This article is about the continent near Maritime Southeast Asia. For the continental mainland, seeMainland Australia. For the prehistoric landmass, seeSahul.
The continent includes acontinental shelf overlain by shallow seas which divide it into several landmasses—theArafura Sea andTorres Strait between mainland Australia and New Guinea, andBass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania. Whensea levels were lower during thePleistocene ice age, including theLast Glacial Maximum about 18,000 BC, they were connected by dry land into the combined landmass ofSahul. The name "Sahul" derives from theSahul Shelf, which is a part of the continental shelf of the Australian continent. During the past 18,000 to 10,000 years, rising sea levels overflowed the lowlands and separated the continent into today's low-lyingarid tosemi-arid mainland and the two mountainous islands of New Guinea and Tasmania. With a total land area of 8.56 million square kilometres (3,310,000 sq mi), the Australian continent is the smallest, lowest, flattest, and second-driest continent (afterAntarctica) onEarth.[5] As the country of Australia is mostly on a single landmass, and comprises most of the continent, it is sometimes informally referred to as an island continent, surrounded by oceans.[6]
Mainland Australia showing the continentalSahul 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 includesmainland Australia,Tasmania, and the island ofNew Guinea, which comprisesPapua New Guinea andWestern New Guinea (Papua and West Papua, provinces ofIndonesia).[15][16][17][18] The name "Sahul" takes its name from theSahul Shelf, which is part of the continental shelf of the Australian continent. The termOceania, originally a "great division" of the world in the 1810s, was replaced inEnglish language countries by the concept of Australia as one of the world's continents in the 1950s.[19]
Prior to the 1950s, before the popularization of the theory ofplate tectonics,Antarctica, Australia andGreenland were sometimes described as island continents, but none were usually taught as one of the world's continents in English-speaking countries.[20][21][19] ScottishcartographerJohn Bartholomew wrote in 1873 that, "theNew World consists ofNorth America, and the peninsula ofSouth 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."[22]
The American authorSamuel Griswold Goodrich wrote in his 1854 bookHistory 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 theOld World (consisting of Africa, Asia and Europe).[23] In his 1879 bookAustralasia, British naturalistAlfred 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."[24] 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.[24] He considered it to encompass the insular Pacific area between Asia and the Americas, and claimed it extended up to theAleutian Islands, which are among the northernmost islands in the Pacific Ocean.[24] 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 (encompassingMalay Archipelago),Melanesia,Micronesia andPolynesia.[25]
The island states ofIndonesia,Japan, thePhilippines,Singapore andTaiwan, all located within the bounds of the Pacific or associatedmarginal seas, are excluded from the UN definition. The states ofHong Kong andMalaysia, located in both mainland Asia and marginal seas of the Pacific, are also excluded, as is the nation ofBrunei, which shares the island ofBorneo with Indonesia and Malaysia. Further excluded areEast Timor andIndonesian (or Western) New Guinea, areas which are biogeographically or geologically associated with the Australian landmass.[30] This definition of Oceania is used in statistical reports, by theInternational Olympic Committee, and by many atlases.[31]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.[32] Their definition does not include Australia's subantarctic external territoryHeard Island and McDonald Islands, but is otherwise the same as the UN definition, and it is also used for statistical purposes.
In countries such asArgentina,Brazil,China,Chile,Costa Rica,Ecuador,France,Greece,Italy,Mexico, theNetherlands,Peru,Spain,Switzerland orVenezuela, 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, includingKazakhstan,Poland andRussia, Australia andEurasia are thought of as continents, while Asia, Europe and Oceania are regarded as "parts of the world".[33] In thePacific 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 neitherCommonwealth realm has close ties with Asia." He further added that, "the termAustralasia is not relished byNew Zealanders and this name is too often confused withAustralia."[34] Some 19th century definitions of Oceania grouped Australia, New Zealand and the islands of Melanesia together under the label ofAustralasia, 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.[35][25]
Archaeological terminology for this region has changed repeatedly. Before the 1970s, the single Pleistocene landmass was calledAustralasia, derived from theLatinaustralis, 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 termGreater Australia was introduced for the Pleistocene continent.[36] Then at a 1975 conference and consequent publication,[37] the nameSahul was extended from its previous use for just theSahul Shelf to cover the continent.[36]
In 1984, the nameMeganesia was suggested, meaning "great island" or "great island-group", for both the Pleistocene continent and the present-day lands,[38] and this name has been widely accepted by biologists.[39] Others have usedMeganesia with different meanings: travel writerPaul Theroux included New Zealand in his definition[40] and others have used it for Australia, New Zealand andHawaii.[41] Another biologist,Richard Dawkins, coined the nameAustralinea in 2004.[42]Australia–New Guinea has also been used.[43]
The Australian continent andSunda were points of early human migrations after leaving Africa.[44] Research points to a planned migration of hundreds of people using bamboo rafts, which eventually landed on Sahul.[45][46][47]
Indigenous Australians, that isAboriginal Australians andTorres 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[48] and arrived in Australia at least 50,000 years ago, based on archaeological evidence.[49] More recent research points to earlier arrival, possibly 65,000 years ago.[50]
They are believed to be among theearliest 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-dayNew Guinea and the islands, but this may be the result of recent trade andintermarriage.[51] Theearliest known human remains were found atLake Mungo, a dry lake in the southwest of New South Wales.[52] Remains found at Mungo suggest one of the world's oldest knowncremations, thus indicating early evidence for religious ritual among humans.[53]Dreamtime remains a prominent feature ofAustralian Aboriginal art, the oldest continuing tradition of art in the world.[54]
Papuan habitation is estimated to have begun between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago in New Guinea.[55] 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, theSumatra-based empire ofSrivijaya (7th century–13th century) engaged in trade relations with western New Guinea, initially taking items likesandalwood andbirds-of-paradise intribute to China, but later making slaves out of the natives.[56] The rule of theJava-based empire ofMajapahit (1293–1527) extended to the western fringes of New Guinea.[57] Recent archaeological research suggests that 50,000 years ago people may have occupied sites in the highlands at New Guinean altitudes of up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft), rather than being restricted to warmer coastal areas.[58]
Terra Australis, depicted on one of theDieppe maps from 1543 as a large promontory attached to South America. The landmass bears a striking resemblance to the western portion of mainland Australia.
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.[59] Ancient Greek philosopherAristotle 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...".[60] His ideas were later expanded byPtolemy (2nd century AD), who believed that the lands of theNorthern Hemisphere should be balanced by land in thesouth. The theory of balancing land has been documented as early as the 5th century on maps byMacrobius, who uses the term Australis on his maps.[61]
Terra Australis, a hypotheticalcontinent first posited inantiquity, appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries.[62] Scientists, such asGerardus Mercator (1569)[63] andAlexander Dalrymple as late as 1767 argued for its existence, with such arguments as that there should be a largelandmass in thesouth as acounterweight to the known landmasses in the Northern Hemisphere.[64] 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 includedTierra del Fuego, separated from South America by a small strait;New Guinea; and what would come to be called Australia.[65]
In the quest forTerra Australis, Spanish explorations in the 17th century, such as the expedition led by the Portuguese navigatorPedro Fernandes de Queirós, discovered thePitcairn andVanuatu archipelagos, and sailed theTorres Strait betweenAustralia andNew Guinea, named after navigatorLuís Vaz de Torres, who was the first European to explore the Strait. WhenEuropeans 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 ofTidore's sovereignty overNew Guinea. The first known Europeans to sight New Guinea were probably thePortuguese andSpanish navigators sailing in the South Pacific in the early part of the 16th century.
On 23 April 1770, British explorerJames Cook made his first recorded direct observation ofindigenous Australians atBrush Island nearBawley Point.[69] On 29 April, Cook and crew made their first landfall on the mainland of the continent at a place now known as theKurnell Peninsula. It is here that James Cook made first contact with an Aboriginal tribe known as theGweagal, who he fired upon, injuring one.[70] His expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered the eastern coastline of Australia.[71] CaptainArthur Phillip led theFirst Fleet of 11 ships and about 850 convicts intoSydney on 26 January 1788.[72] This was to be the location for the new colony. Phillip describedSydney Cove as being "without exception the finest harbour in the world".[73]
In 1883, theColony of Queensland tried to annex the southern half of eastern New Guinea, but the British government did not approve.[74] TheCommonwealth of Australia came into being when theFederal Constitution was proclaimed by theGovernor-General,Lord Hopetoun, on 1 January 1901. From that point a system offederalism 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, aBritish 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 AustralianTerritory of Papua, with formal Australian administration beginning in 1906.[75]
An Australian light machine gun team in action nearWewak,Papua New Guinea, in June 1945
TheBombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942 was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia.[76] In an effort to isolate Australia, the Japanese planned a seaborne invasion ofPort Moresby, in the AustralianTerritory of New Guinea. Between July and November 1942, Australian forces repulsed Japanese attempts on the city by way of theKokoda Track, in the highlands ofNew Guinea. TheBattle of Buna–Gona, between November 1942 and January 1943, set the tone for the bitter final stages of theNew 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.[77]
Following the 1998 commencement ofreforms 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.[78] The region was administered as a single province until 2003, when it was split into the provinces ofPapua andWest Papua. Elections in 1972 resulted in the formation of a ministry headed by Chief MinisterMichael 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 theUnited Nations (UN) on 10 October 1975.[79]
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".[80] Australia fought on the side of Britain in the twoworld wars and became a long-standingally of the United States when threatened byImperial Japan duringWorld 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.[81]
The Australian continent, as a whole being part of theAustralian Plate, is the lowest, flattest, and oldest landmass on Earth[82] 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 ofZealandia.[83] New Zealand and Australia are both part of the Oceanian sub-region known asAustralasia, with New Guinea being inMelanesia.
The continent includes a continental shelf overlain by shallow seas which divide it into several landmasses—theArafura Sea andTorres Strait between mainland Australia and New Guinea, andBass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania. Whensea levels were lower during thePleistocene ice age, including theLast Glacial Maximum about 18,000 BC, they were connected by dry land.
During the past 18,000[84] to 10,000 years, rising sea levels overflowed the lowlands and separated the continent into today's low-lyingarid tosemi-arid mainland and the two mountainous islands of New Guinea and Tasmania.[85] Thecontinental shelf connecting the islands, half of which is less than 50 metres (160 ft) deep, covers some 2.5 million square kilometres (970,000 sq mi), including theSahul Shelf[86][87] andBass Strait.
Geological forces such astectonic uplift of mountain ranges or clashes between tectonic plates occurred mainly in Australia's early history, when it was still a part ofGondwana. Australia is situated in the middle of the tectonic plate, and therefore currently has no active volcanism.[88]
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.[89] The lands were joined withAntarctica as part of the southern supercontinentGondwana 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 thelast glacial period ended in about 10,000 BC, rising sea levels formedBass 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 theAru Islands, mainland Australia,New Guinea, and Tasmania.
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. WhenSouth America eventually separated from Antarctica, the development of the coldAntarctic 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-leafdeciduous forest began to give way to the distinctive hard-leavedsclerophyllous plants that characterise the modern Australian landscape.
For many species, the primary refuge was the relatively cool and well-wateredGreat 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 theEurasian 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, theTorres Strait that now separates the two main landmasses. The collision also pushed up the islands ofWallacea, which served as island 'stepping-stones' that allowed plants fromSoutheast 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 betweenCyttariagunnii (one of the "golf-ball" fungi) and its associated trees in the genusNothofagus is evidence of that drift: the only other places where this association is known are New Zealand and southernArgentina andChile.[93]
The king bird-of-paradise is one of over 300 bird species in West Papua.
Due to the spread of animals, fungi and plants across the single Pleistocene landmass the separate lands have a relatedbiota.[94] There are over 300 bird species inWest Papua, of which at least 20 are unique to the ecoregion, and some live only in very restricted areas. These include thegrey-banded munia,Vogelkop bowerbird, and theking bird-of-paradise.[95]
Natural history illustrator John Gould popularised the koala with his 1863 workThe Mammals of Australia.
As the continent drifted north from Antarctica, a uniquefauna,flora andmycobiota developed.Marsupials andmonotremes also existed on other continents, but only in Australia–New Guinea did they out-compete theplacentalmammals and come to dominate. New Guinea has 284 species and six orders of mammals: monotremes, three orders of marsupials,rodents andbats; 195 of the mammal species (69%) are endemic. New Guinea has a rich diversity ofcoral life and 1,200 species offish 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, thesongbirds (orderPasseriformes, suborder Passeri) are thought to have evolved 50 million years ago in the part ofGondwana that later becameAustralia, New Zealand,New Guinea, andAntarctica, before radiating into a great number of different forms and then spreading around the globe.[103]
Animal groups such asmacropods,monotremes, andcassowaries 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 theequator.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 particularecological 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 hadvolcanic activity and/or massiveglaciation events to turn over fresh, unleachedrocks rich inminerals, the rocks andsoils of Australia–New Guinea were left largely untouched except by gradualerosion and deepweathering. In general, fertile soils produce a profusion of life, and a relatively large number of species/level of biodiversity. This is because wherenutrients are plentiful, competition is largely a matter of outcompeting rival species, leaving great scope for innovativeco-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 mosttropical 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 bypopulation growth.
In New Guinea, the climate is mostlymonsoonal (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October), andtropical rainforest with slight seasonal temperature variation. In lower altitudes, the temperature is around 27 °C (81 °F) year round. But the higher altitudes, such asMendi, are constantly around 21 °C (70 °F) with cool lows nearing 11 °C (52 °F), with abundant rainfall and high humidity. TheNew Guinea Highlands are one of the few regions close to theequator that experiencesnowfall, which occurs in the most elevated parts of the mainland. Some areas in the island experience an extraordinary amount of precipitation, averaging roughly 4,500 millimetres (180 in) of rainfall annually.
Papua New Guinea is aCommonwealth realm. As such, KingCharles 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.[112] The monarch is represented by theGovernor-General of Papua New Guinea, currentlyBob Dadae. Papua New Guinea (along withSolomon Islands) is unusual among Commonwealth realms in that governors-general are elected by the legislature, rather than chosen by the executive branch.
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.[128][129] Papua New Guinea is classified as adeveloping economy by theInternational Monetary Fund.[130] Strong growth inPapua New Guinea's mining and resource sector led to the country becoming the sixthfastest-growing economy in the world in 2011.[131][132]
Migrants to Australia disembarking from a ship, 1885
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 amulticultural country.[133] Sydney is the mostmulticultural city in Oceania, having more than 250 different languages spoken, with about 40 percent of residents speaking alanguage other than English at home.[134] Furthermore, 36 percent of the population reported having beenborn overseas, with top countries beingItaly,Lebanon,Vietnam andIraq, among others.[135][136]Melbourne is also fairly multicultural, having the largestGreek-speaking population outside ofEurope,[137] and the second largestAsian population in Australia after Sydney.[138][139][140]
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 inart,performance art,weaponry,costumes andarchitecture. Papua New Guinea is one of the few cultures in Oceania to practice the tradition ofbride price.[160] In particular, Papua New Guinea is world-famous for carved woodensculpture: masks, canoes, story-boards.
Australia has a tradition of Aboriginal art which is thousands of years old, the best known forms being rock art andbark painting. Evidence ofAboriginal art in Australia can be traced back at least 30,000 years.[161] Examples of ancient Aboriginal rock artworks can be found throughout the continent – notably in national parks such as those of theUNESCO listed sites atUluru andKakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, but also withinprotected parks in urban areas such as atKu-ring-gai Chase National Park in Sydney.[162][163] Aboriginal culture includes a number of practices and ceremonies centered on a belief in theDreamtime. Reverence for the land and oral traditions are emphasised.[164]
Yali Mabel, Anemaugi Village War Chief climbingkayo (traditional watchtower) atBaliem Valley inHighland Papua
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