AUSSIE BLOGGIN'

Big Things

How Big Is Australia?

Bruce Lawford asked why we didn't include the Australian Antarctic territory which increases Australia's total size to 13,641,824 square km. If we did, it would make Australia the second largest country in the world.

When we checked our research we found our numbers are correct. The Australian Antarctic territory should NOT be included, but we should have explained why and we've updated the page as a result.

There are 7 nations (Chile, France, Argentina, Australia, Britain, New Zealand, & Norway) who claim land in the Antarctic with some claims overlapping. The Antarctic Treaty of 1961 has put all territorial claims on hold for the duration of the treaty.

Until all the land claims are resolved, no one actually owns Antarctica right now so no one includes Antarctica in their country's total land size. We may be 6th in the world, but that's still pretty big.

Big Things

Someone's got our kangaroo

Did you know there are around 60 million kangaroos and 113 million sheep in Australia? That means we have 3 kangaroos and 6 sheep for every person living here. The local council limits us to 2 dogs per house so we doubt we can have our 3 kangaroos and 6 sheep.

Did you know . . .
Australia's 100+ million sheep (mostly merinos) produce most of the world's wool. We are also the world's largest exporter of beef