ABSTRACT
Australia is the sixth largest country in the world, and is one of the world's largest island nations. The country has three time zones; the Eastern time zone (GMT +10), the Central time zone (GMT +9.5) and the Western time zone (GMT +8). However, despite its large size, the country has a relatively small population compared to the UK, totalling just 22 million. Similar to Canada, this is down to the extreme living conditions across much of the centre of the country, with the population concentrated around the coastal areas. The most populous cities in Australia are Sydney (New South Wales) 4,667,283; Melbourne (Victoria) 2,246,345; Brisbane (Queensland) 2,189,878; Perth (Western Australia) 1,897,548; and Adelaide (South Australia) 1,227,174. The majority of the population live on the Eastern and South-Eastern coast. For this reason, many of the higher education establishments are to be found in this part of the country.
