What is (a wide treeless grassy plain)?

Answer 1

Australia is a vast continent and therefore has several different climate regions, meaning there is a wide range of environments.

In the south, where winters can be cold and wet and summers very hot and dry, the natural landscape is mostly bushland and prone to intense bushfires.

Much of the interior is semi-arid or desert so it has very hot days in summer, little rain and cooler evenings, while winters have mild days but very cold nights. In the south, extending for hundreds of thousands of square kilometres across the Great Australian Bight, is the Nullarbor Plain, a vast, treeless plain which is very hot and dry in summer but bitterly cold in winter, especially at night, when the wind whips over the plain.

The desert ranges from sandy desert and shifting dunes to stony "gibber" plain. Many of the deserts are not completely arid, having permanent waterholes and an abundance of low, hardy vegetation as well as birds, mammals and reptiles. There are vast saltpans in the outback of South Austraia and less so in other staes and territories. These saltpans can fill with water once every ten years or so, supporting thousands upon thousands of waterbirds, then dry up to crusty pans extending for hundreds of square kilometres.

Australia has thousands of kilometres of magnificent beaches, perfect for Surfing. It also has calm, sheltered bays where fishing and watersports are popular. There are colourful coral reefs and fascinating geological formations, relics of an ancient volcanic age. There are high, rugged mountain ranges and rolling, grassy hills.

The north is tropical, especially around northern Queensland and the "Top End", that is, the far north of the Northern Territory. There is a range of thick rainforest along the coast, but inland the region is hot, flat grassland which eventually gives way to semi-arid countryside. This northern region has a marked dry and wet season, which is more clearly defined than the standard four seasons. The wet, monsoonal season begins around October and extends through to the end of April. Temperatures in the wet season tend to be higher and humidity is very high.