Geographic Description of Australia - Essay Example

Geographic of Australia Australia, being the world’s smallest continent but relatively the sixthlargest country in the world, it takes in a wide variety of biogeographic regions. It is an island delimited by water with a geographic size of 2.97 million square miles. Its landscape is dramatic as it is famous for its outback, the secluded lands of the interior (Duncan, Nuala, and Richard 78). For example, the desert outback’s covers the largest part of the interior, and stands out as too hot, barren and cannot support many people. This island also inhabits grasslands and mountainous areas as well as plateaus, which spread throughout the country. Its fame also comes from the Blue-Mountains appearing from the southeastern end of the country. The blue haze name emanates from oil droplets trickling from the eucalyptus trees. The many beautiful beaches cap the geographical uniqueness of this island. In Australia, indeed, there are many things to be curious about; it is truly a unique country as this largely feature as the monuments and vernacular landscape traits of the country. Origin of the landscape In the 18th century, Captain Cook discovered the island of Australia 1770. This is where the originality of this country lies even though there might be other chances that another voyage ship might have graced the country. This emanates from the possibility that a Portuguese first sighted the country. The Dutch are also known to have explored the coastal region of the country by the 1640s. It therefore earns the accolades as the lowest, flattest, and oldest continental landmass on Earth. It had the relatively stable geological history. Its formation involves forces such as tectonic uplift of the mountains ranges or clashes between tectonic plates in early landscape history. This occurred still when Australia was part of Gondwana. T he highest peak of Australia, which resulted due to the tectonic forces, was about 7,310 ft, which is comparatively low in assessment to the premier mountains in other continents (Duncan, Nuala, and Richard 92). The current shape of the continent has its shape because of the erosion, which has heavily weathered Australia’s surface area. The country now sits in the middle of the tectonic plate hence no active volcanism. As a result, the first European settlement in the country was in January 1788. It is this time, after the discovery of the Island. The first fleet sailed into Botany Bay under the command of Command Arthur Philip, establishing Australia first as a penal colony by the 1640s. Ethnic makeup of its people Australia’s original inhabitants, the Aborigines, settled there between the ages of 42,000 and 48,000 years ago. These inhabitants arrived via the land bridge and short sea crossing from South East Asia. At these ages, the sea water levels were relatively low as compared to the soaring heights in today’s Australia. The original inhabitants were soon out-numbered by the settlers (Duncan, Nuala, and Richard 88). The story of migration, like any other country in the era of colonization, brought another sect of its population. Nevertheless, the Australian history of its ethnic population does not stop there. Immigrants keep arriving in this country. This continuous flow of immigrants makes its history steeped with the settlers. Their arrival has had an effect on the land and its people. The Role of religion in forming places In the 21st century, religion in Australia purely comes as Christianity. 61.14 % of the Australian population predisposes itself to Christianity as per the census of 2011. In respect to history, the current percentage is far much higher and the religious landscape is diversifying. This comes along with the multicultural immigration as 22.3% of people with no population. With 8.55% of the population not able to incline to a certain religion, the remaining population consists of a diverse group of Buddhist at 2.46%, Islamic at 2.21%, Hindu at 1.28%, Jewish at 0.45% and Sikh at 0.3% of the entire Australian population. (Duncan, Nuala, and Richard 122) These divisions on the percentile of religious affiliation have helped shape places in this country. For example, Australia’s Aboriginal people came up with the animist spirituality in their religion. This is the belief of the Dreaming as some of the earliest evidence on earth for religious practices remains in their archeological sites of their ancestors. The other place is the Torres Strait Islander religion, which exhibits similar spiritual characteristic as those of broader Melanesian spirituality. This division of faith resulted in diverse setting for a free exercise of one’s faith. In addition, while the Aboriginal people in Northern Australia could make contact with Maccassans before the coming of Europeans, separation into own religious places came with the arrival of British Settlers in 1788. In general, observation, non-Christian religions, and those who subscribe to no religion have risen in proportion and spread out to occupy different zones in the country of Australia. Land settlement/land-use patterns The most dominating land use patterns in Australia, in terms of extent, is livestock grazing. This happens in the native vegetation of 46%, while grazing of modified pastures amounts to 9%. Other rends of land use is in Dry land cropping goes to an extent of 3% of the entire land. Other uses include the practice of production forestry, various techniques of intensive agriculture, for urban and residential settlement, mining and waste disposal, and water bodies. In each of these, they account for less than 2% of the Australian land. Land settlement and use reflect the history and the pattern of the European settlement in Australia (Duncan, Nuala, and Richard 102). They brought about the intersection of that settlement with climate and resources relevant to primary production. For example, urban settlement and the bigger percentage of Australia’s population occupy the eastern, southeastern, and the southwestern coastal fringes. The land settlement pattern is largely influenced by the land use trends. For example, a lot of the populous is seeing occupying the intensive agricultural regions, which locate themselves in the higher rainfall zones within 200 km of the coast. In addition, most dry land agriculture appears in the south and the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in the east, attracting less settlement and minimal land use patterns. Furthermore, indigenous land and sea management encompasses the wide range of environmental, natural resource and cultural heritage conservation activities undertaken by individuals, groups, and organizations. Land settlement since pre-colonial period got a nod from individuals and clan groups who inherited the rights and responsibility to specific land as well as sea estates. Even today, these cultural obligations underpin the contemporary land and sea management exercises even though they have adopted and evolved with the changing times in the 21st century. Role of water The significance of water as natural resources is a deep concern in this country of Australia. To make wise use of water, there has been an initiative to write down provisions on the role of water for the benefit of the country. Water security in Australia has become a major concern especially in the 20th and the 21st century. The role of water in the country goes into use in relation to the current population growth, the eminent severe drought over the land, fears of the effects of global warming on Australia, environmental degradation and the competing interests such as grazing, irrigation, and urban water supply (Duncan, Nuala, and Richard 62). The role of water remains a national agenda in order to stipulate down the wisest ways to make a profitable use of the resource for the benefit of the Australian people. Australia thus divides itself into twelve major drainage divisions meaning that the supply of water packs to the brim and any slight defect results in a major water diversion and a major security issue. This has thus led to privatizations of water role, creation of boundaries on water security, and unending competition for water utilization as regulatory agencies crop into live to direct the right role for the Australian water. The geographical uniqueness, its location away for the rest of the global continent makes Australia a fascinating continent to visit. It possesses main points of interest as its unique climate accommodates entirely different wild animals (Kangaroo and Koala) one cannot find in any other part of the world. In addition, the fact that this country sits as a highland it is rich with many beautiful beaches; a reason one would die to visit the land. Finally, the climate and the dramatic scenery would lure one as a tourist just to grace and explore the land. Work cited Duncan, James, Nuala C. Johnson, and Richard Schein. A Companion to Cultural Geography. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, 2007. Internet resource. Read More