Oceania

Description:

Oceania is Earth's smallest continent. It is sometimes called Australia after its largest landmass. It consists of that continental landmass, four islands¹ over 10,000 kilometers square and numerous small islands and atolls. Only the eastern half of the largest island, New Guinea, is usually considered to be part of Oceania; the rest is in Asia. Generally the Hawaiian Islands² and not included in Oceania; they are considered part of North America. I have included them with Australia. (Sometimes the Midways are considered in Oceania and the rest of the Hawaiian chain is not.) Similarly, but not as consistently, Isla de Pascua³ is allocated to South America. Clipperton Island is often included in Oceania since it is administered from Polynesie française,⁴ although it is closer to North America. Palau's treatement is inconsistent. Prior to independence it was always part of Oceania; now it is sometimes grouped with Asia. This is how I've treated it. Australia's remote islands in the Indian Ocean, Christmas and the Cocos (or Keeling) Islands, are usually lumped in with Oceania, rather than being allocated to Asia. And Australia's and New Zealand's southmost islands are included in this continent, unlike French islands at similar latitudes. Wake Island and various small American possessions near Kiribati are included in Oceania whenever they are allocated to a continent. But the small Japanese islands north of the Marianas and in the Philippine Sea are always included in Asia.

This is Earth's driest continent; much of the Australian landmass is desert. So the largest three lakes⁵ are all only intermittently wet. Still it boasts a substantial river system, the Murray⁶ and New Guinea contradicts the dry pattern with many rivers and vast swamps. That island also has the tallest mountain, Mount Wilhelm.⁷

North of the continent, across some seas, is insular southeast Asia. West of it, and south of Australia, is the Indian Ocean, though sometimes the part below Australia is called the Southern Ocean. Most of the islands are within the Pacific Ocean and its seas, and beyond them the ocean continues.

Map

Who lives there?

More than 30 million people live here, most of them in Australia, New Zealand, Papua-New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Fiji Islands. English is the majority language overall and in Australia and New Zealand. There is no majority language or language group over Papua New Guinea and the smaller islands taken together. Most people are Christians, most of them Protestants, with Roman Catholics coming in second among them.

The continent has six cities with metropolitan populations over a million, five in Australia--see the Table of Australian Cities and Auckland, New Zealand.

Nations:

Parts of nations:

Possessions:

Footnotes

1. New Zealand's North and South Islands, New Guinea, and Tasmania.
2. Consisting of the Midway Islands and the state of Hawaii.
3. Also called Rapa Nui, and called Easter Island in English.
4. French Polynesia in English.
5. Eyre, Torrens and Gardner.
6. The Murray-Darling combination is the continent's longest.
7. This is the tallest mountain in the eastern half of the island; the Asian half has an even taller mountain.