I always thought Australasia was a continent, but it seems Australia can be defined as a continent and the smaller islands are just oceanic islands..
From Wikipedia
As a cultural construct, the concept of a continent may go beyond the continental shelf to include oceanic islands and continental fragments. In this way, Iceland may be considered part of Europe and Madagascar part of Africa. Extrapolating the concept to its extreme, some geographers take Australia, New Zealand and all the islands of Oceania (or sometimes Australasia) to be equivalent to a continent, allowing the entire land surface of the Earth to be divided into continents or quasi-continents.
Originally Posted by laq2thenew im quite aware of what oceania consists of tim...
I never said you didn't - just answering your question liam quirke.
Originally coined by the French explorer Dumont d'Urville in 1831, Oceania has been traditionally divided into Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Australasia. As with any region, however, interpretations vary; increasingly, geographers and scientists divide Oceania into Near Oceania and Remote Oceania.[5]
Most of Oceania consists of small island nations. Australia is the only continental country but Indonesia has land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia.
I call the continent Oceania and Australia the country, that's what I was always taught.
I was taught vice versa and that Australia is a continent. It's too late to change back now but after a few complaints and a DC mail I figured it must be what people in that region prefer it to be called. As long as people know what it consists of that's fine by me.
Well, I think some NZ-ers would be a bit off if it was Australia instead of Ocenia. And some would say that Australiasia is a part of Asia. But personally, I'm a bit surprised that there's so few people from Asia or S. America. And what happened to Central America?
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
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Edited by an Administrator.
But Trev the Bev(everage) is right
