Apart from Antarctica, Australia is the driest continent. Australia has well-watered fertile areas, which it uses very effectively to help feed the world. Sheep and cattle graze in dry country, but care must be taken with the soil. Some grazing land became desert when the long cycles that influence rainfall in Australia turned to drought. The Australian federation consists of six States and two Territories.
Most inland borders follow lines of longitude and latitude.
The largest State, Western Australia, is about the same size as Western Europe. Australia has a remarkable diversity of life forms seen nowhere else in the world. Australian plants and animals evolved in isolation from other parts of the world. When the super-continent of Gondwanaland split up about 160 million years ago, Australia joined Antarctica and drifted towards the South Pole, where glaciers formed a barrier between it and other land masses. Over the past 45 million years, Australia has moved away from Antarctica towards the equator and become warmer and more arid.