How big is it?

[Urban_Legend]

Found this and though it help explain why it takes a month to do a lap.

[great white]

Doesn't look that big to me.....

Seriously though, never realized Australia had that much land mass.

Must be because you guys are always hiding down around the corner of the map!

Never realized the shape of both countries was that similar either.

[novaraptor]

Things always look smaller when they are that far away... Thanks for the comparison pics, they do explain more than just statistics...

[Bones]

Yep, Australia is a big country alright but the population is only 23 million people. To put that in perspective, the state of California alone has 38 million people. Most of us live just inland of the coast around the perimeter with the interior just a hot desert wasteland.

[Arnie]

Bones,

I think you're denigrating the interior, its certainly vast, and hot for much of the year, but a wasteland?? Nah.
Wasteland would mean that there's nothing of value there, and there's certainly lots of minerals and gemstone there.
It would also mean that its desolate and plain.  Nothing could be further from the truth, it has a spectacular beauty.

Now, if you want to describe how empty of "people", try this.....

Australia has ~23 million people, and the land area roughly equal to the US.
Over 90% of those people live in the 5 largest city metropolis' (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth)
And maybe 5% more live in the costal areas between the eastern capital cities within 100kms of the ocean.
So, ~1.15  million people live in the rest of the country.

Now that's some sparsely populated country. :-)

Arnie

[krusty]

Could you lay a map of Alaska over Oz? I'm in Talkeetna AK at the moment and Alaska is BIG, and beautiful and sparsely populated too. Can't wait to get back to Oz. Missing my FJs, and CBs et al.