48 ~ AUSTRALIA 
: AREA IN- 
ORIGINAL STATES. SQUARE MILES. POPULATION. 
New south: Wales 25) SIO 262 ee: ona 1,352,297 
WHGEO ie. Vaan a BF SS ae ee Marais 1,200,918 
Queeusiancde = 2. ses O08 AG7. iene oo. | 190,506 
South Australia..... We BOOB OOM. waa ee oe 362,604 
Western Australia...... O75 O20 2 ean es 182,853 
MAGIA Mich cee sec eee ah ZO, Di sete Wee Seceis ee Las 
pROLAe eee en Dison heke ais Maes eRey ey ot a 3,797,743 
Whilst there are many spacious harbors on the coast, 
there are few great indentations ; the principal being the 
Gulf of Carpentaria on the north, the great Australian 
Bight and the Spencer Gulf on the south. The chief pro- 
jections are Cape York Peninsula and Arulam Land in the 
north. Parallel to the north-east coast runs the Great 
Barrier Reef extending for 1,000 miles. In great part the 
east coast is bold and rocky, and fringed with many small 
islands. Part of the south coast is low and sandy, and part 
presents cliffs several hundred feet in height. The interior, 
so far as explored, is largely composed of rocky tracts and 
barren plains, with little or no water. ‘The whole continent 
forms an immense plateau, highest in the east, iowest in 
the centre, and with a narrow tract of land usually inter- 
vening between the elevated area and the sea. ‘ The base of 
the table land is granite, which forms the surface rock in | 
a great part of the south-west, and is common in the higher 
grounds along the east side. Secondary (cretaelous)-and 
tertiary rocks are largely developed in the interior. Silurian 
rocks occupy a large area in South Australia on both sides 
of Spencer Gulf. The mountainous region of the south- 
east and east is mainly composed of volcanic, silurian, ear- 
bonaceous and carboniferous rocks, vielding good coal. 
No active volcano is known to exist, but in the south-east 
there are some craters only recently extinct. The highest 
and most extensive mountain svstem is a belt about 150 
miles wide, skirting the whole eastern and south-eastern 
