Portal:Australia

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Introduction  

Kangaroos on a beach -

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The flag of Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. Australia has a total area of 7,688,287 km² (2,968,464 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest country in the world and the largest in Oceania. It is the world's flattest, and driest inhabited continent. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates including deserts in the interior and tropical rainforests along the coast.

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the last glacial period. By the time of British settlement, Aboriginal Australians spoke 250 distinct languages and had one of the oldest living cultures in the world. Australia's written history commenced with Dutch exploration of most of the coastline in the 17th-century. 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. 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.

Australia is a federal parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy comprising six states and ten territories. Its population of almost 28 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous cities are Sydney and Melbourne, both with a population of more than 5 million. Australia's culture is diverse, and the country has one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world. It has a highly developed economy and one of the highest per capita incomes globally. Its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy. It ranks highly for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights.

Featured article -

  Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

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Subspecies boobook, New South Wales

The Australian boobook (Ninox boobook), is a species of owl native to mainland Australia, southern New Guinea, the island of Timor, and the Sunda Islands. Described by John Latham in 1801, it was generally considered to be the same species as the morepork of New Zealand until 1999. Its name is derived from its two-tone boo-book call. Eight subspecies of the Australian boobook are recognized, with three further subspecies being reclassified as separate species in 2019 due to their distinctive calls and genetics. (Full article...)

More Australian featured content

Selected biography -

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

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Donald Tallon (17 February 1916 – 7 September 1984) was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953. He was widely regarded by his contemporaries as Australia's finest ever wicket-keeper and one of the best in Test history, with an understated style, an ability to anticipate the flight, length and spin of the ball and an efficient stumping technique. Tallon toured England as part of Don Bradman's Invincibles of 1948 and was recognised as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1949 for his performances during that season. During his Test career, Tallon made 58 dismissals comprising 50 catches and 8 stumpings. (Full article...)

More Australian featured biographies

Did you know (auto-generated) -  

• ... that Monica Smit was ordered to pay Victoria Police's legal bill of about A$250,000, despite winning a lawsuit against them?
• ... that Barcroft Boake, the author of one of Australia's most anthologised poems, hanged himself with a stockwhip a few months after it was published?
• ... that Australian Madeleine Steere played water polo professionally in Turkey after studying biomolecular science in the United States?
• ... that the South Australian Labor politician Ernest Roberts served two tours in South Africa during the Second Boer War?
• ... that the Australian government tried to censor a film of Quail Island's starving koalas?
• ... that Australian official Jack Emanuel was awarded the George Cross in 1971 after being stabbed to death whilst trying to resolve a land dispute with the Tolai people of New Guinea?
• ... that the 2023 Aston by-election was the first time in more than 100 years that the governing party won a seat from the opposition at an Australian by-election?
• ... that the United Ukrainian Ballet Company, consisting of exiled dancers based in The Hague, has toured the UK, Singapore, Australia and the US?

More Australian facts

In the news  

11 February 2025 – Antisemitism in Australia, Clinical incidents in Australia

Two nurses in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia are stood down after claiming on video that they allegedly both refused to treat and intentionally mistreated Israeli patients. (The Guardian)

11 February 2025 –

Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States announce sanctions on a Russian bulletproof hosting services provider that is allegedly ignoring law enforcement requests, along with two Russians who are operating the network. (AP)

3 February 2025 –

A teenage girl is killed in a shark attack off the coast of Queensland, Australia. (BBC News)

2 February 2025 – 2025 Queensland floods

Two people are killed and thousands are forced to evacuate their homes in over 1,000 millimetres (39 in) of flooding in North Queensland, Australia. (BBC News)

26 January 2025 – 2025 ATP Tour

2025 Australian Open

In tennis, Jannik Sinner defeats Alexander Zverev 6–3, 7–6 (7–4), 6–3, in the men's singles final to win his second Australian Open title and his third Grand Slam overall. (The Guardian) (ATP News)

Selected pictures -

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  Cairns Birdwing

  Photo credit: Fir0002

  The Cairns Birdwing (Ornithoptera euphorion) is a birdwing butterfly of the Papilionidae family. It is Australia's largest butterfly, and is native to the tropical north of Queensland.
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  Common bluetail

  Photo credit: Fir0002

  The Common bluetail (Ischnura heterosticta) is a small Australian damselfly of the family Coenagrionidae. Most males have blue eyes, blue thorax and a blue ringed tail. The females are green or light brown.
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  A panorama of Melbourne's Yarra River at twilight, showing the Central Business District on the left and the Southbank entertainment district on the right.

  
  
  Melbourne is the state capital and largest city in the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-largest city in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.7 million^[1] (2006 estimate). It is a coastal city located at the northern end of the Port Phillip Bay. The city's name is pronounced as either /ˈmel.bən/ or /ˈmæl.bən/. Formerly the capital city of Australia from 1901 until 1927, Melbourne is today a centre of finance and entertainment and is considered a minor world city.
  
  Photo credit: Diliff
  
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  Zizina labradus

  Photo credit: John O'Neill

  A Common Grass Blue (Zizina labradus), a small Australian butterfly. This specimen, perched on a rose, is approximately 10 millimetres (0.4 in) in size. Females generally have a larger wingspan compared to males (23 and 20 mm or 0.9 and 0.8 in respectively).
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  Kiewa Valley

  
  
  The Kiewa River is a major tributary of the Murray River in Australia and the source of approximately 40% of the Murray's flow. The river's headwaters include Victoria's highest mountain, Mount Bogong, and wind their way north-west about 100 kilometres, gradually slowing before joining the Murray west of Albury.
  
  Photo credit: Mattinbgn
  
  
  
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  Lake Hart in South Australia.

  
  
  The Lake Eyre Basin has a drainage basin that covers one-sixth of all Australia. It is one of the largest internal drainage systems in the world, and covers roughly 1.2 million square kilometres, including much of inland Queensland, large portions of South Australia and the Northern Territory, and a part of western New South Wales.
  
  Photo credit: User:Tannin
  
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  Fleet Air Arm (RAN)

  Photo: Fir0002

  A Eurocopter AS350 "Squirrel" helicopter flown by 723 Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), the section of the Royal Australian Navy responsible for the operation of aircraft. The FAA is currently an all-helicopter force, operating four separate models in the anti-submarine warfare and maritime support roles.
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  Dusky Robin

  Photo: JJ Harrison

  The Dusky Robin (Melanodryas vittata) is a small passerine bird native to Tasmania. A member of the Australian Robin family, it is not related to European or American Robins. It is a brown-plumaged bird of open woodland, measuring 16–17 cm (6.3–6.7 in) in length.
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  Metallic Ringtail

  Photo: JJ Harrison

  The Metallic Ringtail (Austrolestes cingulatus) is an Australian species of damselfly, so named because of its glossy metallic colouration and the "rings" on each abdominal segment. It is widely distributed in Tasmania, Victoria, eastern New South Wales and south eastern Queensland.
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  Cripps Pink

  Photo credit: Fir0002

  Two whole Cripps Pink apples and a cross-section of a third. More commonly known by the trademarked name "Pink Lady", this apple cultivar was originally bred by John Cripps by crossing the Australian apple Lady Williams with a Golden Delicious. The apple shape is ellipsoid, it has a distinctive pink hue mixed with a green "background," and taste is tart.
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  Blue Lake.

  
  Blue Lake is a large lake located in an extinct volcanic caldera in Mount Gambier. It is known as Waawor in the local Aboriginal language. During summer and the surrounding months, the lake takes on a vibrant blue colour, returning to a colder steely-grey colour for winter. The exact cause of this phenomenon is still a matter of conjecture but it is generally considered likely that it revolves around the warming of the surface layers of the lake during the summer months to around 25 degrees celsius, causing calcium carbonate to precipitate out of solution and enabling micro-crystallites of calcium carbonate to form. This results in a scatter of the blue wavelength of sunlight. The movement of planktonic life-forms within the lake during the seasons and during the day may also play a part in the visibility changes.
  
  Photo credit: Aaron Allen
  
  
  
  
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  Sydney Opera House

  Photo credit: Chmouel

  The Sydney Opera House in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
  
  Situated on Bennelong Point at Sydney Harbour, the Sydney Opera House is one of the most distinctive and famous 20th-century buildings, and one of the most famous performing arts venues in the world.
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  Aeshnidae

  Photo: JJ Harrison

  The Tasmanian Darner (Austroaeschna tasmanica) is an Australian species of dragonfly in the Aeshnidae family, which includes some of the largest of the dragonflies on the planet. Also referred to as "hawkers", the name "darner" derives from the fact that the female abdomens look like a sewing needle, as they cut into plant stem when they lay their eggs through the ovipositor.
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  Tasmanian Native-hen

  Photo credit: Noodle snacks

  The Tasmanian Native-hen (Gallinula mortierii) is a flightless rail between 43 to 51 cm (17 to 20 in) in length, one of twelve species of birds endemic to the Australian island of Tasmania. Although flightless, it is capable of running quickly and has been recorded running at speeds up to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h).
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  A Fig-lined avenue in Hyde Park.

  
  
  Hyde Park is a large park in the New South Wales capital of Sydney. Named after the original Hyde Park in London, it is the southernmost of a chain of parkland that extends north to the shore. It takes the form of an approximate rectangle. Around the park's boundaries lie the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Hyde Park Barracks and Sydney Hospital to the north, St Mary's Cathedral to the east and the central business district to the west. The centrepiece of Hyde Park is the majestic Archibald Fountain, unveiled in 1932 in honour of Australia's contribution to the Great War in France.
  
  Photo credit: Greg O'Beirne
  
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  Australian Synchrotron

  Photo credit: John O'Neill

  A panoramic view across the interior of the Australian Synchrotron (a subatomic particle accelerator) in Clayton, Victoria. Dominating the image is the storage ring, showing the optical diagnostic beamline at front right. In the middle of the storage ring is the booster synchrotron and linac. The yellow, green and red magnets on the trolley (front left) are a demonstration of the bending and focusing magnets used in the storage ring to produce the synchrotron radiation and maintain the electron beam.
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  Tawny Frogmouth

  Photo: Benjamint444

  The Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) is a large species of frogmouth found throughout the Australian mainland, Tasmania, and southern New Guinea. Unlike the owl for which it is often mistaken, the Tawny Frogmouth is not a bird of prey. Instead, it is almost exclusively insectivorous. For defense, it relies on cryptic camouflage, standing still to appear part of a branch.
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  Poison gas in World War I

  Photo credit: Frank Hurley

  A group of Australian infantry wearing Small Box Respirators (SBRs) at the Third Battle of Ypres in September 1917. After the introduction of poison gas in World War I, countermeasures were developed. SBRs represented the pinnacle of gas mask development during the war, a mouthpiece connected via a hose to a box filter (hanging around the wearer's neck in this picture), which in turn contained granules of chemicals that neutralised the gas. The SBR was the prized possession of the ordinary infantryman; when the British were forced to retreat during the German Spring Offensive of 1918, it was found that while some troops had discarded their rifles, hardly any had left behind their respirators.
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  Flinders Street Station, Melbourne, Australia (1927)

  
  Flinders Street Station is the central railway station of the suburban rail network of the Victorian capital of Melbourne. It is on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets next to the Yarra River in the central business district, stretching from Swanston Street to Queen Street and covering two city blocks. This 1927 photo shows a mix of motor vehicles and horse drawn carts on the streets, as well as both electric and non-electric trams. The station opened in 1910, replacing an ad hoc collection of weatherboard train sheds.
  
  Photo credit: Victoria State Transport Authority
  
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  The pinnacles with dusk approaching

  
  The Pinnacles Desert is an area of unique limestone formations within the Nambung National Park in Western Australia. The desert contains many thousands of pillars, which rise up to five metres, with shape and texture having been defined by calcification processes and erosion. Since The Pinnacles was incorporated into the national park in the 1960s, the area has become significant tourist attraction.
  
  Photo credit: Sean Mack
  
  
  
  
• 
  Metallic Ringtail

  Photo credit: Fir0002

  A female Metallic Ringtail (Austrolestes cingulatus), an Australian damselfly, eating its prey. Each abdominal segment is marked by a pale "ring"; this combined with its glossy metallic coloration give the insect its common name.
• 
  Passchendaele

  Photo credit: James Francis Hurley

  Soldiers of an Australian 4th Division field artillery brigade on a duckboard track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in the Ypres salient, October 29, 1917. The photo was taken in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, which was one of the major battles of World War I.

On this day  

16 February:

David Collins

• 1804 – David Collins becomes the first Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land and decides on Sullivan Cove, now Hobart, as a settlement site.
• 1914 – Charles Heydon of the New South Wales Industrial Court finds that a "living wage" for a family of four would be 48 shillings a week but more than a living wage should be paid.
• 1942 – Twenty two Australians captured by the Japanese following the sinking of SS Vyner Brooke are killed at the Bangka Island massacre.
• 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
• 2002 – Steven Bradbury wins Australia's first Winter Olympics gold medal in the 1,000 meters short-track speed-skating event.

More Australian anniversaries...

General images  

The following are images from various Australia-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  A group of Australian men wearing speedos (from Culture of Australia)
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  The surf lifesaving movement originated in Australia. (Pictured: surf lifesavers, Bondi Beach, 1930s). (from Culture of Australia)
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  Didgeridoo performers (from Culture of Australia)
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  Portrait of Madame Melba by Rupert Bunny (from Culture of Australia)
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  Dwellings accommodating Aboriginal families at Hermannsburg Mission, Northern Territory, 1923 (from Aboriginal Australians)
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  Noongar traditional dancers in Perth (from Aboriginal Australians)
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  The initial human settlement of Oceania is estimated to have been between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. Archaeogenetic results indicate a colonisation of southern Sahul (Australia) before 37,000 years ago and an incubation period in northern Sahul (Papua New Guinea), followed by westward expansions within Australia after about 28,000 years ago. (from Aboriginal Australians)
• 
  The Princess Theatre in Melbourne (from Culture of Australia)
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  The first State of Origin shield (from Culture of Australia)
• 
  Founded in 1993, Sydney's Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival. (from Culture of Australia)
• 
  Historical image of Aboriginal Australian women and children, Maloga, New South Wales around 1900 (in European dress) (from Aboriginal Australians)
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  A typical Queenslander house in Brisbane (from Culture of Australia)
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  Actor playing the bushranger Ned Kelly in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), the world's first feature film (from Culture of Australia)
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  The University of Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
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  Statue in Fremantle of an Australian rules footballer taking a spectacular mark (from Culture of Australia)
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  PCA of Orang Asli (Semang) and Andamanese, with worldwide populations in HGDP. (from Aboriginal Australians)
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  The Wiggles performing in the United States in 2007 (from Culture of Australia)
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  Parliament House, Canberra (from Culture of Australia)
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  South Australian suffragette Catherine Helen Spence (1825–1910). The Australian colonies established democratic parliaments from the 1850s and began to grant women the vote in the 1890s.
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  Dame Edna Everage, a comic creation of Barry Humphries (from Culture of Australia)
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  A swagman in bushman's apparel, wearing a brimmed hat and carrying swag and billy can (from Culture of Australia)
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  House in Killara, New South Wales (from Culture of Australia)
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  Bush tucker harvested in Alice Springs (from Culture of Australia)
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  Governor Arthur Phillip hoists the British flag over the new colony at Sydney Cove in 1788 (from Culture of Australia)
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  St Mary Mackillop established an extensive network of schools and is Australia's first canonised saint of the Catholic Church. (from Culture of Australia)
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  The Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne (from Culture of Australia)
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  Anzac Day dawn services are held throughout Australia every April. (from Culture of Australia)
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  William Wentworth (1790–1872) was among the first to articulate a vision of Australian nationhood. (from Culture of Australia)
• 
  Phar Lap winning the Melbourne Cup, "the race that stops a nation" (from Culture of Australia)
• 
  The Bulletin, founded by J. F. Archibald (left), nurtured bush poets such as Henry Lawson (right). (from Culture of Australia)
• 
  The Matildas, Australia's national women's football team (from Culture of Australia)
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  Golden Wattle, Australia's floral emblem and the source of Australia's national colours, green and gold (from Culture of Australia)
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  C. J. Dennis, poetic humourist of Australian English (from Culture of Australia)
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  Donald Bradman is often cited as statistically the greatest sportsman of any major sport. (from Culture of Australia)
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  Countries of birth of Australian estimated resident population, 2006 (from Culture of Australia)
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  A high-set Victorian-era Queenslander with a large veranda in Brisbane (from Culture of Australia)
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  Corroboree at Newcastle by convict artist Joseph Lycett, ca. 1818. Aboriginal Australian religious practices associated with the Dreamtime have been practised for tens of thousands of years. (from Culture of Australia)
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  A Luritja man demonstrating method of attack with boomerang under cover of shield (1920) (from Culture of Australia)
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  Interior of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
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  The verandah is the dominant feature of this Federation Filigree-style pub in Ravenswood. (from Culture of Australia)
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  Kylie Minogue, one of Australia's most successful pop musicians (from Culture of Australia)
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  An Aboriginal encampment near the Adelaide foothills in an 1854 painting by Alexander Schramm (from Aboriginal Australians)
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  Cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1860s (from Culture of Australia)
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  Birdsville Hotel, an Australian pub in outback Queensland (from Culture of Australia)
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  A billycan used for heating water (from Culture of Australia)
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  Federation Bungalow in Killara, Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
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  An Eastern Arrernte man of the Arltunga district, Northern Territory, in 1923. His hut is decked with porcupine grass. (from Aboriginal Australians)
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  Convict architecture at Port Arthur, Tasmania (from Culture of Australia)
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  Sydney Opera House (foreground) and Sydney Harbor Bridge (from Culture of Australia)
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  Skiing in Australia began in Kiandra, a goldmining town in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, in the 1860s. (from Culture of Australia)
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  A commemorative statue of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a famous stretcher bearer who was killed in the Gallipoli Campaign. (from Culture of Australia)
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  Men from Bathurst Island, 1939 (from Aboriginal Australians)
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  Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
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  Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly (from Culture of Australia)
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  Sheep grazing in rural Australia. Early British settlers introduced Western stock and crops and Australian agriculture now produces an abundance of fresh produce. (from Culture of Australia)
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  Cover of Old Bush Songs, Banjo Paterson's 1905 collection of bush ballads (from Culture of Australia)
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  The SBS building in Melbourne's Federation Square. SBS is Australia's multicultural broadcaster. (from Culture of Australia)
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  Nan Tien Temple, a Buddhist temple in Wollongong. Multicultural immigration has increased Australia's religious diversity. (from Culture of Australia)

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WikiProject  

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Consider joining WikiProject Australia, a WikiProject dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of topics related to Australia. The project page and its subpages contain suggestions on formatting and style of articles, which can be discussed at the project's notice board. To participate, simply add your name to the project members page.

As of 15 February 2025, there are 207,049 articles within the scope of WikiProject Australia, of which 599 are featured and 893 are good articles. This makes up 2.98% of the articles on Wikipedia, 5.32% of all featured articles and lists, and 2.17% of all good articles (see WP:AUSFG). Including non-article pages, such as talk pages, redirects, categories, etc., there are 414,098 pages in the project.

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