40,000+ years ago the First Australians arrived from Southeast Asia. They have the longest continuous culture of any humans. Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. In 1770 Capt. James Cook took possession of the east coast in the name of Great Britain (the rest was claimed as British territory in 1829).

The Commonwealth of Australia came into being in 1901. This new country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the Allied effort in World Wars I and II.

In recent decades, Australia has become an internationally competitive, advanced market economy due in large part to economic reforms adopted in the 1980s and its location in one of the fastest-growing regions of the world economy.

Long-term concerns include an aging population, pressure on infrastructure, and environmental issues such as floods, droughts, and bushfires. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth, making it particularly vulnerable to the challenges of climate change. Australia is home to 10% of the world's biodiversity, and a great number of its flora and fauna exist nowhere else in the world.

Case Studies which can be covered using Australia

• A country which is under-populated & A sparsely populated country or area (at any scale from local to regional)

• Settlement and service provision in an area

• The opportunities presented by an area or areas of coastline, the associated hazards and their management

• An area of hot desert

• A transnational corporation and its global links

• A farm or agricultural system

• An area where tourism is important

• Water supply in a country or area

• An area where economic development is taking place and causing the environment to be at risk