Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia,[15] is a sovereign

country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island

of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands.[b] Australia is the largest country by
area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest,
[16]
flattest,[17] and driest inhabited continent,[18][19] with the least fertile soils.[20][21] It
is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and
climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, tropical
savannas in the north, and mountain ranges in the south-east.
The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia
50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the last glacial period.[22][23][24] They settled the
continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time
of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known
continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world.[25] Australia's written
history commenced with European maritime exploration. The Dutch were the first
known Europeans to reach Australia, in 1606. British colonisation began in 1788
with the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales. By the mid-19th
century, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and five
additional self-governing British colonies were established, each gaining
responsible government by 1890. The colonies federated in 1901, forming the
Commonwealth of Australia.[26] This continued a process of increasing autonomy
from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act
1942, and culminating in the Australia Acts of 1986.[26]
Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states
and ten territories: the states of New South
Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia;
the major mainland Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory; and other
minor or external territories. Its population of nearly 27 million[9] is highly
urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard.[27] Canberra is the
nation's capital, while its most populous cities
are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.[28] Australian governments
have promoted multiculturalism since the 1970s.[29] Australia is culturally diverse
and has one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world.[30][31] Its abundant
natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the
country's economy, which generates its income from various sources:
predominantly services (including banking, real estate and international education)
as well as mining, manufacturing and agriculture.[32][33] It ranks highly for quality of
life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights. [34]
Australia has a highly developed market economy and one of the highest per capita
incomes globally.[35][36][37] It is a middle power, and has the world's thirteenth-
highest military expenditure.[38][39] It is a member of international groups including
the United Nations; the G20; the OECD; the World Trade Organization; Asia-
Pacific Economic Cooperation; the Pacific Islands Forum; the Pacific Community;
the Commonwealth of Nations; and the defence and security
organisations ANZUS, AUKUS, and the Five Eyes. It is also a major non-NATO
ally of the United States.[40]
Etymology
Main article: Name of Australia
The name Australia (pronounced /əˈstreɪliə/ in Australian English[41]) is derived
from the Latin Terra Australis ("southern land"), a name used for a hypothetical
continent in the Southern Hemisphere since ancient times.[42] Several sixteenth
century cartographers used the word Australia on maps, but not to identify modern
Australia.[43] When Europeans began visiting and mapping Australia in the 17th
century, the name Terra Australis was applied to the new territories.[N 5]
Until the early 19th century, Australia was best known as New Holland, a name
first applied by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 (as Nieuw-Holland) and
subsequently anglicised. Terra Australis still saw occasional usage, such as in
scientific texts.[N 6] The name Australia was popularised by the explorer Matthew
Flinders, who said it was "more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the
names of the other great portions of the Earth".[49] The first time
that Australia appears to have been officially used was in April 1817, when
Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledged the receipt of Flinders' charts of
Australia from Lord Bathurst.[50] In December 1817, Macquarie recommended to
the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted.[51] In 1824, the Admiralty agreed
that the continent should be known officially by that name.[52] The first official
published use of the new name came with the publication in 1830 of The Australia
Directory by the Hydrographic Office.[53]
Colloquial names for Australia include "Oz", "Straya" and "Down Under".[54] Other
epithets include "the Great Southern Land", "the Lucky Country", "the Sunburnt
Country", and "the Wide Brown Land". The latter two both derive from Dorothea
Mackellar's 1908 poem "My Country".[55]
History
Main article: History of Australia
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Australian history.
Indigenous prehistory
Main articles: Prehistory of Australia and Indigenous Australians

Aboriginal rock art in the Kimberley region of

Western Australia
Indigenous Australians comprise two broad groups: the Aboriginal peoples of the
Australian mainland (and surrounding islands including Tasmania), and the Torres
Strait Islanders, who are a distinct Melanesian people. Human habitation of the
Australian continent is estimated to have begun 50,000 to 65,000 years ago,[22][56][57]
[23]
with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea crossings from what
is now Southeast Asia.[58] It is uncertain how many waves of immigration may have
contributed to these ancestors of modern Aboriginal Australians.[59]
[60]
The Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land is recognised as the oldest site
showing the presence of humans in Australia.[61] The oldest human remains found
are the Lake Mungo remains, which have been dated to around 41,000 years ago.
[62][63]