Christian Mission History

In land area, Australia is the sixth largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, the United States of America and Brazil. It has, however, a relatively small population. Australia is the only nation to govern an entire continent and its outlying islands. The Australian federation consists of six States and two Territories. The largest State, Western Australia, is about the same size as Western Europe. Australia is an independent Western democracy with a population of more than 20 million. It is one of the world's most urbanized countries, with about 70 per cent of the population living in the ten largest cities. Most of the population is concentrated along the eastern seaboard and the south-eastern corner of the continent. Australia's lifestyle reflects its mainly Western origins, but Australia is also a multicultural society which has been enriched by over six million settlers from almost 200 nations. Four out of ten Australians are migrants or the first-generation children of migrants, half of them from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples inhabited most areas of the Australian continent.