Photo: Aboriginal flag, Coat of Arms, Australian flag.

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is the sixth-largest country in the world, the only country to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia/Oceania. It also includes a number of secondary islands, the largest of which is the State of Tasmania. Australia is a federation, and is governed as a parliamentary constitutional monarchy.

Australia's neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Pacific Islands to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. The shortest border distance is between the mainlands of Papua New Guinea and Australia at about 150 km; however, the nearest inhabited island, Boigu Island, is about 5 km from Papua New Guinea. This has led to a complicated border arrangement allowing access for 'traditional' uses of the waterway across the border by Papua New Guinean people and Torres Strait Islanders.

Australia has been continually inhabited for at least 50,000 years by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Eastern Australia was claimed by the British in 1770, and offically settled as a British colony on January 26, 1788. As the population grew and new areas were explored six self-governing Crown Colonies were established within Australia. On 1 January 1901 the colonies agreed to form a federation and the Commonwealth of Australia was established. Sincefederation, Australia has had a stable democratic political system and it remains a Commonwealth Realm.

The name Australia derives from Latin australis meaning southern, and dates back to 2nd century legends of an "unknown southern land" (that is terra australis incognita). The British explorer Matthew Flinders named the land Terra Australis which was later abbreviated to the current form. Previously, when the Dutch explored the area they named it Nova Hollandicus or New Holland.

Flinders later renamed the land Australia in a chart compiled in 1804 whilst he was held prisoner by the French in Mauritius. When he returned to England and published his works in 1814 he was forced to change the name toTerra Australis by the British Admiralty. Governor Macquarie of New South Wales became aware of Flinders' preference for the name Australia and used it in his dispatches to England. In 1824 the British Admiralty finally accepted that the continent should be known officially as Australia.