People keep saying Australia's a continent - but surely it's Australasia or Oceania?

Answer 1

Australia's a country

Answer 2

Technically neither Australasia nor Oceania are continents because they are not contiguous land masses. Australia is, so it is a continent. You can group nearby things with it if they're on the same continental shelf and sort of call that a continent if you want, which is what they did with Australasia/Oceania. The word continent is poorly defined, anyway. Since when is Europe a continent? It's clearly connected to Asia.

Answer 3

Australia is both Continent and Country.

The continents are the major land masses riding atop the continental plates.

Europe
Asia
North America
South America
Africa
Australia
Antarctica

The seperation of Europe and Asia was made more by politics than geography.

Oceania is a geographical region which includes Australia and New Zealand.

FYI New Zealand is NOT a part of the Australia continent. New Zealand is not on the same continental plate as Australia.

Answer 4

Australia is a country (political state) and a continent. Geography books often divide the world into geographic realms that share cultural or physical characteristics, this is what Australasia and Oceana would be. They might include the island of New Zealand and some of the archipelagoes because they have similar traits share geographic proximity (globally speaking..)

A more local Example, Island of Newfounland..it's not part of the North American continent, but it's studied and included in the North American realm.

Answer 5

The following are the seven continents of the world in order of size, largest first.

Asia
Africa
North America
South America
Antarctica
Australia
Europe

The Pacific Ocean separates North and South America from Asia and Australia. The Indian Ocean separates Africa from Asia and Australia. The Atlantic Ocean separates North and South America from Europe and Africa. Europe is separated from Africa by the Meditteranean Sea. The islands of the Philippines and Indonesia separate Asia from Australia.

North America is connected to South America by an isthmus, that is the country of Panama (in N. America). Europe and Asia have a very large border. This is largely the Ural Mountains, then the Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and finally the Black Sea. Asia and Africa are connected by the Sinai Peninsula (in Egypt). It is the Suez Canal that separates that peninsula from the rest of Egypt.

Finally.

Australia is a real continent. It contains only two definite countries. They are Australia and New Zealand. Tasmania is very near Australia (mainland). It is a state of Australia (the country). Australia's capital city is Canberra. The capital city of Tasmania is Hobart. The capital city of New Zealand is Wellington. New Zealand (but not Tasmania) is an entirely separate country located in Australia (the continent).

Oceania is just a fancy name for all of the islands east or southeast of Asia (not generally counting Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, or Indonesia). Australasia may be a term used to combine Australia with Oceania, or parts of the latter. These are in no way continents or even countries.

Answer 6

Continent

Answer 7

Australia is a continent. Australia is also the name of the country/nation on the continent of Australia. That other stuff is another category and is separate from the continent of Australia.

Answer 8

Australia is both a continent and a country

Answer 9

No. The name of the continent is Australia.

Answer 10

Australia= A country and a continent with several provinces

Answer 11

Australia is both a continent and a country.