million (1997)
Television broadcast stations:
104 (1997)
Televisions:
10.15 million (1997)
Internet country code:
.au
Internet hosts:
11.134 million (2008)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
571 (2002)
Internet users:
11.24 million (2007)
Transportation
Australia
Airports:
461 (2007)
Airports - with paved runways:
total: 317 over 3,047 m: 11 2,438 to 3,047 m: 12 1,524 to 2,437 m: 138 914 to 1,523 m: 143 under 914 m: 13 (2007)
Airports - with unpaved runways:
total: 144 1,524 to 2,437 m: 19 914 to 1,523 m: 109 under 914 m: 16 (2007)
Heliports:
1 (2007)
Pipelines:
condensate/gas 469 km; gas 26,719 km; liquid petroleum gas 240 km; oil 3,720 km; oil/gas/water 110 km (2007)
Railways:
total: 38,550 km broad gauge: 3,727 km 1.600-m gauge standard gauge: 20,519 km 1.435-m gauge (1,877 km electrified) narrow gauge: 14,074 km 1.067-m gauge (2,453 km electrified) dual gauge: 230 km dual gauge (2006)
Roadways:
total: 812,972 km paved: 341,448 km unpaved: 471,524 km (2004)
Waterways:
2,000 km (mainly used for recreation on Murray and Murray-Darling river systems) (2006)
Merchant marine:
total: 50 by type: bulk carrier 12, cargo 5, chemical tanker 1, container 1, liquefied gas 4, passenger 7, passenger/cargo 7, petroleum tanker 8, roll on/roll off 5 foreign-owned: 24 (Canada 9, France 1, Germany 2, Japan 1, Netherlands 2, Norway 1, Singapore 1, UK 5, US 2) registered in other countries: 28 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Belize 1, Bermuda 1, Dominica 2, Fiji 1, Marshall Islands 1, NZ 1, Panama 4, Singapore 12, Tonga 1, US 1, Vanuatu 2) (2008)
Ports and terminals:
Brisbane, Dampier, Fremantle, Gladstone, Hay Point, Melbourne,
Newcastle, Port Hedland, Port Kembla, Port Walcott, Sydney
Military
Australia
Military branches:
Australian Defense Force (ADF): Australian Army, Royal Australian
Navy, Royal Australian Air Force, Special Operations Command (2006)
Military service age and obligation:
17 years of age for voluntary military service (with parental consent); no conscription; women allowed to serve in Army combat units in non-combat support roles (2008)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 16–49: 4,999,988 females age 16–49: 4,870,043 (2008 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 16–49: 4,137,176 females age 16–49: 4,022,588 (2008 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:
male: 144,934 female: 137,511 (2008 est.)
Military expenditures:
2.4% of GDP (2006)
Transnational Issues
Australia
Disputes - international:
Timor-Leste and Australia agreed in 2005 to defer the disputed portion of the boundary for fifty years and to split hydrocarbon revenues evenly outside the Joint Petroleum Development Area covered by the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty; dispute with Timor-Leste hampers creation of a revised maritime boundary with Indonesia in the Timor Sea; regional states continue to express concern over Australia's 2004 declaration of a 1,000-nautical mile-wide maritime identification zone; Australia asserts land and maritime claims to Antarctica; in 2004 Australia submitted its claims to Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) to extend its continental margins covering over 3.37 million square kilometers, expanding its seabed roughly thirty percent more than its claimed exclusive economic zone; since 2003, Australia has led the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) to maintain civil and political order and reinforce regional security
Illicit drugs:
Tasmania is one of the world's major suppliers of licit opiate products; government maintains strict controls over areas of opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate; major consumer of cocaine and amphetamines
This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008
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@Austria
Introduction
Austria
Background:
Once the center of power for the large Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria was reduced to a small republic after its defeat in World War I. Following annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938 and subsequent occupation by the victorious Allies in 1945, Austria's status remained unclear for a decade. A State Treaty signed in 1955 ended the occupation, recognized Austria's independence, and forbade unification with Germany. A constitutional law that same year declared the country's "perpetual neutrality" as a condition for Soviet military withdrawal. The Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 and Austria's entry into the European Union in 1995 have altered the meaning of this neutrality. A prosperous, democratic country, Austria entered the EU Economic and Monetary Union in 1999.
Geography
Austria
Location:
Central Europe, north of Italy and Slovenia
Geographic coordinates:
47 20 N, 13 20 E
Map references:
Europe
