Australia

For nearly 65,000 years, Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, lived on the Australian continent. Although Australia is the oldest, flattest and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils, Australia is a megadiverse country with various landscapes ranging from deserts, tropical rainforests and mountain ranges. In the early 17th century, Dutch explorers began to explore this region. In 1770, Great Britain claimed the eastern half of Australia, using it as a penal colony for convicted criminal relocation. Circa the 1850’s, Australia experienced a gold rush, leading to further exploration of this land. On January 1, 1901, Australia officially became known as the Commonwealth of Australia, consisting of the continent of Australia, the island of Tasmania and the surrounding smaller islands. This sovereign country is the 6th largest country by total land area.