The most extraordinary country to explore

Sometimes Australia is called "the upside down world". Can you guess why? Because Australia lies in the Southern Hemisphere, where winter comes in July and summer begins in December. During the Christmas holidays people often sunbathe on the beach or swim and surf in the ocean.

Australia is the hottest place in the Southern Hemisphere. In July the usual temperatures are from 12° to 20° C. In January the temperatures are from 20° to 30° C above zero or higher.

Most parts of Australia do not receive enough rain. Only one sixth of the continent — a belt of land along the north, east, and south coasts — is comfortably humid. This narrow belt of land is the place where summers are warm and sunny and winters are mild.

Most of the dry land is uninhabited, which explains Australia's small population — about 18 million people (compare: the UK population is about 58 million people).

It is interesting to notice that though most of the territory is too dry or too hot Australia has an extraordinary collection of birds and animals. Many of them are found only there. Early explorers were so surprised by the emu and the kangaroo that they described the continent as the land where birds "ran instead of flying and animals hopped instead of running."

Australia is the home of two of the world's most primitive mammals — the duckbill or platypus and the echidna or spiny anteater. They are the only mammals that lay eggs. The kangaroo is perhaps the best known of Australia's animals. There are more than 40 different kinds of kangaroos in Australia, in many different colours and sizes. The big red kangaroo and the grey kangaroo may be as tall as a grown-up man. Some kangaroos are about the size of a large dog. The smallest kangaroo is the rat kangaroo. Another well-known Australia's animal is the koala that resembles a teddy bear. It spends most of its life in euca­lyptus trees and eats only the leaves of these trees.

Among other animals found in Australia is the dingo, a wild dog which is yellowish brown and has a bushy tail. The emu, Australia's largest bird is also one of the largest in the world. It cannot fly but is a good runner. Another curious bird is the kookaburra that is often called the "laughing jackass". The bushy country rings with its laugh­ter. Australians like this bird so much that they even made up a song about it:

Kookaburra

Kookaburra sits on an old gum tree. Merry, merry king of the bush is he. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, Happy your life must be.

Other Australian birds are graceful lyrebirds, brilliant­ly coloured parrots and the great white cockatoo.

Two animals were brought to the country by the Europeans and have become wild in Australia. These are the buffalo, brought from India, and the European rabbit. Buffaloes were brought to the north coast as work animals early in the 19th century. They escaped and multiplied and now inhabit the swampy river valleys around Darwin. Each year hunters shoot thousands of them.

Rabbits were brought more than 100 years ago. There are now so many of them in Australia that sheep farmers have constant wars against the rabbits because they destroy so much grass.

No matter how far from Europe Australia can be, many people who are fond of travelling would like to visit this land because it is such an extraordinary place to explore!

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16