ing, industrial and transportation equipment, food
processing, chemicals, steel, motor vehicles

Agriculture: accounts for 5% of GNP and 37% of export revenues;
world's largest exporter of beef and wool, second-largest for mutton,
and among top wheat exporters; major crops--wheat, barley, sugarcane, fruit;
livestock--cattle, sheep, poultry

Aid: donor--ODA and OOF commitments (1970-87), $8.8 billion

Currency: Australian dollar (plural--dollars); 1 Australian dollar
($A) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Australian dollars ($A) per US$1--1.2784 (January 1990),
1.2618 (1989), 1.2752 (1988), 1.4267 (1987), 1.4905 (1986), 1.4269 (1985)

Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June

- Communications
Railroads: 40,478 km total; 7,970 km 1.600-meter gauge, 16,201 km
1.435-meter standard gauge, 16,307 km 1.067-meter gauge; 183 km dual gauge;
1,130 km electrified; government owned (except for a few hundred kilometers of
privately owned track) (1985)

Highways: 837,872 km total; 243,750 km paved, 228,396 km gravel,
crushed stone, or stabilized soil surface, 365,726 km unimproved earth

Inland waterways: 8,368 km; mainly by small, shallow-draft craft

Pipelines: crude oil, 2,500 km; refined products, 500 km; natural gas,
5,600 km

Ports: Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Devonport, Fremantle, Geelong,
Hobart, Launceston, Mackay, Melbourne, Sydney, Townsville

Merchant marine: 77 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 2,300,049
GRT/3,493,802 DWT; includes 2 short-sea passenger, 7 cargo, 5 container,
10 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 17 petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL) tanker,
2 chemical tanker, 3 liquefied gas, 1 combination ore/oil, 1 livestock carrier,
29 bulk

Civil air: around 150 major transport aircraft

Airports: 564 total, 524 usable; 235 with permanent-surface runways,
2 with runways over 3,659 m; 20 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 311 with runways
1,220-2,439 m

Telecommunications: good international and domestic service; 8.7
million telephones; stations--258 AM, 67 FM, 134 TV; submarine cables to
New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia; domestic satellite service;
satellite stations--4 Indian Ocean INTELSAT, 6 Pacific Ocean INTELSAT earth
stations

- Defense Forces
Branches: Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army, Royal Australian Air
Force

Military manpower: males 15-49, 4,588,750; 4,009,127 fit for military
service; 136,042 reach military age (17) annually

Defense expenditures: NA
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