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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 oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with some of the least fertile soils. 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 more than 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.

More about Australia, its history and culture

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

Blackrock is a 1997 Australian teen drama thriller film produced by David Elfick and Catherine Knapman, directed by Steven Vidler with the screenplay by Nick Enright. Marking Vidler's directorial debut, the film was adapted from the play of the same name, also written by Enright, which was inspired by the murder of Leigh Leigh. The film stars Laurence Breuls, Simon Lyndon and Linda Cropper, and also features the first credited film performance of Heath Ledger. The film follows Jared (Breuls), a young surfer who witnesses his friends raping a girl. When she is found murdered the next day, Jared is torn between revealing what he saw and protecting his friends. (Full article...)

List of Featured articles in portal
Fort Glanville Conservation Park Australian Defence Force Black Friday (1945) Hamersley, Western Australia Military history of Australia during World War II Red-bellied black snake Section 116 of the Constitution of Australia Shrine of Remembrance Attack on Sydney Harbour Victoria Cross for Australia Australian raven Australian Air Corps Australian green tree frog Short-beaked echidna History of the Australian Capital Territory St James' Church, Sydney Koala Lake Burley Griffin Muckaty Station Persoonia lanceolata Riverina Sydney Riot of 1879 Tasmanian devil Waterfall Gully, South Australia Aboriginal Memorial Anti-nuclear movement in Australia Gallipoli campaign History of the Royal Australian Navy Australian boobook Nothomyrmecia Cyclone Joy Great Eastern Highway Grevillea juniperina Vultee Vengeance in Australian service Warner Bros. Movie World Waterfall Gully, South Australia List of birds of Tasmania York Park Silverchair Yarralumla, Australian Capital Territory Australia at the Winter Olympics Death of Ms Dhu Bodyline Canberra Barry Sheene Medal O-Bahn Busway Adelaide leak No. 79 Squadron RAAF

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

Danie Mellor (born 13 April 1971) is an Australian artist who was the winner of 2009 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Born in Mackay, Queensland, Mellor grew up in Scotland, Australia, and South Africa before undertaking tertiary studies at North Adelaide School of Art, the Australian National University (ANU) and Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. He then took up a post lecturing at Sydney College of the Arts. He works in different media including printmaking, drawing, painting, and sculpture. Considered a key figure in contemporary Indigenous Australian art, the dominant theme in Mellor's art is the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian cultures. (Full article...)

List of Featured biographies in portal
Thomas Baker (aviator) Eric Bana Bronwyn Bancroft Sid Barnes Mary Bell (aviator) Stanley Bruce Macfarlane Burnet V. Gordon Childe Phillip Davey Steve Dodd Florence Fuller Ben Gascoigne Karmichael Hunt James Whiteside McCay Sandra Morgan Mark Oliphant Hilda Rix Nicholas Norman Selfe Issy Smith Clare Stevenson Constance Stokes Gough Whitlam Michael Woodruff Peter Edwards (historian) Julia Gillard John Hadley (philosopher) Helen Mayo Bill Kibby Don Tallon Yagan Thomas White (Australian politician) John Treloar (museum administrator) Daisy Jugadai Napaltjarri Sam Loxton Faith Leech Sandra Morgan Lester Brain Kylie Minogue Cynna Kydd Howard Florey

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Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that Nixon's "Slaughtergate" scandal involved selling kangaroo meat as beef?
... that 2022 documentary The Australian Wars explores "the great Australian silence" about massacres of Indigenous Australians?
... that Ged Kearney represented Batman in the Parliament of Australia from 2018 to 2019?
... that the memorabilia of Jennie Scott Griffiths, a Texan who died in California, are housed in the National Library of Australia?
... 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 Scottish painter Gordon Coutts left Australia without paying maintenance to his estranged wife, but was arrested in New Zealand?
... that on its maiden voyage from Liverpool to Australia, the George Roper ran aground and was wrecked?
... that Aon v Australian National University overturned a precedent that encouraged litigation-prolonging amendments to pleadings?

More Australian facts

In the news

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)
25 January 2025 – 2025 Australian Open: In tennis, Madison Keys wins her first major title after defeating the two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, 6–3, 2–6, 7–5, to win the women's singles title at the Australian Open. (CNN)

More Australian current events
See also: Current events on Wikinews

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Image 1
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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Image 2
Brian Nankervis
Photo: John O'Neill; edit: JJ Harrison
Brian Nankervis (b. 1956), an Australian comedian and writer, shown here during a live performance. Nankervis rose to popularity while playing Raymond J. Bartholomeuz on Hey Hey It's Saturday; since 2005 he has been a host of the gameshow RocKwiz.
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Image 3
Male Red-winged Fairy-wren in nuptial plumage

The red-winged fairy-wren (Malurus elegans) is a species of passerine bird in the family Maluridae. It is sedentary and endemic to the southwestern corner of Western Australia. Exhibiting a high degree of sexual dimorphism, the male adopts a brilliantly coloured breeding plumage, with an iridescent silvery-blue crown, ear coverts and upper back, red shoulders, contrasting with a black throat, grey-brown tail and wings and pale underparts.
Photo credit: Cas Liber

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Image 4
2008 Australian Grand Prix
Photo credit: Fir0002
Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg at corner 6 of the 2008 Australian Grand Prix, during one of the race's safety car periods. This first race of the 2008 Formula One season was won by McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. Heidfeld and Rosberg finished second and third, respectively.
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Image 5
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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Image 6
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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Image 7
Victoria Police
Photo: John O'Neill
An officer of the Victoria Police, the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian state of Victoria. The agency was founded in 1835 from an existing colonial police force of 875 men. As of 2011, the Victoria Police has over 12,190 sworn members, and over 2,900 civilian staff across 393 police stations.
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Image 8
Hobart
Photo credit: Noodle snacks
A view of the greater Hobart area, as seen from Mount Wellington. The state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania, Hobart is located in the state's south-east, on the estuary of the River Derwent.
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Image 9
Giraffes in the Taronga Zoo with the Sydney skyline in background.

Taronga Zoo is the zoological park of the city of Sydney. Founded in 1916, it is located on the shores of Sydney Harbour in Mosman. It is divided into eight zoogeographic regions and features over 2,600 animals on 28.7 hectares, making it one of the largest zoos of its kind.

Photo credit: Jan Derk

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Image 10
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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Image 11
Lauren Mitchell
Photo: Steven Rasmussen; edit: Keraunoscopia
Australian artistic gymnast Lauren Mitchell (b. 1991) performing a layout step-out on the balance beam during the 41st World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in London, United Kingdom, on 14 October 2009; at the Championships, Mitchell won two silver medals, one for the balance beam and another for floor exercises. Since her first medal in 2007, Mitchell has placed in the World Championships, World Cup, and Commonwealth Games, and competed in two Olympic Games.
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Image 12
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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Image 13
End of Skyshow 2006 seen from golf course, corner of Ward Street and Mills Terrace, North Adelaide

Skyshow is an annual fireworks event held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide since 1985. The half-hour fireworks display is synchronised to pop music and presented by local commercial radio station SAFM. Originating as an Australia Day celebration, the event was subsequently moved to late summer, usually February. Although beset with serious financial difficulties in the late 1990s until rescued by the South Australian Government, it is estimated some 150,000 people attend the main festivities in Bonython Park, whilst many more watch from vantage points along the Adelaide Hills.

Photo credit: Alex Sims
Image 14
The Art Gallery of South Australia from North Terrace.

The Art Gallery of South Australia located in Adelaide is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of almost 45,000 works of art, making it the second largest state art collection in Australia (after the National Gallery of Victoria).

Photo credit: K. Lindstrom

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Image 15
Forked tongue
Photo credit: LiquidGhoul
The head of a Coastal Carpet Python, the largest subspecies of Morelia spilota, a non-venomous Australian python, showing its forked tongue, a feature common to many reptiles, who smell using the tip of their tongue. Having a forked tongue allows them to tell which direction a smell is coming from.
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Image 16
Brisbane CBD and the Story Bridge, with CityCat cruising the Brisbane River.

The Story Bridge is a crossing of the Brisbane River in the Queensland capital of Brisbane. It is a six lane dual-carriageway connecting Fortitude Valley to Kangaroo Point. Designed by John Bradfield, the bridge was opened in 1940 at the height of the Great Depression. It is a Brisbane landmark, and a focus of the Riverfestival.

Photo credit: Stuart Edwards
Image 17
Papilio ulysses
Photo credit: Fir0002
The Ulysses Butterfly (Papilio ulysses) is a large Australian swallowtail with a wingspan of about 14 cm (5.5 in). The top of the butterfly’s wings are an iridescent electric blue; the underside is a more subdued black and brown coloration. When the butterfly is perched the intense blue of its wings is hidden (as seen here), helping it to blend in with its surroundings.
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Image 18
The western part of the Park. To the right is the rock formation known as The Fortress.

The Grampians is a mountain range and national park in Victoria, located 235 kilometres west of Melbourne. The ranges were named in 1836 by Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Mitchell, after the Grampian Mountains in his native Scotland, but are also known by the name Gariwerd, from one of the local Australian Aboriginal languages.

Photo credit: Stevage

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Image 19
Hakea laurina, or Pincushion Hakea

Hakea is a genus of about 150 species of plants in the Family Proteaceae, endemic to Australia. Hakeas are found in every state of Australia with the highest species diversity being found in the south west of Western Australia.

Photo credit: Fir0002

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Image 20
Jeremy Doyle
Photo: Sport the Library
Jeremy Doyle (1983–2011) was an Australian wheelchair basketball player. Left paraplegic after a car accident, he was classified as a 1 point player. While representing his country Doyle won two gold medals, first at the 2009 Paralympic World Cup and again at the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship.
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Image 21
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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Image 22
Beautiful Firetail
Photo: JJ Harrison
A Beautiful Firetail (Stagonopleura bella) male (top) and female. In this common Australian species of estrildid finch, nest-building and raising children is done collaboratively.
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On this day

12 February:

1793 – John Macarthur receives 100 acres at Parramatta, he establishes Elizabeth Farm.
1798 – Matthew Flinders explores the Furneaux Islands in Bass Strait.
1851 – Edward Hargraves finds gold near Bathurst, starting the first of many Australian gold rushes.
1981 – Harry Gibbs is appointed as the eighth Chief Justice of Australia.
1990 – Carmen Lawrence becomes Premier of Western Australia and Australia's first female premier, after the resignation of Peter Dowding.

More Australian anniversaries...

General images

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

Image 1House in Killara, New South Wales (from Culture of Australia)
Image 2The 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)
Image 3The verandah is the dominant feature of this Federation Filigree-style pub in Ravenswood. (from Culture of Australia)
Image 4A Luritja man demonstrating method of attack with boomerang under cover of shield (1920) (from Culture of Australia)
Image 5Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
Image 6Portrait of Madame Melba by Rupert Bunny (from Culture of Australia)
Image 7Sydney Opera House (foreground) and Sydney Harbor Bridge (from Culture of Australia)
Image 8C. J. Dennis, poetic humourist of Australian English (from Culture of Australia)
Image 9Founded in 1993, Sydney's Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival. (from Culture of Australia)
Image 10William Wentworth (1790–1872) was among the first to articulate a vision of Australian nationhood. (from Culture of Australia)
Image 11Historical image of Aboriginal Australian women and children, Maloga, New South Wales around 1900 (in European dress) (from Aboriginal Australians)
Image 12Noongar traditional dancers in Perth (from Aboriginal Australians)
Image 13Statue in Fremantle of an Australian rules footballer taking a spectacular mark (from Culture of Australia)
Image 14A high-set Victorian-era Queenslander with a large veranda in Brisbane (from Culture of Australia)
Image 15Cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1860s (from Culture of Australia)
Image 16An Aboriginal encampment near the Adelaide foothills in an 1854 painting by Alexander Schramm (from Aboriginal Australians)
Image 17Phar Lap winning the Melbourne Cup, "the race that stops a nation" (from Culture of Australia)
Image 18South 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.
Image 19Cover of Old Bush Songs, Banjo Paterson's 1905 collection of bush ballads (from Culture of Australia)
Image 20Kylie Minogue, one of Australia's most successful pop musicians (from Culture of Australia)
Image 21The University of Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
Image 22A commemorative statue of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a famous stretcher bearer who was killed in the Gallipoli Campaign. (from Culture of Australia)
Image 23Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly (from Culture of Australia)
Image 24Actor playing the bushranger Ned Kelly in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), the world's first feature film (from Culture of Australia)
Image 25Didgeridoo performers (from Culture of Australia)
Image 26Federation Bungalow in Killara, Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
Image 27Parliament House, Canberra (from Culture of Australia)
Image 28PCA of Orang Asli (Semang) and Andamanese, with worldwide populations in HGDP. (from Aboriginal Australians)
Image 29The Wiggles performing in the United States in 2007 (from Culture of Australia)
Image 30Countries of birth of Australian estimated resident population, 2006 (from Culture of Australia)
Image 31Anzac Day dawn services are held throughout Australia every April. (from Culture of Australia)
Image 32The Matildas, Australia's national women's football team (from Culture of Australia)
Image 33A billycan used for heating water (from Culture of Australia)
Image 34Bush tucker harvested in Alice Springs (from Culture of Australia)
Image 35Dwellings accommodating Aboriginal families at Hermannsburg Mission, Northern Territory, 1923 (from Aboriginal Australians)
Image 36Dame Edna Everage, a comic creation of Barry Humphries (from Culture of Australia)
Image 37A group of Australian men wearing speedos (from Culture of Australia)
Image 38Interior of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney (from Culture of Australia)
Image 39The first State of Origin shield (from Culture of Australia)
Image 40The Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne (from Culture of Australia)
Image 41The SBS building in Melbourne's Federation Square. SBS is Australia's multicultural broadcaster. (from Culture of Australia)
Image 42A typical Queenslander house in Brisbane (from Culture of Australia)
Image 43An Eastern Arrernte man of the Arltunga district, Northern Territory, in 1923. His hut is decked with porcupine grass. (from Aboriginal Australians)
Image 44The surf lifesaving movement originated in Australia. (Pictured: surf lifesavers, Bondi Beach, 1930s). (from Culture of Australia)
Image 45Men from Bathurst Island, 1939 (from Aboriginal Australians)
Image 46St Mary Mackillop established an extensive network of schools and is Australia's first canonised saint of the Catholic Church. (from Culture of Australia)
Image 47A swagman in bushman's apparel, wearing a brimmed hat and carrying swag and billy can (from Culture of Australia)
Image 48Nan Tien Temple, a Buddhist temple in Wollongong. Multicultural immigration has increased Australia's religious diversity. (from Culture of Australia)
Image 49Donald Bradman is often cited as statistically the greatest sportsman of any major sport. (from Culture of Australia)
Image 50Birdsville Hotel, an Australian pub in outback Queensland (from Culture of Australia)
Image 51Governor Arthur Phillip hoists the British flag over the new colony at Sydney Cove in 1788 (from Culture of Australia)
Image 52Sheep 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)
Image 53The Bulletin, founded by J. F. Archibald (left), nurtured bush poets such as Henry Lawson (right). (from Culture of Australia)
Image 54The Princess Theatre in Melbourne (from Culture of Australia)
Image 55Convict architecture at Port Arthur, Tasmania (from Culture of Australia)
Image 56Skiing in Australia began in Kiandra, a goldmining town in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, in the 1860s. (from Culture of Australia)
Image 57Corroboree 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)
Image 58Golden Wattle, Australia's floral emblem and the source of Australia's national colours, green and gold (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 11 February 2025, there are 206,996 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 413,992 pages in the project.