COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA AREA: 7,682,300 sq km

(2,966,153 sq mi).

POPULATION: 18,031,000.

CAPITAL: Canberra, pop. 310,000.

RELIGION: Protestant, Roman Catholic.

LANGUAGE: English.

LITERACY: 99%.

LIFE EXPECTANCY: 78 years.

ECONOMY: Industry: coal, nickel, iron, bauxite, and other mining, petroleum,

food processing, machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals, aluminum, tourism. Export

crops: wool, wheat, meat, sugar, dairy products, fruits.

Kangaroos and rust red deserts of the outback color the popular image of the

driest and emptiest continent after Antarctica. Eighty-five percent of

Australians live in cities and towns, mostly along the fertile east coast:

Bustling Sydney and Melbourne are the financial and commercial hubs;

Newcastle and  Wollongong mark the limits of a manufacturing

region centered on Sydney, host of the Summer Olympics in the year 2000.

Founded in 1788 as a British convict colony, Australia was a place of banishment

until gold strikes in 1851 opened floodgates of immigration. Independence came

in 1901. Australia`s constitution, adapted in part from that of the United

States, gives residual powers to the six states and two territories, each with

its own legislature.

The United Kingdom is still an important source of newcomers to the land down

under, but Asians now account for almost half of all arrivals. Sydney is home to

thousands of Italians, Lebanese, and Vietnamese. More Greeks live in Melbourne

than any city outside Greece itself.

In spite of recent economic recession, Australia has one of the world`s highest

living standards, and natural resources are plentiful. Australians call their

land the "lucky country." Every year visitors flock to the Sunshine and Gold

Coasts near Brisbane and to the Great Barrier Reef. The good life, however, has

eluded most Aborigines, whose unemployment rate is four times the national

average.

Although less than 10 percent of land is arable, Australia exports huge

quantities of wheat and fruit and leads the world in the production of wool. It

is the world`s largest bauxite producer and one of the largest exporters of

coal, from New South Wales and Queensland, and of iron ore, from Western

Australia. The country is developing computer software and medical equipment

industries but is limited by small domestic market. Japan and other economic

powers in eastern Asia have replaced the U.K. as leading consumers of Australian

exports.

In 1989 Australian officials, galvanized by the prospect of European economic

integration in 1992, met with representatives from 11 other Asia-Pacific nations

in an effort to strengthen ties. Australia is becoming less a European country

in Asia and more an Asian country with European roots.