Just Book Australia

As the sixth largest country in the world, Australia actually has a proportionately small population of about twenty million people.  It is the only country to control an entire continent and its islands, and is made up of six states and two territories.  Western Australia is the largest state and is about the same size as Western Europe!  Australia is also both the flattest and the driest continent in the world.  Because it is located beneath the equator, Australia’s summers occur over North American winters, and winter over North American summers.  If you want to spend Christmas on the beach, Australia is the place to go!

Prior to western exploration, Aboriginal people lived throughout the continent in culturally diverse groups.  The first European contact with Australia came in 1606 with the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon, however it wasn’t until 1770 when Captain James Cook led a scientific exploration to the area that it was claimed as part of the British Empire.  Britain used Australia as a penal colony, sending convicts as indentured labour to the new country.  It wasn’t until the 1850s, with the gold rush, that the first settlers of Australia began to make their way there under their own free will.  The Commonwealth of Australia was created in 1901 and it gained its independence in 1931.  A major civil rights action occurred in 1967 when Australians voted overwhelmingly to allow the government to pass legislation to improve the lives of Aboriginal people throughout the nation.

Australia has a wide variety of climates, with desert, tropics, subtropics, plains, and rainforests, not to mention mountains and snowfields.  Tourism is major industry in Australia, and visitors from all over the world are flocking there to enjoy the warm hospitality, tropical weather, and unique natural features.  Natural resources are also important to Australia and make up a large proportion of their world exports.