Australia is the Earth smallest continent, situated in the Southern Hemisphere between the Pacific Ocean (the Tasman and Coral Seas) and the Indian Ocean. Its nearest neighbour in the north is New Guinea from which Australia is separated by 85 km wide Torres Strait. Other near neighbours of Australia are Indonesia on the north, Solomons, Fiji and New Zealand on the east. Its area is 7,762,532 sq km.
    The oval shape of Australia is broken by the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north and by the Great Australian Bight in the south. Along the east coast we can see the Great Barrier Reef, which is the biggest coral reef on the Earth.
    The nearest islands are - besides Tasmania which lies 240 km to the south - King Island and Flinders Island in the Bass Strait, Kangaroo Island in the Gulf of St. Vincent, Mellville Island in the north and Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
    The surface of Australia is mostly flat, only one twentieth of the whole continent is higher than 600 m above the sea level. The Great Western Plateau occupies nearly half of the continent. In central Australia there are three deserts - the Great Sandy Desert, the Gibson Desert and the Great Victoria Desert. These regions are very hot and arid. They are red, orange and brown, and strange rocks can be found here. Ayers Rock, the largest piece of rock in the world, is the most famous of them. It is 335 metres high. The highest parts of this area are just over 1,000 m (Mt. Meharry 1251 m high).
    The second part is the Central-Eastern Lowland - a flat area lower than 100 m above the sea level. It is mostly covered by tropic forest and savannah with occasional creeks and rivers, which flow into lakes such as Lake Eyre, Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner (large lakes which become dry in the dry seasons). The eastern part of the Central-Eastern Lowland is made up of lowland with the biggest river system (the Murray and the Darling rivers) in Australia. Many Australian rivers are empty almost all the year and they are called creeks.
    The third basic Australian area are the Australian Cordilleras which are along the eastern coast of Australia (and continue to Tasmania). Their northern part - the Great Dividing Range - begins on the York Peninsula (where we can find tropical jungles) and divides the wet coast of eastern Australia from the dry lands in the centre. The New England Range and the Blue Mountains continue to the Australian Alps with the highest mountain of the whole continent (Mt. Kosciusko 2,228 m high - discovered by a Polish scientist).
    The biggest towns and cities are mostly along the coast of Australia, the two biggest - Sydney and Melbourne - on the south-east coast.
    The Australian climate varies from warm to subtropical. The continent is in the southern hemisphere which means that Australia has summer when we have winter and vice versa (see the picture "Christmas in Australia"). The tropical forest in the north and north-east are displaced by savanna or grassland. The south-east is covered with forests of eucalyptus and other evergreen trees. The north-western part of Western Australia and Nothern Territories are arid and hot. The North-East has heavy rainfalls.
    There are many beautiful national parks in Australia, e. g. Kakadu National Park, Royal National Park etc.