| Australia,
also officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern
Hemisphere comprising the world's smallest continent. It also has a number of
islands in the Southern, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Its neighbouring countries
include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north. To the south the
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the French dependency of New Caledonia, to the
northeast; and New Zealand to the southeast. The continent of Australia
has been inhabited for well over 40,000 years by Indigenous Australians. After
sporadic visits by fishermen from the north and by many European explorers oftentimes
merchants starting in the seventeenth century, the eastern half of the
continent was claimed by the British in 1770. It was officially settled as the
penal colony of New South Wales on 26 January 1788. As the population grew
and new areas were eventually explored, another five largely self-governing Crown
Colonies were successively established over the course of the nineteenth
century. |
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