Australia verses Europe In Size?

Recently received an email with a scaled Map of both Australia and Europe. This e-mail was obviously taken from a Post Card and was a same-scaled pictation of both continents, with Europe superimposed over the map of Australia with lots of spare space to share even then.

This again just shows the size of Australia compared to many, many other countries of the world, despite our minuscule population (by the rest of the world’s standards at least).

This was also highlighted by an article in the Herald Sun Newspaper of July 29 2008, which had a chart of the current population densities of the various states and Territories of Australia, which just confirm this fact.

Despite our huge landmass, the average population density for the whole of Australia is just 2.7 people per square Kilometre. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) which was created out of Farmland over a hundred years ago, roughly halfway between Melbourne and Sydney for no other reason than to be our Capital City and base of The Federal Government, naturally holds the record out of the 8 individual states and Territories, with the impressive figure of 142.1 people per square Kilometre. However when you leave this artificial Territory and get to the real Australia, the next highest, is my own state of Victoria with only 22. 6 people per Square kilometre. From there, it drops to 8.5 for New South Wales and 7.2 for Tasmania. The remaining 3 States and one Territory are all below thee national average with West Australia (0.8) and the Northern Territory (0.2) both below one percent.

So you see just being big doesn’t mean much at all if you don’t also have the people too. And in Australia’s case and particularly Victoria’s, with out Natural resources like water and other commodities, which are currently in scarce supply, we can’t comfortably expand any more either. So although Australia’s population is only a tad over 20 million these days; that is pretty much all it can carry comfortably, with out major Changes in the way we live.

So today if you feel like bigger neighbours are dwarfing you, don’t be discouraged, as biggest, doesn’t always mean being best. And if you are being tempted to expand beyond your present capabilities like what is currently being suggested here, resist that urge until you have all the proper conditions in place, in case you end Up like Star Bucks, who, also on July 29^th, announced that they were closing most of their Australian stores and laying off close to 700 Staff here, on top of what they had earlier announced in America.

So the moral of the story today is two fold.

1. Don’t be size envious. And Two. Grow at the proper rate and speed, and don’t over extend yourself if you can’t really maintain it. Take care and have a great day, just as you are now.