AUSTRALIA
Australia is a big island. It is in the southern part of the world. Australia is different from the other countries, because it is far away from other continents. When European immigrants first came to Australia, they drove the native Australians away from their homelands. The settlers first lived mostly in south, south-east and east. The aborigines moved to the west and now most of them live in the central, western and northern part of Australia. White people, mainly from the British Isles, brought over their language and traditions. Nowadays the Australian English language differs a lot from British and American English.
Australia’s landscape is different in different parts of the continent. Large desert areas are often without rain for many months or even years, but the eastern and south-eastern coasts get a lot of rain and sunshine. The Great Dividing Range runs between the wet and the dry areas. The plantlife of this region is colourful and rich. On the eastern coasts people can get fresh fruit and vegetables all year round. There are two main kinds of plants. Acacias come in 7000 different species. They have brightly-coloured flowers. Some of them are small desert bushes; some are tall trees. There are about 500 eucalyptuses, which Australians call gum trees or gums. Gum trees are among the tallest trees in the world. The most numerous of them are Forest Red Gum, Snow Gum, Manna Gum and Ghost Gum.
Most of the animals living in Australia are marsupials. The babies of these animals are born too small to start their lives on their own. After birth they move to the pouch on the stomachs of their mothers and live there for several months. There are about 150 different species of marsupials in Australia. The best known animals are koalas, kangaroos, echidnas and wombats.
There are more than 700 different kinds of birds. The Australian birds are very colourful. The kookaburra is one of the best-known birds. It makes a very strange sound. It is sometimes called a laughing jackass. The world’s only black swans live in Australia.
More than 140 species of snake and 370 species of lizard live mainly in desert areas.
Eucalyptus Acacia Koala
Kangaroo Echidna Wombat
Kasutatud kirjandus:
