Australia, the world's largest island is also the world's smallest continent with a total area of 7.7 million km2, measuring 3685km from the north to south and 3975 from east to west. Over countless millions of years, this island has developed its own extraordinary landscapes and natural wonders. For an estimated 60,000 years, Australia was home to a diverse Aboriginal population who knew the land and its moods intimately. For the first European settlers, who arrived in 1788, this was a strange and unfamiliar country, with many wild animals and much harsher and inhospitable conditions than they had ever experienced.