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THE
AUSTRALIAN
CONTINENT
In this chapter we look at Australias
geographical dimensions. We compare its
relative size and shape with other continents
and countries, and locate and recognise
Australia on a world map using latitude and
longitude. We also explain the origins of the
continent from an Aboriginal and geographical
perspective.
A student:
5.1 identifies, gathers and evaluates geographical
information
5.2 analyses, organises and synthesises
geographical information
5.3 selects and uses appropriate written, oral and
graphic forms to communicate geographical
information
5.4 selects and applies appropriate geographical
tools
5.5 demonstrates a sense of place about Australian
environments
5.6 explains the geographical processes that form
and transform Australian environments
5.10 applies geographical knowledge, understanding
and skills with knowledge of civics to
demonstrate informed and active citizenship.
2
GEO active 2
3
CHAPTER 1: THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT
1.1
AUSTRALIAS GEOGRAPHICAL
DIMENSIONS
SIZE AND SHAPE
Australia is one of the seven continents of the
world. The landmass of the Australian continent
extends over an area of about 7682 million square
kilometres. This is almost as great as the area of the
United States of America (excluding Alaska), a little
more than one-third of the size of Russia and about
thirty-two times greater than the United Kingdom.
If you travelled in a straight line from Australias east coast to the west coast at its widest
point, you would cover a distance of almost 4000
kilometres. You would also pass through two time
zones on the west coast the sun rises two
hours later than it does on the east. A journey
from south to north through the red centre would
cover over 2500 kilometres and pass through several climate zones, from the cooler and temperate
south to the hot, humid tropics in the north.
ATE
wai
21
Australi
As
ia
a 6%
ca
cti
tar
An
%
10
The relative
size of the
continents
South
12% America
Afric
ica
rth
No %
15
r
me
a 20%
Europe 1
6%
ARCTIC OCEAN
Arctic Circle
60S
NORTH
AMERICA
EUROPE
AT L A N T I C
ASIA
OCEAN
30S
Tropic of Cancer
PAC I F I C
AFRICA
0
Equator
OCEAN
PAC I F I C
OCEAN
INDIAN
SOUTH
AMERICA
AT L A N T I C
Tropic of Capricorn
OCEAN
OCEAN
30S
AUSTRALIA
SOUTHERN
60S
Antarctic Circle S O U T H E R N
Australia
is one of the
seven continents.
150W
120W
OCEAN
90W
60W
30W
30E
4
GEO active 2
ANTARCTICA
60E
90E
120E
150E
OCEAN
COMMONWEALTH STATES
AND TERRITORIES
ritor
Tropic
120E
10S
INDIAN
OCEAN
Sea 140E
150E
SOUTHERN OCEAN
Antarctic
90E
180
External territories
20S
apricorn
30S
30S
PAC I F I C
OCEAN
SOUTHERN
110E
le
Coral Sea
20S
40S
Circ
ritory
10S
Timor
Sea
ritor
Tropic of
icorn
of Capr
120E
OCEAN
130E
150E
140E
TAS 0.88%
Tasman
Sea
40S
160E
ACT 0.03%
NS
SA
.43
10
12.8
1
2%
Qld 2
7.5
1
NT
2.48%
Worksheets
1.1 Australian landforms
5
CHAPTER 1: THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT
1.2
LOCATING AUSTRALIA
Northern
hemisphere
Western
hemisphere
Southern
hemisphere
Eastern
hemisphere
ATO
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
I
N
O
ical Proj
Worksheets
1.2 Australian bingo
1.3 Knowing Australia
6
GEO active 2
D
C
I
E
A
A
N
N
75N
C T
0S
A T
A T L A N T I C
O C E A N
AND BARB
P A C
VAD
O C E A N
7
CHAPTER 1: THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT
BAD
AND TOBA
150W
165E
180
165W
Longitude
Imaginary lines running from
the South Pole to the North
Pole are called meridians of
longitude. One of these lines
has been chosen as the Prime
Meridian (0 longitude). It runs
through Greenwich in England.
All the other lines of longitude
are given a number between 0
and 180. They measure how
far east or west of the Prime
Meridian a place is located.
Places east of this line are
marked with an E. Places
west of this line are marked
with a W.
135E
150E
30N
15N
Equa
tor
15S
30S
45S
6
75E
Latitude
Imaginary lines running across
the world are called parallels of
latitude. They measure how far
north or south of the Equator
(0 latitude) a place is located.
Places south of the Equator
are shown with an S. Places
north of the Equator are
shown with an N.
90E
105E
120E
TOOLBOX
60N
45N
1.3
ORIGINS OF THE CONTINENT:
ABORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE
THE DREAMING AND THE LAND
MAP DREAMING
CREATION OF A CONTINENT
8
GEO active 2
Man
Footprints
Waterholes
connected by
running water
Rainbow, cloud,
cliff or sandhill
Camp site, stone,
waterhole, rock
hole, breast, fire,
hole or fruit
TOOLBOX
Creating a document containing weblinks
Weblinks are also called hyperlinks. In documents
and web pages, they are often shown as coloured
or underlined text. Clicking on a weblink takes the
user to a different location, such as a page on the
Internet. You can easily create weblinks in your
own documents or web pages. In software such as
Microsoft Word you can type the address into your
document and Word will automatically format the
address as a weblink. To find out more, use your
computers Help file.
Create a document or web page containing
weblinks that help other people understand more
about Dreamtime creation stories. Use the Internet
to research Dreaming stories and to find websites
to use as your weblinks. To view some interesting
sites, go to www.jaconline.com.au/geoactive/
geoactive2 and click on the Dreaming Stories
weblinks for this chapter. Your final document
should include:
a Dreaming story that describes the creation of a
landform
the location where the story is set (you might
like to include a map)
photographs or paintings of the landform
at least one weblink that provides more
information about Dreaming stories
at least one weblink to a site that presents an
Aboriginal perspective about the origins of the
Australian continent.
9
CHAPTER 1: THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT
1.4
ORIGINS OF THE CONTINENT:
GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
The broad shape of Australia and its distinctive
landforms have been influenced over long
periods by earth movements associated with
tectonic processes.
The Earths crust is cracked and made up
of many individual moving pieces called
tectonic plates. There are nine large plates
and about a dozen smaller ones. The larger
plates contain the continents and oceans. These
plates float on the dense layer of rock below.
Geographers have long been aware that if the
continents were rearranged and repositioned,
they would fit together like a jigsaw. Scientists
believe that, about 225 million years ago, the
continent of Australia was joined to all the
other continents. This supercontinent (called
Pangaea) then split into:
Gondwana (now South America, Africa,
Antarctica and Australia).
Laurasia (now North America, Asia and Europe).
As the plates have slowly moved, the continents
have broken up and moved apart. Convection
currents in the rock caused the plates to move
slowly around the surface of the Earth. This is
called the theory of continental drift.
Arctic Circle
OCEAN
Eurasian Plate
EUROPE
ASIA
Iranian
Plate
Arabian
Plate
Tropic of Cancer
AFRICA
Philippine
Plate
PACIFIC OCEAN
SO U TH
AMERICA
INDIAN
ATLANTIC
Nazca Plate
O C E A N Indo-Australian
Tropic of Capricorn
Plate
OCEAN
3000 km
Caribbean
Cocos Plate
Plate
Pacific Plate
African Plate
1500
North
American
Plate A T L A N T I C
OCEAN
Equator
N O RT H
AMERICA
South
American
Plate
AUSTRALIA
S O UT H E R N
OCEAN
Antarctic Plate
10
GEO active 2
Antarctic
Plate
Faults
As the crust
moves apart the
block sinks.
MOUNTAIN BUILDING
The movement of the Earths plates not only
explains the present location of continents but
also why the processes of mountain building and
volcanic activity take place.
When two plates collide, mountain ranges are
formed. They are formed by either folding or
faulting. Fold mountains are formed when one
plate slides down under another. Some rocks are
forced down while others are forced upwards and
bent into wave-like forms. Fault mountains are
formed when layers of rock are fractured and one
section moves down and another section moves
up. Many of Australias mountain ranges are the
result of folding and faulting for example, the
Flinders Ranges (South Australia), the Stirling
Ranges (Western Australia) and large parts of
the Great Dividing Range.
The formation of
fold mountains
Layers of rock
above are
folded under
the pressure.
One plate
moves
under the
other.
Magma
Rift valley
A spectacular example of
folding in the Karijini National
Park, part of the Hamersley
Range in the Pilbara region of
Western Australia
11
CHAPTER 1: THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT
1.5
TECTONIC PROCESSES AND
VOLCANIC ACTIVITY
Mountains can be formed by folding and faulting
processes, and also by volcanic activity, which
normally takes place around the margins of
moving plates. In the past, there was extensive
volcanic activity in Australia even though the
continent is not situated on the edge of a moving
plate. There were volcanoes the size of a modern
Vesuvius, and huge lava plains covered considerable areas. Some vulcanologists suggest that
these volcanoes occurred as the continent drifted
north and moved over a hot spot in the mantle.
Hot spot volcanoes form in the middle of tectonic plates directly above a source of magma
(molten lava) located deep beneath the Earth. A
hot spot stays still, but the tectonic plate above it
keeps moving.
Earths crust
Earths crust
Active volcano
Extinct volcanoes
A caldera is formed
when a volcano
erupts violently
resulting in the
cone collapsing into
the magma chamber
below. Tower Hill in
Victoria is a caldera.
Direction of
tectonic plate
movement
over time
Hot spot
VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS
Direction of
tectonic plate
movement
over time
Hot spot
Volcanic landforms
Cinder cones are formed when layers of ash and
cinders build up a cone with a large crater. Mount
Fox in Queensland is a cinder cone volcano.
12
GEO active 2
A volcanic plug is a
feature that remains
after a volcano has
been eroded.
Crater Bluff in the
Warrumbungles and
many peaks in the
Glasshouse Mountains,
Queensland, are
volcanic plugs.
A lava dome is
formed when
lava flows so
slowly that it
piles up around
the vent rather
than flowing
away. Bluff
Mountain in the
Warrumbungles
in New South
Wales and
South Pyramid
in Girraween
National Park,
Queensland, are
examples.
Pluton is rock that was once
lava forced between other
rocks and cooled under the
ground. The You Yangs near
Geelong in Victoria are the
exposed portion of a pluton.
Tweed
Volcano
Nightcap
Range
Mount
Warning
Murwillumbah
Tweed Range
Tweed River
Streams erode
the sides of the
volcanic dome,
forming steepsided valleys.
Lamington Plateau
Springbrook
Tamborine
Mountain
Coolangatta
Southport
13
CHAPTER 1: THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT
1.6
IMPACTS OF CHANGING
CLIMATES AND SEA LEVELS
AN ANCIENT LAND
CLIMATE CHANGE
20 m
40 m
80 m
100 m
120 m
14
GEO active 2
LAND BRIDGES
Many scientists believe that Aboriginal people
are descended from people who migrated to
Australia from southern Asia. This was possibly
the earliest large-scale migration in human
history. It is believed to have begun about
50 000 years ago, during the last Ice Age. The
first people to reach Australia could have
simply walked most of the way across the land
bridge between New Guinea and Australia.
During the Ice Age, the islands of Indonesia
were closer together, making it possible for the
migrants to island-hop their way to Australia.
The longest water crossing involving canoes
was possibly only from Timor to Australia.
Making such a journey in a canoe would still
have been dangerous, however, due to the risk
of sudden storms and rough seas.
Philippines
SOUTH
CHINA
Mindanao
SEA
P A C I F I C
Sulawesi
Borneo
Sumatra
Java
New
Solomon
Guinea
Islands
Timor
Torres Strait
Koolan
A N
E A
CORAL SEA
N
Cuckadoo
Puritjarra
A u s t r a l i a
Kenniff Cave
Talgai
Koonalda
Cave
Panaramitee
Mammoth Cave
Land above sea level, present
Burrill Lake
Nitchie Lake
Lake Mungo
Arumvale
Kow Swamp
Cloggs Cave
Keilor
500
1000 km
O U
T H
A N
Bone Cave
Land surface during the last Ice Age and possible migration routes taken by Aboriginal people
15
CHAPTER 1: THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT
FORMATION
OF
ULURU
AND
KATA TJUTA
Kata Tjuta
alluvial fan
6 kilometres
2.5 kilometres
Uluru alluvial
fan formed
of arkose
(sedimentary rock).
300500 million years ago
Region
shortened
under
pressure.
Fault lines
Erosion
uncovers
Katu Tjuta
composed of
Mount Currie
conglomerate.
16
GEO active 2
Recent alluvial
sediments
Pressure
causes
rocks to
buckle and
fracture.
Gulf
of
Carpentaria
C O R A L
S E A
Broad
Tropic of Capricorn
rna
Bass
Strait
Bass Strait
TA S M A N
S E A
ailwa
17
CHAPTER 1: THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT