Portal:Australia
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Introduction
Dawn at Swifts Creek, Victoria, Australia -
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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. It has a land area of 7,688,287 km2 (2,968,464 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest country in the world. Australia is the world's flattest and driest inhabited continent. 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 Southeast Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period. By the time of British settlement, Aboriginal Australians spoke more than 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 Act 1986.
Australia is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy, and a federation comprising six states and ten territories. Its population of almost 29 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, each with a population of more than five 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.
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Australia first competed in the Winter Olympic Games in 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and has participated in every games since, with the exception of the 1948 Games in St. Moritz. (Full article...)
Selected biography -
Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.
Kylie Ann Minogue (/mɪˈnoʊɡ/; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. Frequently referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she has achieved recognition in both the music industry and the fashion world as a major style icon. Her accolades include two Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards and eighteen ARIA Music Awards. Minogue is the highest-selling Australian-born female artist of all time, with sales surpassing 80 million records worldwide. Minogue received a two Guinness World Records. In 2024, Time included her in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the Saxe–Goldstein hypothesis has been used to explain burial practices in Greece, Australia, Madagascar and Peru?
- ... that "Guest Starring John Noble" guest stars John Noble as Australian actor John Noble?
- ... that Episode 8055 of the Australian television soap opera Neighbours is the first episode in the show's history to star and be directed and written entirely by women?
- ... that "the Boshfather" was deported from Australia in October 2025?
- ... that the collapse of the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund left 14,500 customers A$66 million out of pocket?
- ... that Mark Hutton was the first Australian to be a starting pitcher in a Major League Baseball game?
- ... that an Australian High Court case found a hotel chain to have used third-party contractors to avoid paying employees their required benefits?
- ... that George Jenkins was described in 1901 as "the happiest, proudest, most important and most worried individual" in Australia, but 90 years later as "a lazy, dictatorial, unctuous opportunist"?
In the news
- 22 June 2026 – Australia–Canada relations
- Australia and Canada sign a A$2.5 billion (US$1.7 billion) agreement for the export of Australia's over-the-horizon radar system, the largest defence export deal in Australian history. The system is intended to support long-range surveillance and monitoring in Northern Canada. (AFP via Channels TV) (Reuters)
- 20 June 2026 – 2020–2026 H5N1 outbreak
- The Australian Government confirms the first detection of the avian influenza subtype H5N1 in the country after identifying the virus in a wild seabird in Western Australia. The strain has now been recorded on every continent. (AFP via France 24)
- 19 June 2026 – Organised crime in Australia
- The Australian Federal Police seizes 2.7 tonnes of cocaine concealed in underground storage containers in Sydney, the largest cocaine seizure in the country's history. Authorities arrest two people at the site and charge them with offenses related to importing and possessing illicit drugs. (AFP via ABS-CBN News) (Reuters)
- 19 June 2026 –
- The Australian Government agrees to pay A$28 million (US$20 million) in a settlement with 38 former asylum seekers who alleged harm while detained at the Baxter and Woomera immigration detention centres. The agreement follows a High Court ruling on compensation claims for unlawful detention. (AFP via The Manila Times)
- 18 June 2026 –
- Australian researchers report that an H5 avian influenza outbreak on Heard Island and McDonald Islands has killed more than 13,000 southern elephant seal pups and has infected local bird and penguin populations, marking the virus's first detection in an Australian external territory. (AFP via The Straits Times)
- 8 June 2026 – 2026 Mindanao earthquake
- Tsunamis are recorded in Guam, Palau and parts of Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) cancels its tsunami advisory issued for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands; while agencies in Australia, Malaysia, and New Zealand lift their respective warnings. The PTWC later confirms that the tsunami threat passes hours following its issuance of the warning for parts of the Pacific. (BBC News) (NHK) (The Straits Times) (RNZ) (tsunami.gov)
Selected pictures -
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Photo credit: Fir0002The Cairns Birdwing (Ornithoptera euphorion) is a birdwing butterfly of the Papilionidae family. It is Australia's largest butterfly, and is native to the tropical north of Queensland. -
Photo credit: Fir0002Two whole Cripps Pink apples and a cross-section of a third. More commonly known by the trademarked name "Pink Lady", this apple cultivar was originally bred by John Cripps by crossing the Australian apple Lady Williams with a Golden Delicious. The apple shape is ellipsoid, it has a distinctive pink hue mixed with a green "background," and taste is tart. -
Photo credit: Noodle snacksA 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. -
The Royal Exhibition Building, showing the fountain on the southern or Carlton Gardens side of the building.
The Royal Exhibition Building is located in Victorian capital of Melbourne. Situated in the Carlton Gardens, at the north-eastern edge of the central business district, it was completed in 1880 for the Melbourne International Exhibition. It was also the site of the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia with the opening of the first Parliament of Australia.
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Photo credit: John O'NeillA 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. -
Adelaide Festival Centre from the north bank of the River Torrens.
The Adelaide Festival Centre is a multi-purpose arts centre in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. It is situated adjacent to Elder Park on the banks of the River Torrens, northwest of the intersection of North Terrace and King William Street. The centre is distinguished by its three silvery-white tetrahedron dome roofs and its plaza consisting of lego block-like sculptures. It was opened in 1973 by Don Dunstan as the home for performing arts in South Australia, and the centre remains the principal venue for the Adelaide Festival of Arts.
Photo credit: Michael -
Photo: Benjamint444The 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. -
The Central Basin and Captain Cook water jet looking towards the National Library and Parliament House.
The Captain James Cook Memorial was built by the Commonwealth Government to commemorate the Bicentenary of Captain James Cook's first sighting of the east coast of Australia. The memorial includes a water jet located in the central basin and a skeleton globe sculpture at Regatta Point showing the paths of Cook's expeditions. On 25 April 1970, Queen Elizabeth II officially inaugurated the memorial. When running both pumps simultaneously, the main jet throws approximately six tons of water into the air at any instant, reaching a maximum height of 147 metres. Alternatively the jet can be run on a single pump reaching a lower height of 110 metres. During special occasions it can be illuminated, often with coloured lights. -
Photo: Steven Rasmussen; edit: KeraunoscopiaAustralian 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. -
Photo: John O'Neill; edit: JJ HarrisonBrian 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. -
Photo: John O'NeillAn 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. -
Photo credit: Noodle snacksThe 26-metre (85 ft) radio telescope at Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory, located 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Hobart, Tasmania, is the southernmost antenna used in Australia's Very Long Baseline Interferometry network. The facility is owned and operated by the University of Tasmania. -
Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain in the Central Tasmanian Highlands
Cradle Mountain forms the northern end of the wild Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, itself a part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
The jagged contours of Cradle Mountain epitomise the feel of a wild landscape, while ancient rainforest and alpine heathlands, buttongrass and stands of colourful deciduous beech provide a wide range of environments.
Cradle Mountain is a feature of the Overland Track. -
Photo: Sport the LibraryJeremy 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. -
A Superb Fairy Wren perched on a fence.
The Superb fairywren (Malurus cyaneus), commonly known as the blue wren in south-eastern Australia, is the best-known of all fairy-wrens and is endemic to Australia. It is common throughout the relatively wet and fertile crescent in the south-eastern corner of the Australian continent, from lower South Australia through all of Victoria, coastal and sub-coastal New South Wales, and Queensland as far north as the Brisbane area, and also in Tasmania. Superb Fairy-wrens occupy a wide range of habitat types and are found in almost any area that has at least a little dense undergrowth for them to shelter in, including grasslands with scattered shrubs, moderately thick forest, woodland, heaths, and domestic gardens.
Photo credit: LiquidGhoul -
The front of the Cathedral.
St Mary's Cathedral is the largest Roman Catholic church in Australia. It is the seat of Cardinal Archbishop George Pell and it holds the title and dignity of a Minor Basilica, bestowed upon it by Pope Pius XI in 1930. The present St Mary's is the second church of that name to occupy the site abutting College Street in Sydney. The foundation stone for the first building was laid by New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie and blessed by the colony's Catholic chaplain, Father Therry, on 3 May 1821.
Photo credit: KaiAdin -
Photo credit: LiquidGhoulThe 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. -
Nitmiluk National Park from the air.
Nitmiluk National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located 244 kilometres southeast of Darwin. Established around a series of gorges on the Katherine River and Edith Falls, the park has great ceremonial significance to the local Jawoyn people, who are custodians of Nitmiluk National Park. In Jawoyn, Nitmiluk means place of the cicada dreaming.
Photo credit: Brian Voon Yee Yap -
Photo credit: John O'NeillFuel dumping is a practice used by aircraft that are equipped to jettison fuel in the event of certain types of emergency situations. This RAAF F-111 aircraft is performing a dump-and-burn fuel dump at the Australian International Airshow, a procedure where the fuel is intentionally ignited using the plane's afterburner. This type of fuel dumping is also referred to as "torching" or a "zippo". -
Photo credit: Frank HurleyA group of Australian infantry wearing Small Box Respirators (SBRs) at the Third Battle of Ypres in September 1917. After the introduction of poison gas in World War I, countermeasures were developed. SBRs represented the pinnacle of gas mask development during the war, a mouthpiece connected via a hose to a box filter (hanging around the wearer's neck in this picture), which in turn contained granules of chemicals that neutralised the gas. The SBR was the prized possession of the ordinary infantryman; when the British were forced to retreat during the German Spring Offensive of 1918, it was found that while some troops had discarded their rifles, hardly any had left behind their respirators. -
Photo credit: ChmouelThe 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. -
Photo credit: Fir0002Nick 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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On this day
- 1826 – Birth of George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia.
- 1856 – Queen Victoria makes Norfolk Island a separate settlement from Tasmania to be administered by the Governor of New South Wales.
- 1913 – Joseph Cook becomes the sixth Prime Minister of Australia.
- 1953 – British and Australian governments announced Britain was developing atomic weapons and they would be tested in Australia.
- 1978 – The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is held to mark International Gay Solidarity Day.
- 1987 – Christopher Skase buys the Seven Network.
- 1992 – Nick Greiner resigns as Premier of New South Wales after corruption finding against him.
- 2010 – Julia Gillard becomes the first female Prime Minister of Australia.
General images
The following are images from various Australia-related articles on Wikipedia.
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An Aboriginal encampment near the Adelaide foothills in an 1854 painting by Alexander Schramm (from Aboriginal Australians) -
Golden wattle, Australia's floral emblem and the source of Australia's national colours, green and gold (from Culture of Australia) -
South 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. -
A swagman in bushman's apparel, wearing a brimmed hat and carrying swag and billy can (from Culture of Australia) -
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The verandah is the dominant feature of this Federation Filigree-style pub in Ravenswood. (from Culture of Australia) -
Didgeridoo performers (from Culture of Australia) -
Australians by the waterside at the Portsea Hotel, a pub in Melbourne, Victoria (from Culture of Australia) -
Anzac Day dawn services are held throughout Australia every April. (from Culture of Australia) -
The SBS building in Melbourne's Federation Square. SBS is Australia's multicultural broadcaster. (from Culture of Australia) -
Founded in 1993, Sydney's Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival. (from Culture of Australia) -
Kylie Minogue, one of Australia's most successful pop musicians (from Culture of Australia) -
The Princess Theatre in Melbourne (from Culture of Australia) -
A billycan used for heating water (from Culture of Australia) -
Men from Bathurst Island, 1939 (from Aboriginal Australians) -
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Historical image of Aboriginal Australian women and children, Maloga, New South Wales around 1900 (in European dress) (from Aboriginal Australians) -
The Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne (from Culture of Australia) -
William Wentworth (1790–1872) was among the first to articulate a vision of Australian nationhood (from Culture of Australia) -
Statue in Fremantle of an Australian rules footballer taking a spectacular mark (from Culture of Australia) -
A typical Queenslander house in Brisbane (from Culture of Australia) -
Actor playing the bushranger Ned Kelly in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), the world's first feature film (from Culture of Australia) -
St Mary Mackillop established an extensive network of schools and is Australia's first canonised saint of the Catholic Church. (from Culture of Australia) -
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The University of Sydney (from Culture of Australia) -
The first State of Origin shield (from Culture of Australia) -
Sheep 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) -
The Bulletin, founded by J. F. Archibald (left), nurtured bush poets such as Henry Lawson (right). (from Culture of Australia) -
Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney (from Culture of Australia) -
The Wiggles performing in the United States in 2007 (from Culture of Australia) -
Cover of Old Bush Songs, Banjo Paterson's 1905 collection of bush ballads (from Culture of Australia) -
Calisthenics class at the Goodwood Boys Technical School, 1945 (from Culture of Australia) -
Portrait of Madame Melba by Rupert Bunny (from Culture of Australia) -
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Corroboree at Newcastle by convict artist Joseph Lycett, c. 1818. Aboriginal Australian religious practices associated with the Dreamtime have been practised for tens of thousands of years. (from Culture of Australia) -
Dwellings accommodating Aboriginal families at Hermannsburg Mission, Northern Territory, 1923 (from Aboriginal Australians) -
Convict architecture at Port Arthur, Tasmania (from Culture of Australia) -
Noongar traditional dancers in Perth (from Aboriginal Australians) -
A commemorative statue of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a famous stretcher bearer who was killed in the Gallipoli Campaign. (from Culture of Australia) -
An Eastern Arrernte man of the Arltunga district, Northern Territory, in 1923. His hut is decked with porcupine grass. (from Aboriginal Australians) -
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Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly (from Culture of Australia) -
Governor Arthur Phillip hoists the British flag over the new colony at Sydney Cove in 1788 (from Culture of Australia) -
Interior of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney (from Culture of Australia) -
Parliament House, Canberra (from Culture of Australia) -
The surf lifesaving movement originated in Australia. Pictured: surf lifesavers, Bondi Beach, 1930s (from Culture of Australia) -
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Cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1860s (from Culture of Australia) -
Countries of birth of Australian estimated resident population, 2006 (from Culture of Australia) -
The Matildas, Australia's national women's football team, in 2021 (from Culture of Australia) -
A group of Australian men wearing speedos (from Culture of Australia) -
Skiing in Australia began in Kiandra, a goldmining town in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, in the 1860s. (from Culture of Australia) -
Donald Bradman is often cited as statistically the greatest sportsman of any major sport. (from Culture of Australia) -
A Luritja man demonstrating method of attack with boomerang under cover of shield (1920) (from Culture of Australia) -
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Nan Tien Temple, a Buddhist temple in Wollongong. Multicultural immigration has increased Australia's religious diversity. (from Culture of Australia)
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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 23 June 2026, there are 217,703 articles within the scope of WikiProject Australia, of which 607 are featured and 967 are good articles. This makes up 3.02% of the articles on Wikipedia, 5.16% of all featured articles and lists, and 2.19% of all good articles (see WP:AUSFG). Including non-article pages, such as talk pages, redirects, categories, etc., there are 572,134 pages in the project.
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