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is the world's smallest continent and sixth-largest country. With proportionately more desert land than any other continent, has a low population density. Lying completely in the Southern Hemisphere, is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the west and south and by ....

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.... terra australis incognita, meaning "unknown southern land," which resulted from a confusion between Australia and Antarctica on early world maps. In many ways Australia is unusual among continents. It lacks major relief features and has a high proportion of dry land. The continent's isolation from other landmasses accounts for its unique varieties of vegetation and animal life, and for the existence of a Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) culture among the Aborigines. Except for Antarctica, Australia was probably the last continent to be inhabited by humans and the last to be explored and settled by Europeans. It is the only continent comprising a single ....