Australian Geography and Nature

Geography And Nature

326 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

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All 326 questions

  1. Complete the sentence about Sydney with the correct year: During his first Pacific voyage in ______, James Cook charted the eastern coast of Australia, making landfall at Botany Bay.
  2. Complete the sentence about Sydney with the correct year: In ______, the First Fleet of convicts, led by Arthur Phillip, founded Sydney as a British penal colony, the first European settlement in Aust…
  3. Complete the sentence about Melbourne with the correct year: In ______, a short-lived British penal settlement was established at Port Phillip, then part of the Colony of New South Wales.
  4. Complete the sentence about Perth with the correct year: Perth was founded by Captain James Stirling in ______ as the administrative centre of the Swan River Colony.
  5. Complete the sentence about Perth with the correct year: Perth was named after the city of Perth in Scotland, being proclaimed as a city by Queen Victoria in ______.
  6. Complete the sentence about Adelaide with the correct year: Named in honour of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, wife of King William IV, the city was founded in ______ as the planned capital for a freely s…
  7. Complete the sentence about Adelaide with the correct year: Within a few decades of European settlement of South Australia, Kaurna culture was almost completely lost, with the last speaker of Kaurna l…
  8. Complete the sentence about Gold Coast, Queensland with the correct year: The city grew from a collection of small townships, the earliest being Nerang in ______.
  9. Complete the sentence about Canberra with the correct year: On 1 January ______, federation of the colonies of Australia was achieved.
  10. Complete the sentence about Canberra with the correct year: The capital city was founded and formally named as Canberra in ______.
  11. Complete the sentence about Newcastle, New South Wales with the correct year: In June ______, a group of fishermen from the British convict outpost at Sydney, were driven by bad weather into a harbour…
  12. Complete the sentence about Newcastle, New South Wales with the correct year: Over a year later, in September ______, Lieutenant John Shortland explored the area and named the Hunter River.
  13. Complete the sentence about Wollongong with the correct year: The first Europeans to visit the area were the navigators George Bass and Matthew Flinders, who landed at Lake Illawarra in ______.
  14. Complete the sentence about Wollongong with the correct year: Charles Throsby established a stockman's hut in the area in ______.
  15. Complete the sentence about Wollongong with the correct year: In ______, Charles Throsby Smith and Sarah Broughton Smith became the first settlers in what is now Wollongong.
  16. Complete the sentence about Wollongong with the correct year: Further settlers arrived and in ______ a town was planned on the Smith property.
  17. Complete the sentence about Hobart with the correct year: Founded in ______ as a British penal colony, Hobart is Australia's second-oldest capital city after Sydney, New South Wales.
  18. Complete the sentence about Hobart with the correct year: The city was named the singular Hobart in ______, and an inhabitant is known as a Hobartian.
  19. Complete the sentence about Hobart with the correct year: Charles Darwin visited Hobart Town in February ______ as part of the Beagle expedition.
  20. Complete the sentence about Townsville with the correct year: Townsville is the industrial heart of northern Australia, with a GRP of $15.1 billion in ______.
  21. Complete the sentence about Townsville with the correct year: The Wulgurukaba claim to be the traditional owners of the Townsville city area; the Bindal had a claim struck out by the Federal Court of…
  22. Complete the sentence about Townsville with the correct year: James Cook visited the Townsville region on his first voyage to Australia in ______ but did not land there.
  23. Complete the sentence about Townsville with the correct year: In ______, Captain Phillip Parker King and botanist Alan Cunningham were the first Europeans to record a local landing.
  24. Complete the sentence about Cairns with the correct year: The city was founded in ______ and named after Sir William Wellington Cairns, following the discovery of gold in the Hodgkinson River.
  25. Complete the sentence about Cairns with the correct year: From ______ to the early 1870s, the area was known to the British simply as Trinity Bay.
  26. Complete the sentence about Darwin, Northern Territory with the correct year: On 9 September ______, HMS Beagle sailed into Darwin Harbour during its survey of the area.
  27. Complete the sentence about Toowoomba with the correct year: Toowoomba, one of Australia's oldest inland cities, was founded in ______ on the lands of the Giabal and Jarowair people.
  28. Complete the sentence about Ballarat with the correct year: Within months of Victoria separating from the colony of New South Wales in ______, gold was discovered near Ballarat, sparking the Victorian…
  29. Complete the sentence about Ballarat with the correct year: In ______, following a period of civil disobedience in Ballarat over gold licenses, local miners launched an armed uprising against governme…
  30. Complete the sentence about Ballarat with the correct year: The first Europeans to sight the area were an August ______ party of six men, including Thomas Livingstone Learmonth and Henry Anderson, who…
  31. Complete the sentence about Bendigo with the correct year: The discovery of gold on Bendigo Creek in ______ transformed the area from a sheep station into one of colonial Australia's largest boomtowns…
  32. Complete the sentence about Launceston, Tasmania with the correct year: Settled by Europeans in March ______, Launceston is one of Australia's oldest cities and it has many historic buildings.
  33. Complete the sentence about Rockhampton with the correct year: The Archer brothers took-up a run near Gracemere in ______, and more settlers arrived soon thereafter, enticed by the fertile valleys.
  34. Complete the sentence about Rockhampton with the correct year: The British colonisation of the area began in ______, when the Archer brothers, Charles and William, who were seeking grazing lands arriv…
  35. Complete the sentence about Bunbury, Western Australia with the correct year: Further economic growth was fuelled by completion of the South Western Railway in ______, which linked Bunbury with Perth.
  36. Complete the sentence about Bunbury, Western Australia with the correct year: The first registered sighting of Greater Bunbury was by French explorer Captain Louis de Freycinet from his ship the Casua…
  37. Complete the sentence about Bunbury, Western Australia with the correct year: In ______, Dr Alexander Collie and Lieutenant Preston explored the area of Bunbury on land.
  38. Complete the sentence about Bunbury, Western Australia with the correct year: In ______ Lieutenant Governor Sir James Stirling visited the area and a military post was subsequently established; it onl…
  39. Complete the sentence about Albury with the correct year: In ______, explorer Captain Charles Sturt discovered the Hume River downstream at its junction with the Murrumbidgee River.
  40. Complete the sentence about Wagga Wagga with the correct year: In ______, Charles Sturt became the first European explorer to visit the future site of the city.
  41. Complete the sentence about Wagga Wagga with the correct year: The town, positioned on the site of a ford across the Murrumbidgee, was surveyed and gazetted as a village in ______ and the town grew qu…
  42. Complete the sentence about Wagga Wagga with the correct year: After the war, Wagga Wagga was proclaimed as a city in ______ and new suburbs were developed to the south of the city.
  43. Complete the sentence about Wagga Wagga with the correct year: In ______, the city was amalgamated with the neighbouring Kyeamba and Mitchell Shires to form the City of Wagga Wagga local government ar…
  44. Complete the sentence about Broome, Western Australia with the correct year: In ______ he explored the coast from Shark Bay to La Grange Bay, from where he headed north leaving the Australian coast.
  45. Complete the sentence about Alice Springs with the correct year: The nearby settlement of Stuart was renamed Alice Springs on 31 August ______.
  46. Complete the sentence about Alice Springs with the correct year: The first aircraft, piloted by Francis Stewart Briggs, landed in ______.
  47. Complete the sentence about Alice Springs with the correct year: Central Australia's first hospital, Adelaide House, was built in ______ when the European population of the town was about 40.
  48. Complete the sentence about Fremantle with the correct year: The convict-built Fremantle Prison operated long after transportation of convicts ended in ______, and is now a World Heritage Site.
  49. Complete the sentence about Fremantle with the correct year: Declared a city in ______, Fremantle played a key role in World War II as the largest submarine base in the Southern Hemisphere.
  50. Complete the sentence about Fremantle with the correct year: Post-war immigration from Europe, particularly Italy, helped shape Fremantle's character, and it rapidly gentrified after hosting the _____…
  51. Complete the sentence about Fremantle with the correct year: The first Europeans to visit the site of modern-day Fremantle were Dutch explorers captained by Willem de Vlamingh, in ______.
  52. Complete the sentence about Fremantle with the correct year: The area was considered as a site for possible British settlement in ______, when Captain James Stirling, in HMS Success, explored the coas…
  53. Complete the sentence about Fremantle with the correct year: In early September ______, the merchant vessel Anglesea grounded at Gage Roads, at the mouth of the Swan River.
  54. Complete the sentence about Kalgoorlie with the correct year: The city was established in ______ during the Western Australian gold rushes.
  55. Complete the sentence about Kalgoorlie with the correct year: Despite that observation, the Forrest ministry selected "Kalgoorlie" in August ______, and that choice soon came to be accepted.
  56. Complete the sentence about Kalgoorlie with the correct year: The townsite of Boulder, gazetted in ______, is named after a gold mining lease, "The Great Boulder".
  57. Complete the sentence about Kalgoorlie with the correct year: The name of the mining lease, in turn, alludes to a discussion in ______ between four men in Dashwoods Gully, South Australia.
  58. Complete the sentence about Kalgoorlie with the correct year: In July ______, it sent William Brookman and Pearce to Coolgardie.
  59. Complete the sentence about Coober Pedy with the correct year: In ______, Scottish-born John McDouall Stuart was the first European explorer to pass near the site of Coober Pedy.
  60. Complete the sentence about Coober Pedy with the correct year: On 1 February ______, Wille Hutchison discovered the first opal in the area, after which the town was established.
  61. Complete the sentence about Coober Pedy with the correct year: In ______, five years later, a meeting settled on the name of Coober Pedy, when a post office was established.
  62. Complete the sentence about Noosa Heads with the correct year: A fatal shark attack of a 22-year-old surfer was recorded at Noosa in ______.
  63. Complete the sentence about Mildura with the correct year: The first Europeans in the area arrived in ______ and brought sheep to graze the rich pastures.
  64. Complete the sentence about Mildura with the correct year: After much political wrangling, the settlement of Mildura was established in ______.
  65. Complete the sentence about Bundaberg with the correct year: The district surveyor, John Thompson Charlton designed the city layout in ______, which planned for uniform square blocks with wide main st…
  66. Complete the sentence about Bundaberg with the correct year: An early influence on the development of Bundaberg came with the ______ Land Act, which was a famous Queensland via media, that aimed to cr…
  67. Complete the sentence about Bundaberg with the correct year: The economy of Bundaberg is based primarily on agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism, with a gross regional product at about…
  68. Complete the sentence about Katherine, Northern Territory with the correct year: Explorer John McDouall Stuart passed through the area in ______ on his successful third journey across the continent fr…
  69. Complete the sentence about Port Augusta with the correct year: In ______, it was extended to its last terminus at Alice Springs.
  70. Complete the sentence about Port Augusta with the correct year: The choice created a break of gauge at Port Augusta until the standard gauge track was extended to Port Pirie in ______.
  71. Complete the sentence about Whyalla with the correct year: The Whyalla Steelworks is the major employer in the town, and has in February ______ been put into voluntary administration by the Government…
  72. Complete the sentence about Whyalla with the correct year: In ______, BHP advised that the name had been taken from nearby Mount Whyalla, which lies northwest of Whyalla, roughly midway between the to…
  73. Complete the sentence about Mount Gambier with the correct year: The peak is marked by Centenary Tower, built in ______ to commemorate the first sighting by colonists.
  74. Complete the sentence about Mount Gambier with the correct year: In ______, Stephen Henty, one of the Henty brothers who occupied large landholdings at Portland and Merino, led an overland expedition…
  75. Complete the sentence about Mount Gambier with the correct year: The Henty brothers subsequently laid claim to Mount Gambier in ______ and established a sheep station there.
  76. Complete the sentence about Mount Gambier with the correct year: In March ______, a band of Aboriginal people led by Koort Kirrup took a large number of Henty's sheep.
  77. Complete the sentence about Sydney Opera House with the correct year: The Government of New South Wales, led by the premier, Joseph Cahill, authorised work to begin in ______ with Utzon directing cons…
  78. Complete the sentence about Sydney Opera House with the correct year: By ______, Goossens succeeded in gaining the support of New South Wales Premier Joseph Cahill, who called for designs for a dedica…
  79. Complete the sentence about Sydney Harbour Bridge with the correct year: The Moruya quarry was managed by John Gilmore, a Scottish stonemason who emigrated with his young family to Australia in ______…
  80. Complete the sentence about Bondi Beach with the correct year: In ______, the road builder William Roberts received a grant of land in the area.
  81. Complete the sentence about Bondi Beach with the correct year: The Waverley Council was responsible for building the first surf bathing sheds on the beach in ______.
  82. Complete the sentence about Uluru with the correct year: On 19 July ______, the surveyor William Gosse sighted the landmark and named it Ayers Rock in honour of the then Chief Secretary of South Austr…
  83. Complete the sentence about Uluru with the correct year: On 15 December ______, it was renamed "Ayers Rock / Uluru" and became the first official dual-named feature in the Northern Territory.
  84. Complete the sentence about Uluru with the correct year: The order of the dual names was officially reversed to "Uluru / Ayers Rock" on 6 November ______ following a request from the Regional Tourism…
  85. Complete the sentence about Kata Tjuta with the correct year: On 15 December ______, a dual naming policy was adopted that allowed official names consisting of both the traditional Pitjantjatjara name…
  86. Complete the sentence about Kata Tjuta with the correct year: On 6 November ______, following a request from the Regional Tourism Association, the order of the dual names was officially reversed, to K…
  87. Complete the sentence about Daintree Rainforest with the correct year: As of May ______, 72% of the properties earmarked for buyback or compensation had been secured.
  88. Complete the sentence about Great Ocean Road with the correct year: Surveying of the road, tentatively titled the South Coast Road, started in ______.
  89. Complete the sentence about Great Ocean Road with the correct year: In ______, the Great Ocean Road Trust was formed as a private company, under the helm of president Howard Hitchcock.
  90. Complete the sentence about Fraser Island with the correct year: On 7 June ______, the island was officially renamed K'gari by the state government.
  91. Complete the sentence about Whitsunday Islands with the correct year: In ______, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Whitsunday Islands became one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for their role as a…
  92. Complete the sentence about Ningaloo Reef with the correct year: In ______, the reef and surrounding waters were designated as the Ningaloo Marine Park.
  93. Complete the sentence about Shark Bay with the correct year: The area was given the name Shark Bay by the English explorer William Dampier, on 7 August ______.
  94. Complete the sentence about Purnululu National Park with the correct year: Purnululu National Park was the second conservation park to have traditional owners recognized after the Native Title Act ___…
  95. Complete the sentence about Kimberley with the correct year: The region was named in ______ by government surveyor Alexander Forrest after Secretary of State for the Colonies John Wodehouse, 1st Earl…
  96. Complete the sentence about Kimberley with the correct year: In ______, Western Australian government surveyor Alexander Forrest led a party of seven from the west coast at Beagle Bay to Katherine, No…
  97. Complete the sentence about Kimberley with the correct year: In ______, Philip Saunders and Adam Johns, in the face of great difficulties and dangers, found gold in various parts of the Kimberley.
  98. Complete the sentence about Great Victoria Desert with the correct year: In ______, British-born Australian explorer Ernest Giles became the first European to cross the desert.
  99. Complete the sentence about Great Victoria Desert with the correct year: In ______, David Lindsey's expedition travelled across this area from north to south.
  100. Complete the sentence about Gibson Desert with the correct year: Explorer Ernest Giles named the Gibson Desert after a member of his party, Alfred Gibson, who became lost and presumably died in this d…

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