In the Land of Extremes

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Discovery Channel takes us to Australia, a land where bush-fires rage, monsoons drench the ground and the wildlife has to cope with both

Australia, the world's largest island, and Earth's oldest continent, began to take shape some 50 million years ago when it broke away from the great southern continent known as Gondwanaland -- a landmass once incorporating Africa, South America, India and Antarctica. Australia holds clues to life in the earliest history of our planet. A rock found near Marble Bar, in Western Australia, revealed the remains of organisms which lived 3,500 million years ago -- the oldest life form ever discovered. Footprints and fragmentary remains of several dinosaur species have been uncovered, and opalised marine fossils are unique to the country.

The cliffs of the rugged Great Australian Bight -- the …