Damon Mcknight
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. The continent of Australia is sometimes known by the names Sahul, Australinea, or Meganesia. The continent includes mainland Australia, Tasmania, the island of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and Western New Guinea), the Aru Islands, the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, most of the Coral Sea Islands, and some other nearby islands. Australia is the smallest of the seven traditional continents and is the world's flattest and driest inhabited continent.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Islands that are part of the Australian continent | Mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and Western New Guinea), the Aru Islands, the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, K'gari, Macquarie Island, and most of the Coral Sea Islands |
| Area | 2.97 million square miles (7.69 million square kilometres) |
| Status | The smallest of the seven continents (Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America) |
| Geography | Surrounded by the Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans and the Coral and Timor Seas |
| Geology | Australia sits on its own tectonic plate, unlike Greenland, which shares a plate with North America |
| Biology | Australia has a high number of endemic plant and animal species |
| Anthropology | Aboriginal Australians are indigenous to the Australian continent and its islands, including Tasmania |
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What You'll Learn
The island-state of Tasmania
Tasmania is an island state of Australia, located 240 kilometres (150 miles) to the south of the Australian mainland. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and over 1000 surrounding islands. It is Australia's smallest state by area and least populous state, with 557,571 residents as of 2021. The state capital and largest city is Hobart, with around 40% of the population living in the Greater Hobart area.
Tasmania was first inhabited by Aboriginal peoples, who today generally identify as Palawa or Pakana. Rising sea levels cut Tasmania off from mainland Australia around 10,000 to 11,700 years ago, and by the time of European contact, the Aboriginal people in Tasmania had nine major nations or ethnic groups. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman made the first reported European sighting of the island in 1642, naming it Anthony van Diemen's Land after his sponsor, Anthony van Diemen, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. The name was later shortened to Van Diemen's Land by the British, and the island became a separate colony under this name in 1825. In 1856, the colony formally changed its name to Tasmania, and it became a state of Australia in 1901.
Tasmania has a diverse landscape, ranging from mountainous regions in the west, where the highest peak on the island, Mount Ossa, reaches 5,305 feet (1,617 meters), to the Central Plateau in the centre of the island, which is studded with over 4,000 lakes. Tasmania has a generally moist and equable climate, with mild to warm summers and mild winters, although the southwest experiences rugged weather and the southeast is prone to drought. The state produces a major portion of Australia's hydroelectric power and has a significant agricultural sector, with about 42% of its land area protected in some form of reserve.
Tasmania has a unique political, economic, and social life due to its insularity, but its proximity to Melbourne and accessibility by air make it less isolated than often assumed. The state has the second-smallest economy of the Australian states and territories, with its economy based principally on tourism, agriculture, aquaculture, education, and healthcare.
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The Aru Islands
The islands are covered with dense forest and edged by swampy coastal areas. The main islands rise to low hills and are separated by meandering channels. The inhabitants are of mixed Papuan and Malay ancestry and adhere to traditional animist religions. Some Muslims and Christians inhabit the western islands, where the villages are coastal and nestle among clumps of trees. In the eastern islands, the villages stand on high rocks, and houses are entered by a trapdoor in the middle of the floor.
Islam and Reformed Protestantism began to make small numbers of converts in the 1650s. In 1787, the Muslim population of Ujir Island accepted Nuku's brother Jou Mangofa as their king and exterminated the Dutch garrison. After several failed attempts, the Dutch of Banda suppressed the rebels in 1791. In 1824, the Dutch naval officer A.J. Bik visited Aru and concluded several agreements with local chiefs. In 1857, the famous naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace visited the islands and later realized that the Aru Islands must have been connected by a land bridge to mainland New Guinea during the ice age.
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Ashmore and Cartier Islands
The Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands is an uninhabited Australian external territory consisting of four low-lying tropical islands in two separate reefs (Ashmore and Cartier), as well as the 12-nautical-mile (22 km; 14 mi) territorial sea generated by the islands. The territory is located in the Indian Ocean, situated on the edge of the continental shelf, about 320 km (199 mi) off the northwest coast of Australia and 144 km (89 mi) south of the Indonesian island of Rote.
Ashmore Reef is called Pulau Pasir by Indonesians and Nusa Solokaek in the Rotenese language. Both names mean "sand island". The territory comprises Ashmore Reef, which includes West, Middle and East Islands, in addition to two lagoons, as well as Cartier Reef, which includes Cartier Island. Ashmore Reef covers approximately 583 km2 (225.1 sq mi) and Cartier Reef 167 km2 (64 sq mi), both measurements extending to the limits of the reefs.
Captain Samuel Ashmore of the ship Hibernia discovered Ashmore Island on February 11, 1811, and named it after himself. Cartier Island was visited by Captain Nash in 1800 and was named after his ship, the Cartier. Ashmore Island was annexed by the United Kingdom in 1878, as was Cartier Island in 1909. In 1933, Britain gave the territory to Australia, and it became a part of Australia on May 10, 1934.
The islands have been frequented and fished by Indonesian fishermen since the early eighteenth century. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Australia and Indonesia was signed in 1974, recognising the traditional use of the territory's resources by Indonesian fishermen and granting them rights of access to Australian waters.
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K'gari, the world's largest sand island
The Australian continent includes mainland Australia, Tasmania, the island of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and Western New Guinea), the Aru Islands, the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, and most of the Coral Sea Islands, among other nearby islands. Australia is often referred to as an "island continent" due to its significant size compared to its fringing islands.
One of these fringing islands is K'gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, which is the world's largest sand island. Located in the Wide Bay-Burnett region of Queensland, Australia, K'gari lies approximately 250 km (160 mi) north of Brisbane, the state capital. The island is about 123 km (76 mi) long and 22 km (14 mi) wide, covering an area of 1,840 km2 (710 sq mi). It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992 and is recognised for its unique natural landscape and attractions.
K'gari has a diverse range of ecosystems, including rainforests, eucalyptus woodland, mangrove forests, wallum and peat swamps, sand dunes, and coastal heaths. The sand on the island has been accumulating for approximately 750,000 years on volcanic bedrock, which provides a natural catchment for the sediment carried by strong offshore currents. The island is characterised by sand dunes and sandblows, which are parabolic dunes that move across the island via the wind and are devoid of vegetation. With year-round winds from the southeast, the sand dunes move at a rate of 1 to 2 metres per year and can grow up to a height of 244 metres.
K'gari is part of the traditional lands of the Butchulla people, who named the island "K'gari", meaning "paradise". European settlers arrived in 1847 and named the island "Fraser Island" after Captain James Fraser, whose ship, the Stirling Castle, was shipwrecked on the island in 1836. Today, the island is a popular tourist destination, attracting up to 500,000 visitors each year. It offers a range of outdoor adventures, including four-wheel driving on its sandy roads and scenic beach runs. The island also provides opportunities for whale watching and exploring its rich Aboriginal culture.
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New Guinea, comprising Papua New Guinea and Western New Guinea
New Guinea is the second-largest island in the world, exceeded in size only by Greenland. It is situated north of Australia, south of the equator, and forms part of the Malay Archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean. The island is bounded by the Arafura Sea to the west and the Torres Strait and Coral Sea to the east.
The island is divided into two parts: Papua New Guinea and Western New Guinea. The former is an independent nation and comprises the eastern half of the island, while the latter forms a part of Indonesia and constitutes the island's western half. The two major cities on the island are Port Moresby and Jayapura.
The island of New Guinea was possibly occupied as early as 50,000 years ago. By about 7000 BCE, sedentary agriculture with extensive swamp drainage and irrigation was practised in the highland basins. The island, especially the western half, was known to Indonesian and Asian seafarers centuries before it was known to Europeans. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to sight the island in 1511, although they did not land until 1527. The Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez used the name 'New Guinea' in 1545, due to the resemblance between the indigenous peoples of the island and the Africans of the Guinea region. The Dutch claimed the western half of the island in 1828 as part of the Dutch East Indies, and the western half was annexed by the Netherlands in 1848. The island was split in the 1880s between German New Guinea in the north and the British Territory of Papua in the south, the latter of which was ceded to Australia in 1902. All of present-day Papua New Guinea came under Australian control following World War I, and the country gained independence in 1975.
New Guinea contains many of the world's ecosystem types, including glacial, alpine tundra, savanna, montane and lowland rainforest, mangroves, wetlands, lake and river ecosystems, seagrasses, and some of the richest coral reefs on the planet. The island is home to an unbroken chain of mountains with peaks above 13,000 feet (4,000 metres) in elevation, and the northern lowlands are drained principally by the Mamberamo River and its tributaries on the western side, and by the Sepik on the eastern side. The southern lowlands are the site of Lorentz National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Frequently asked questions
The Australian continent includes the island of Tasmania, the Aru Islands, the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, the Coral Sea Islands, and some other nearby islands. The largest island on the Australian continent is Melville Island, located in the Northern Territory.
No, New Zealand is not considered part of the continent of Australia. However, it is part of the geographic region of Oceania and Australasia, which also includes Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Australia is considered a continent and not an island. While Australia is surrounded by water, it is much larger than an island and sits on its own tectonic plate.
The main difference between an island and a continent is their size. An island is a mass of land entirely surrounded by water but smaller than a continent. While there is no strict scientific definition of a continent, they are generally larger landmasses with their own unique flora and fauna and are home to distinct cultures and peoples.
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