Australia ‘one of the last great wildernesses’

Almost half of the land mass of Australia remains untouched by humans, new research has found.

Almost half of the land mass of Australia remains untouched by humans, new research has found.

In news which may be of interest to those considering booking holidays to Australia, 40 per cent of the country was classed as wilderness by a report from the Pew Environment Group and Nature Conservancy.

This makes up an area the size of India and includes land in the interior and northern savannah, including largely Aboriginal Arnhem Land, northern Cape York Peninsula, the vast south-west Nullarbor plain and the central Gibson desert.

Dr Barry Traill, co-author of the study and director of the Wild Australia Programme, said: “As the world’s last great wilderness areas disappear under pressure from human impact, to have a continent with this much remaining wilderness intact is unusual and globally significant.”

In other Australia news, Sydney was recently voted the world’s fourth-best city in a poll carried out by US magazine Travel and Leisure.

The city, situated on the south-east coast, was also named the best city in the awards for the Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific region.