Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Oceania is a geographical, and geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term is also sometimes used to denote a continent comprising Australia and proximate Pacific islands .
Australia became part of the Indo-Australian Plate 45 to 40 million years ago and this is in the process of separating again with the Australian Plate being relevant to Oceania. [240] It is the lowest, flattest, and oldest landmass on Earth [ 241 ] and it has had a relatively stable geological history.
Australia is a founding member of the Pacific Islands Forum, which is now recognized as the main governing body for the Oceania region. [39] It functions as a trade bloc and deals with defense issues, unlike with the Pacific Community, which includes most of the same members.
This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories in the geographical region of Oceania. Although it is mostly ocean and spans many tectonic plates, Oceania is occasionally listed as one of the continents. Most of this list follows the boundaries of geopolitical Oceania, which includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.
The United Nations geoscheme subdivides the region into Australia and New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The UNSD notes that "the assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories". [ 1 ]
Western Australia is the largest state, covering just under one third of the Australian landmass, followed by Queensland, South Australia, and New South Wales. Australia also has several minor territories; the federal government administers a separate area within New South Wales, the Jervis Bay Territory , as a naval base and seaport for the ...
Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically , physiogeographically , philologically , and ecologically , where the term ...
See also the Bureau of Meteorology's Western Australia regions map. [8] The Western Australian system of regions defined by the Government of Western Australia for purposes of economic development administration, which excludes the Perth metropolitan area, is a series of nine regions. The nine defined regions are: Gascoyne; Goldfields–Esperance