If you were given 700 acres of land, what would you do with it?
Grow crops, fruits, or vegetables?
No matter what you do with this land, you won't let it be empty anyway.
However, for Australia, a very wayward country, they have a land area of 7.69 million square kilometers, but more than 95% of the area is uninhabited.
What's going on here?
Vast and sparsely populated Australia
When it comes to Australia, the first thing that comes to mind is the "kangaroo" that is roaming around in this country, after all, this is their national treasure and the country's iconic species.
This animal has an unusual meaning for Australians, because the kangaroo only jumps forward and never retreats, which also represents a spirit of their country.
Kangaroos can be seen on some of their stamps or when they promote tourism.
However, perhaps it is precisely because of its status as a "national treasure" that people dare not fight at will when they see them, which leads to their "national treasures" being lawless, and even directly flooding on the spot.
In addition to kangaroos, Australia is actually a "paradise" for other species.
For example, crayfish, in addition to flooding on the mainland, is also in a state of flooding in Australia, and even Australian lobsters are no exception.
Whether it's for animals or foodies, Australia is a "paradise" existence.
Australia itself has a very large area, they are the only country in the world that occupies the entire continent, and it is the sixth largest country in the world.
According to relevant data, Australia's land area is about 7.69 million square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of 48 states in the United States.
The distance between east and west is 3,700 kilometers, and the distance between north and south is 3,200 kilometers, which is almost the highest in the world.
In other words, Australia has a very large land area, and they are surrounded by the South Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, so it gives people a sense of abundance and vitality.
But for people, Australia is not as "beautiful" as they think, but very "crowded".
The population of this country is only 25 million, and if the entire land area is divided equally, then one person can even get 178 square kilometers of land.
It can be said that here, everyone can become a big landowner, but what people didn't expect is that they live together very densely.
Judging from the population density distribution map, the main population of Australia is actually distributed in the southeast coastal area, that is, the well-known Melbourne, Sydney and other cities.
You know, the total population of the 48 states of the United States has exceeded 300 million people, and although Australia is larger, the population is much smaller.
It's understandable that there are fewer people, but they are all crammed into the same area, resulting in a very uneven distribution of the population of the whole country.
In other words, although Australia has a vast expanse of land, they have only successfully used only 5% of the entire country's area, and the remaining 95% of the country's land area is actually equivalent to a no-man's land.
This is also a very strange thing, why do you waste so much land when you have so much land, and everyone is crowded into so many places?
Why is it uninhabited
In fact, this has a lot to do with Australia's geographical location and climate.
Although Australia is a very large country, the real rainforest and grassland environment is actually only distributed in the southeast of Australia, and most of the rest is desert and semi-desert areas.
You know, desert areas are most typical of water shortages, droughts, and high temperatures, which is why Australia is facing a large area.
In particular, the southwestern part of the country is affected by the cold wave between the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica, and the lack of warm currents and heat, which has led to severe desertification.
In this climate, people have no way to grow crops or make a living.
Therefore, in order to maintain a normal life, people have to settle in places with mild climates, which is why many Australians live together together.
Besides, there is not much water resources in the desert at all, which cannot meet people's normal life, while Sydney is close to the coastline, and water resources are very abundant, which provides great convenience for people's lives.
In desert areas, some poisonous snakes and poisonous insects are "frequent visitors", which actually has a very great impact on people's residence, under such conditions, how can people be "safe and sound"?
Of course, there are some reasons behind this in the history of Australia.
According to the data, Australia was only discovered by seafarers in the 17th century.
When the land was first discovered, there were very few indigenous people, and the total population was estimated to be less than 500,000.
It didn't take long for the British to occupy the area with their troops, and after that, Australia became a British colony.
However, at that time, the British did not plan to develop this area well, but only planned to use this land as a "prison" for exiled prisoners.
These exiled people were casually thrown on the edge of the coast, after all, this is the closest to the sea, it is very convenient for them to land, and there is no need to develop inside, which can save a lot of manpower and material resources.
After that, Australia's coastal cities were gradually established.
Australia's original aborigines were deported to those areas with a hot climate, and very few survived.
The people in Australia today are basically immigrants in the later period, and they are not natives of Australia.
Therefore, in fact, many people living in Australia do not have a sense of belonging to this country.
Even now, there are hundreds of thousands of people who immigrate to Australia every year.
Not only that, but the country also pays great attention to environmental protection and wildlife protection, and they have done a lot to do this, such as protecting the environment in which wild animals live.
Since then, much of Australia's land has been designated as "land reserves" and is strictly forbidden to be developed or inhabited.
In fact, this also restricts some use or development of national land to a large extent.
So, although Australia seems to have a very large area, their actual utilization rate is pitifully low.
Information sources:
Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China Australia Profile, 2014-03-20 13:03
China Consular Service Network "Australia-Country Profile"