Mainland Australia
Mainland Australia is the main landmass of the Australian continent, excluding the Aru Islands, New Guinea, Tasmania, and other Australian offshore islands. The landmass also constitutes the mainland of the territory governed by the Commonwealth of Australia, and the term, along with continental Australia, can be used in a geographic sense to exclude surrounding continental islands and external territories. Generally, the term is applied to the states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia, as well as the Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay Territory, and Northern Territory.
The term is typically used when referring to the relationship between Tasmania and the other Australian states, in that people not from Tasmania are referred to as mainlanders. Tasmania has been omitted on a number of occasions from maps of Australia, reinforcing the divide between Tasmania and the mainland. The 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane left Tasmania off the map of Australia during the opening ceremony, as did the designs of the Australian Swim Team uniform for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
The land mass covers, about 98.7% of the area of the country of Australia and 1.5% of Earth's surface. It is sometimes described as an island, in which case it would be the largest island by area–more than three times the size of Greenland. Its population is about 25.9 million, 98% of Australia's total population. Mainland Australia has a variety of climatic regions, ranging from tropical rainforests and deserts to cool temperature rainforests to snow-covered mountains. It is in these mainland regions that much of Australia's native flora and fauna can be found.
History
Early in the Cretaceous period, 130 million years ago, Australia separated from a supercontinent known as Gondwana. Antarctica's separation from Australia began roughly 85 million years ago, at a rate of a few millimetres per year.It took over 30 million years, toward the end of the Palaeocene epoch, for Australia to fully separate from Antarctica and set course for where we see the two continents today.
During the last ice-age around 35,000 years ago, sea levels dropped by, developing a continuous stretch of land between what is now Papua New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania. Over the next 6,000 years the ice gradually melted, increasing sea-levels, cutting off Papua New Guinea and Tasmania from mainland Australia.
Prehistory
It has been estimated that Australian Aborigines occupied mainland Australia up to 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, well before the last ice-age. Although an exact figure has not been decided on, numerous DNA studies all confirm that Aboriginal Australians are one of the oldest living populations in the world outside of Africa.Prior to the arrival of Europeans on the Australian mainland in the late 18th century, over 500 different clan groups each with unique cultures, beliefs and languages inhabited territories on the mainland. Currently, Indigenous people living on the mainland make up 2.4% of the total Australian population, encompassing over 250 language groups.
European colonization
The first documented encounter of the Australian mainland was by Willem Janszoon in 1606, as he sailed around Australia's north coast arriving in present-day Cape York, Queensland. These explorations led way to the term 'Terra Australis', Latin for South Land, which was hypothesised on the notion there must be land in the Southern Hemisphere to balance the land mass in the Northern Hemisphere. This encounter led several other Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and British journeyings to Terra Australis throughout the 17th and 18th century, progressively mapping what we now know to be as Australia.The most famous and well documented expedition of Australia occurred 164 years after Janszoon's journey, through British navigator and explorer James Cook. He documented the first interaction of the Eastern Australian coastline, and on 23 April 1770, Cook made the first recorded observation of Indigenous Australians at nowadays Brush Island. This journey, coupled with numerous other reports, ultimately led the British to establish a penal colony in Australia, firstly at Botany Bay.
Geography
The Australian mainland's geology and climate is one of its defining features. Despite being surrounded by ocean, approximately 20% of the Australian mainland is classified as desert. This is due to the extremely variable rain patterns across the mainland. Toward the barren centre of the mainland, the rainfall pattern is concentric and sparse, whereas there is higher intensity rainfall toward the mainland's tropics and coastal areas.Australia lies on the middle of the Indo-Australian tectonic plate and as a result is not influenced by any severe tectonic activity. Over millions of years, the shifting of these tectonic plates has seen the Australian mainland undergo many physical changes. Mountain ranges and seas have come and gone, and the forces of weathering and erosion have formed much of the mainland's current topography.
These physical changes developed four primary landform divisions spread throughout the mainland states and territories; the Coastal Plains, the Eastern and Southern highlands, the Central Lowlands and the Western and Northern Plateaus.
Coastal Plains
Along the Eastern seaboard of the mainland are the Coastal Plains; a narrow strip of land along the East coast of Australia from Queensland to Victoria. This division is host to some of the mainland's major cities, namely, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, due to its hospitable conditions. Some sources refer to the Coastal Plains as the entire coastline of the mainland, outspreading beyond the East Coast.Eastern Highlands
Approximately inland, the Eastern Highlands cover almost 10% of the mainland. Incorporating several mountain ranges which extend the Highlands run parallel to the east coast of the mainland; covering Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. The highlands were formed around 80 million years ago, and are some of the oldest and most prominent in the world. This area is very rugged and primarily consists of a series of tablelands and plateaus. The highlands are much more prominent toward the south east of the mainland and form the Southern Highlands, which are located across New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. These Southern highlands experience snowfall for more than half the year during the winter due to their higher altitude.Central Lowlands
Occupying approximately 25% of the Australian mainland, the Central Lowlands are low-lying with an average height of under above sea level. It is home to the Sturt and Simpson deserts and closer to Central Australia lie some desert mountain ranges. The Central Lowlands incorporates three primary drainage basins: in the North, the Carpentaria Lowlands, Lake Eyre toward the centre and the Murray-Darling Basin down South. The lowest point on the mainland is found in this division at Lake Eyre, at 50m below sea level.Western Plateau
Approximately 144 to 65 million years ago, there lay a great inland sea, stretching over one quarter of the mainland. The evaporation of this ocean left behind what we now know as the Western Plateau. The Western and Northern Plateaus incorporate nearly all Western Australia and the Northern Territory and parts of South Australia.Over one-third of the mainland, the Plateaus are made of one stable block of igneous and metamorphic rock which is up to 3.6 billion years old. Despite this, the Plateau is a huge area of tablelands, averaging 500m above sea level in some parts. It is home to Uluru, Kata Tjuta, the Finke River, the Victorian Desert, the Great Sandy Desert and the Gibson Desert.
Much of the Western Plateau receives minimal rainfall and thus appears red in colour. Conversely, the Northern Plateau experiences heavy rainfall throughout the wet season, due to its more tropical location compared to the Western Plateau.
Natural resources
Australia's separation from the other continents resulted in a long period of uplift, erosion and thick terrigenous deposition in rift valleys. It was these processes which over millions of years has led to the accumulation of Australia's main known mineral, oil and gas resources. Most of Australia's oil and gas exploration occurs off the mainland. However, on the mainland, the abundance of minerals has formed the basis of Australia's dependence on mining; exporting much of these natural occurring resources overseas.File:Kalgoorlie The Big Pit DSC04498.JPG|thumb|Super Pit gold mine on Kalgoorlie's Golden Mile in Western Australia
Mining
The Australian mainland is host to some of the world's largest open-cut and underground mines. Across the mainland states, there are over 350 operating mines, producing 19 useful rocks and minerals. These mines allow Australia to be one of the world's largest producers of iron ore, coal, bauxite, manganese, nickel, copper, gold, silver, cobalt, lead, uranium, opal and diamond. Some of the largest mines on the Australian mainland are listed below:| Mine | Owner | State | Type | Minerals produced | Size |
| Mount Arthur | BHP | New South Wales | Open cut | Coal Gold | 12 km2 |
| Peak Downs | BHP | Queensland | Open cut | Coal | 688 km2 |
| Cannington | South32 | Queensland | Underground | Silver Lead | 5.25 km |
| Carmichael | Bravus Mining and Resources | Queensland | Open cut | Coal | 447 km2 |
| Olympic Dam | BHP | South Australia | Underground | Copper Uranium Gold Silver | 450 km |
| Argyle | Rio Tinto | Western Australia | Underground | Diamond | 40 km |
| Boddington | Newmont | Western Australia | Open cut | Gold Copper | 212 km2 |
| Fimiston | Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines | Western Australia | Open cut | Gold | 5.25 km2 |
| Roy Hill | Hancock Prospecting | Western Australia | Open cut Underground | Iron ore | 4,000 km2 |
| Worsley Alumina | South32 | Western Australia | Open cut | Bauxite | 5,000 km2 |
| Yandicoogina | Rio Tinto | Western Australia | Open cut | Iron ore | 267 km2 |