Chapter 6, geography Flashcards
who discovered islands across the Pacific and became the first man known to sail below the Antarctic Circle?
Captain James Cook
what is the world’s smallest continent?
Australia
what is the thousands of islands scattered across the Pacific?
Oceania
what is the geological feature known as a shield that occupies more than half of the continent of Australia?
Australian Shield
what are the deserts in australia?
gibson, great sandy, and the great victoria deserts
what is named for its complete lack of trees?
Nullarbor Plain
what is the huge monolith (large single rock), that measures over 1,000 feet high and nearly 6 miles around and glows red in the sunset?
Uluru
what is Australia’s longest river?
Murray
what is the Murray’s chief tributary?
Darling
what is the continent’s largest lake?
Lake Eyre
what splits Australia into two separate drainage systems?
continental divide
what is the continent’s highest peak?
Mount Kosciuszko
what is the large island west of the tasman sea?
Tasmania
what are the three main topographical regions?
Western Plateau, Central Lowlands, Eastern Highlands
what is one of the continent’s unique egg-laying mammals?
The duck-billed platypus
who are the native inhabitants of Australia?
Aborigines
what is the name for australia because australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, “below” almost all other countries?
land down under
what is the Indian Ocean borders the west coast and fills the continent’s southern arch (wide bay)?
Great Australian Bight
who explored the surrounding waters and discovered Van Diemen’s Land?
Abel Tasman
what Is australia’s capital?
Canberra
who charted the entire coastline, thereby establishing that the land was a continent?
Matthew Flinders
what was the event where gold was discovered in New South Wales and Victoria, Prospectors from around the world came with dreams of striking it rich
Australian Gold Rush
what is the capital of Victoria?
Melbourne
what is Tasmania’s capital and Australia’s most southerly city
Hobart
what are genuine Australians?
Aussies
what is the Australian slang or dialect?
Strine
what is the more than 1,200-mile-long reef off the east coast
Great Barrier Reef
Oceania- region of the Pacific Ocean, sprawls across millions of miles of the earth’s surface, yet the islands of this area cover only about 312,000 square miles
John G. Paton- brought worldwide attention to the needy natives
continental islands- located along the Pacific Rim, were once connected to the continents of Asia and Australia
Atolls- groupings of tiny coral islands
South Seas- designates the water south of the equator, which is often called the South Pacific Ocean
Polynesia- “many islands,” covers a large, triangular area from New Zealand in the south to Hawaii in the north to Easter Island in the east
Melanesia- most populous of the regions and is inhabited by short, dark-skinned Melanesians, most of whom live in Papua New Guinea
