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90% on 0.22% of land
Australia has only five major cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. Together they hold nearly two out of every three Australians, which makes Australia one of the most heavily urbanized nations in the world.
Hardly anyone lives deeper in the continent's vast interior, and that creates some bizarre situations. The Shire of East Pilbara in Western Australia is roughly the same size as Japan, yet a bit more than 10,000 people live there, and half of them live in the town of Newman.
It is basically a small town with the space of Japan.
Why do Australians cluster near the coast?
The coastal fringe gets the rain, and most of the interior does not. Colonies were also founded as ports, because ships carried the wool, wheat, and people that made them work, and railways were laid inland from the harbors. Sydney was sited beside a freshwater stream, the Tank Stream, which flowed into Sydney Cove. The Tank Stream was the colony's first water source.
Why does a mining town sit in the Pilbara?
The Pilbara holds some of the largest iron ore deposits on Earth. Newman was built in the 1960s to house workers for the nearby Mount Whaleback mine. Many workers across the region fly in and out on rosters rather than live nearby. Ore from the region travels by rail to ports such as Port Hedland.
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