Australia (continent)

File:Australia New Guinea continent.jpg showing the continental Sahul Shelf (light blue) extending to the islands of New Guinea in the north, the island of Timor in the northwest, and Tasmania in the south]]

The continent of Australia is sometimes known by the names Sahul, Australinea, or Meganesia to differentiate it from the country of Australia, and consists of the landmasses which sit on Australia's continental plate. This includes mainland Australia, Tasmania, and the island of New Guinea, which comprises Papua New Guinea and Western New Guinea (Papua and West Papua, provinces of Indonesia).{{Cite web|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/sahul-pleistocene-continent-172704|title=What Did Australia Look Like When the First People Arrived?|website=www.thoughtco.com}}{{cite book | last=Carmack | first=R.M. | title=Anthropology and Global History: From Tribes to the Modern World-System | publisher=AltaMira Press | year=2013 | isbn=978-0-7591-2390-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lQR1AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 | access-date=6 August 2020 | page=33}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZRODwAAQBAJ&q=prehistoric+continent+sahul&pg=PA35|title=The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania|first1=Ethan E.|last1=Cochrane|first2=Terry L.|last2=Hunt|date=8 August 2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199925070|via=Google Books}}{{cite book | last1=O'Connor | first1=S. | last2=Veth | first2=P.M. | last3=Spriggs | first3=M. | title=The Archaeology of the Aru Islands, Eastern Indonesia | publisher=ANU e Press | series=Terra Australis | year=2007 | isbn=978-1-921313-04-2 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KSkIKYztV_AC&pg=PA10 | access-date=6 August 2020 | page=10}} The name "Sahul" takes its name from the Sahul Shelf, which is part of the continental shelf of the Australian continent. The term Oceania, originally a "great division" of the world in the 1810s, was replaced in English language countries by the concept of Australia as one of the world's continents in the 1950s.

Prior to the 1950s, before the popularization of the theory of plate tectonics, Antarctica, Australia and Greenland were sometimes described as island continents, but none were usually taught as one of the world's continents in English-speaking countries.{{cite book |last1=Southwell |first1=Thomas |title=Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society: Volume 4 |date=1889 |publisher=Norfolk Naturalists' Trust and Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists' Society. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P0NMAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22greenland%22+%22island+continent%22&pg=PA164 |access-date=16 November 2022}}{{cite book |title=The Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society: Volume 36 |date=1932 |publisher=Royal Aeronautical Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJPyAAAAMAAJ&q=%22continent+of+greenland%22 |access-date=16 November 2022}}{{harvp|Lewis & Wigen, The Myth of Continents|1997|p=32}}: "...the 1950s... was also the period when... Oceania as a "great division" was replaced by Australia as a continent along with a series of isolated and continentally attached islands. [Footnote 78: When Southeast Asia was conceptualised as a world region during World War II..., Indonesia and the Philippines were perforce added to Asia, which reduced the extent of Oceania, leading to a reconceptualisation of Australia as a continent in its own right. This manoeuvre is apparent in postwar atlases]" Scottish cartographer John Bartholomew wrote in 1873 that, "the New World consists of North America, and the peninsula of South America attached to it. These divisions [are] generally themselves spoken as continents, and to them has been added another, embracing the large island of Australia and numerous others in the [Pacific] Ocean, under the name of Oceania. There are thus six great divisions of the earth — Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Oceania."{{cite book |last1=Bartholomew |first1=John |title=Zell's Descriptive Hand Atlas of the World |date=1873 |publisher=T.E. Zell |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmSp46xxpJQC&dq=%22oceania%22+%22yokohama%22+%22australia%22&pg=PA3 |access-date=20 August 2022}}

The American author Samuel Griswold Goodrich wrote in his 1854 book History of All Nations that, "geographers have agreed to consider the island world of the Pacific Ocean as a third continent, under the name Oceania." In this book the other two continents were categorized as being the New World (consisting of North America and South America) and the Old World (consisting of Africa, Asia and Europe).{{cite book |last1=Goodrich |first1=Samuel Griswold |title=History of All Nations |date=1854 |publisher=Miller, Orton and Mulligan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=heJPYUnr70kC&dq=%22aleutian+islands%22+%22oceania%22&pg=PA52 |access-date=20 December 2022}} In his 1879 book Australasia, British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace commented that, "Oceania is the word often used by continental geographers to describe the great world of islands we are now entering upon" and that "Australia forms its central and most important feature."{{cite book |last1=Wallace |first1=Alfred Russel |title=Australasia |date=1879 |publisher=The University of Michigan |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e2kcAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22oceania+is+the+word+often%22&pg=PA2 |access-date=12 March 2022 |quote=Oceania is the word often used by continental geographers to describe the great world of islands we are now entering upon [...] This boundless watery domain, which extends northwards of Behring Straits and southward to the Antarctic barrier of ice, is studded with many island groups, which are, however, very irregularly distributed over its surface. The more northerly section, lying between Japan and California and between the Aleutian and Hawaiian Archipelagos is relived by nothing but a few solitary reefs and rocks at enormously distant intervals. |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064236/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Australasia/e2kcAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22oceania+is+the+word+often%22&pg=PA2&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }} He did not explicitly label Oceania a continent in the book, but did note that it was one of the six major divisions of the world. He considered it to encompass the insular Pacific area between Asia and the Americas, and claimed it extended up to the Aleutian Islands, which are among the northernmost islands in the Pacific Ocean. However, definitions of Oceania varied during the 19th century. In the 19th century, many geographers divided up Oceania into mostly racially-based subdivisions; Australasia, Malaysia (encompassing Malay Archipelago), Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.{{cite book |last1=Cornell |first1=Sophia S. |title=Cornell's Primary Geography: Forming Part First of a Systematic Series of School Geographies |year=1857 |publisher=Harvard University |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Z9hizT9tiAC&dq=%22included+in+oceania%22&pg=RA2-PA95 |access-date=31 March 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064858/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/CORNELL_S_PRIMARY_GEOGRAPHY/1Z9hizT9tiAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22included+in+oceania%22&pg=RA2-PA95&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}

Today, the Malay Archipelago is typically considered part of Southeast Asia, and the term Oceania is often used to denote the region encompassing the Australian continent, Zealandia, and various islands in the Pacific Ocean that are not included in the seven-continent model. It has been recognized by the United Nations as one of the world's five major continental divisions since its foundation in 1947, along with Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.{{cite book|last1=Hillstrom|first1=Kevin|last2=Hillstrom|first2=Laurie Collier|title=Australia, Oceania, and Antarctica: A Continental Overview of Environmental Issues|date=2003|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781576076941|volume=3|page=25|quote=...defined here as the continent nation of Australia, New Zealand, and twenty-two other island countries and territories sprinkled over more than 40 million square kilometres of the South Pacific.}}{{cite book|last1=Lyons|first1=Paul|title=American Pacificism: Oceania in the U.S. Imagination|url=https://archive.org/details/americanpacifici00lyon|url-access=limited|date=2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/americanpacifici00lyon/page/n42 30]}} The UN's definition of Oceania utilizes four of the five subregions from the 19th century; Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. They include American Samoa, Australia and their external territories, the Cook Islands, Easter Island (Chile), the Federated States of Micronesia, French Polynesia, Fiji, Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, the Northern Mariana Islands, Ogasawara (Japan), Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, Western New Guinea, and the United States Minor Outlying Islands (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Island) as well as Hawaii, one of 50 states of United States.{{cite web |title=Countries or areas / geographical regions |url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/ |access-date=25 April 2019 |publisher=United Nations |archive-date=30 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830170949/https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/ |url-status=live }} The original UN definition of Oceania from 1947 included these same countries and semi-independent territories, which were mostly still colonies at that point.{{cite book |title=Status of the 1950 Census Program in the United States: A Preliminary Report |date=1951 |publisher=United States. Bureau of the Census |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h3v502REqhUC&dq=United+Nations+%22oceania%22&pg=PA58 |access-date=24 November 2022}}

The island states of Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan, all located within the bounds of the Pacific or associated marginal seas, are excluded from the UN definition. The states of Hong Kong and Malaysia, located in both mainland Asia and marginal seas of the Pacific, are also excluded, as is the nation of Brunei, which shares the island of Borneo with Indonesia and Malaysia. Further excluded are East Timor and Indonesian (or Western) New Guinea, areas which are biogeographically or geologically associated with the Australian landmass.{{cite journal |title=Preliminary checklist of the naturalised and pest plants of Timor-Leste |last1=Westaway |first1=J. |last2=Quintao |first2=V. |last3=de Jesus Marcal |first3=S. |journal=Blumea |volume=63 |issue= 2|year=2018 |pages=157–166 |doi=10.3767/blumea.2018.63.02.13 |s2cid=89935772 |doi-access=free }} This definition of Oceania is used in statistical reports, by the International Olympic Committee, and by many atlases.{{Cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Martin W. |url=https://archive.org/details/mythcontinentscr00lewi |title=The Myth of Continents: a Critique of Metageography |last2=Kären E. Wigen |publisher=University of California Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-520-20742-4 |location=Berkeley |page=[https://archive.org/details/mythcontinentscr00lewi/page/n24 32] |quote=Interestingly enough, the answer [from a scholar who sought to calculate the number of continents] conformed almost precisely to the conventional list: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania (Australia plus New Zealand), Africa, and Antarctica. |url-access=limited}} The CIA World Factbook also categorize Oceania or the Pacific area as one of the world's major continental divisions, but use the term "Australia and Oceania" to refer to the area.{{cite web | url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/australia-and-oceania/ | title=Australia and Oceania - the World Factbook }} Their definition does not include Australia's subantarctic external territory Heard Island and McDonald Islands, but is otherwise the same as the UN definition, and it is also used for statistical purposes.

In countries such as Argentina, Brazil, China, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Greece, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Spain, Switzerland or Venezuela, Oceania is treated as a continent in the sense that it is "one of the parts of the world", and Australia is only seen as an island nation. In other countries, including Kazakhstan, Poland and Russia, Australia and Eurasia are thought of as continents, while Asia, Europe and Oceania are regarded as "parts of the world".{{cite web |title=Divisões dos continentes |url=https://atlasescolar.ibge.gov.br/images/atlas/mapas_mundo/mundo_034_divisao_continentes.pdf |access-date=12 January 2021 |publisher=IBGE |archive-date=13 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813231055/https://atlasescolar.ibge.gov.br/images/atlas/mapas_mundo/mundo_034_divisao_continentes.pdf |url-status=live }} In the Pacific Ocean Handbook (1945), author Eliot Grinnell Mears wrote that he categorized Australia, New Zealand and Pacific islands under the label of Oceania for "scientific reasons; Australia's fauna is largely continental in character, New Zealand's are clearly insular; and neither Commonwealth realm has close ties with Asia." He further added that, "the term Australasia is not relished by New Zealanders and this name is too often confused with Australia."{{cite book |last1=Mears |first1=Eliot Grinnell |title=Pacific Ocean Handbook |date=1945 |publisher=J. L. Delkin |pages=45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ku04AAAAIAAJ&q=%22customary%22+%22exclude%22+%22north+pacific%22+%22aleutians%22 |access-date=27 July 2022}} Some 19th century definitions of Oceania grouped Australia, New Zealand and the islands of Melanesia together under the label of Australasia, in other 19th century definitions of Oceania, the term was only used to refer to Australia itself, with New Zealand being categorized with the islands of Polynesia in such definitions.{{cite book |last1=Cust |first1=Robert Needham |title=Linguistic and Oriental Essays: 1847-1887 |date=1887 |publisher=Trübner & Company |page=518 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZ4KtNU2-PMC |access-date=27 March 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064357/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Linguistic_and_Oriental_Essays_1847_1887/vZ4KtNU2-PMC?hl=en&gbpv=0 |url-status=live }}

Archaeological terminology for this region has changed repeatedly. Before the 1970s, the single Pleistocene landmass was called Australasia, derived from the Latin {{lang|la|australis}}, meaning "southern", although this word is most often used for a wider region that includes lands like New Zealand that are not on the same continental shelf. In the early 1970s, the term Greater Australia was introduced for the Pleistocene continent.{{cite conference |first=Chris |last=Ballard |title=Stimulating minds to fantasy? A critical etymology for Sahul |book-title=Sahul in review: Pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia |pages=19–20 |publisher=Australian National University | location= Canberra |year=1993 |isbn=0-7315-1540-4 }} Then at a 1975 conference and consequent publication,{{cite book |last=Allen |first=J. |editor1=J. Golson|editor2= R. Jones|title=Sunda and Sahul: Prehistorical studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia |year=1977 |publisher=Academic Press |location=London |isbn=978-0-12-051250-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/sundasahulprehis0000unse }} the name Sahul was extended from its previous use for just the Sahul Shelf to cover the continent.

In 1984, the name Meganesia was suggested, meaning "great island" or "great island-group", for both the Pleistocene continent and the present-day lands,{{cite conference |first=W. |last=Filewood |title=The Torres connection: Zoogeography of New Guinea |book-title=Vertebrate zoogeography in Australasia |pages=1124–1125 |publisher=Hesperian Press | location=Carlisle, W.A. |year=1984 |isbn=0-85905-036-X }} and this name has been widely accepted by biologists.{{cite book |last=Flannery |first=Timothy Fridtjof |author-link=Tim Flannery |title=The future eaters: An ecological history of the Australasian lands and people |year=1994 |publisher=Reed |location=Chatswood, NSW |isbn=978-0-7301-0422-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_0730104877/page/42 42, 67] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0730104877/page/42 }} Others have used Meganesia with different meanings: travel writer Paul Theroux included New Zealand in his definition{{cite book |last=Theroux |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Theroux |title=The happy isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific |year=1992 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=978-0-14-015976-9 }} and others have used it for Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.{{cite journal |last=Wareham |first=Evelyn |date=September 2002 |title=From Explorers to Evangelists: Archivists, Recordkeeping, and Remembering in the Pacific Islands |journal=Archival Science |volume=2 |issue=3–4 |pages=187–207 |doi=10.1007/BF02435621 |s2cid=150250671 }} Another biologist, Richard Dawkins, coined the name Australinea in 2004.{{cite book |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Dawkins |title=The ancestor's tale: A pilgrimage to the dawn of evolution |year=2004 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-618-00583-3 |page=224 }} Australia–New Guinea has also been used.{{Cite book| contribution=Pre-LGM Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea) and the Archaeology of Early Modern Humans| last1=O'Connell| first1=James F.| last2=Allen| first2=Jim| title=Rethinking the Human Revolution| editor-last=Mellars| editor-first=P.| editor2-last=Boyle| editor2-first=K.| editor3-last=Bar-Yosef| editor3-first=O.| editor4-last=Stringer| editor4-first=C.| year=2007| pages=395–410| place=Cambridge| publisher=McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research| contribution-url=http://www.anthro.utah.edu/PDFs/joc/32o_conn.pdf| access-date=26 February 2008| archive-date=3 November 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103111859/http://www.anthro.utah.edu/PDFs/joc/32o_conn.pdf| url-status=dead}}

{{Main|History of Australia|History of Western New Guinea|History of Papua New Guinea}}

The Australian continent and Sunda were points of early human migrations after leaving Africa.{{cite book|title=Biological Aspects of Human Migration|author1=Mascie-Taylor, D.B.A.C.G.N.|author2=Mascie-Taylor, C.G.N.|author3=Lasker, G.W.|date=1988|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521331098|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eJD5XJlviukC&pg=PA18|page=18|access-date=9 August 2018}}

Recent research points to a planned migration of hundreds of people using bamboo rafts, which eventually landed on Sahul.{{cite journal|display-authors=etal |last1=Michael Bird |title=Early human settlement of Sahul was not an accident |journal=Scientific Reports |date=Jun 2019 |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=8220 |doi=10.1038/s41598-019-42946-9|pmid=31209234 |pmc=6579762 |bibcode=2019NatSR...9.8220B |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Michael Westaway |title=The first hominin fleet |journal=Nature Ecology and Evolution |date=Jul 2019 |volume=3 |issue=7 |pages=999–1000 |doi=10.1038/s41559-019-0928-9 |pmid=31209288 |bibcode=2019NatEE...3..999W |s2cid=189927142 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-0928-9.epdf?referrer_access_token=PA76dahms_1XTJnjn6lbctRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OhaZU2rDQxxnW7pRhHxUzdPKFDe4x2pNM8UMQJJH2Mmu04w_2fphtd8kAmaX4EWbxv1eB8QfUyM8s7QqsqEBEAAkBrCIL-v8ANceCTpbSZJWBnNHe1rfQLsrykKpD3u6wqjZGzVIhbqWS6IKYUFmMkYSmJVVxw5KE2JPGJwuTlOYFXsj4UAifN0IbGvgVCV_QFzpeyKrr1FP5Eehm_EuBg738XZpIvnpSy3Nhbs-QyvJdnyGHw3Fv-dcjUbhAoXjKXTZmXIM9lWk1ADc9ZzIQK&tracking_referrer=www.newscientist.com}}{{cite journal |last1=Graham Lawton |title=The epic ocean journey that took Stone Age people to Australia |journal=New Scientist |date=25 January 2020 |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24532660-600-the-epic-ocean-journey-that-took-stone-age-people-to-australia/}}

{{Further|Prehistory of Australia|Aboriginal Australians#Origins|History of Indigenous Australians|History of Papua New Guinea}}

File:Aboriginal rock art on the Barnett River, Mount Elizabeth Station.jpg in the Wunnumurra Gorge, Barnett River, Kimberley, Western Australia]]

Indigenous Australians, that is Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders people, are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. They migrated from Africa to Asia around 70,000 years ago{{cite journal|title=An Aboriginal Australian Genome Reveals Separate Human Dispersals into Asia|first1=Morten|last1=Rasmussen|first2=Xiaosen|last2=Guo|first3=Yong|last3=Wang|first4=Kirk E.|last4=Lohmueller|first5=Simon|last5=Rasmussen|first6=Anders|last6=Albrechtsen|first7=Line|last7=Skotte|first8=Stinus|last8=Lindgreen|first9=Mait|last9=Metspalu|first10=Thibaut|last10=Jombart|first11=Toomas|last11=Kivisild|first12=Weiwei|last12=Zhai|first13=Anders|last13=Eriksson|first14=Andrea|last14=Manica|first15=Ludovic|last15=Orlando|first16=Francisco M. De La|last16=Vega|first17=Silvana|last17=Tridico|first18=Ene|last18=Metspalu|first19=Kasper|last19=Nielsen|first20=María C.|last20=Ávila-Arcos|first21=J. Víctor|last21=Moreno-Mayar|first22=Craig|last22=Muller|first23=Joe|last23=Dortch|first24=M. Thomas P.|last24=Gilbert|first25=Ole|last25=Lund|first26=Agata|last26=Wesolowska|first27=Monika|last27=Karmin|first28=Lucy A.|last28=Weinert|first29=Bo|last29=Wang|first30=Jun|last30=Li|first31=Shuaishuai|last31=Tai|first32=Fei|last32=Xiao|first33=Tsunehiko|last33=Hanihara|first34=George van|last34=Driem|first35=Aashish R.|last35=Jha|first36=François-Xavier|last36=Ricaut|first37=Peter de|last37=Knijff|first38=Andrea B.|last38=Migliano|first39=Irene Gallego|last39=Romero|first40=Karsten|last40=Kristiansen|first41=David M.|last41=Lambert|first42=Søren|last42=Brunak|first43=Peter|last43=Forster|first44=Bernd|last44=Brinkmann|first45=Olaf|last45=Nehlich|first46=Michael|last46=Bunce|first47=Michael|last47=Richards|first48=Ramneek|last48=Gupta|first49=Carlos D.|last49=Bustamante|first50=Anders|last50=Krogh|first51=Robert A.|last51=Foley|first52=Marta M.|last52=Lahr|first53=Francois|last53=Balloux|first54=Thomas|last54=Sicheritz-Pontén|first55=Richard|last55=Villems|first56=Rasmus|last56=Nielsen|first57=Jun|last57=Wang|first58=Eske|last58=Willerslev|display-authors=1|date=7 October 2011|journal=Science|volume=334|issue=6052|pages=94–98|doi=10.1126/science.1211177|pmid=21940856|pmc=3991479|bibcode=2011Sci...334...94R}} and arrived in Australia at least 50,000 years ago, based on archaeological evidence.{{Cite web |url=http://www.illumina.com/documents/icommunity/article_2012_04_Aboriginal_Genome.pdf |date=April 2012|author=Illumina|series=iCommunity Newsletter|title=Sequencing Uncovers a 9,000 Mile Walkabout |access-date=10 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121085215/https://www.illumina.com/documents/icommunity/article_2012_04_Aboriginal_Genome.pdf |archive-date=21 November 2018 |url-status=dead }} More recent research points to earlier arrival, possibly 65,000 years ago.{{cite book|title=Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia|date=26 February 2018|first=Billy|last=Griffiths|publisher=Black Inc.|isbn=9781760640446}}

They are believed to be among the earliest human migrations out of Africa. There is evidence of genetic and linguistic interchange between Australians in the far north and the Austronesian peoples of modern-day New Guinea and the islands, but this may be the result of recent trade and intermarriage.Jared Diamond. (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel. Random House. London. pp 314–316 The earliest known human remains were found at Lake Mungo, a dry lake in the southwest of New South Wales.{{cite journal |author1=Bowler J.M. |author2=Johnston H. |author3=Olley J.M. |author4=Prescott J.R. |author5=Roberts R.G. |author6=Shawcross W. |author7=Spooner N.A. |title=New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia. |journal=Nature |volume=421 |issue=6925 |year=2003 |pages=837–40 |doi=10.1038/nature01383 |pmid=12594511 |bibcode=2003Natur.421..837B |s2cid=4365526 }} Remains found at Mungo suggest one of the world's oldest known cremations, thus indicating early evidence for religious ritual among humans.{{cite book |last=Bowler |first=J. M. |year=1971 |chapter=Pleistocene salinities and climatic change: Evidence from lakes and lunettes in southeastern Australia |editor-last=Mulvaney |editor-first=D. J. |editor2-last=Golson |editor2-first=J. |title=Aboriginal Man and Environment in Australia |location=Canberra |publisher=Australian National University Press |pages=47–65 |isbn=0-7081-0452-5 }} Dreamtime remains a prominent feature of Australian Aboriginal art, the oldest continuing tradition of art in the world.{{cite web |url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/exhibitions/the-indigenous-collection |title=The Indigenous Collection |work=The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia |publisher=National Gallery of Victoria |access-date=6 December 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101007081213/http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/exhibitions/the-indigenous-collection |archive-date=7 October 2010 }}

Papuan habitation is estimated to have begun between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago in New Guinea.{{cite journal|author=Gillespie, Richard|year=2002|url=http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~pbrown3/Gillespie02.pdf|title=Dating the First Australians|journal=Radiocarbon|volume=44|issue=2|pages=455–72|access-date=24 May 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030718074926/http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~pbrown3/Gillespie02.pdf|archive-date=18 July 2003|doi=10.1017/S0033822200031830|bibcode=2002Radcb..44..455G |s2cid=129843692}} Trade between New Guinea and neighboring Indonesian islands was documented as early as the seventh century, and archipelagic rule of New Guinea by the 13th. At the beginning of the seventh century, the Sumatra-based empire of Srivijaya (7th century–13th century) engaged in trade relations with western New Guinea, initially taking items like sandalwood and birds-of-paradise in tribute to China, but later making slaves out of the natives.{{Cite book|title=Papua: Geopolitics and the Quest for Nationhood|first=Bilveer|last=Singh|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2008|page=15}} The rule of the Java-based empire of Majapahit (1293–1527) extended to the western fringes of New Guinea.{{Cite web |url=http://www.indonesianhistory.info/map/majapahit.html |title=Majapahit Overseas Empire, Digital Atlas of Indonesian History |access-date=8 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708185756/http://www.indonesianhistory.info/map/majapahit.html |archive-date=8 July 2011 |url-status=dead }} Recent archaeological research suggests that 50,000 years ago people may have occupied sites in the highlands at New Guinean altitudes of up to {{convert|2000|m|ft|abbr=on}}, rather than being restricted to warmer coastal areas.{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-png-humans-idUSTRE68T4X620100930

|work=Reuters

|date=30 September 2010

|title=Early humans lived in PNG highlands 50,000 years ago

}}

File:Mercator_World_Map.jpg, 1587]]

Legends of Terra Australis Incognita—an "unknown land of the South"—date back to Roman times and before, and were commonplace in medieval geography, although not based on any documented knowledge of the continent.Albert-Marie-Ferdinand Anthiaume, "Un pilote et cartographe havrais au XVIe siècle: Guillaume Le Testu", Bulletin de Géographie Historique et Descriptive, Paris, Nos 1–2, 1911, pp. 135–202, n.b. p. 176. Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle speculated of a large landmass in the southern hemisphere, saying, "Now since there must be a region bearing the same relation to the southern pole as the place we live in bears to our pole...".{{Cite web|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/meteorology.2.ii.html|title=The Internet Classics Archive | Meteorology by Aristotle|website=classics.mit.edu}} His ideas were later expanded by Ptolemy (2nd century AD), who believed that the lands of the Northern Hemisphere should be balanced by land in the south. The theory of balancing land has been documented as early as the 5th century on maps by Macrobius, who uses the term Australis on his maps.{{Cite book |doi = 10.7891/e-manuscripta-16478|year = 1000|last1 = Macrobius|first1 = Ambrosius Aurelius Theodosius|title = Zonenkarte|language=latin}}

Terra Australis, a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity, appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries.John Noble Wilford: The Mapmakers, the Story of the Great Pioneers in Cartography from Antiquity to Space Age, p. 139, Vintage Books, Random House 1982, {{ISBN|0-394-75303-8}} Scientists, such as Gerardus Mercator (1569){{Cite journal|last=Zuber|first=Mike A.|date=2011|title=The Armchair Discovery of the Unknown Southern Continent: Gerardus Mercator, Philosophical Pretensions and a Competitive Trade|url=https://www.academia.edu/1910165|journal=Early Science and Medicine|volume=16|issue=6|pages=505–541|doi=10.1163/157338211X607772}} and Alexander Dalrymple as late as 1767 argued for its existence, with such arguments as that there should be a large landmass in the south as a counterweight to the known landmasses in the Northern Hemisphere.Carlos Pedro Vairo, TERRA AUSTRALIS Historical Charts of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica. Ed. Zagier & Urruty Publicationa, 2010. The cartographic depictions of the southern continent in the 16th and early 17th centuries, as might be expected for a concept based on such abundant conjecture and minimal data, varied wildly from map to map; in general, the continent shrank as potential locations were reinterpreted. At its largest, the continent included Tierra del Fuego, separated from South America by a small strait; New Guinea; and what would come to be called Australia.Spieghel der Australische Navigatie; cited by A. Lodewyckx, "The Name of Australia: Its Origin and Early Use", The Victorian Historical Magazine, Vol. XIII, No. 3, June 1929, pp. 100–191.

{{Main|Netherlands New Guinea|European exploration of Australia|History of Australia (1788–1850)}}

File:Thevenot - Hollandia Nova detecta 1644.png, printed in Paris, 1663]]

In 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon made the first documented European sight and landing on the continent of Australia in Cape York Peninsula.J.P. Sigmond and L.H. Zuiderbaan (1979) Dutch Discoveries of Australia.Rigby Ltd, Australia. pp. 19–30 {{ISBN|0-7270-0800-5}} Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman circumnavigated and landed on parts of the Australian continental coast and discovered Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), New Zealand in 1642, and Fiji islands.{{cite book|title=Primary Australian History: Book F [B6] Ages 10–11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_i98Pu5dDhkC&pg=PA6|access-date=12 June 2013|date=2008|publisher=R.I.C. Publications|isbn=978-1-74126-688-7|page=6}} He was the first known European explorer to reach these islands.{{cite web | url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/european-discovery-of-new-zealand/2 | title=European discovery of New Zealand | publisher=Encyclopedia of New Zealand | date=4 March 2009 | access-date=9 December 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101110165647/http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/european-discovery-of-new-zealand/2| archive-date= 10 November 2010 | url-status= live}}

In the quest for Terra Australis, Spanish explorations in the 17th century, such as the expedition led by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, discovered the Pitcairn and Vanuatu archipelagos, and sailed the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, named after navigator Luís Vaz de Torres, who was the first European to explore the Strait. When Europeans first arrived, inhabitants of New Guinea and nearby islands, whose technologies included bone, wood, and stone tools, had a productive agricultural system. In 1660, the Dutch recognised the Sultan of Tidore's sovereignty over New Guinea. The first known Europeans to sight New Guinea were probably the Portuguese and Spanish navigators sailing in the South Pacific in the early part of the 16th century.

On 23 April 1770, British explorer James Cook made his first recorded direct observation of indigenous Australians at Brush Island near Bawley Point.{{cite web|url=http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700422.html|title=Cook's Journal: Daily Entries, 22 April 1770|access-date=21 September 2011}} On 29 April, Cook and crew made their first landfall on the mainland of the continent at a place now known as the Kurnell Peninsula. It is here that James Cook made first contact with an Aboriginal tribe known as the Gweagal, who he fired upon, injuring one.{{Cite web|url=http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17700429.html|title = Cook's Journal 29 April 1770}} His expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered the eastern coastline of Australia.{{cite news|url=https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/10/1036308574533.html|title=Once were warriors – smh.com.au|access-date=21 September 2011|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=11 November 2002}} Captain Arthur Phillip led the First Fleet of 11 ships and about 850 convicts into Sydney on 26 January 1788.{{cite web|publisher=City of Sydney|date=2013|url=http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/sydneys-history|title=Sydney's history|access-date=5 July 2014}} This was to be the location for the new colony. Phillip described Sydney Cove as being "without exception the finest harbour in the world".{{cite web|publisher=Parliament of New South Wales|date=2014|url=http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/web/common.nsf/key/HistoryEarlyEuropeanSettlement|title=Early European settlement|access-date=17 August 2014|archive-date=20 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420191822/http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/web/common.nsf/key/historyearlyeuropeansettlement|url-status=dead}}

{{Main|History of Australia (1901–1945)|History of Australia since 1945|Military history of Australia during World War II|Pacific War}}

In 1883, the Colony of Queensland tried to annex the southern half of eastern New Guinea, but the British government did not approve.John Waiko. Short History of Papua New Guinea (1993) The Commonwealth of Australia came into being when the Federal Constitution was proclaimed by the Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun, on 1 January 1901. From that point a system of federalism in Australia came into operation, entailing the establishment of an entirely new national government (the Commonwealth government) and an ongoing division of powers between that government and the States. With the encouragement of Queensland, in 1884, a British protectorate had been proclaimed over the southern coast of New Guinea and its adjacent islands. British New Guinea was annexed outright in 1888. The possession was placed under the authority of the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia in 1902 and with passage of the Papua Act of 1905, British New Guinea became the Australian Territory of Papua, with formal Australian administration beginning in 1906.{{cite web |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2797.htm |title=Papua New Guinea |publisher=State.gov |date=8 October 2010 |access-date=14 July 2011}}

File:Aust soldiers Wewak June 1945.jpg, Papua New Guinea, in June 1945]]

The Bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942 was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia.{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-17/bombing-of-darwin-anniversary-special-coverage/3834410 |title=Bombing of Darwin: 70 years on – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) |publisher=Abc.net.au |date= 17 February 2012|access-date=19 February 2014}} In an effort to isolate Australia, the Japanese planned a seaborne invasion of Port Moresby, in the Australian Territory of New Guinea. Between July and November 1942, Australian forces repulsed Japanese attempts on the city by way of the Kokoda Track, in the highlands of New Guinea. The Battle of Buna–Gona, between November 1942 and January 1943, set the tone for the bitter final stages of the New Guinea campaign, which persisted into 1945. The offensives in Papua and New Guinea of 1943–44 were the single largest series of connected operations ever mounted by the Australian armed forces.{{cite web |url=http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/23/new-guinea-offensive/ |title=Wartime Issue 23 – New Guinea Offensive | Australian War Memorial |publisher=Awm.gov.au |access-date=14 July 2011}}

Following the 1998 commencement of reforms across Indonesia, Papua and other Indonesian provinces received greater regional autonomy. In 2001, "Special Autonomy" status was granted to Papua province, although to date, implementation has been partial and often criticised.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090211034152/http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA462594 U.S. Dept. of Defence]; [https://web.archive.org/web/20090808210217/http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=1764 International Crisis Group]; and [http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4364&l=1 International Crisis Group] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090808074610/http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=4364 |date=8 August 2009 }}. Archived 19 August 2014. The region was administered as a single province until 2003, when it was split into the provinces of Papua and West Papua. Elections in 1972 resulted in the formation of a ministry headed by Chief Minister Michael Somare, who pledged to lead the country to self-government and then to independence. Papua New Guinea became self-governing on 1 December 1973 and achieved independence on 16 September 1975. The country joined the United Nations (UN) on 10 October 1975.{{Cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/asia/2005/08/25/thirty-years-on |title=Thirty Years On |newspaper=The Economist |date=25 August 2005}}

Migration brought large numbers of southern and central Europeans to Australia for the first time. A 1958 government leaflet assured readers that unskilled non-British migrants were needed for "labour on rugged projects ...work which is not generally acceptable to Australians or British workers".cited in Michael Dugan and Josef Swarc (1984) p. 139 Australia fought on the side of Britain in the two world wars and became a long-standing ally of the United States when threatened by Imperial Japan during World War II. Trade with Asia increased and a post-war immigration program received more than 6.5 million migrants from every continent. Supported by immigration of people from more than 200 countries since the end of World War II, the population increased to more than 23 million by 2014.{{cite web |url=http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib/overview.html |title=DFAT.gov.au |publisher=DFAT.gov.au |date=19 April 1984 |access-date=27 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110216000834/http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib/overview.html |archive-date=16 February 2011 |url-status=dead }}

{{Main|Geography of Australia|Geography of Papua New Guinea|Geology of Australia}}

File:Map of Sunda and Sahul.png of the continent]]

File:AustralianPlate.png]]

The Australian continent, as a whole being part of the Australian Plate, is the lowest, flattest, and oldest landmass on EarthPain, C.F., Villans, B.J., Roach, I.C., Worrall, L. & Wilford, J.R. (2012): Old, flat and red – Australia's distinctive landscape. In: Shaping a Nation: A Geology of Australia. Blewitt, R.S. (Ed.) Geoscience Australia and ANU E Press, Canberra. Pp. 227–275 {{ISBN|978-1-922103-43-7}} and it has had a relatively stable geological history. New Zealand is not part of the continent of Australia, but of the separate, submerged continent of Zealandia.{{cite encyclopedia|author=Keith Lewis|author2=Scott D. Nodder and Lionel Carter|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/OceanStudyAndConservation/SeaFloorGeology/1/en|title=Zealandia: the New Zealand continent|encyclopedia=Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand|date=11 January 2007|access-date=22 February 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725204749/http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/sea-floor-geology/page-1|archive-date=25 July 2013}} New Zealand and Australia are both part of the Oceanian sub-region known as Australasia, with New Guinea being in Melanesia.

The continent includes a continental shelf overlain by shallow seas which divide it into several landmasses—the Arafura Sea and Torres Strait between mainland Australia and New Guinea, and Bass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania. When sea levels were lower during the Pleistocene ice age, including the Last Glacial Maximum about 18,000 BC, they were connected by dry land.

During the past 18,000{{cite web | last=Norman | first=Kasih | title=Island-hopping study shows the most likely route the first people took to Australia | website=Phys.org | date=2 April 2018 | url=https://phys.org/news/2018-04-island-hopping-route-people-australia.html | access-date=6 August 2020}} to 10,000 years, rising sea levels overflowed the lowlands and separated the continent into today's low-lying arid to semi-arid mainland and the two mountainous islands of New Guinea and Tasmania.{{cite book | last = Johnson | first = David Peter | year = 2004 | title = The Geology of Australia | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Port Melbourne, Victoria | page = 12}} The continental shelf connecting the islands, half of which is less than {{convert|50|m|ft}} deep, covers some {{convert|2.5|e6km2|sqmi}}, including the Sahul Shelf{{cite web | year = 2001 | url = http://www.aims.gov.au/pages/reflib/bigbank/pages/bb-04.html | title = Big Bank Shoals of the Timor Sea: An environmental resource atlas | publisher = Australian Institute of Marine Science | access-date = 28 August 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060908082408/http://www.aims.gov.au/pages/reflib/bigbank/pages/bb-04.html | archive-date = 8 September 2006 | url-status = dead }}{{cite web | last = Wirantaprawira | first = Dr Willy | year = 2003 | url = http://www.wirantaprawira.net/indon/land.html | title = Republik Indonesia | publisher = Dr Willy Wirantaprawira | access-date = 28 August 2006 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061018140046/http://www.wirantaprawira.net/indon/land.html | archive-date = 18 October 2006 }} and Bass Strait.

Geological forces such as tectonic uplift of mountain ranges or clashes between tectonic plates occurred mainly in Australia's early history, when it was still a part of Gondwana. Australia is situated in the middle of the tectonic plate, and therefore currently has no active volcanism.{{cite web |url=http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/land-of-earthquakes-and-volcanoes.htm |title=Land of earthquakes and volcanoes? |author=Kevin Mccue |access-date=25 April 2010 |date=26 February 2010 |publisher=Australian Geographic |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100306150520/http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/land-of-earthquakes-and-volcanoes.htm |archive-date=6 March 2010 }}

File:Post-Glacial Sea Level.png since the Last Glacial Maximum]]

The continent primarily sits on the Indo-Australian Plate. Because of its central location on its tectonic plate, Australia does not have any active volcanic regions, the only continent with this distinction.{{cite book |title=Australian Environments: Place, Pattern and Process |last=Barrett |author2=Dent |year=1996 |publisher=Macmillan Education AU |isbn=978-0732931209 |page=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9AUcU_35C9sC |access-date=13 June 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529100215/https://books.google.com/books?id=9AUcU_35C9sC |archive-date=29 May 2016 }} The lands were joined with Antarctica as part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana until the plate began to drift north about 96 million years ago.

For most of the time since then, Australia–New Guinea remained a continuous landmass. When the last glacial period ended in about 10,000 BC, rising sea levels formed Bass Strait, separating Tasmania from the mainland. Then between about 8,000 and 6,500 BC, the lowlands in the north were flooded by the sea, separating the Aru Islands, mainland Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania.

A northern arc consisting of the New Guinea Highlands, the Raja Ampat Islands, and Halmahera was uplifted by the northward migration of Australia and subduction of the Pacific Plate. The Outer Banda Arc was accreted along the northwestern edge the continent; it includes the islands of Timor, Tanimbar, and Seram. Papua New Guinea has several volcanoes, as it is situated along the Pacific Ring of Fire. Volcanic eruptions are not rare, and the area is prone to earthquakes and tsunamis because of this.{{cite book |first=M. G. |last=Audley-Charles |year=1986 |chapter=Timor–Tanimbar Trough: the foreland basin of the evolving Banda orogen |title=Foreland Basins |volume=8 |pages=91–102 |doi=10.1002/9781444303810.ch5 |isbn=9781444303810 }} Mount Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea is the second highest mountain in the continent,{{cite web|url=http://www.dzs.hr/Hrv_Eng/ljetopis/2007/51-bind.pdf|title=Statistical Yearbook of Croatia, 2007|website=dzs.hr|access-date=23 October 2017}} and at {{Convert|4884|m|ft|0}} above sea level, Puncak Jaya is the highest mountain.

{{See also|Flora of Australia|Fungi of Australia}}

File: Eucalyptus forest2.jpg]]

File:20170903 Papouasie Baliem valley 12.jpg in the New Guinea Highlands]]

For about 40 million years Australia–New Guinea was almost completely isolated. During this time, the continent experienced numerous changes in climate, but the overall trend was towards greater aridity. When South America eventually separated from Antarctica, the development of the cold Antarctic Circumpolar Current changed weather patterns across the world. For Australia–New Guinea, it brought a marked intensification of the drying trend. The great inland seas and lakes dried out. Much of the long-established broad-leaf deciduous forest began to give way to the distinctive hard-leaved sclerophyllous plants that characterise the modern Australian landscape.

Typical Southern Hemisphere flora include the conifers Podocarpus (eastern Australia and New Guinea), the rainforest emergents Araucaria (eastern Australia and New Guinea), Nothofagus (New Guinea and Tasmania) and Agathis (northern Queensland and New Guinea), as well as tree ferns and several species of Eucalyptus. Prominent features of the Australian flora are adaptations to aridity and fire which include scleromorphy and serotiny. These adaptations are common in species from the large and well-known families Proteaceae (Banksias and Grevilleas), Myrtaceae (Eucalyptus or gum trees, Melaleucas and Callistemons), Fabaceae (Acacias or wattles), and Casuarinaceae (Casuarinas or she-oaks), which are typically found in the Australian mainland. The flora of New Guinea is a mixture of many tropical rainforest species with origins in Asia, such as Castanopsis acuminatissima, Lithocarpus spp., elaeocarps, and laurels, together with typically Australasian flora. In the New Guinean highlands, conifers such as Dacrycarpus, Dacrydium, Papuacedrus and Libocedrus are present.{{cite web |url=http://www.publish.csiro.au/samples/australiaburningsample.pdf |title=Australia Burning: Fire Ecology, Policy and Management Issues |publisher=CSIRO Publishing}}

For many species, the primary refuge was the relatively cool and well-watered Great Dividing Range. Even today, pockets of remnant vegetation remain in the cool uplands, some species not much changed from the Gondwanan forms of 60 or 90 million years ago. Eventually, the Australia–New Guinea tectonic plate collided with the Eurasian plate to the north. The collision caused the northern part of the continent to buckle upwards, forming the high and rugged mountains of New Guinea and, by reverse (downwards) buckling, the Torres Strait that now separates the two main landmasses. The collision also pushed up the islands of Wallacea, which served as island 'stepping-stones' that allowed plants from Southeast Asia's rainforests to colonise New Guinea, and some plants from Australia–New Guinea to move into Southeast Asia. The ocean straits between the islands were narrow enough to allow plant dispersal, but served as an effective barrier to exchange of land mammals between Australia–New Guinea and Asia. Among the fungi, the remarkable association between Cyttaria gunnii (one of the "golf-ball" fungi) and its associated trees in the genus Nothofagus is evidence of that drift: the only other places where this association is known are New Zealand and southern Argentina and Chile.{{cite book |last=Korf |first=R. P. |chapter=Cyttaria (Cyttariales): coevolution with Nothofagus, and evolutionary relationship to the Boedijnpezizeae (Pezizales, Sarcoscyphaceae) |pages=77–87 |editor-first=K. A. |editor-last=Pirozynski |editor2-first=J. |editor2-last=Walker |title=Pacific Mycogeography: a Preliminary Approach |series=Australian Journal of Botany Supplementary Series |volume=10 |year=1983 |isbn=0-643-03548-6 }}

{{See also|Fauna of Australia|Fauna of New Guinea}}

File:Cicinnurus regius-20031005.jpg

Due to the spread of animals, fungi and plants across the single Pleistocene landmass the separate lands have a related biota.{{cite book|last=Newman|first=Arnold|title=Tropical Rainforest: Our Most Valuable and Endangered Habitat With a Blueprint for Its Survival into the Third Millennium|year=2002|publisher=Checkmark|isbn=978-0816039739|edition=2|url=https://archive.org/details/tropicalrainfore00newm_0}} There are over 300 bird species in West Papua, of which at least 20 are unique to the ecoregion, and some live only in very restricted areas. These include the grey-banded munia, Vogelkop bowerbird, and the king bird-of-paradise.[http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/new_guinea_forests/conservation_new_guinea_forests/sites_new_guinea_forests/papua_new_guinea_bird_head_peninsula/ WWF: Bird wonders of New Guinea's western-most province], retrieved 11 May 2010

Australia has a huge variety of animals; some 83% of mammals, 89% of reptiles, 24% of fish and insects and 93% of amphibians that inhabit the continent are endemic to Australia.Williams, J. et al. 2001. [http://www.environment.gov.au/soe/2001/publications/theme-reports/biodiversity/pubs/biodiversity.pdf Biodiversity, Australia State of the Environment Report 2001 (Theme Report)], CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Department of the Environment and Heritage, Canberra. {{ISBN|0-643-06749-3}} This high level of endemism can be attributed to the continent's long geographic isolation, tectonic stability, and the effects of an unusual pattern of climate change on the soil and flora over geological time. Australia and its territories are home to around 800 species of bird;Egerton, p. 122. 45% of these are endemic to Australia.{{cite book|title=Numbers of Living Species in Australia and the World|author=Chapman, A.D.|year=2009|publisher=Australian Biological Resources Study|page=14|url=http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/2ee3f4a1-f130-465b-9c7a-79373680a067/files/nlsaw-2nd-complete.pdf|edition=2nd|isbn=9780642568618}} Predominant bird species in Australia include the Australian magpie, Australian raven, the pied currawong, crested pigeons and the laughing kookaburra.Egerton, L. ed. 2005. Encyclopedia of Australian wildlife. Reader's Digest The koala, emu, platypus and kangaroo are national animals of Australia,{{cite web|publisher=Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade |url=http://dfat.gov.au/about-australia/land-its-people/Pages/australias-national-symbols.aspx |title=Australia's National Symbols |access-date=15 July 2015}} and the Tasmanian devil is also one of the well-known animals in the country.{{Cite news|url=http://www.tassiedevil.com.au/tasdevil.nsf/downloads/D595436FECB69A66CA2576ED0083D3F6/$file/DevilNews_June_2008.pdf|date=June 2008|access-date=6 October 2010|work=Save the Tasmanian Devil|title=Welcome|page=1|archive-date=17 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110217185140/http://www.tassiedevil.com.au/tasdevil.nsf/downloads/D595436FECB69A66CA2576ED0083D3F6/$file/DevilNews_June_2008.pdf|url-status=dead}} The goanna is a predatory lizard native to the Australian mainland.Underhill D (1993) Australia's Dangerous Creatures, Reader's Digest, Sydney, New South Wales, {{ISBN|0-86438-018-6}}

File:Phascolarctus cinereus 2 Gould.jpg

As the continent drifted north from Antarctica, a unique fauna, flora and mycobiota developed. Marsupials and monotremes also existed on other continents, but only in Australia–New Guinea did they out-compete the placental mammals and come to dominate. New Guinea has 284 species and six orders of mammals: monotremes, three orders of marsupials, rodents and bats; 195 of the mammal species (69%) are endemic. New Guinea has a rich diversity of coral life and 1,200 species of fish have been found. Also about 600 species of reef-building coral—the latter equal to 75 percent of the world's known total. New Guinea has 578 species of breeding birds, of which 324 species are endemic. Bird life also flourished—in particular, the songbirds (order Passeriformes, suborder Passeri) are thought to have evolved 50 million years ago in the part of Gondwana that later became Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and Antarctica, before radiating into a great number of different forms and then spreading around the globe.{{Citation

| last1 = Low

| first1 = T.

| title = Where Song Began: Australia's Birds and How They Changed the World

| publisher = Penguin Australia

| place = Tyre

| year = 2014

}}

Animal groups such as macropods, monotremes, and cassowaries are endemic to Australia. There were three main reasons for the enormous diversity that developed in animal, fungal and plant life.

• While much of the rest of the world underwent significant cooling and thus loss of species diversity, Australia–New Guinea was drifting north at such a pace that the overall global cooling effect was roughly equalled by its gradual movement toward the equator. Temperatures in Australia–New Guinea, in other words, remained reasonably constant for a very long time, and a vast number of different animal, fungal and plant species were able to evolve to fit particular ecological niches. Because the continent was more isolated than any other, very few outside species arrived to colonise, and unique native forms developed unimpeded.
• Finally, despite the fact that the continent was already very old and thus relatively infertile, there are dispersed areas of high fertility. Where other continents had volcanic activity and/or massive glaciation events to turn over fresh, unleached rocks rich in minerals, the rocks and soils of Australia–New Guinea were left largely untouched except by gradual erosion and deep weathering. In general, fertile soils produce a profusion of life, and a relatively large number of species/level of biodiversity. This is because where nutrients are plentiful, competition is largely a matter of outcompeting rival species, leaving great scope for innovative co-evolution as is witnessed in tropical, fertile ecosystems. In contrast, infertile soils tend to induce competition on an abiotic basis meaning individuals all face constant environmental pressures, leaving less scope for divergent evolution, a process instrumental in creating new species.

Although New Guinea is the most northerly part of the continent, and could be expected to be the most tropical in climate, the altitude of the New Guinea highlands is such that a great many animals and plants that were once common across Australia–New Guinea now survive only in the tropical highlands where they are severely threatened by population growth.

{{Main|Climate of Australia}}

In New Guinea, the climate is mostly monsoonal (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October), and tropical rainforest with slight seasonal temperature variation. In lower altitudes, the temperature is around {{convert|27|C|F}} year round. But the higher altitudes, such as Mendi, are constantly around {{convert|21|C|F}} with cool lows nearing {{convert|11|C|F}}, with abundant rainfall and high humidity. The New Guinea Highlands are one of the few regions close to the equator that experience snowfall, which occurs in the most elevated parts of the mainland. Some areas in the island experience an extraordinary amount of precipitation, averaging roughly {{convert|4500|mm}} of rainfall annually.

The Australian landmass's climate is mostly desert or semi-arid, with the southern coastal corners having a temperate climate, such as oceanic and humid subtropical climate in the east coast and Mediterranean climate in the west. The northern parts of the country have a tropical climate.{{cite web|url=http://www.bom.gov.au/lam/climate/levelthree/ausclim/ausclim.html|title=BOM – Climate of Australia|first=National Climate|last=Centre|website=webarchive.nla.gov.au|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20090317054300/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/96122/20090317-1643/www.bom.gov.au/lam/climate/levelthree/ausclim/ausclim.html|archive-date=17 March 2009}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Snow falls frequently on the highlands near the east coast, in the states of Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and in the Australian Capital Territory. Temperatures in Australia have ranged from above {{convert|50|C}} to well below {{convert|0|C}}. Nonetheless, minimum temperatures are moderated. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation is associated with seasonal abnormality in many areas in the world. Australia is one of the continents most affected and experiences extensive droughts alongside considerable wet periods.{{cite book| year = 1997 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uwQ7FulHCCsC&pg=PA376| title = Precipitation in Australia | work = Climates and Weather of Australia | publisher = Routledge |page=376| isbn = 978-0-415-12519-2}}

{{Gallery

|title=

|width=200

|height=200

|align=center

|File:Puncak Jaya icecap 1972.jpg|Ice cap at top of Puncak Jaya in Papua (1972)

|File:Mount Wilson.jpg

|Autumn in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales

|File:Tree ferns growing in wet high-altitude Papua New Guinea rainforest.jpg|A tropical rainforest in Papua New Guinea

|File:SimpsonDesert.jpg|Simpson desert in Northern Territory

|File:Evening monsoonal squall.jpg|Monsoonal squall in Darwin

|File:Kakadu 2534.jpg|A billabong in the Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory. The monsoon climate of northern Australia is hot and humid in summer.

|File:Snow in Jindabyne 07.jpg

|Snow in Jindabyne, New South Wales, a town in the Snowy Mountains

|File:Kelsey_Creek-Dittmer_Mountains.jpg|Grassland in Queensland with mountains in background

|File:(Apple orchards, trees in full bloom, wooden fence posts in the distance) (Tasmania) - (Frank Hurley) (9711313115).jpg|Spring in the apple orchards of Tasmania}}

{{Main|Politics of Australia|Politics of Papua New Guinea}}

File:Government House Canberra.JPG is the official residence of the Governor-General.]]

Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy{{cite web |date=11 August 2010 |title=How Australia's Parliament works |url=http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/features/2010/08/how-australias-parliament-works |access-date=16 June 2014 |publisher=Australian Geographic}} with Charles III at its apex as the King of Australia, a role that is distinct from his position as monarch of the other Commonwealth realms. The King is represented in Australia by the Governor-General at the federal level and by the Governors at the state level, who by convention act on the advice of the government's ministers.{{Harvnb|Davison|Hirst|Macintyre|1998|pages=287–8}}{{cite web |title=Governor-General's Role |url=http://www.gg.gov.au/governorgeneral/category.php?id=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080804130529/http://www.gg.gov.au/governorgeneral/category.php?id=2 |archive-date=4 August 2008 |access-date=23 April 2010 |publisher=Governor-General of Australia}} There are two major political groups that usually form government, federally and in the states: the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition which is a formal grouping of the Liberal Party and its minor partner, the National Party.{{cite web |title=Glossary of Election Terms |url=http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/guide/glossary.htm#coalition |access-date=23 April 2010 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}}{{cite web |title=State of the Parties |url=http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/results/sop.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418163914/http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/results/sop.htm |archive-date=18 April 2010 |access-date=23 April 2010 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}} Within Australian political culture, the Coalition is considered centre-right and the Labor Party is considered centre-left.{{cite book |last1=Fenna |first1=Alan |title=Government Politics in Australia |last2=Robbins |first2=Jane |last3=Summers |first3=John |publisher=Pearson Higher Education AU |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4860-0138-5 |location=London, United Kingdom |page=139}}

Papua New Guinea is a Commonwealth realm. As such, King Charles III is its sovereign and head of state. The constitutional convention, which prepared the draft constitution, and Australia, the outgoing metropolitan power, had thought that Papua New Guinea would not remain a monarchy. The founders, however, considered that imperial honours had a cachet.{{cite book |last=Bradford |first=Sarah |url=https://archive.org/details/elizabethbiograp00brad_0 |title=Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain's Queen |publisher=Riverhead Books |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-57322-600-4}} The monarch is represented by the Governor-General of Papua New Guinea, currently Bob Dadae. Papua New Guinea (along with Solomon Islands) is unusual among Commonwealth realms in that governors-general are elected by the legislature, rather than chosen by the executive branch.

{{Main|Economy of Australia|Economy of Papua New Guinea}}

File:Australia - Part 3 (27519420205).jpg is an iconic image of Sydney, and the continent itself.{{cite web|title=7BridgesWalk.com.au|work=Bridge History|url=http://www.7bridgeswalk.com.au/pages/bridge-history.php#sydharbourbridge|access-date=23 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829175704/http://www.7bridgeswalk.com.au/pages/bridge-history.php#sydharbourbridge|archive-date=29 August 2007|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/sydney-harbour-bridge|title=Sydney Harbour Bridge|publisher=Australian Government|date=14 August 2008|access-date=29 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120512054556/http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/sydney-harbour-bridge|archive-date=12 May 2012|url-status=dead}} Ranking highly in quality of life measurements, Sydney is consistently selected as one of the world's most liveable cities.]]

File:Melbourne CBD.jpg has been placed alongside New York City and Berlin as one of the world's great street art spots, ranked the world's most liveable city for several years running and designated a "City of Literature" by UNESCO in its Creative Cities Network."[http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=39255&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Melbourne, Australia: City of Literature] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110904084600/http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D39255%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html |date=4 September 2011 }}", Creative Cities Network, UNESCO, retrieved: 10 August 2011]]

Australia is the only First World country on the Australia-New Guinea continent, although the economy of Australia is by far the largest and most dominant economy in the region and one of the largest in the world. Australia's per-capita GDP is higher than that of the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and France in terms of purchasing power parity.[http://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/dnltransfer.asp?fID=2 Field listing – GDP (official exchange rate)], CIA World Factbook The Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney is the largest stock exchange in Australia and in the South Pacific.{{cite web|url=http://wfe.if5.com/ReportGen.aspx?year=2012&month=10¤cy=usd&type=pdf&idTable=0|title=2012 Report (PDF)|access-date=20 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904073736/http://wfe.if5.com/ReportGen.aspx?year=2012&month=10¤cy=usd&type=pdf&idTable=0|archive-date=4 September 2015|url-status=dead}} In 2012, Australia was the 12th largest national economy by nominal GDP and the 19th-largest measured by PPP-adjusted GDP.{{cite web|url=http://www.rba.gov.au/publications/smp/2013/nov/html/index.html|title=Statement on Monetary Policy (November 2013)|access-date=20 May 2014|date=8 November 2013}}{{needs update|date=December 2024}}

Tourism in Australia is an important component of the Australian economy. In the financial year 2014/15, tourism represented 3.0% of Australia's GDP contributing A$47.5 billion to the national economy.{{cite web|last=Australian Bureau of Statistics|title=Tourism Satellite Account 2014–15:Key Figures|url=http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/5249.0?OpenDocument|date=14 December 2017}} In 2015, there were 7.4 million visitor arrivals.{{cite web|url=http://www.tourism.australia.com/statistics/arrivals.aspx|title=Visitor Arrivals Data|publisher=Tourism Australia|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905135526/http://www.tourism.australia.com/statistics/arrivals.aspx|archive-date=5 September 2015|date=10 January 2019}} Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranks Sydney tenth in the world in terms of quality of living,{{cite web |url=http://www.mercer.com/qualityoflivingpr#city-rankings |title=2014 Quality of Living Worldwide City Rankings – Mercer Survey |publisher=mercer.com |date=19 February 2014 |access-date=24 October 2016 }} making it one of the most livable cities.{{cite web|publisher=Mercer|date=2014|url=http://www.mercer.com.au/newsroom/mercer-2014-quality-of-living-index.html|title=2014 Quality of Living Index|access-date=20 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821050133/http://www.mercer.com.au/newsroom/mercer-2014-quality-of-living-index.html|archive-date=21 August 2014|url-status=dead}} It is classified as an Alpha+ World City by GaWC.{{cite web|url=http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/world2010t.html|title=The World According to GaWC 2010|work=Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Study Group and Network|publisher=Loughborough University|access-date=22 April 2012}}{{cite web|title=Global Power City Index 2010|publisher=Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation|location=Tokyo, Japan|date=October 2010|url=http://www.mori-m-foundation.or.jp/english/research/project/6/pdf/GPCI2010_English.pdf|access-date=10 August 2011}} Melbourne also ranked highly in the world's most liveable city list,{{Cite web|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/happy-birthday-melbourne-181-and-still-kicking|title=Happy birthday Melbourne: 181 and still kicking!|website=www.sbs.com.au}} and is a leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region.[http://www.longfinance.net/images/GFCI14_30Sept2013.pdf The Global Financial Centres Index 14 (September 2013)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904001601/http://www.longfinance.net/images/GFCI14_30Sept2013.pdf |date=4 September 2015 }}. Y/Zen Group. p 15. Retrieved 4 December 2013.[http://www.atkearney.com.au/documents/10192/dfedfc4c-8a62-4162-90e5-2a3f14f0da3a 2012 Global Cities Index and Emerging Cities Outlook] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230235649/http://www.atkearney.com.au/documents/10192/dfedfc4c-8a62-4162-90e5-2a3f14f0da3a |date=30 December 2013 }}. A.T. Kearney. p 2. Retrieved 29 December 2013.

Papua New Guinea is rich in natural resources, which account for two-thirds of their export earnings. Though PNG is filled with resources, the lack of country's development led foreign countries to take over few sites and continued foreign demand for PNG's resources and as a result, the United States constructed an oil company and began to export in 2004 and this was the largest project in PNG's history.{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/papua-new-guinea/|title=The World Factbook|website=www.cia.gov|access-date=14 March 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.apecpng2018.org/|title=APECPNG2018.ORG|website=www.apecpng2018.org|access-date=29 August 2016|archive-date=9 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160709114755/http://apecpng2018.org/|url-status=dead}} Papua New Guinea is classified as a developing economy by the International Monetary Fund.[http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2015/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2014&ey=2014&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&pr1.x=16&pr1.y=7&c=512%2C668%2C914%2C672%2C612%2C946%2C614%2C137%2C311%2C962%2C213%2C674%2C911%2C676%2C193%2C548%2C122%2C556%2C912%2C678%2C313%2C181%2C419%2C867%2C513%2C682%2C316%2C684%2C913%2C273%2C124%2C868%2C339%2C921%2C638%2C948%2C514%2C943%2C218%2C686%2C963%2C688%2C616%2C518%2C223%2C728%2C516%2C558%2C918%2C138%2C748%2C196%2C618%2C278%2C522%2C692%2C622%2C694%2C156%2C142%2C624%2C449%2C626%2C564%2C628%2C565%2C228%2C283%2C924%2C853%2C233%2C288%2C632%2C293%2C636%2C566%2C634%2C964%2C238%2C182%2C662%2C453%2C960%2C968%2C423%2C922%2C935%2C714%2C128%2C862%2C611%2C135%2C321%2C716%2C243%2C456%2C248%2C722%2C469%2C942%2C253%2C718%2C642%2C724%2C643%2C576%2C939%2C936%2C644%2C961%2C819%2C813%2C172%2C199%2C132%2C733%2C646%2C184%2C648%2C524%2C915%2C361%2C134%2C362%2C652%2C364%2C174%2C732%2C328%2C366%2C258%2C734%2C656%2C144%2C654%2C146%2C336%2C463%2C263%2C528%2C268%2C923%2C532%2C738%2C944%2C578%2C176%2C537%2C534%2C742%2C536%2C866%2C429%2C369%2C433%2C744%2C178%2C186%2C436%2C925%2C136%2C869%2C343%2C746%2C158%2C926%2C439%2C466%2C916%2C112%2C664%2C111%2C826%2C298%2C542%2C927%2C967%2C846%2C443%2C299%2C917%2C582%2C544%2C474%2C941%2C754%2C446%2C698%2C666&s=PPPPC&grp=0&a= World Economic Outlook Database, October 2015], [http://www.imf.org/external/ns/cs.aspx?id=28 International Monetary Fund]. Database updated on 6 October 2015. Accessed on 6 October 2015. Strong growth in Papua New Guinea's mining and resource sector led to the country becoming the sixth fastest-growing economy in the world in 2011.[http://www.adb.org/publications/asian-development-outlook-2015-financing-asias-future-growth Asian Development Outlook 2015: Financing Asia’s Future Growth]. Asian Development Bank (March 2015){{cite web |url=http://ministers.dfat.gov.au/marles/speeches/2012/rm_sp_120309.html |title=Raising the profile of PNG in Australia |date=9 March 2012 |access-date=27 July 2012 |work=Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513003006/http://ministers.dfat.gov.au/marles/speeches/2012/rm_sp_120309.html |archive-date=13 May 2012 |url-status=dead }}

{{Clear}}

{{Main|Immigration to Australia}}

File:StateLibQld 1 110096 Drawing of migrants disembarking from a ship, ca. 1885.jpg

Since 1945, more than 7 million people have settled in Australia. From the late 1970s, there was a significant increase in immigration from Asian and other non-European countries, making Australia a multicultural country.{{cite web|url=http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/3412.0Main+Features52015-16?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3412.0&issue=2015-16&num=&view=|title=Main Features – Net Overseas Migration|first=c=AU; o=Commonwealth of Australia; ou=Australian Bureau of|last=Statistics|website=www.abs.gov.au|access-date=10 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010010130/http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/3412.0Main+Features52015-16?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3412.0&issue=2015-16&num=&view=|archive-date=10 October 2017|url-status=dead}} Sydney is the most multicultural city in Oceania, having more than 250 different languages spoken, with about 40 percent of residents speaking a language other than English at home.{{cite news|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=2014|url=https://www.smh.com.au/data-point/sydney-languages|title=Sydney's melting pot of language|access-date=13 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140923055934/http://www.smh.com.au/data-point/sydney-languages|archive-date=23 September 2014|url-status=dead}} Furthermore, 36 percent of the population reported having been born overseas, with top countries being Italy, Lebanon, Vietnam and Iraq, among others.{{cite web|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/census-2016-migrants-make-a-cosmopolitan-country/news-story/da01bec138fc8600ea7bb84d1844ea80|title=Census 2016: Migrants make a cosmopolitan country|work=The Australian|date=15 July 2017|access-date=16 July 2017}}{{cite web|publisher=.id|date=2014|url=http://profile.id.com.au/sydney/population|title=Population, dwellings, and ethnicity|access-date=27 July 2014}} Melbourne is also fairly multicultural, having the largest Greek-speaking population outside of Europe,{{cite web | url=http://www.oecd.org/gov/regional-policy/50242959.pdf | title=Regional, rural and urban development - OECD }} and the second largest Asian population in Australia after Sydney.{{cite web |url=http://www.vicnet.net.au/community/ethnic/indian/ |title=Vicnet Directory Indian Community |publisher=Vicnet |access-date=2 October 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080928011559/http://www.vicnet.net.au/community/ethnic/indian/ |archive-date=28 September 2008 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.vicnet.net.au/community/ethnic/srilankan/ |title=Vicnet Directory Sri Lankan Community |publisher=Vicnet |access-date=2 October 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016054206/http://www.vicnet.net.au/community/ethnic/srilankan/ |archive-date=16 October 2008 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.yarranet.net.au/~acacia/vietcom.htm |title=Vietnamese Community Directory |publisher=yarranet.net.au |access-date=2 October 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724113628/http://www.yarranet.net.au/~acacia/vietcom.htm |archive-date=24 July 2008 }}

{{Main|Religion in Australia|Religion in Papua New Guinea}}

Christianity is the predominant religion in the continent, although large proportions of Australians belong to no religion.[https://web.archive.org/web/20130815184022/http://wwwgordonconwell.com/netcommunity/CSGCResources/ChristianityinitsGlobalContext.pdf Christianity in its Global Context, 1970–2020 Society, Religion, and Mission], Center for the Study of Global Christianity Other religions in the region include Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, which are prominent minority religions in Australia. Traditional religions are often animist, found in New Guinea. Islam is widespread in the Indonesian New Guinea.{{cite web |url = http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/2071.0Main%20Features902012%E2%80%932013 |work = 2071.0 – Reflecting a Nation: Stories from the 2011 Census, 2012–2013 |title = Cultural diversity in Australia |date = 21 June 2012 |publisher = Australian Bureau of Statistics |access-date = 27 June 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160425232111/http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/2071.0Main%20Features902012%E2%80%932013 |archive-date = 25 April 2016 }} Many Papuans combine their Christian faith with traditional indigenous beliefs and practices.{{cite web | url = https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2003/24317.htm | access-date = 23 March 2006 | title = US Department of State International Religious Freedom Report 2003}}

{{Main|Languages of Australia|Languages of Papua New Guinea|Languages of Indonesia}}

"Aboriginal Australian languages", including the large Pama–Nyungan family, "Papuan languages" of New Guinea and neighbouring islands, including the large Trans–New Guinea family, and "Tasmanian languages" are generic terms for the native languages of the continent other than those of Austronesian family.{{Cite journal|last=Silva|first=Diego B.|date=2019|title=Language policy in Oceania|journal=Alfa|volume=63 |pages=317–347 |doi=10.1590/1981-5794-1909-4 |s2cid=204627919 |doi-access=free}} Predominant languages include English in Australia, Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea, and Indonesian (Malay) in Indonesian New Guinea. Immigration to Australia have brought overseas languages such as Italian, Greek, Arabic, Filipino, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Spanish, among others.{{cite web|url=http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/2071.0main+features902012-2013|title=Main Features – Cultural Diversity in Australia|first=c=AU; o=Commonwealth of Australia; ou=Australian Bureau of|last=Statistics|website=www.abs.gov.au|date=21 June 2012}} Contact between Austronesian and Papuan resulted in several instances in mixed languages such as Maisin. Tok Pisin is an English creole language spoken in Papua New Guinea.{{cite news|author1=A.V.|title=Papua New Guinea's incredible linguistic diversity|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/07/economist-explains-14|access-date=20 July 2017|newspaper=The Economist|date=24 July 2017}} Papua New Guinea has more languages than any other country, with over 820 indigenous languages, representing 12% of the world's total, but most have fewer than 1,000 speakers.[http://www.ethnologue.com/country/PG Papua New Guinea], Ethnologue

{{Main|Culture of Australia|Culture of Papua New Guinea|Australian Aboriginal culture}}

Since 1788, the primary influence behind Australian culture has been Anglo-Celtic Western culture, with some Indigenous influences.Jupp, pp. 796–802.Teo and White, pp. 118–20.{{Cite book|last1=Teo|first1=Hsu-Ming|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1120581500|title=Cultural history in Australia|last2=White|first2=Richard|date=2003|publisher=UNSW Press|isbn=0-86840-589-2|oclc=1120581500}} The divergence and evolution that has occurred in the ensuing centuries has resulted in a distinctive Australian culture.{{Harvnb|Davison|Hirst|Macintyre|1998|pages=98–9}}Teo and White, pp. 125–27.{{Cite book|date=1 January 2001|editor-last=Davison|editor-first=Graeme|editor2-last=Hirst|editor2-first=John|editor3-last=Macintyre|editor3-first=Stuart|title=The Oxford Companion to Australian History|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195515039.001.0001|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195515039.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-551503-9}} Since the mid-20th century, American popular culture has strongly influenced Australia, particularly through television and cinema.Teo and White, pp. 121–23. Other cultural influences come from neighbouring Asian countries, and through large-scale immigration from non-English-speaking nations.Jupp, pp. 808–12, 74–77.{{Cite book|last=James.|first=Jupp|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/760277445|title=The Australian people : an encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins|date=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-80789-1|oclc=760277445}} The Australian Museum in Sydney and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne are the oldest and largest museums in the continent, as well as in Oceania.Australian Museum, A Short History of the Australian Museum, http://australianmuseum.net.au/A-short-history-of-the-Australian-MuseumNational Gallery of Victoria – Victorian Heritage Register Sydney's New Year's Eve celebrations are the largest in the continent.{{cite news|last=Kaur |first=Jaskiran |date=2013 |url=http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/531947/20131227/party-new-year-s-eve-australia-sydney.htm |title=Where to party in Australia on New Year's Eve |work=International Business Times|access-date=27 July 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708231528/http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/531947/20131227/party-new-year-s-eve-australia-sydney.htm |archive-date=8 July 2014 }}

It is estimated that more than 7,000 different cultural groups exist in Papua New Guinea, and most groups have their own language. Because of this diversity, in which they take pride, many different styles of cultural expression have emerged; each group has created its own expressive forms in art, performance art, weaponry, costumes and architecture. Papua New Guinea is one of the few cultures in Oceania to practice the tradition of bride price.{{cite web |title=Papua New Guinea – culture |work=Datec Pty Ltd |url=http://www.datec.com.au/png/culture.htm |access-date=16 December 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990210114159/http://www.datec.com.au/png/culture.htm |archive-date=10 February 1999}} In particular, Papua New Guinea is world-famous for carved wooden sculpture: masks, canoes, story-boards.

Australia has a tradition of Aboriginal art which is thousands of years old, the best known forms being rock art and bark painting. Evidence of Aboriginal art in Australia can be traced back at least 30,000 years.{{cite web|url=http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/indigenous/art/index.htm|title=Australian Indigenous art|work=Australian Culture and Recreation Portal|publisher=Australia Government|date=21 December 2007|access-date=26 September 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100416144209/http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/indigenous/art/index.htm|archive-date=16 April 2010}} Examples of ancient Aboriginal rock artworks can be found throughout the continent – notably in national parks such as those of the UNESCO listed sites at Uluru and Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, but also within protected parks in urban areas such as at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in Sydney.{{cite web|url=https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/people/rock-art.html|title=Kakadu: Rock art|work=parksaustralia.gov.au|access-date=29 January 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/people-place/rock-art.html|title=Uluru-Kata Tjuta: Rock art|publisher=parksaustralia.gov.au|access-date=29 January 2017}} Aboriginal culture includes a number of practices and ceremonies centered on a belief in the Dreamtime. Reverence for the land and oral traditions are emphasised.{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/Walking-tracks/Aboriginal-Heritage-walk|title=Aboriginal Heritage walk: Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park|work=nationalparks.nsw.gov.au|access-date=29 January 2017}}

File:Kurulu Village War Chief.jpg|Yali Mabel, Anemaugi Village War Chief climbing kayo (traditional watchtower) at Baliem Valley in Highland Papua

File:Didgeridoo (Imagicity 1070).jpg|Didgeridoo player Ŋalkan Munuŋgurr performing with East Journey{{cite web |last1=Graves |first1=Randin |title=Yolngu are People 2: They're not Clip Art |url=https://yidakistory.com/blog/page/4/ |website=Yidaki History |date=2 June 2017 |access-date=30 August 2020}}

{{Main|Sport in Australia|Sport in Papua New Guinea}}

Image:Png mosquitos 2008 international cup.jpg at the 2008 International Cup (Australian rules football) in Melbourne]]

Popular sports in Papua New Guinea include various codes of football (rugby league, rugby union, soccer, and Australian rules football), cricket, volleyball, softball, netball, and basketball. Other Olympic sports are also gaining popularity, such as boxing and weightlifting. Rugby league is the most popular sport in Papua New Guinea (especially in the highlands), which also unofficially holds the title as the national sport.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_league/7671217.stm|title=PNG vow to upset World Cup odds|date=15 October 2008|work=Rugby League|publisher=BBC|access-date=3 July 2009|quote=But it would still be one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history if Papua New Guinea – the only country to have Rugby League as its national Sport – were to qualify for the last 4.}} The most popular sport in Australia is cricket, the most popular sport among Australian women is netball, while Australian rules football is the most popular sport in terms of spectatorship and television ratings.Australia (Countries & Cultures), Tracey Boraas, Capstone Press (2002), Page 54 {{ISBN|0736810757}}Planet Sport, Kath Woodward, 2012 p. 85 {{ISBN|041568112X}}Australia (Cultures of the World), Vijeya Rajendra, Sundran Rajendra, 2002, p. 101 {{ISBN|0761414738}} Australia has hosted two Summer Olympic Games: Melbourne 1956 and Sydney 2000. Australia has also hosted five editions of the Commonwealth Games (Sydney 1938, Perth 1962, Brisbane 1982, Melbourne 2006, and Gold Coast 2018). In 2006 Australia joined the Asian Football Confederation and qualified for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups as an Asian entrant.{{cite web|url=https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/tournament/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228220920/http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/tournament/index.html|archive-date=28 February 2009 |title=FIFA world cup 2010 – qualifying rounds and places available by confederation |publisher=Fifa.com |date=3 April 2009 |access-date=17 April 2009}}

{{Portal|Australia|Geography}}

• Australian Plate
• List of islands in the Pacific Ocean
• Outline of Australia
• Paleoclimatology

{{NoteFoot}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Davison|first1=Graeme|last2=Hirst|first2=John|author-link2=John Hirst (historian)|last3=Macintyre|first3=Stuart|author-link3=Stuart Macintyre |year=1998 |title=The Oxford Companion to Australian History|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Melbourne |isbn=978-0-19-553597-6}}
• {{cite book|last1=Lewis |first1=Martin W. |first2=Kären E. |last2=Wigen |author-link2 = Kären Wigen|title=The Myth of Continents: a Critique of Metageography |year=1997 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2as0sWxFBAC |ref={{sfnref|Lewis & Wigen, The Myth of Continents|1997}}|isbn=978-0-520-20743-1 }}
• {{Cite book |editor-last=Ebach |editor-first=Malte C. |year=2021 |title=Handbook of Australasian Biogeography |edition=1st |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=9780367658168}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}

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