Australia, officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign state that comprises the mainland of the Australian continent, Tasmania and several other islands. If you are considering visiting or moving to Australia, here are some interesting facts you should know:

1. It is the largest country in Oceania and the sixth largest country in the world by total area. To the north is Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor, to the north-east are the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and New Zealand is in the south-east.

2. Its capital Canberra was chosen in 1908 because Sydney and Melbourne could not agree on which city should be capital.

3. Australia is the only continent nation in the world, meaning it is a continent and an independent nation as well.

4. It occupies an entire continent of about 7.6 million square kilometres. It is one of the least densely populated places in the world with just 3 people per square kilometre.

5. Australia is about the size of the mainland United States, excluding Alaska, and is approximately 24 times the size of the British Isles. It is as wide as the distance between London and Moscow.

6. It is the driest continent on Earth besides Antarctica, but because of its insular position and lack of natural features, there are no extremes in climate. The size of the continent causes the climate to vary.

7. It is also the only continent in the world without an active volcano.

8. Being one of the oldest continents in the world, Australia is the flattest land mass on earth and this is as a result of 250 million years of erosion.

9. The Great Dividing Range is a 3700 kilometre stretch of mountain located in the eastern and south-eastern edge of Australia. This mountain sends water down into Australia’s most important rivers including the Great Artesian Basin, the largest groundwater source in the world.

10. Almost 90% of the animals found in Australia, including kangaroos, koalas, dingoes and the platypus, cannot be found anywhere else.

11. A large portion of the animals in Australia are marsupials, meaning they carry their young in pouches. It is also home to the only egg-laying mammals in the world; the echidna and the duckbill platypus.

12. Dingoes are the largest carnivores on the Australian continent and were introduced from China via the Indonesian land bridge about 12,000 years ago.

13. There are an estimated 50 million kangaroos in Australia which means there are more kangaroos than people.

14. Australia has three times as many sheep as people.

15. The animals of Australia achieve impressive feats, for example, the Australian Emu can run as fast as 45km/h, the highest a kangaroo has been recorded to jump was 9 metres, koalas sleep for about 20 hours in a day, and the Box Jellyfish is responsible for more deaths than snakes, sharks and saltwater crocodiles combined.

16. The continent is home to the largest living structure on earth; the Great Barrier Reef. It is so large that it is visible from space.

17. Some of the world’s deadliest animals live here, like the world’s deadliest snake, the Inland Taipan, the world’s deadliest spider; the Sydney Funnel web, the deadliest octopus; the Blue Ringed octopus and so on.

18. Most of the animals in Australia can only be found on this continent and nowhere else.

19. The largest Greek population outside of Athens can be found in Melbourne, Victoria.

20. Over 25% of young Australians are born abroad, making it the world’s highest proportion of migrant settlers in a developed nation.

21. There are over 200 languages and dialects spoken in Australia and these include 45 indigenous languages.

22. The country has 16 world heritage sites, which include; the Great Barrier Reef, Fraser Island, Wet Tropics of Queensland, Purnululu National Park and more.

23. It was the second country in the world to give women the right to vote in 1902.

24. Australia has the highest rate of gambling in the world with over 80% of its adult population engaging in some form of gambling.

25. As of 2012, Australia was the most obese country in the world with a 26% obesity rate.

26. It is considered the sports capital of the world with 70% of its population participating in one form of sport or another at least once a week. For betting enthusiasts visit website.

27. If you visit one beach every day in Australia, it will take about 27 years to visit all 10,000 beaches in the country.

28. The Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for at least 50,000 years, which makes them one of the oldest living cultures on Earth.

29. The Australian Alps are bigger than Switzerland and receive more snow.

30. Australia has more camels than Egypt and exports camels to Saudi Arabia.

31. The kangaroo is the official animal of Australia and is only found on this continent. In 2011, there were about 34 million kangaroos within commercial harvest land.

32. The longest fence in the world, “the dingo fence” with a length of 5,530 kilometres, is located in Australia.

33. The Harbour Bridge in Sydney is the world’s highest steel arch bridge, spanning 97.3m and 134m high above sea level.

34. Nullarbor Links, located along 1,365 kilometres of the Eyre highway, is the “world’s longest golf course”, it crosses two Australian states.

35. Things invented in Australia include: vegemite, refrigerator, the black box found in aeroplanes, aspirin, pacemaker, penicillin, pre-paid postage and much more.

36. The world’s only white whale, called “Migaloo”, can be seen in Australia during spring and autumn.

37. The world’s oldest fossil was discovered in Australia, it had 3.4 billion year old cells. The discovery was made by Martin Brasier and David Wacey, two geologists from the University of Western Australia in Crawley.

38. In 1970, the the world’s first seat belt law was passed in the state of Victoria, Australia.