Australia is a country covering a total area of 7.69 million square kilometers. Australia is the worlds largest island, but smallest continent. In distance Australia stretches about 3700 kilometers from north to south and about 4000 kilometers from east to west making it the sixth largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, the United States, and Brazil. Australia is also the only continent that is governed as a single country. Australia's ocean territory is the third largest in the world, covering almost 12 million square kilometers. Australia's northern parts consists of the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland. The western half consists of the Western Plateau, which rises to mountain heights near the west coast and falls to lower evaluations near the continental center. The Western Plateau is flat but it is broken due to a variety of mountain ranges. Water is lacking in the western parts of Australia, except for the various rivers that flow through such as the Murchison, Ashburton, and the Victoria river. In the eastern parts of Australia are the Eastern Highlands , or also known as the Great Dividing Range, lie near the eastern coastline separating the narrow eastern coastal plain from the rest of the continent. These Eastern Australian temperate forests have the greatest relief, the most rainfall, the most abundant and varied flora and fauna, and the densest human settlement. Between the Eastern Highlands and the Western Plateau you will find the Central Lowlands, which are made up of the Great Artesian Basin and Australia's largest river systems, Murray-Darling Basin and Lake Eyre Basin. Off the eastern coast lies the Great Reef Barrier, which contains of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching over 2,300 kilometers .