Located in the southern hemisphere, Australia is the only country in the world that occupies an entire continent, with a land area of 7.69 million square kilometers, ranking sixth in the world, and is a vast country. However, Australia's total population is just over 25 million, and the average population density is only 3.2 people per square kilometer. Tibet, located on the snowy plateau of the mainland, has a population density of 2.8 people per square kilometer, which is similar to that of Australia. However, Australia's environment is naturally better than that of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, so why is Australia still vast and sparsely populated after more than three hundred years?
Military Network - Australia has a continent alone, at its peak, claiming to be the world's second largest territorial power
First of all, from a historical point of view, the continent where Australia is located is the last of the world's states to be discovered. Before the European colonists arrived on the continent in the eighteenth century, only 200,000 to 250,000 indigenous people lived here, and these natives were scattered throughout the continent, forming more than 500 tribes, large and small, most of which still lived by hunting and gathering.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the first to immigrate to Australia were the British colonists, who seized the most fertile land along the Coast of Australia with their advanced labor production tools and foreign guns and cannons. Grasslands, where the natives were able to move freely, forage, and hunt, were also occupied by colonists. The aborigines were forced to live in the hot forests of the Australian mainland.
In addition, the invading colonists used the usual barbaric and terrifying means to persecute and even openly slaughter the indigenous people in the local base, which also reduced the original population of the Australian continent. Those who survived were forced to endure the enslavement and exploitation of the colonizers.
Secondly, it has to do with the natural environment in Australia. More than two-thirds of Australia's areas are arid or semi-arid, deserts and semi-desert areas where it is difficult for humans to survive. The original indigenous peoples, as well as later European colonists, settled only in marginal areas with abundant water, abundant water and fertile land. Even now, most of Australia's cities are located along the coast because there are very few places suitable for human habitation on that continent. As a result, australia has not seen explosive population growth in the last three hundred years.
Finally, Australia's total population has largely exploded through immigration. However, the racist "White Australia Policy" implemented by the Australian colonial authorities in the past, coupled with the outbreak of two world wars in the twentieth century, has caused Australian immigration to frequently come to a standstill. Without large-scale international migration, relying only on the few remaining indigenous peoples and a small number of foreign colonists, it is difficult for Australia's population to explode.