, Rotterdam
(Netherlands), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Stockholm (Sweden)

Transportation - note:
Kiel Canal and Saint Lawrence Seaway are two important waterways;
significant domestic commercial and recreational use of Intracoastal
Waterway on central and south Atlantic seaboard and Gulf of Mexico
coast of US

Transnational Issues Atlantic Ocean

Disputes - international:
some maritime disputes (see littoral states)

This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007

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@Australia

Introduction Australia

Background:
Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia
about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in
the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770,
when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name of Great Britain.
Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they
federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new
country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop
agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major
contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II. In recent
decades, Australia has transformed itself into an internationally
competitive, advanced market economy. It boasted one of the OECD's
fastest growing economies during the 1990s, a performance due in
large part to economic reforms adopted in the 1980s. Long-term
concerns include pollution, particularly depletion of the ozone
layer, and management and conservation of coastal areas, especially
the Great Barrier Reef.

Geography Australia

Location:
Oceania, continent between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific
Ocean

Geographic coordinates:
27 00 S, 133 00 E

Map references:
Oceania

Area:
total: 7,686,850 sq km
land: 7,617,930 sq km
water: 68,920 sq km
note: includes Lord Howe Island and Macquarie Island

Area - comparative:
slightly smaller than the US contiguous 48 states

Land boundaries:
0 km

Coastline:
25,760 km

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
generally arid to semiarid; temperate in south and east; tropical
in north

Terrain:
mostly low plateau with deserts; ferti