• Australia is an island, a continent and a country. It’s the world’s largest island and its smallest (but oldest) continent. And it’s the only country that has a whole continent to itself.

The big lakes in the desert are dry most of the time. Every September, there is a boat race in Alice Springs. The boats, however, are special. They have sides but no bottoms and are powered by feet! Hundreds of people come to Alice Springs to see this crazy race.

• The game is unique in the world. It’s played by teams of 18 players on an oval field with an oval ball, like a rugby ball. Unlike normal football or rugby, however, the ball can be passed in lots of ways: kicked, hit with the hand and carried.

• Zorbing is a new exciting sport. A Zorb itself is a huge plastic ball ( 3 – 3,5 metres tall) which contains another ball. The ball rolls down the hill and so do you. A Zorb can reach up to 50 -60 km an hour. The ‘parents’ of this crazy sport are Dwaine van der Sluis and Andrew Akers. They invented it in the 1990s. Zorbing is very safe. All people from children to their grandparents can do it. Kids are usually braver than their parents.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world. There are more than 1,500 kinds of ship and 400 types of coral in the Great Barrier Reef.

Canberra, the capital of Australia, is the newest city of all. It was designed by Walter Burley Griffin, an American architect, in 1912, and became the capital in 1927. Unlike other capitals, it’s very, very quiet. There ate lots of trees and a big lake in the center. Canberra is an Aboriginal word, meaning “meeting place”.

Founded in 1788, Sydney is Australia’s oldest city. Its first settlers were British prisoners. Today, Sydney is the largest city in Australia. It is also home to one of the country’s most famous landmarks, the Sydney Opera house. The roof of this beautiful building looks like sails on Sydney Harbour. Near the Opera house is one of the largest bridges in the world – the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Everything is unusual in Australia, even the food. Only in Australia can you find a kangaroo pie, a crocodile steak or smoked ostrich.

There are 60 kinds of kangaroo in Australia. The biggest kind is the red kangaroo.

Everyone loves the sleepy grey koalas. They live in eucalyptus trees and eat one kilo of leaves every day. They sleep 18 -19 hours a day

The emu is a very large bird. It’s 2 metres tall. It cannot fly but it can run very fast. It can swim very well, too.