Australia: Land Beyond Time

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One of nature's masterworks

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the ultimate long-distance athlete

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At full speed it uses less energy

than any animal its size

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The Kangaroo is shaped

by the land in which it lives

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one of the most

challenging places on earth

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Australia is a vast

ancient weathered land

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isolated from all others for

40 million years

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lt is a place of extremes

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more like another planet

than another continent

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Travelling over Australia's

3 million square miles

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is like crossing an ocean of dry land

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Primeval landscapes belie its rich

resourceful life

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Australia is almost equal in size

to the continental United States

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lt is the driest

vegetated continent on Earth

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Surrounded by three oceans

it is the world's largest island

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lt shares no border with any other country

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Here some of the Earth's oldest rocks

hold fossils from the dawn of life

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ln its heartland are mountain ranges

that once rivalled Everest

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built up and worn down over time

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and remnants of a once vast inland sea

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Most of Australia's native animals

are unique

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Their journey on this continental raft

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has taken them through cool forests

and fiery deserts

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and changed them forever

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The survivors have been refined by

poverty and uncertainty

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Some have climbed up out of adversity

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Some have outrun all their predators

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Most have adapted to hard

fickle conditions

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A few are unchanged

since the days of the dinosaurs

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Now sheer diversity of species

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spreads the risk

that life is required to bear

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The story starts millions of years ago

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when Gondwana the great super continent

began to break apart

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Africa South America

and lndia were formed

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but Australia and Antarctica

were still joined as one last giant land

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forested and lush

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By 50 million years ago

the breakup was complete

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when Australia parted from Antarctica

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A massive ocean current

began to flow around the South Pole

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and Antarctica's life perished

under a blanket of ice and snow

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Australia pushed northwards

from the freezing latitudes

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and remained isolated

for the next 30 million years

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lt became an ark of survival

for its cargo of ancient life

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Searing winds began to dry the land

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and its moist rainforest all

but disappeared

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At the centre

the desert was taking over

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Australia's plants

and animals faced a choice

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adapt to the drying conditions

or retreat

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Now the symbol of

Australia's red heart is Uluru

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the Earth's largest exposed rock

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lt commemorates the relationship

between life and this land

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Today Australia is the

Earth's flattest continent

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lts mountains were worn to their stumps

millions of years ago

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The Nullarbor plain on its southern coast

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has the world's

longest unbroken coastal cliffs

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Once you could walk to Antarctica

from here

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lf the dry Outback is a land ocean

these parallel sand dunes are its waves

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Stretching beyond the horizons

they cover nearly half of the continent

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Millions of years of rain

and drying winds

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long ago leached the goodness

from most of its soil

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ln the red centre there is no regular

predictable pattern of rainfall

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Poor soils and a savage climate

now challenge all life in this land

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Nature responded to the

changing conditions

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The kangaroo started

its journey as a marsupial possum

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the size of a mouse

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As forests contracted some kangaroos

evolved to live in the trees

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and others learned to eat grass

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When food is plentiful

the males are active

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and courtship disputes are

traditionally settled

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with a round or two of kick-boxing

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Mothers and babies

sensibly keep out of the way

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On most continents animals breed

in response to the seasons

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ln Australia

it is the availability of food

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that prompts the kangaroo to reproduce

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To capitalise on good times

the mother can support a production line

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one joey in the pouch one at foot

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and another in the womb as an embryo

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She can even supply her babies

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with two different formulas

of milk at the same time

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one for each generation of young

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The koala evolved from the

same marsupial possum as the kangaroo

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When the baby

is big enough to leave the pouch

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it rides on its mother's back

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Like the kangaroo

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the koala evolved

in the moist rainforest

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