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Australia (/əˈstreɪliə/ ( listen), /ɒ-/, /-ljə/),^[10][11] officially the Commonwealth of Australia,^[12] is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney.

For about 50,000 years^[13] before the first British settlement in the late 18th century,^[14][15] Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians,^[16] who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups.^[17][18] After the European discovery of the continent by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and initially settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored and an additional five self-governing crown colonies established. On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states and several territories.

Australia has the world's 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income (IMF).^[19] With the second-highest human development index globally, the country ranks highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, and civil liberties and political rights.^[20] Australia is a member of the United Nations, G20, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Trade Organization, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the Pacific Islands Forum. The population of 25 million^[5] is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard.^[21]Australia has the world's 9th largest immigrant population, with immigrants accounting for 26% of the population.

The name Australia (pronounced [əˈstɹæɪljə, -liə] in Australian English^[24]) is derived from the Latin Terra Australis ("southern land"), a name used for a hypothetical continent in the Southern Hemisphere since ancient times.^[25] When Europeans first began visiting and mapping Australia in the 17th century, the name Terra Australis was naturally 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 Tasmanin 1644 (as Nieuw-Holland) and subsequently anglicised. Terra Australis still saw occasional usage, such as in scientific texts.^{[N 5]} The name Australia was popularised 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".^[31] The first time that Australia appears to have been officially used was in April 1817, in which Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledged the receipt of Flinders' charts of Australia from Lord Bathurst.^[32] In December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted.^[33] In 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially by that name.^[34] The first official published use of the new name came with the 1830 publication of "The Australia Directory" by the Hydrographic Office.

Colloquial names for Australia include "Oz" and "the Land Down Under" (usually shortened to just "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 Mackellar's 1908 poem "My Country".

On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies was achieved after a decade of planning, consultation and voting.^[65] This established the Commonwealth of Australia as a dominion of the British Empire.^[66][67] The Federal Capital Territory (later renamed the Australian Capital Territory) was formed in 1911 as the location for the future federal capital of Canberra. Melbourne was the temporary seat of government from 1901 to 1927 while Canberra was being constructed.^[68] The Northern Territory was transferred from the control of the South Australian government to the federal parliament in 1911.^[69] In 1914, Australia joined Britain in fighting World War I, with support from both the outgoing Commonwealth Liberal Party and the incoming Australian Labor Party.^[70][71] Australians took part in many of the major battles fought on the Western Front.^[72] Of about 416,000 who served, about 60,000 were killed and another 152,000 were wounded.^[73] Many Australians regard the defeat of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) at Gallipoli as the birth of the nation—its first major military action.^[74][75] The Kokoda Track campaign is regarded by many as an analogous nation-defining event during World War II.

Britain's Statute of Westminster 1931 formally ended most of the constitutional links between Australia and the UK. Australia adopted itin 1942,^[77] but it was backdated to 1939 to confirm the validity of legislation passed by the Australian Parliament during World War II.^[78][79] The shock of the United Kingdom's defeat in Asia in 1942 and the threat of Japanese invasion caused Australia to turn to the United States as a new ally and protector.^[80] Since 1951, Australia has been a formal military ally of the US, under the ANZUS treaty.^[81] After World War II Australia encouraged immigration from mainland Europe. Since the 1970s and following the abolition of the White Australia policy, immigration from Asia and elsewhere was also promoted.^[82] As a result, Australia's demography, culture, and self-image were transformed.^[

The passing of the Australia Act 1986 ended all possibility for any vestigial role of the British government in the government in Australia and removed the already seldom-used option of judicial appeals to the Privy Council in London.^[84] In a 1999 referendum, 55% of voters and a majority in every state rejected a proposal to become a republic with a president appointed by a two-thirds vote in both Houses of the Australian Parliament. Since the election of the Whitlam Government in 1972,^[85] there has been an increasing focus in foreign policy on ties with other Pacific Rim nations, while maintaining close ties with Australia's traditional allies and trading partners.

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