A glacier is a mass of thick ice that stays frozen and can move slowly over land. During the Ice Age, which ended about 10,000 years ago, many parts of the world were covered with glaciers. Almost all of Canada and the northern parts of Europe, like Scandinavia and Siberia were covered with ice. Today, the large ice masses […]
Iceland is an island that lies in the middle of the northern Atlantic Ocean. It has a size of about 102,000 square kilometers and lies just south of the Arctic Circle. Iceland is about 1000 km away from the European mainland and about 300 km from the coast of Greenland. Iceland has a long coastline with many fjords andbays. Physical Geography Iceland is a volcanic island. It emerged from […]
The earth is surrounded by layers of gases, our atmosphere. They are kept near the earth’s surface by gravity. Our atmosphere filters the sunlight and keeps dangerous rays from reaching our planet. Without such a filter it would get too hot during the daytime. At night itprevents heat from escaping so it does not get too cold. Without an atmosphere life on our planet would not be possible. It […]
1770 James Cook explored the eastern coast of Australia and named it New South Wales. 1778 Great Britain made New South Wales a colony for prisoners. 1851 Gold was discovered in New South Wales and Victoria. 1901 Australia became an independent country. Its capital was Melbourne. 1927 Canberra became the new capital of Australia 1967 The Australian government passed laws to help the Aborigines and started […]
The Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the biggest group of coral reefs in the world. It is more than 2,000 km long and lies off the north-eastern coastof Australia. The coral that forms the reef is made up of skeletons of dead water animals called polyps . They are small but often light up in many bright colours. These colourful reefs and the […]
Sydney Sydney is Australia’s oldest and largest city, home of about 3.7 million people. It is Australia’s most important industrial city and the capitalof New South Wales . Sydney’s harbour is one of the most beautiful in the world. Harbour Bridge and the Opera House are among the famous tourist attractions. Sydney was , at first, a prison colony back in […]
Australia is one of the world’s richest countries. It exports valuable minerals and farm products to all parts of the world. Various kinds of raw materials are produced. Many of them, however, lie in dry areas very far away from bigger cities or harbours. Workers must build railroad lines or roads to the mines, which is a reason why mining is a very expensive industry […]
More than 80 % of Australians live in cities or bigger towns. Most of them live in the suburbs and have their own schools, churches and shopping centres there. They live in bungalows with their own gardens. Older houses are made of wood and have verandas or porches. Some of them are built on poles . Most newer houses are made […]
Animals When the earth was formed there was only one continent . About 200 million years ago Australia was separated from this big continent and animals developed differently from those that live in other places. That is why Australia has animals which you can’t find anywhere else. Australia’s most famous animals are marsupials. They are mammals that have their babies in pouches. Kangaroos, […]
Australia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. 9 out of 10 people live on only 3% of the land. Most of Australia’s 19 million people live near the coast, because the inner parts are made up of deserts. 80% of the country’s populationlive in the south-eastern part of the country. Here you can […]