10. Austria Republic of Austria
(Republik Osterreich)
Capital: Vienna Currency: Euro Area: 83,858 sq. km Coastline: Landlocked contact with Australia was in March 1606, when Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon charted the west coast of Cape York Pen insula, Queensland. Later that year, the Spanish explorer Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the strait separating Australia and Papua New Guinea. Over the next centuries, European explorers and traders continued to chart the coastline of Australia, then known as New Holland. In 1688, William Dampier became the first British explorer to land on the Australian coast, but it was not until Captain James Cook's voyage in 1770 that Great Britain claimed possession of the vast island, calling it New South Wales. A British penal colony was set up at Port Jackson (what is now Sydney) in 1788, and about 161,000 transported English convicts were settled there until the system was suspended in 1839.
Free settlers and former prisoners es tablished six colonies: New South Wales (1786), Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) (1825), Western Australia (1829), South Australia (1834), Victoria (1851), and Queensland (1859). Various gold rushes attracted settlers, as did the min ing of other minerals. Sheep farming and grain soon grew into important economic enterprises. The six colonies became states and in 1901 federated into the Common wealth of Australia with a constitution that incorporated British parliamentary and U.S.
federal traditions. Mission in India: High Commission for
Australia, 1/50-G, Shantipath, Chanaky apuri, New Delhi-110021. Tel: 41399900; Fax:4149 4491, 2688 7536. E-mail: austhighcom.newdelhi@dfat.gov.au
Mission in Australia: High Commission of India, 3-5, Moonah Place, Yarralumla, Canberra ACT-2600, Australia. Tel: 00 61-2-62733999; 62733774, 00-61-2 62735479 (After office hours); Fax: 00-61 2-62731308.
E-mail: is@hciindia-au.org Innsbruck; Languages: German; Religions: Roman Catholic-73.6%, Protestant-4.7%, Islam-4.2%; Literacy: 98%; Life Expec tancy: 80.24; p.c.i: $ 44,402; HDI rank: 21; Date of Independence: 1156.
Government Type: Federal Republic; President: Heinz Fischer; Head of Govt:
Chancellor: Werner Faymann
Climate: Temperate
Regional Divisions: 9 States Geography: Strategic location at the
crossroads of central Europe with many easily traversable Alpine passes and valleys; major river is the Danube; population is concentrated on eastern lowlands because of steep slopes, poor soils, and low tem peratures elsewhere.
History: Austria is no longer the dominant political force it was in Central Europe under the Hapsburg dynasty which ruled until the first world war. A republic since 1918, Austria, which was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1938, regained full sovereignty in 1955. Austria joined the EU on Jan. 1, 1995.
Mission in India: Embassy of Austria, EP 13, Chandragupta Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi-110021. Tel: 26889050/049; Fax: 26886929/26886033
E-mail: new-delhi-ob@bmaa.gv.at Indian Mission in Austria: Embassy of
India and Permanent Mission of India to the UN Offices in Vienna, Kaerntnerring 2, 1010 Vienna, Austria. Tel: 00-43-1 5058666; Fax: 00-43-1-5059219
E-mail: indemb@eoivien.vienna.at; Web: www.indiaembassy.at