Hello world.
I am Australia, I reside in the Southern Hemisphere of Planet Earth, with the Indian Ocean on my western side and the Pacific Ocean on my eastern side.
My neighbours include New Zealnd, Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea plus many small islands in the north east.
Roughly 20,750,000 people live within my borders which includes 6 states, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, plus 2 Territories, The Northern Territory and The Australian Capital Territory in which resides my capital city Canberra. State and territory capital cities include, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.
I have been the home to an Indigenous people for around 40.000 years but it wasn't until 1770 when Captain James Cook mapped my eastern coast and called it New South Wales and claimed it for Britain. On January 26th 1778 I was settled as a penal colony by Captain Arthur Phillip and this day is now my birthday and is called Australia Day.
January 1st 1901 my then six colonies became a federation and I became the Commonwealth of Australia.
