Atlas of Australia

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Wikimedia Commons Atlas of the World

The Wikimedia Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons.
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The introductions of the country, dependency and region entries are in the native languages and in English. The other introductions are in English.
 
Atlas-country
Australia



Australia

English Australia - Commonwealth of Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the world's smallest continent and a number of islands in the Southern, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Neighbouring countries include ► Indonesia, ► East Timor, and ► Papua New Guinea to the north; the ► Solomon Islands, ► Vanuatu, and the French dependency of ► New Caledonia to the northeast; and ► New Zealand to the southeast.
The Australian external territories are the ► Ashmore and Cartier Islands, ► Christmas Island, the ► Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the ► Coral Sea Islands, ► Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and ► Norfolk Island.


Short name  Australia
Official name Commonwealth of Australia
Status Independent country since 1901
Location Oceania
Capital Canberra
Population 25,464,116 inhabitants
Area 7,741,220 square kilometres (2,988,900 sq mi)
Major languages English (official)
Major religions Protestant Christianity, Roman Catholicism
More information Australia, Geography of Australia, History of Australia and Politics of Australia
More images Australia - Australia (Category).

General maps

Location of Australia
Map of Australia
Topography of Australia

Maps of divisions

This section holds maps of the administrative divisions.

Map of Australian states and territories

History maps

This section holds a short summary of the history of the area of present-day Australia, illustrated with maps, including historical maps of former countries and empires that included present-day Australia.

Australia discoveries by Europeans before 1813
In 1770 Captain James Cook rediscovers the region and claims it for Britain. This leads in 1778 to the formation of the colony of New South Wales. This map shows Australia as part of the British Empire.
In the upcoming decennia parts of the colony become separate colonies: Van Diemen's Land in 1825 (later named Tasmania), South Australia in 1836, New Zealand in 1841, Victoria in 1851 and Queensland in 1859. Many but by no means all of the first settlers are convicts, condemned for offenses that today would often be thought trivial. The mid-19th century brings government policies to emancipate convicts and the government assists the immigration of free persons. Since 1850 the colonies are granted self-government.
In 1891 a proces of re-unification starts, that leads in 1901 to the merger of the colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and West Australia into the Commonwealth of Australia, which becomes an independent country with a federal parliamentary democracy. Although Australia became independent in 1901, the British government keeps some powers on the country to the Treaty of Westminster, ratified in 1942. This map shows the development of the Australian states and territories since the Federation.
Census of 1921

Old maps

This section holds copies of original general maps more than 70 years old.

First map of Australia (Jave la Grande) from Nicholas Vallard's atlas, 1547
Le pôle antarctique, by Jacques de Vauxx, Premières Œuvres (traité d'hydrographie), 1583
Hollandia Nova, 1659 map prepared by Joan Blaeu based on voyages by Abel Tasman and Willem Jansz, this image shows a French edition of 1663
A map of the East Indies, from William Dampier's New Voyage Round the World, published 1697
New Holland Map by William Dampier, 1699
Map of Sydney from 1789
Pre 1904 map of Australia
Historical map of Australia, Bibliothek allgemeinen und praktischen Wissens für Militäranwärter, 1905
Map of Australia from The New Student's Reference Work, 1914
*Major vegetation groups in Australia as identified by the National Land and Water Resources

Geological and similar maps

Basic geological regions of Australia, by age.
oil & gas map
Seismicity map

Other maps

Distribution of boomerangs in Australia

Satellite maps

Satellite photo of Australia

Template:Demographic-maps

Indigenous population by state

Queensland

Notes and references

General remarks:

  • The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons. The main page is therefore the portal to maps and cartography on Wikimedia. That page contains links to entries by country, continent and by topic as well as general notes and references.
  • Every entry has an introduction section in English. If other languages are native and/or official in an entity, introductions in other languages are added in separate sections. The text of the introduction(s) is based on the content of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. For sources of the introduction see therefore the Wikipedia entries linked to. The same goes for the texts in the history sections.
  • Historical maps are included in the continent, country and dependency entries.
  • The status of various entities is disputed. See the content for the entities concerned.
  • The maps of former countries that are more or less continued by a present-day country or had a territory included in only one or two countries are included in the atlas of the present-day country. For example the Ottoman Empire can be found in the Atlas of Turkey.

Entries available in the atlas

General pages
World
Continents and oceans
Themes
Historical eras
States with wide recognition
States with limited recognition
Dependencies and other overseas territories
Country subdivisions
Belgium
China (mainland)
India
Pakistan
Spain
United Kingdom
United States
Russia
Other
Disputed subnational territories
Other regions
Cities
Former sovereign states
Former dependencies and overseas territories
Former disputed territories