If you’re thinking of studying in Australia, perhaps you’d like to get to know us better first.

Australia is located in the Southern Hemisphere. It has an area of nearly 7.7 million square kilometres. It is the world's sixth largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, the USA and Brazil.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples inhabited most areas of the Australian continent before the arrival of European settlers. Today, Australia is a culturally diverse society with a population of over 20 million. English is Australia's official language but more than four million residents speak a second language.

Australia's continental plate drifted away from Antarctica towards the equator between 10 and 55 million years ago. This isolation of Australian plants, landscape and wildlife led to a unique evolutionary process.  Australia has an exceptional range of species with more than 80 percent of our mammals, frogs, reptiles and flowering plants found nowhere else in the world.

Climatic zones range from deserts to snow-capped mountains; from tropical rainforests to cool climate forests. The summer months are December to February, autumn months are March to May, winter months are June to August and spring months are September to November.

Australia is divided into six states: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia, and two main territories: the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.

The Australian economy has experienced strong growth in recent years producing a high-growth, low-inflation economy. The Australian currency is the Australian dollar (AUD). For exchange rate conversion of the Australian dollar to your currency, please see www.oanda.com

Australia is an advanced society, a stable democracy and rich in cultural diversity, including from Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands.  Around 145,000 Australians were born in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands.  The largest communities are those from South Africa, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Zambia, the Seychelles, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Eritrea and Uganda.  Many more Australians have African and Asian heritage but were born in Australia.

Australia has world class educational institutions and a proven reputation as a provider of high quality education to international students.  We have more than 10,000 schools, 660 vocational colleges, and 39 universities and host over 300,000 international students of 200 different nationalities.  Australia’s reputation for technical innovation and academic achievement is recognised internationally, with Australia claiming seven Nobel Prizes and having developed world class technologies such as the Cochlear bionic ear, the black box flight recorder and polymer bank notes, among other things.  Australia excels in the sciences, particularly in medical, health marine and environmental science; communication; information technology; business (including Masters of Business Administration), Asian studies; construction and engineering; and distance learning. Australia’s education culture promotes learner autonomy, innovative and creative thinking.