I Can’t Sleep - Australia | Gentle Reading to Help You Sleep

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

Ease into sleep with this calm bedtime reading as Benjamin shares the story of Australia, helping you unwind and find relief from insomnia and restless nights. You’ll discover the unique geography, rich history, and diverse wildlife of this remarkable continent, all presented in a soothing, steady cadence. No whispering or hypnosis—just peaceful, fact-filled storytelling designed to calm the mind and reduce stress and anxiety. Let this gentle journey across Australia guide you toward rest as you close your eyes, release tension, and drift into deep sleep. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Australia, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Australia. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch.

I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,

Australia. Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest and driest inhabited continent, with the third. least fertile soils. It is a mega-diverse country and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the center, tropical rainforests in the northeast, tropical savannas in the north, and mountain ranges in the southeast. The ancestors of aboriginal Australians began arriving from Southeast Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago during the last

glacial period. They settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with European maritime exploration. The Dutch were the first known Europeans to reach Australia in 1606. British colonization began in 1788 with the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales. By the mid-19th century, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers, and five additional self-governing British colonies were established, each gaining responsible government by 1890.

The colonies federated in 2001, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. This continued a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, and culminating in the Australia Acts of 1986. Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and ten territories. Its population of nearly 27 million is highly urbanized, and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard.

Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous cities are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Earth, and Adelaide. Australian governments have promoted multiculturalism since the 1970s. Australia is culturally diverse and has one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world. Its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy, which generates its income from various sources, including services, mining exports, banking, manufacturing, agriculture, and international education.

It ranks highly for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights. Australia has a highly developed market economy and one of the highest per capita incomes globally. It is a middle power and has the world's 13th highest military expenditure. It is a member of international groups, including the United Nations,

the G20, the OECD, the World Trade Organization, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Islands Forum, the Pacific Community, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Defense and Security Organizations, Anzus and Akus, and the Five Eyes.

It is a major non-NATO ally of the United States. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis, southern land, a named used for our United States. a hypothetical continent in the southern hemisphere since ancient times. Several 16th century cartographers used the word Australia on maps, but not to identify modern Australia. When Europeans began visiting and mapping Australia in the 17th century, the name Terra Australas was applied to the new territories.

Until the early 19th century, Australia was best known as New Holland. a name first applied by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1644, and subsequently anglicized. Terra Australis still saw occasional usage, such as in scientific texts. The name Australia was popularized by the explorer Matthew Flinders, who said it was more agreeable to the ear and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth. The first time that Australia appears to have been officially used was in April 1817, when Governor Lachlan Maguire acknowledged the receipt of Flinders' charts of Australia from Lord Bathurst. In 1817, Maguire recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted.

In 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially by that name. The first official published use of the new name came with the publication in 1830 of the Australia Directory by the Hydrographic Office. Colloquial names for Australia include Oz, Strawia, and Down Under. Other epithets include the Great Southern Land, the Lucky Country, the Sunburnt Country, and the Wide Brown Land. The latter two both derive from Dorothea McEller's

1908 poem, My Country. Indigenous Australians comprise two broad groups, the Aboriginal peoples of the Australian mainland and surrounding islands, including Tasmania, and the Torres Strait Islanders

who are a distinct Melanesian people. Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun 50,000 to 65, thousand years ago, with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea crossings from what is now Southeast Asia. It is uncertain how many waves of immigration may have contributed to these ancestors of modern Aboriginal Australians. The Madjib Beb Rock Shelter in Arnhem Land is recognized as the oldest site showing the presence of humans in Australia. The oldest human remains found are the

Lake Mungo remains, which have been dated to around 41,000 years ago. Aboriginal Australian culture is one of the oldest continuous cultures on earth. At the time of the first European contact, Aboriginal Australians were complex hunter-gatherers with diverse economies and societies, and spread across at least 250 different language groups. Estimates of the Aboriginal population before British settlement range from 300,000 to 1 million. Aboriginal Australians have an oral culture with spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the dream time.

The Torres Strait Islander people first settled their islands around 4,000 years ago, culturally and linguistically distinct from mainland aboriginal peoples, they were seafarers and obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas. Agriculture also developed on some islands and villages appeared by the 1300s. By the mid-18th century in northern Australia, contact, trade, and cross-cultural engagement had been established between local Aboriginal groups and Macassan Drepangers, visiting from present-day Indonesia.

The Dutch are the first Europeans that recorded sighting and making landfall on the Australian mainland. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet the Aboriginal people was the Doofkin, captain by Dutch navigator Willam Janssen. He cited the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606 and made landfall on the 26th. of February 1606 at the Penfather River near the modern town of Weipa on Cape York. Later that year, Spanish explorer Luis Vaz de Torres sailed through and navigated the Torres Strait Islands. The Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, and although no attempt at settlement was made, a number of shipwrecks

left men either stranded or, as in the case of Batavia in 1629, a run for mutiny and murder, thus becoming the first Europeans to permanently inhabit the continent. In 1770, Captain James Cook sailed along and mapped the East Coast, which he named New South Wales, and claimed for Great Britain. Following the loss of its American colonies in 1783,

the British government sent a fleet of ships, the first fleet, under the command of Captain Arthur Philip, to establish a new penal colony in New South Wales. A camp was set up and the Union flag raised at Sydney Cove Port Jackson on the 26th of January 1788, a date which later became Australia's National Day. Most early settlers were convicts transported for petty crimes, and assigned as laborers or servants to pre-settlers, non-convict immigrants.

While the majority of convicts settled into colonial society once emancipated, convict rebellions and uprisings were also staged, but invariably suppressed under martial law. The 1808 Rum Rebellion, the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia, instigated a two-year period of military rule. Over the following two decades, social and economic reforms, together with the establishment of a legislative council and a Supreme Court,

saw New South Wales transition from a penal colony to a civil society. The indigenous population declined for 150 years following European settlement, mainly due to infectious disease. British colonial authorities did not sign any treaties with Aboriginal groups. As settlement expanded, thousands of indigenous people died in frontier conflicts, while others were dispossessed of their traditional lands. In 1803, a settlement was established in von Diemen's land, present-day Tasmania, and in 1813 Gregory Blacksland, William Lawson, and William Wentworth crossed the

Blue Mountains west of Sydney, opening the interior to European settlement. The British claim extended to the whole Australian continent in 1827, when Major Edmund Lockyer established a settlement on King George Sound, modern-day Albany. The Swan River Colony, present-day Perth, was established in 1829, evolving into the largest Australian colony by area Western Australia. In accordance with population growth, separate colonies were carved from New South Wales, Tasmania in 1825, South Australia in 1836, New Zealand in 1841, Victoria in 1851, and Queensland in 1859. South Australia was founded as a free colony. It never accepted transported convicts.

Growing opposition to the convict system culminated in its abolition in the eastern colonies by the 1850s. Initially a free colony, Western Australia practiced penal transportation from 1850 to 1868. The six colonies individually gained responsible government between 1855 and 1890, thus becoming elective democracies managing most of their own affairs, while remaining part of the British Empire. The colonial office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs. In the mid-19th century, explorers such as Burke and Wills charted Australia's interior. A series of gold rushes beginning in the early 1850s led to an influx of new migrants from

China, North America, and continental Europe, as well as outbreaks of bush-ranging and civil unrest. The latter peaked in 1854 when Ballarat miners launched their Eureka rebellion against gold license fees. The 1860s saw a surge in blackbirding, particularly in Queensland, where Pacific Islanders were often forced into indentured servitude. During this period, thousands of Australian colonists served in the New Zealand Wars. The Second Boer War marked the first major overseas deployment of Australia's colonial forces. From 1886, Australian colonial governments began introducing policies, resulting in the removal of many Aboriginal children from their families and communities. On the 1st of January, 2001, Federation of the Colonies was achieved

after a decade of planning, constitutional conventions, and referendums, resulting in the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia as a nation under the new Australian Constitution. After the 1907 Imperial Conference, Australia and several other self-governing British settler colonies were given the status of self-governing dominions within the British Empire. Australia was one of the founding members

of the League of Nations in 1920 and subsequently of the United Nations in 1945. The statute of Westminster, 1931, formally ended the ability of the UK to pass laws with effect at the Commonwealth level in Australia without the country's consent. Australia adopted it in 1942, but it was backdated to 1939, to confirm the validity of legislation passed by the Australian Parliament during World War II. The Australian Capital Territory was formed in 2011, as the location. for the future federal capital of Canberra.

While it was being constructed, Melbourne served as a temporary capital from 1901 to 1927. The northern territory was transferred from the control of the South Australian government to the federal parliament in 1911. Australia became the colonial ruler of the territory of Papua, which had initially been annexed by Queensland in 1983 in 1902, and of the territory of New Guinea, formerly German New Guinea, in 1920. The two were unified as the territory of Papua New Guinea in 1949, and gained independence from Australia in 1975.

In 1914, Australia joined the Allies in fighting the First World War and took part in many of the major battles fought on the Western Front. of about 416,000 who served, about 60,000 were killed, and another 152,000 were wounded. Many Australians regarded the defeat of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, ANZAC, had Gallipoli in 1915 as the baptism of fire that forged the new nation's identity. The beginning of the campaign is commemorated annually on Anzac Day, a day which rivals Australia Day as the nation's most important. From 1939 to 1945, Australia joined the Allies in fighting the Second World War. Australia's armed forces fought in the Pacific, European, and Mediterranean and Middle East theaters.

The shock of Britain's defeat in Singapore in 1942, followed soon after by the bombing of Darwin and other Japanese attacks on Australian soil, led to a widespread belief in Australia that a Japanese invasion was imminent, and a shift from the United Kingdom to the United States as Australia's principal ally and security partner. Since 1951, Australia has been allied with the United States under the ANSUS Treaty. In the decades following World War II, Australia enjoyed significant increases in living standards, leisure time, and suburban development. Using the slogan, Populate or Parish, the nation encouraged a large wave of immigration from across Europe, with such immigrants referred to as New Australians. A member of the Western Bloc during the Cold War, Australia participated in the Korean, War and the Malayan emergency during the 1950s, and the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1972.

During this time, tensions over communist influence in society led to unsuccessful attempts by the Menzies government to ban the Communist Party of Australia and a bitter split in the Labor Party in 1955. As a result of a 1967 referendum, the federal government gained the power to legislate with regard to indigenous Australians, and indigenous Australians were fully included in the census. Pre-colonial land and tris, referred to as native title in Australia, was recognized in law for the first time when the High Court of Australia held in Maybo v. Queensland that Australia was neither terra nullius, land belonging to no one, or desert and uncultivated land, at the time of European settlement. Following the abolition of the last vestiges of the white Australia policy in

1973, Australia's demography and culture transformed as a result of a large and ongoing wave of non-European immigration, mostly from Asia. The late 20th century also saw an increasing focus on foreign policy ties with other Pacific Rim nations. The Australian Act severed the remaining constitutional ties, between Australia and the United Kingdom, while maintaining the monarch in her independent capacity as Queen of Australia. In a 1999 constitutional referendum, 55% of voters rejected abolishing the monarchy and becoming a republic. Following the September 11th attacks on the United States,

Australia joined the United States in fighting the Afghanistan War from 2001 to 2021. and the Iraq War from 2003 to 2009. The nation's trade relations also became increasingly oriented towards East Asia in the 21st century, with China becoming the nation's largest trading partner by a large margin. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, several of Australia's largest cities were locked down for extended periods, and free movement across the national and state borders was restricted, in an attempt to slow the spread of the SARS-COVID-2 virus.

Surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans, Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafra and Timor seas, with the coral sea lying off the Queensland coast, and the Tasman Sea lying between Australia and New Zealand. The world's smallest continent and sixth largest country by total area, Australia, owing to its size and isolation, is often dubbed the island continent and is sometimes considered the world's largest island.

Australia has 34,280 kilometers of coastline, excluding all offshore islands, and claims an extensive exclusive economic zone of 8,148,250, 250 square kilometers. This exclusive economic zone does not include the Australian Antarctic Territory. Mainland Australia lies between latitudes 9 degrees and 44 degrees south and longitudes 112 degrees and 154 degrees east.

Australia's size gives it a wide variety of landscapes, with tropical rainforests in the northeast, mountain ranges in the southeast, southwest, and east, and desert in the south. the center. The desert or semi-arid land commonly known as the outback makes up by far the largest portion of land. Australia is the driest inhabited continent. Its annual rainfall averaged over continental area is less than 500 millimeters. The population density is 3.4 inhabitants per square kilometer, although the large majority of the population lives along the temperate southeastern coastline. The population density exceeds 19,500 inhabitants per square kilometer in central Melbourne. In 2021, Australia had 10% of the global permanent meadows and

pasture land. The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the northeast coast and extends for over 2,000 kilometers. Mount Augustus claimed to be the world's largest monolith is located in Western Australia. At 2,228 meters or 7,310 feet, Mount Koshuco is the highest mountain in the Australian mainland, even taller Armacin Peak at 2,745 meters on the remote Australian external territory of Heard Island, and in the Australian Antarctic territory, Mount McClintock and Mount Menzies at 3,492 meters and 3,355 meters respectively. Eastern Australia is marked by the Great Dividing Range,

which runs parallel to the coast of Queensland, New South Wales, and much of Victoria. The name is not strictly accurate because parts of the range consist of low hills, and highlands are typically no more than 1,600 meters in hide. The coastal uplands and a belt of brigolo grasslands lie between the coast and the mountains, while inland of the dividing range are large areas of grassland and shrubland. These include the western plains of New South Wales, and the Mitchell Grass Downs and Mugah lands of inland Queensland.

The northernmost point of the mainland is the tropical Cape York Peninsula. The landscape of the top end and the Gulf country with their tropical climate include forest, woodland, wetland, grassland, rainforest, and desert. At the northwest corner of the continent are the sandstone cliffs and gorges of the Kimberley and below that the Pilbara. The Victorian plains, tropical savanna lies south of the Kimberley and Arnhem Land savannas, forming a transition between the coastal savannas and the interior deserts. At the heart of the country are the uplands of Central Australia.

Prominent features of the center and south include Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, the famous sandstone monolith, and the inland Simpson, Terrari and Sturt Stony, Gibson, Great Sandy, Tanami, and Great Victoria Deserts. with the famous Nellarboard plain on the southern coast. The Western Australian Muggo shrublands lie between the interior deserts and the Mediterranean climate southwest Australia. Lying on the Indo-Australian plate, the mainland of Australia is the lowest and most primordial landmass on Earth, with a relatively stable geological history.

The landmass includes virtually all-known rock types, and from all geological time periods spanning over 3.8 billion years of the Earth's history. The Pilbara Cratton is one of only two pristine Archaean 3.6 to 2.7 billion years ago, Cruss identified on the Earth. Having been part of all major supercontinants, the Australian continent began to form after the breakup of Condwana and the Permian, with the separation of the continental landmass from the African continent and Indian subcontinent.

It separated from Antarctica over a prolonged period, beginning in the Permian and continuing through to the Cretaceous. When the last glacial period ended in about 10,000 BC, rising sea levels formed Bass Strait, separating Tasmania from the mainland. Then between about 8,000 and 6,000, 5,500 BC, the lowlands in the north were flooded by the sea, separating New Guinea, the Arou Islands, and the mainland of Australia. The Australian continent is moving toward Eurasia at the rate of 6 to 7

centimeters a year. The Australian mainland's continental crust, excluding the thinned margins, has an average thickness of 38 kilometers, with a range and thickness from 24 kilometers to 59, kilometers. Australia's geology can be divided into several main sections, showcasing that the continent grew from west to east. The archaean crotonic shields found

mostly in the west, Praterozoic fold belts in the center, and phanerozoic sedimentary basins, metamorphic and igneous rocks in the east. The Australian mainland and Tasmania are situated in the middle of the tectonic plate and have no active volcanoes. But due to passing over the East Australia hotspot,

recent volcanism has occurred during the Holocene and the newer volcanic province of Western Victoria and southeastern South Australia. Volcanism also occurs in the island of New Guinea, considered geologically as part of the Australian continent, and in the Australian external territory of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands. Seismic activity in the Australian mainland and Tasmania is also low,

with the greatest number of fatalities having occurred in the 1989 Newcastle earthquake. The climate of Australia is significantly influenced by ocean currents, including the Indian Ocean dipole and the El Niño's southern oscillation, which is correlated with periodic drought, and the seasonal tropical low-pressure system that produces cyclones in northern Australia. These factors cause rainfall to vary markedly from year to year. Much of the northern part of the country has a tropical, predominantly summer rainfall, monsoon. The southwest corner of the country has a Mediterranean climate.

The southeast ranges from Oceanic, Tasmania, and coastal Victoria, a humid subtropical, upper half of New South Wales, with the highlands featuring alpine and sub-bolar oceanic climates. The interior is arid to semi-arid. Driven by climate change, average temperatures have risen more than 1 degree Celsius since 1960. Associated changes in rainfall patterns and climate extremes exacerbate existing issues such as drought and bushfire. 2019 was Australia's warmest recorded year, and the 2019-2020 bushfire season was the country's worst on record.

Australia's greenhouse gas emissions per capita are among the highest in the world. Water restrictions are frequently in place in many regions and cities of Australia in response to chronic shortage due to urban population increases and localized drought. throughout much of the continent, major flooding regularly follows extended periods of drought, flushing out inland river systems, overflowing dams, and inundating large inland floodplains has occurred throughout eastern Australia in the early 2010s after the 2000s Australian drought. Although most of Australia is semi-arid or desert, the continent includes a diverse range of habitats from alpine heath to tropical rainforest. Fungi typify that diversity, an estimated 250,000 species,

of which only 5% have been described, occur in Australia. Because of the continent's great age, extremely variable weather patterns, and long-term geographic isolation, much of Australia's biota is unique. about 85% of flowering plants, 84% of mammals, more than 45% of birds, and 89% of inshore temperate zone fish or endemic. Australia has at least 755 species of reptile, more than any other country in the world. Besides Antarctica, Australia is the only continent that developed without feline species. Farrow cats may have been introduced in the 17th century by Dutch shipwrecks

and later in the 18th century by European settlers. They are now considered a major factor in the decline and extinction of many vulnerable and endangered native species. Seafaring immigrants from Asia are believed to have brought the dingo to Australia sometime after the end of the last ice age, perhaps 4,000 years ago, and Aboriginal people helped disperse them across the continent as pets, contributing to the demise of thylacines on the mainland. Australia is also one of 17 megadiverse countries.

Australian forests are mostly made up of evergreen species, particularly eucalyptus trees in the less arid regions. Waddles replaced them as the dominant species in drier regions and deserts. Among well-known Australian animals are, are the monotrems, the platypus and echinah, a host of marsupials, including the kangaroo, koala, and wombat, and birds such as the emu and the cuckabura. Australia is home to many dangerous animals, including some of the most venomous snakes in the world. The dingo was introduced by Austronesian people who traded with indigenous Australians around 3,000 BCE. Many animal

and plant species became extinct soon after first human settlement, including the Australian megafauna. Others have disappeared since European settlement, among them the thylacine. Many of Australia's ecoregions and the species within those regions are threatened by human activities and introduced animal, chromiston, fungal, and plant species. All these factors have led to Australia's having the highest mammal extinction rate in any country in the world. The Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is the legal framework for the protection of threatened species. Numerous protected areas have been created under the national strategy for the conservation of Australia's biological diversity to protect and preserve

of unique ecosystems. 65 wetlands are listed under the Ramsar Convention, and 16 natural world heritage sites have been established. Australia was ranked 21st out of 178 countries in the world on the 2018 Environmental Performance Index. There are more than 1,800 animals and plants on Australia's threatened species list, including more than 500 animals. Paleontologists discovered a fossil site of prehistoric rainforest in McGrath's flat in South Australia. That presents evidence that this is now arid desert and dry shrubland grassland was once home to an abundance of life.

Australia is a constitutional monarchy, a parliamentary democracy, and a federation. The country has maintained its mostly unchanged constitution alongside a stable liberal democratic, political system since Federation in 1901. It is one of the world's oldest federations in which power is divided between the federal and state and territory governments. The Australian system of government combines elements derived from the political system of the United Kingdom, a fused executive, constitutional monarchy, and strong party discipline, and the United States, federalism, a written constitution,

and strong bicameralism with an elected upper house, resulting in a distinct hybrid. The federal government is separated into three branches. Legislature, the bicameral parliament comprising the monarch, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Executive, the cabinet led by the Prime Minister, the leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the House of Representatives, and other ministers they have chosen, formerly appointed by the Governor General, Judiciary, the High Court of Australia, and other federal courts. Charles III reigns as king of Australia

and is represented in Australia by the Governor General at the federal level and by the governors at the state level, who by Section 63 of the Constitution and Convention Act on the advice of their ministers. Thus, in practice, the governor's General acts as a legal figurehead for the actions of the Prime Minister in the Cabinet. The Governor General may in some situations exercise powers in the absence or contrary to ministerial advice using reserve powers. When these powers may be exercised is governed by

convention and their precise scope is unclear. The most notable exercise of these powers was the dismissal of the Whitlam government in the constitutional crisis of 1975. In the Senate, the Upper House, there are 76 senators, 12 each from the states and two each from the mainland territories, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. The House of Representatives, the Lower House, has 151 members elected from single-member electoral divisions, commonly known as electorates or seats, allocated to states on the basis of population, with each of the current states guaranteed a minimum of five seats. The lower house has a maximum term of three years, but the ability to hold an election before this maximum time has led to

elections occurring on average once every two and a half years since Federation, 2.8 years since 1990. Elections for both chambers are generally held simultaneously with senators having overlapping six-year terms, except for those from the territories, whose terms are not fixed but are tied to the electoral cycle for the lower house. Thus, only 40 of the 76 places in the Senate are put to each election unless the cycle is interrupted by a double dissolution. Australia's electoral system uses preferential voting for all lower House elections, with the exception of Tasmania and the Act, which, along with the Senate and most state upper houses, combine it with proportional representation in a system known as the single transferable vote. Voting is compulsory for all enrolled citizens

18 years and over in every jurisdiction, as is enrollment. The party with majority support in the House of Representatives, forms that government and its leader becomes Prime Minister. In cases where no party has majority support, the Governor General has the constitutional power to appoint the Prime Minister, and if necessary, dismiss one that has lost the confidence of Parliament. Due to the relatively unique position of Australia operating as a Westminster parliamentary democracy with the powerful and elected upper house, the system has sometimes been referred to as having a Westminster mutation, or as a semi-parliamentary system.