Australia’s GeographyGeographic Understandings

SS6G12 The student will be able to locate selected features of Australia.

a. Locate on a world and regional political-physical map: the Great Barrier Reef, Coral

Sea, Ayers Rock, and Great Victoria Desert.

Australia’s Landscape

• Australia is called the “Land Down Under”

• Island country AND a continent – located in the southern hemisphere, south of the equator

• Geography of Australia – described as large, semi-arid, dry region with temperate climates in the southeastern coastal areas

Great Barrier Reef• The Great Barrier Reef lies off Australia’s

northeastern coast in the Coral Sea and is the world’s largest coral reef. Coral formations have piled up for millions of years to create a colorful chain that stretches 1,250 miles.

• The reef lies a short distance off the northeast coast of Queensland (one of Australia’s states).

• A coral reef is a structure formed by the skeletons of small sea animals.

Great Barrier Reef

The Coral Sea

• The Coral Sea is actually part of the Pacific Ocean (and is an important source for the Great Barrier Reef).

• The sea lies off the northeast coast of Australia.

Ayers Rock…aka “Uluru”

• Located near the center of the continent of Australia – in the flatlands, in the state called Northern Territory

• Huge, reddish sandstone rock towering out of the flatlands – the rock is a monolith (single, large rock sticking out of the Earth…Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, is a monolith)

• It is nearly 12 stories tall and almost six miles wide around its base.

• The Aborigines (Australia’s native/indigenous peoples) call it “Uluru.”

Ayers Rock

• aka, “Uluru”

Great Victoria Desert

• From Ayers Rock, travel southwest into the states of South Australia and Western Australia – there you will enter the Great Victoria Desert.

Great Victoria Desert (continued)

• Great Victoria Desert - receives only 8 inches – 10 inches of rain each year…it never snows

• Some grasslands, along with sand hills and salt lakes

• Very few Australians live in the Great Victoria Desert because it is too hot and dry.

Great Victoria Desert

Did you know that…

• because of Australia’s location in the Southern Hemisphere, summer begins in December and winter begins in June?

• the largest part of Australia consists of semi-arid or dry lands known as the Outback?

• in the north, you will find a tropical climate with rain forests, mangrove swamps, grassland, and even more desert?