Portal:Australia
Showcase | Content | Interesting facts | Contributing |
Introduction

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. 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 approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, 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. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. This began a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, and culminating in the Australia Act 1986.
Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and ten territories. Australia's population of nearly 27 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous city and financial centre is Sydney. The next four largest cities are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. It is ethnically diverse and multicultural, the product of large-scale immigration, with almost half of the population having at least one parent born overseas. Australia's abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy, which generates its income from various sources including services, mining exports, banking, manufacturing, agriculture and international education. Australia ranks highly for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights.
Featured article -

Selected biography -
Daisy Jugadai Napaltjarri (c. 1955–2008) was a Pintupi-Luritja-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region, and sister of artist Molly Jugadai Napaltjarri. Daisy Jugadai lived and painted at Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory. There she played a significant role in the establishment of Ikuntji Women's Centre, where many artists of the region have worked. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the Australian rugby sevens player Dietrich Roache kept the Australian national sprint champion out of the Australian Olympic team with his speed?
- ... that an Australian state premier said he would be taking a spear to meetings on a tax-distribution dispute?
- ... 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 Kate Baker arranged to republish the Australian novel Such Is Life by Joseph Furphy after locating half of the original manuscript under some lumber in the offices of The Bulletin?
- ... that although the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was cancelled, Iceland's planned entry for that year was chosen as the alternative winner in several countries, including Sweden and Australia?
- ... that South Australia became the first place in the world to give women the right to stand for parliament due to an opponent's "great miscalculation"?
- ... that the Australian music festival Isol-Aid takes place entirely on Instagram?
- ... that David Dexter, who wrote the New Guinea volume in the series Australia in the War of 1939–1945, was a commando who served in East Timor and New Guinea?
In the news
- 26 September 2023 –
- Daniel Andrews announces his resignation as Premier of Victoria, Australia, after nine years in office. (The Guardian)
- 18 September 2023 –
- Three people are taken to hospital after a mass stabbing at the Australian National University in Canberra. The attacker has been detained. (ABC News Australia)
- 12 September 2023 –
- The New South Wales government in Australia bans logging in a 8,400-hectare forest area, identified as home to 106 "koala hubs", as part of a conservation effort to establish a 315,000-hectare Great Koala National Park. (AFP via RFI)
- 8 September 2023 – Australia–Philippines relations
- Australia and the Philippines upgrade their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership. (Reuters)
- 8 September 2023 –
- One person is killed and five others are injured when a car crashes into pedestrians and two other vehicles in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The driver is arrested at the scene. (ABC News Australia)
- 30 August 2023 – 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces that the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum will be held on 14 October. (ABC News)
Selected pictures -
On this day

- 1888 – Prince's Bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne is officially opened.
- 1914 – Jim Cairns, Deputy Prime Minister in the Whitlam government, was born in Carlton.
- 1935 – Luna Park in Sydney is officially opened.
General images
Topics
More portals
WikiProject
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
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 3 October 2023, there are 200,307 articles within the scope of WikiProject Australia. Including non-article pages, such as talk pages, redirects, categories, etcetera, there are 503,910 pages in the project.
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus