John Howard
Prime Minister

(pronounced "JON HOW-ard")

"There is something special about being an Australian…That Australian spirit, that capacity, that mateship that allows us to pull together in times of challenge and times of adversity…the things that unite us are infinitely greater and more enduring than the things that divide us."

The Commonwealth of Australia is situated in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, southeast of Asia. To the north are Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and to the east is New Zealand. Including the island of Tasmania, which lies to the southeast, the country has a total area of 7,682,300 sq km (2,966,151 sq mi), a land mass about equal to the continental United States. Australia also claims vast territories in Antarctica. It is the sixth-largest country in the world and the smallest continent. Australia is, for the most part, a...