HOW IS AUSTRALIA ORGANIZED?
There are six states and two territories which make up Australia. 
 		   They are New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. 
 		  Each state and territory has its own capital and flag, and each has its own responsibilities with governing itself. This system is similar to how we do it in the USA.

WHAT'S A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT?
In countries like Australia and the United States, governmental duties are divided between local and federal responsibilities. Local means states and cities, which are allowed to control things like school, water, and parks, while the Federal takes charge of matters that involve the whole country. The form of government in Australia is called a Constitutional Monarchy. 

 		  'Constitutional' means that the people recognize a document made up of rules which limit what the leader of the country can do. 'Monarchy' means that the leader of the country is a monarch… (no, not a butterfly; a king or a queen. In this case, it's Queen Elizabeth II, who also runs Great Britain). Australia's federal government, like ours, is divided up into three branches. They are the Legislative (they make the laws), the Judicial (they decide who breaks the laws) and the Executive (they administer the laws).    In the United States, we do things the same way, and it works out pretty well… in fact, the Australian Constitution, which was only established in 1901, was modeled after ours. There are differences besides the alliance to the British throne, though. Instead of a President, for example, Australia has a Prime Minister, whose appointed by the Governor General, not elected by the people.

WHAT'S THE STORY WITH THE QUEEN?
The 'country' that we call Australia (instead of the continent, which has been around forever) was founded by Captain James Cook in the 1600's, who, being British, claimed it as a colony of Great Britain. Since its independence in 1901, Australia has been a part of the British 
   'Commonwealth', which means that, although it is no longer a colony, it still pays allegiance to the British crown. Today, that's Elizabeth II. Originally, Britain used Australia as a sort of giant prison where it could send extra crooks from its overcrowded jails, but once they realized that Australia had a lot to offer on its own, like sheep pastures and gold mines, they began to understand how cool a place it could be.    Gradually, the descendants of these original British settlers have developed their own sense of identity, and although they speak English, and accept their historical in the Western world, they are very much 'Australians' by nature and by attitude.