Australia

• Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)
• Governor-General: Quentin Bryce (2008)
• Prime Minister: Julia Gillard (2010)
• Land area: 2,941,283 sq mi (7,617,931 sq km); total area: 2,967,893 sq mi (7,686,850 sq km)
• Population (2012 est.): 21,015,576 (growth rate: 1.13%); birth rate: 12.28/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.55/1000; life expectancy: 81.9
• Capital (2009 est.): Canberra, 384,000
• Largest cities: Sydney 4.429 million; Melbourne 3.853 million; Brisbane 1.97 million; Perth 1.599 million (2009)
• Monetary unit: Australian dollar

The first inhabitants of Australia were the Aborigines, who migrated there at least 40,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. There may have been between a half million to a full million Aborigines at the time of European settlement; today about 350,000 live in Australia.

Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish ships sighted Australia in the 17th century; the Dutch landed at the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1606. In 1616 the territory became known as New Holland. The British arrived in 1688, but it was not until Captain James Cook's voyage in 1770 that Great Britain claimed possession of the vast island, calling it New South Wales. A British penal colony was set up at Port Jackson (what is now Sydney) in 1788, and about 161,000 transported English convicts were settled there until the system was suspended in 1839.

Free settlers and former prisoners established six colonies: New South Wales (1786), Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) (1825), Western Australia (1829), South Australia (1834), Victoria (1851), and Queensland (1859). Various gold rushes attracted settlers, as did the mining of other minerals. Sheep farming and grain soon grew into important economic enterprises. The six colonies became states and in 1901 federated into the Commonwealth of Australia with a constitution that incorporated British parliamentary and U.S. federal traditions. Australia became known for its liberal legislation: free compulsory education, protected trade unionism with industrial conciliation and arbitration, the secret ballot, women's suffrage, maternity allowances, and sickness and old-age pensions.

From the World Wars to the End of the Millennium

Australia fought alongside Britain in World War I, notably with the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) in the Dardanelles campaign (1915). Participation in World War II helped Australia forge closer ties to the United States. Parliamentary power in the second half of the 20th century shifted between three political parties: the Australian Labour Party, the Liberal Party, and the National Party. Australia relaxed its discriminatory immigration laws in the 1960s and 1970s, which favored Northern Europeans. Thereafter, about 40% of its immigrants came from Asia, diversifying a population that was predominantly of English and Irish heritage. An Aboriginal movement that grew in the 1960s gained full citizenship and improved education for the country's poorest socioeconomic group.

In March 1996, the opposition Liberal Party–National Party coalition easily won the national elections, removing the Labour Party after 13 years in power. Pressure from the new, conservative One Nation Party threatened to reduce the gains made by Aborigines and to limit immigration.

In Sept. 1999, Australia led the international peacekeeping force sent to restore order in East Timor after pro-Indonesian militias began massacring civilians to thwart East Timor's referendum on independence.

Australia Elects Its First Female Prime Minister

Rudd's popularity plummeted in May 2010, largely because he shelved his environmental policy that centered on an emissions-trading system. In June, the Labor Party ousted him as its leader and elected his deputy, Julia Gillard. She became Australia's first female prime minister in June and promptly called for elections, which were held in August. They resulted in a hung parliament, with neither the incumbent Labor Party nor the conservative Liberal-National coalition, led by Tony Abbott, taking a majority of seats. It is the country's first hung parliament in 70 years. After several weeks of attempting to woo members of parliament to her side, Gillard succeeded in early September, when two independents backed her. It was enough to give her the slimmest majority: 76 out of 150 seats.

Worst Flooding in Decades

In Jan. 2011, the worst flooding for decades in Queensland cut off many cities and towns. The floods left more than 30 people dead and caused billions of dollars in damage to mines, farms, and cities. Coal mining operations in the Australian state were severely hampered. The flood affected about 200,000 people and covered an area larger than France and Germany combined. Prime Minister Gillard started off the New Year by visiting the ravaged state. In April, Queensland urban areas were plagued with extremely large numbers of flying beetles, a likely result of the floods.

U.S. Establishes Military Presence

Nov. 2011 saw Barack Obama in Canberra where he announced a new American military presence near the port city of Darwin, "Australia's Pearl Harbor." Marines will be gradually deployed over the coming years, to a total strength of 2,500. Mr. Obama's speech established his commitment to "a larger and long-term role" in shaping the region, which will include providing humanitarian relief and responding to security issues in Southeast Asia and the South China Sea.