TOP 15 unusual facts about Australia (28 photos)

Since school, we all know that Australia is the smallest continent. Some may add that it is not a continent at all, but a subcontinent. One way or another, Australia is a full-fledged continent, and quite a large one. So large that it can even compete in size with... the Moon!





The width of the homeland of Mel Gibson and "Crocodile" Dundee is about 3800 km, and the diameter of the Earth's satellite is only 3476 km.



Australia was once much larger

A mere 8,000 years ago, which is literally an instant in geological terms, Australia was much larger. When the sea level was lower, the present-day territory of Australia, the Aru Islands, Tasmania, New Guinea were part of a single continent, geologists call Sahul, Meganesia, or simply Big Australia.





Its area was 10,600,000 km². For comparison: the modern area of ​​Australia is 7,659,861 km².

Australia is the lowest continent

Australia has few high mountains and sharp changes in altitude. The average height of the continent is only 330 meters.



For comparison: the average height of the highest continent, Antarctica, is about 2000 meters.

Australia is probably home to the largest impact crater

The largest impact crater is considered to be Vredefort in South Africa. However, almost every year other objects try to challenge its status. For example, the Wilkes Land meteorite crater, whose diameter is about 500 km. I wrote briefly about this crater in this article.



This is the Berringer Crater (Arizona, USA).

Perhaps in the near future, Vredefort will be displaced from the top spot by Deniliquin. This is a geological structure located in southeastern Australia, which is very similar to an impact crater. It is several concentric magnetized circles, the diameter of the largest of which reaches 520 km.



The supposed crater was formed by the impact of a huge meteorite during the late Ordovician extinction, about 445.2 - 443.8 million years ago.

Australia is almost the driest continent

You can consider the Mad Max pentalogy a documentary. Because without any nuclear war, most of Australia is desert, lifeless rocky plateaus, inhospitable wastelands covered with stunted bushes.



In fact, deserts alone occupy at least 18% of the continent. The sad picture is brightened by the savannah and sparse forest zone in the north and a strip of subtropical forests in the east.



However, it is not for nothing that the word "almost" is written in the title. After all, the driest continent is Antarctica.

Australia gets more snow than some European countries

Deserts, savannas, subtropics, drought... snow. No, the author hasn't mixed anything up ???? In the highlands in the southeast of the continent, snow is a completely common phenomenon.

The Australian Alps are considered the snowiest. On average, snow falls here up to 60 days a year. And this is often not some small, stunted snowfall.



What, did your heart skip a beat? No, this is the Izhevsk city park, sorry, the Blue Mountains.

At an altitude of 900 meters, real snowstorms can rage here, leaving behind half-meter snowdrifts! Portugal, Malta or Ireland can hardly boast of anything like that.

Australia is one of the most sparsely populated countries

Harsh natural conditions have left their mark on the demographics of Australia. The homeland of Russell Crowe and Kylie Minogue is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, on average only 3.5 people live here per square kilometer.



Local residents are mainly concentrated on the east coast. This is where the largest cities are located.



Actually, this meme is understandable without translation. Actually, this meme is understandable without translation. I think the meme is understandable without translation.

It must be said that the absolute number of Australians is also not high, only some 27 million people. For example, the population of Moscow alone is about 18 million people.

Probably the largest stone is in Australia

We are talking about one of the most recognizable symbols of Australia – Uluru. This is an ancient rock formation near the city of Alice Springs. The length of the natural formation is 3.6 km, the width is about 3 km, the height is almost 350 m.



It consists of compressed sandstone. Due to the high content of iron oxide, Uluru has an unusual red, “rusty” color.



Geologists can give you a whole lecture on why Uluru cannot be called a monolith, much less a stone. However, Uluru is often called the largest stone in the world in popular literature.

The largest geoglyph is located in Australia

The huge geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert are known to almost every erudite person. However, the largest of them is not in South America, but in Australia.

This record belongs to a geoglyph called Marree Man.



Its length is 2.7 km. It is clearly visible even from a height of 10 km.



Who and why created the geoglyph, and whom it depicts, has been worrying scientists for many decades.

The world's largest organic structure is located near Australia

Many of you have heard about the Great Barrier Reef back in school. It is the largest reef on the planet and all that.



But you can look at it from a different angle.

The reef was created by living organisms - coral polyps. Therefore, the Great Barrier Reef can be called the largest natural object that was created by living organisms.



It is so huge that it can even be seen from space!

There are few rivers in Australia, and many of them are not permanent

Due to the extremely dry climate on the continent, there are few rivers. The total annual flow is only 350 km³. At the same time, even many existing rivers are often not permanent: they fill with water in the spring, and then gradually dry up. Such temporary rivers are called creeks.



Even such large waterways of Australia as the Murray River periodically dry up almost completely.



In 1945, during one of the most severe droughts, a significant number of large rivers practically dried up.

There are no active volcanoes in Australia

Australia is the only continent where there are no active volcanoes at all. Since the time of European colonization, not a single eruption has been recorded. There are vague legends of the aborigines, which may indirectly indicate the former activity of volcanoes. But all of them are highly questionable.

But this is if we talk about the continent. If we take into account the entire territory of the state of Australia, then there are active volcanoes, and more than one. For example, volcanoes on the McDonald Islands, which are located in the southern part of the Indian Ocean.



For 75,000 years, there was peace and quiet here, a paradise for local penguins and lovers of selfies against the backdrop of pastoral views. But since 1992, the McDonald Islands have been shaken by eruptions. The island has become covered in cracks and lava eruptions. So Australia has acquired a new volcano, and the penguins have lost their home.

Although the Mawson Peak volcano, which is located on neighboring Heard Island, looks much more impressive.



Its height is 2745 meters - it is the highest mountain in the state of Australia. Over the past 100 years, the volcano has erupted at least 10 times. The last time it smoked was in 2016.

Australia has the largest ranch in the world

One of the attractions of the homeland of kangaroos is the giant ranch "Anna Creek", which is located in the state of South Australia.



Its area is 23,677 km². This is larger than the territory of Israel (22,072 km²), Slovenia (20,253 km²) or Kuwait (17,820 km²).

The ranch is so huge that up to 18,000 head of cattle can graze on it at once.



Australia is also home to the second largest ranch in the world. We are talking about the Alexandria station. Its area is 16,116 km².

Australia has the most camels

Speaking of animals. The camel is a symbol of the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia. However, most of the "ships of the desert" are not in the hot sands of the Sahara, but in Australia.



And we are not talking about domestic animals, but wild ones. In the 19th century, settlers brought one-humped camels to Australia. Some of them escaped and subsequently went wild. There were no large predators on the continent, so the camels quickly multiplied. Today there are already about 1 million of them, and this number continues to grow!



Camels have become the same ecological disaster as rabbits and feral dingoes. They eat and trample all the greenery they can reach, break ranch fences, and spoil clean water sources.

The world's largest fence

Our smaller brothers are usually a reason for joy. But not in Australia. There are a huge number of all kinds of poisonous creatures here, from snakes to spiders.

Although the biggest problems for Australians are not scorpions and spiders, but rather cute rabbits and feral dingoes. To protect sheep pastures from dingoes, Australian farmers built a giant mesh fence in the late 19th century.



The impressive fence stretches from the city of Toowoomba (Queensland) to the Great Australian Bight.



A giant fence separates the arid northwestern part of the continent from the relatively fertile southeastern part. The total length of the structure is 5614 km.

For comparison: the perimeter of the whole of France is only 4668 km.

At the beginning of the 20th century, another fence was built in Western Australia. This time, farmers fenced themselves off from the rabbits that had multiplied in incredible numbers.



It consists of three levels. Their total length is 3256 km.