How Australia’s Width Is Measured
The comparison uses the mainland’s broad east-to-west span: roughly 4,000 kilometres from the Indian Ocean coast in the west to the Pacific coast in the east. It is a straight geographic distance across the continent, not the length of a driving route or the winding coastline.
A Moon That Is Smaller Than It Looks
The Moon’s equatorial diameter—the distance across it through its middle—is about 3,476 kilometres. So Australia’s width exceeds that measurement by several hundred kilometres. The comparison is between a stretch across a landmass and a diameter across a nearly spherical body, but both are ordinary distances measured in kilometres.
It is a useful reminder that familiar-looking maps can understate the scale of Australia: crossing the mainland east to west means spanning a distance greater than the Moon is wide.
