Get ready to visit Australia and its Pacific neighbors. Find Australia on the map. It sits in the southern Pacific Ocean along with the 1,500 islands that make up Melanesia. To find Melanesia, go to the top of Australia on the map, and then go east. Other island groups in the area are Polynesia (east and south of Melanesia and Micronesia). To find Micronesia, look north of Australia. Micronesia li…
Australia is one of the largest countries in the world. Yet it is the smallest continent. It has unique landforms. It really has not changed very much in more than 250 million years. It is also the flattest continent. Notice the Great Dividing Range on the map. It runs along Australia's eastern coast. This low mountain range is the largest in the country. To the west, there are stretches of…
The geography of Australia and New Zealand differs. Yet they do share a similar history. People from different parts of the Pacific settled both countries. You will learn more about New Zealand in Chapter 3. The Aborigines (a-buh-rij-neez) of Australia were the first settlers in Australia. They came from Asia at least 40,000 years ago. They probably came by boats and walked across pieces of land t…
New Zealand is an island nation in the southern hemisphere. It is in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Look at the world map in the Atlas on pages 202-203. Notice that New Zealand is one of the last countries before you reach Antarctica. (Chile and Argentina in South America are the other countries.) Because of the oceans, however, the country has a mild and pleasant climate. New Zealand is a…
Directions: Use a pencil to fill in the circle that has the same letter as the answer you have chosen. 1. Australia is often called the “Land Down Under” because it is in the Ⓐ Northern Hemisphere. Ⓑ Southern Hemisphere. Ⓒ Western Hemisphere. Ⓓ Eastern Hemisphere. 2. What geographical feature explains why animals in Australia are not found in any other par…