Why 95% of Australia is Empty

Absolutely true, being from the US I thought some of the Western US States were barren because, in some areas, you could drive 30-40 miles and not see a town or gas station. I visited a college friend from Australia and he decided to give me the full "Outback" experience, I knew something was up when he started filling the back of his SUV with gas cans. We drove close to 800 miles and saw NOTHING in the way of humanity. It was seriously like being on Mars or something

As an Aussie I have a lot of respect for this video, taking the time to actually explain our population density and geography. However if you asked any Australian why no one lives inland you'd get a pretty standard answer "cause it's too f***ing hot"

As a Dutchman the idea of driving for three hours and not skipping a border or two is utterly alien to me. I hope to visit Australia soon.

As someone that lives in the interior of Australia the only thing I think this video forgot to mention explicitly is the wild temperature variation. It's currently negative 5 degrees where I live and in 4 months time it's likely to be 35 degrees plus. And I live in one of the more reasonable areas of the country. Australia is a harsh unforgiving environment with a lot of dangerous things to be aware of

As an Australian it's hard to imagine places that have major cities close to each other

I remember reading a book about AC/DC and they said before they were extremely famous whenever they toured in Europe they would laugh when other bands would complain about traveling a few hours between cities because they were use to driving thousands of kilometers between shows back in Australia.

I’m an Aussie and I really do appreciate the effort that you have put into this video. Without watching the video I can confidently say that people in Australia live on the coasts because it’s more habitable with the beaches and it isn’t anywhere near as hot. Not many people live in the centre and nearing land due to the heat and how unbearable it would be to live there. The outback is basically desert where no one lives.

Victorian Aussie here. Did not know how vast Australia was until I lived in the WA outback about four hours north east of Kalgoorlie back a few years in the Great Victoria Desert. Though dry it has a beauty all of its own! WA Outback is a very different life style. I lived on a cattle station (ranch to the Yanks) of 500,000 acres. The station north of us is 1.5 million acres! I was the only person living on 500,000 acres! Had about 50 native sandalwood trees growing with in a mile of the homestead. I loved the serenity.

As an Aussie travelling in Europe, it's mind-boggling to travel by train for just a few hours, and you're in another country. Whereas in Australia, the same time and distance, you'll still be in the same state. The most ridiculous was how Vienna and Bratislava, two capitals of two different countries, are only half an hour apart. Netherlands was the most insane, where all the cities' metropolitan areas have merged together and the whole country is basically one large metropolitan area.

My favourite fact about the vastness of Australia is the fact that one of the country’s worst ever forest fires which destroyed over 1.5 million hectares of land in the early 20th century happened in such a remote area that no one even noticed it

As an Australian Im thrilled that you made a video explaining why no one ever tries to invade us. Japan tried once and rumours tell me they're still trying to their way back out.

The map work in your videos is stellar. I love love love maps and you do a fantastic job of showing data in an easily visual way so it’s really easy to grasp.

I have circled Australia clockwise, starting and ending in Melbourne. It took me one year, working along the way to fund my travels that way. It was the adventure of a lifetime. Landscapes so vast and endless that you feel like the only person in the world. A beauty so rough and pristine that ten years later, I still dream of going back.

As an Aussie, the mountain thing hit home because going overseas and seeing actual mountains broke my brain, in the same way I'm guessing that all our emptiness hits those who come to visit from very crowded cities/countries.

I think it's safe to say that the Polynesians visited the continent long before the Dutch discovered it. Given how good sailors they were for their time and that they discovered basically every other plot of land in the rest of the Pacific Ocean

Thanks for pointing out two of the most beautiful places in my state (Western Australia), Kununurra and Esperance are stunning!

Fun Aussie Facts: - The Australian Alps get more snow on average than the Swiss Alps - Melbourne has the largest Greek population outside of Greece - Tasmania has the cleanest air on the Planet - The Australian accent developed from decades of heavy drinking (NOT TRUE, thanks to the people who commented telling me I was wrong) - More than 25% of Australian citizens were born in other countries - The first police force was made of the "best behaved" convicts - If you visited one new beach every day, it would take you 29 years to visit all 10,685 of them - Australia was the 2nd country on the Planet to give women the right to vote (1902)

I went to Japan in 2004. I was told at the time that the Tokyo metro area had a population of 24 million which was more than Australia's entire population at the time. It's hard to imagine all of Australia's population being able to fit in one city. Vice versa there's an Aussie movie called The Goddess of 1967 starring Rose Byrne where a Japanese man comes to Australia in search of a rare french car. He has to go into the Aussie outback and he marvels at the amount of space there is in Australia as he's so used to being crammed up in Tokyo. It's an interesting juxtaposition.

This is excellent and informative on the history, geography, population and so much more about Australia. Thank you for all your hard work. I really enjoyed it.

Brilliant video , extremely informative, so glad I just found you. Thank you!