Southeastern Australia

Credit: Image courtesy of Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS, NASA, Posted on: Wednesday, 19 November 2003, 06:00 CST Download full size image

This MODIS scene of southeastern Australia reveals two keys to Australian agriculture: the pattern of greater rainfall to the south than north, and the effect of the Great Dividing Range on rainfall patterns. To the north, image top, the land is very flat and dry. The large white feature to the upper left is Lake Eyre, a giant salt pan which fills with water only every few decades. The vertical black line marks the border between the states of South Australia, New South Wales (NSW, north), and Victoria (south), with the NSW-Victoria border formed by the Murray River. Just shy of the point where the three states meet, the Darling River joins the Murray. In the center of Victoria on its southern coast lies the huge Port Phillip Bay with the cities of Melbourne to its north and east, and Geelong on the its western extension. Melbourne has grown to be one of the largest cities in Australia due to a convergence of geographic effects.

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