AUSTRALIA (Neo-Latin, Southland, from Lat. australis, southern). The island-continent lying to the southeastward of Asia and the East Indies. It is situated wholly within the southern hemisphere, between latitudes 10° 41' and 39° 11' S., and between longitudes 113° and 153° 40' E. It is irregularly oval in shape, with the south side concave. The greatest length is along the mid dle parallel, at about 25° south, and is nearly 2500 miles; while the greatest breadth, which is in the eastern part, in longitude 143°, is about 1950 miles. Its area is 2,972,906 square miles. Australia is bounded on the north by the Timor Sea, Arafura Sea, Gulf of Carpentaria, and Torres Strait, SO miles wide, which separates it from New Guinea; on the east by the Coral Sea and the Pacific Ocean; on the south by the Pacific, and on the west by the Indian Ocean. The coast contour is exceedingly regular, the total length of the coast line being about 10.600 miles, or little more than its general contour. On the north there are two considerable indenta tions, Queen Channel, a part of Timor Sea, and the deeply penetrating Gulf of Carpentaria. Stretching along the eastern coast from near Cape York in latitude 11° S. to Sandy Cape, latitude 24° S., lies the Great Barrier Coral Beef. The great inward bend on the southern side of the continent is known as the Great Australian Bight. Off the southeastern point of Australia, and separated from it by Bass Strait, 140 miles wide, is the island of Tasmania, the only large island commonly associated with Australia. The coast of Australia offers com paratively few good and accessible harbors.
TUPOGRAPItY. Of all the continents, Australia presents the least relief, both in total altitude above the sea, and in diversity. Viewed broadly, the interior is a plain, rising from west to east and from south to north, and bordered near the east and west coasts by mountain ranges. The mean elevation of the continent is estimated at 1300 feet. Near the east coast, stretching from the neighborhood of Melbourne, Victoria, in the southeast, to Cape York in the northeast, are the mountains of the Great Dividing Range, known locally by many names, as the Australian Alps, the Blue Mountains, New England Range, etc. This mountain system separates the waters
flowing to the eastern coast from those which flow to the interior and the southern coast. It is by far the highest, broadest, and most com plicated of the ranges on the island. Its breadth and the distance of its main crest from the coast differ widely in different places. In Victoria, the southeastern province, the seaward slope ranges from 50 to 75 miles in breadth, in New South Wales, from 30 to 120 miles, while in Queensland, the northeastern province, it reaches 300 miles in some places. The southernmost sec tion of the Great Dividing Range extends in a general west and east direction through Victoria, with many spurs awl mountains of eonsidera.ble elevation, including Kent, 5129 feet; Howitt, 5715 feet; 1 lotham, G100 feet ; and llogong. 6508 feet. Lapping the northeastern end of this range on the seaward side, and extending into New South Wales, with a northeastern trend, are the Australian Alps. These contain, in the Kos ciusko group near the boundary line between New South Wales and Victoria, the highest peaks in the system and in Australia ; Mount Kosciusko has an altitude of 7336 feet and Mount Townshend of 7:352 feet. From the north end of the Australian Alps, the divide is carried eastward by the short and comparatively low Monaro Range, and is taken up again by the Gouroek Range, parallel with the coast, which here trends nearly north. Here the system be comes more complieated, with secondary ranges on either side of the dividing range. T.Le divide is carried northward by the Cullarin Range and the Blue Mountains, from which long spurs, ex tensive enough to he dignified by the name of ranges, extend on the one hand to the coast, and on the other far into the interior. Among the ranges extending to the coast are the Bunter and the Mittagong, while the ttundoonen and the Macquarie are the principal ranges which ex tend into the interior.