,300 acres and will have runways of 8,500 feet and 7,500 feet with fast turn-outs, modern terminal buildings and the latest in air navigation facilities-Melbourne's present airport, Essendon, cannot be further extended because of the surrounding city; Brisbane 7,760 (4); Perth 10,300 (6·5); Darwin 11,000 (3-5); Adelaide 6,850 (4); Canberra 6,800 (4); Hobart 6,500 (10). The principal Australian airline is Qantas Airways Limited based in Sydney, operating services around the world of 83,054 miles. Ten airlines operate inter-State, intra-State and feeder services throughout Australia and the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, over a network of 100,000 miles. Two major operators are Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA) owned and operated by the Australian National Airlines Commission, a statutory

body formed for the purpose by the Federal Government, and Ansett/ANA, the major airlines subsidiary of Ansett Transport Industries Ltd., (ATI), a multi-company organisation engaged in road and air travel, hotels and motels, tourism, manufacturing and television. TAA operates a fleet of 60 aircraft (including one helicopter) over a route network of 46,000 miles and carrying 2,070,000 passengers a year. The ATI airlines group consists of six airlines with a fleet of more than 105 aircraft, covering about 59,000 miles, carrying more than two million passengers a year. Connellan Airways Pty. Limited operates a fleet of 18 aircraft over a network of 11,251 miles; East-West Airlines Ltd. operates a fleet of about five aircraft over a network of 3,960 miles and Papuan Airlines Pty. Ltd. operate nine aircraft over a network of 1,945 miles in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.

Australia has 558,000 miles of highways and roads. Road transport, freight and passenger, is a major industry. Apart from the freight and passenger carrying services, Australian highways and roads carry a heavy traffic of private automobiles: the ratio of automobiles to population is approximately 1:3.

The various Government Railway Systems operating at 30th June 1966 had 25,005 route-miles of track open for traffic as follows: New South Wales, 6,055 miles of 4 feet 8 inches gauge; Victoria, 4,188 miles comprising 3,977 miles of 5 feet 3 inches gauge, 202 miles of 4 feet 8 inches gauge, and 9 miles of 2 feet 6 inches gauge; Queensland, 5,785 miles comprising 5,686 miles of 3 feet 6 inches gauge, 69 miles of 4 feet 8 inches gauge from Brisbane to the New South Wales border, and 30 miles of 2 feet gauge line; South Australia, 2,478 miles comprising 1,650 miles of 5 feet 3 inches gauge and 828 miles of 3 feet 6 inches gauge; Western Australia, 3,747 miles of 3 feet 6 inches gauge and Tasmania, 500 miles of 3 feet 6 inches gauge. The Commonwealth Railways System comprises four separate railways. The Trans-Australian Railway, 1,108 miles of 4 feet 8 inches gauge between Port Pirie (South Australia) and Kalgoorlie (Western Australia); the Central Australia Railway, 217 miles of 4 feet 81 inches gauge between Port Augusta and Maree (South Australia) and 605 miles of 3 feet 6 inches gauge between Maree and Alice Springs (Northern Territory); the North Australia Railway, 317 miles of 3 feet 6 inches gauge between Darwin and Birdum (Northern Territory) and the Australian Capital Territory Railway, 5 miles of 4 feet 8 inches gauge between Queanbeyan (New South Wales) and Canberra (Australian Capital Territory).

Under various Commonwealth-State Standardisation Agreements approximately 420 route-miles of standard (4 feet 8 inches) gauge track have been completed since 1956 and a further 680 route-miles are expected to be completed by the end of 1968. It is expected that a direct standard gauge link will be available between Brisbane and Perth (via Sydney and Broken Hill) by the end of 1968.

At 1st March 1968 there were 73 national broadcasting stations and 114 commercial stations; with 39 national stations providing television facilities and 45 commercial television stations. More television stations are being developed with the aim of bringing this medium to more than 95 per cent of the population.

A wide range of primary and secondary industry products is produced in Australia. The main primary products are wool, wheat and flour, meat, dairy products, sugar, fruit and a number of minerals including lead, zinc, copper, coal, iron ore, gold and bauxite. Secondary industry production is diverse and

includes engineering products, motor vehicles, chemicals, textiles, domestic appliances, newsprint and petroleum products.

Total expenditure of the Federal Government in 1966-67 was $5,923 m. and receipts were $5,388 m. Consolidated Revenue Funds of the States for 1965-66 totalled revenue $2,095.1 m. and expenditure $2,120-3 m.

Australia has under way a programme of about 400 major national development works at an estimated cost on completion of $2,441,000,000. The types of project and their estimated cost are as follows: water conservation, supply, irrigation and drainage (73) $536,000,000; electricity generation (15) $918,000,000; electricity transmission (65) $85,000,000; gas (4) $3,000,000; railways (32) $195,000,000; roads and bridges (98) $251,000,000; ports (63) £302,000,000; airports (13) $40,000,000; telecommunications (35) $69,000,000. These are in addition to the $800,000,000 Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme in southern New South Wales, which is now over three-quarters complete, ahead of schedule, and on which some $665,000,000 to 30th June 1968 had already been expended. Latest estimated completion date for the undertaking, which began in 1949, is 1974. The Snowy Scheme will provide about 6,800,000 acre feet of storage in 15 large dams with 100 miles of tunnels, more than 80 miles of aqueducts and seven power stations in addition to making 2,000,000 acre feet of irrigation water available each year. The planned capacity of the Snowy Hydro-electric Scheme is 3,740,000 Kw of which 1,610,000 are already available.

Some of the larger single development projects under construction are the Munmorah and Liddell power stations in New South Wales, the Hazelwood power station in Victoria and the Ord River Irrigation Project in Western Australia. Munmorah will cost $140,000,000, Hazelwood $232,000,000 and Liddell, with a capacity of 2,000,000 Kw, $200,000,000. At present there are plans for the expenditure of about $48,000,000 on the Ord River Project.

Australia Day, 26th January, commemorates the landing and commencement of settlement at Sydney Cove by Governor Philip on 26th January 1788. It is celebrated as a public holiday throughout Australia.

HISTORY

The first known landing by a European on the shores of Australia was by William Jansz who, in the service of the Dutch, came ashore on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula in 1606 in the belief that it was part of New Guinea. At about the same time Louis de Torres, a Spaniard from Peru, passed through the straits which now bear his name. A few years later the Dutch discovered that it was quicker and healthier to approach Java by sailing with the westerly trade winds, 3,000 miles eastwards from the Cape and then turning north. It was not long before one of their Captains, Dirk Hartog, overshot his turning point and sighted the west coast of Australia at Shark Bay. Thenceforth a number of ships touched on the coast, which was found to be barren and inhospitable. The Dutch named it New Holland.

In 1642 the Dutch sent Abel Tasman to explore further. Picking up the westerlies south of Mauritius, he sailed past the south coast without sighting it and landed on what is now Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen's Land after the Governor-General in Batavia. Continuing eastwards, he discovered New Zealand before returning to Java round the north of New Guinea. A further voyage in the following year to the north coast confirmed the Dutch

East India Company's view that no profit was to be obtained from the new land, and further exploration was abandoned. The British Admiralty were equally unimpressed by reports of the voyages of Dampier to the west and north-west in 1688 and 1699.

For seventy years no further exploration took place, but at the end of that period a growing interest in Pacific exploration led the British Admiralty to send an expedition under James Cook, with the scientist Sir Joseph Banks, to look for the fabled southern Continent, the Terra Australis, in the south Pacific. Failing to find this, Cook charted the shores of New Zealand and then made a landfall at Botany Bay. Sailing north along the coast, he took possession of the land as New South Wales. The British Government at first doubted the value of the new land, but later, on favourable reports by Sir Joseph Banks of its fertility, decided that it would be a suitable place to which to send convicts who could no longer be sent to the American colonies. On 18th January 1788 Governor Philip and the first party of convicts arrived at Botany Bay but, after a few days, moved to Sydney Cove in Port Jackson. A secondary settlement was made at Norfolk Island.

The land was found to be less fertile than Sir Joseph Banks had reported, and at first there was a danger of starvation. Once the settlements were reasonably secure, exploration continued and further settlements were established. Bass in 1798 and Flinders in 1803 completed the exploration of the south and southeast coast and the latter confirmed that New Holland and New South Wales formed part of one continent. It is believed to have been Flinders who first used the term Australia to describe this continent. Three strategic settlements were established on Sydney's lines of communications in 1803 and 1804, two of which developed into Hobart and Launceston in Van Diemen's Land, and were used for the worst convicts. In 1824 to 1828, because of fears of French landings, three other settlements were made in the north and south-east and at Albany in the south-west. The latter alone survived. Another station was established in 1824 at Moreton Bay, on the Brisbane River.

Meanwhile free settlers had begun to change the Colony's character. Some of these were former members of the New South Wales Corps, which arrived in 1790; others were persons attracted by cheap or free land. Another section of the population was formed of freed convicts. Initially, although some of the larger farmers made a success of growing for the local market, the Colony produced little or nothing for export. This was changed when Captain John Macarthur demonstrated that the Colony was very suitable for sheep rearing and that the wool would find a ready market in Britain. The discovery by Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth of a way through the Blue Mountains, which had previously confined settlement to the coast, allowed rapid expansion of this industry. Many exploring expeditions followed, and although these opened up the country they also revealed its aridity. From then on settlement was a voluntary movement, often carried on without the approval of the government, which wished to limit expenditure. Examples of this were the settlements of Henty at Portland and Batman at Port Phillip in 1834 and 1835. Although the Government at first disapproved, Captain Lonsdale was put in charge in 1836 and Melbourne was officially named in 1837. Swelled by settlers who had come overland from the east coast, the settlements became the District of Port Phillip and, in 1851, the Colony of Victoria.