Where is Australia Oceania Out of the seven continents of the world Australia Oceania is the smallest It is made up of the islands of Australia Tasmania and New Zealand as well as Papua New Guinea and thousands of small islands in the Pacific Ocean Papua New Guinea Australia Pacific Ocean New Zealand Locating Australia Oceania We can describe the position of Australia Oceania in relation to the areas of land and water that surround it as well as by using the points on a compass Australia Oceania is between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean Australia Oceania is north of Antarctica Antarctica
A collection of continents Some geographers believe there is more than one continent within the area of Australia Oceania Australia They define a continent as being made up of a single landmass and therefore view Australia as a continent Zealandia Others see New Zealand as part of a separate continent called Zealandia This includes an area of land surrounding New Zealand that is under the sea Land area under water Australasia Some geographers believe that all of the islands within the central and South Pacific are part of a continent called Oceania Australia is sometimes included in this group Pacific Rim Asia Pacific Ocean To the east of Australia is the Pacific Ocean home to the Pacific Islands The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in the world measuring 60 million square miles 155 million sq km The different countries that surround it are sometimes called the Pacific Rim countries They include Australia New Zealand the Pacific Islands China the United States and Chile Saliao At east ania Indian
Countries O Northern Mariana Islands sovereign state United States Palau Federated States of Micronesia Papua New Guinea There are 14 countries in the continent of Australia Oceania and thousands of small islands Many of these islands are not independent countries but are the overseas territory of countries from around the world These countries are called sovereign states and have an important influence on how the islands are governed Australia Solomon Islands O New Caledonia sovereign state France NT Qld WA SA NSW Vic Telka a Mäui North Island Te Waipounamu South Island Australian states Australia is divided up into seven main states NSW New South Wales NT Northern Territory Qld Queensland SA South Australia Tas Tasmania Vic Victoria WA Western Australia Tas New Zealand
Marshall Islands Hawaii part of the U S A Not all sovereign states are shown See page 30 for list of Australia Oceanian countries Kiribati Nauru French Polynesia sovereign state France Tuvalu Samoa Vanuatu Easter Island part of Chile EL Fiji Cook Islands sovereign state New Zealand Tonga Pacific Islands Micronesia The Pacific islands of Oceania are placed into three groups based on their similarities and differences in geography and culture These are Polynesia Micronesia and Melanesia There are more than 2 000 islands in the region of Micronesia The majority are uninhabited and are mainly small low lying coral islands ASIA New Guinea Indonesia Melanesia Polynesia The majority of Pacific islanders live on the Melanesian islands The largest island New Guinea is split into two territories The independent country of Papua New Guinea is in the east The western portion of the island is a territory of Indonesia and is considered part of the continent of Asia The islands of Polynesia are spread across a vast area of ocean stretching from Hawaii in the north to New Zealand in the south and Easter Island in the east This area is known as the Polynesian triangle and contains more than 1 000
