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21 Aug, 2019
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Australasian

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 covers several slightly different but related regions.

Derivation and definitions

Charles de Brosses coined the term (as French Australasie) in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes (1756). He derived it from the Latin for "south of Asia" and differentiated the area from Polynesia (to the east) and the southeast Pacific (Magellanica).

In the late 19th century, the term Australasia was used in reference to the "Australasian colonies". In this sense it related specifically to the British colonies south of Asia: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia, Victoria (i.e., the Australian colonies) and New Zealand.

Australasia found continued geopolitical attention in the early 20th century. Historian Hansong Li finds that against the backdrop of British colonialism, German geopoliticians considered "Australasia" as a counterweight to the former German South Sea Edge (Südseerand), both of which form the "Indo-Pacific" region.

The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary gives two meanings of "Australasia". One, especially in Australian use, is "Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and the neighbouring islands of the Pacific". The other, especially in New Zealand use, is just Australia and New Zealand. Two Merriam-Webster dictionaries online (Collegiate and Unabridged) define Australasia as "Australia, New Zealand, and Melanesia". The American Heritage Dictionary online recognizes two senses in use: one more precise and the other broader, loosely covering all of Oceania.

Demographics

Arms	Name of region, followed by countries	Area (km)	Population (2021)	Population density (per km)	Capital	ISO 3166-1
Australasia
	Ashmore and Cartier Islands (Australia)	199	—
	Australia	7,686,850	25,921,089	3.1	Canberra	AU
	Christmas Island (Australia)	135	1,692	12.5	Flying Fish Cove	CX
	Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia)	14	593	42.4	West Island	CC
	Coral Sea Islands (Australia)	10	4	0.4	—
	New Zealand	268,680	5,129,727	17.3	Wellington	NZ
	Norfolk Island (Australia)	35	2,302	65.8	Kingston	NF
	Papua New Guinea	462,840	9,949,437	22	Port Moresby	PG
Total
Australasia		8,418,763	42,836,966	5.1	—

References

^ de Brosses, Charles (1756). Histoire des navigations aux terres Australes. Contenant ce que l'on sçait des moeurs & des productions des contrées découvertes jusqu'à ce jour; & où il est traité de l'utilité d'y faire de plus amples découvertes, & des moyens d'y former un établissement [History of voyages to the Southern Lands. Containing what is known concerning the customs and products...] (in French). Paris: Durand. Retrieved 2013-12-08.
^ Douglas, Bronwen (2014). Science, Voyages, and Encounters in Oceania, 1511–1850. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 6.
^ Lee, Joseph (1889). "Anti-Chinese Legislation in Australasia". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 3 (2). p. 220. doi:10.2307/1879468. JSTOR 1879468.
^ Li, Hansong (2021). "The "Indo-Pacific": Intellectual Origins and International Visions in Global Contexts" (PDF). Modern Intellectual History. 19 (3): 20–23. doi:10.1017/S1479244321000214. S2CID 236226422. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
^ Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005). "Australasia". New Zealand Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195584516.001.0001. ISBN 9780195584516.
^ "World Population Prospects 2022". United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
^ "World Population Prospects 2022: Demographic indicators by region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100" (XSLX) ("Total Population, as of 1 July (thousands)"). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.

Richards, Kel (2006). "Australasia". Wordwatch. ABC News Radio. Archived from the original on 2007-03-18. Retrieved 2006-09-30.

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Australasia".

Media related to Australasia at Wikimedia Commons

Regions of Oceania

Australasia

Australia

Mainland Australia

Australian Capital Territory	Canberra
Jervis Bay Territory	Jervis Bay Village Wreck Bay Village
New South Wales	Central Coast Central Tablelands Central West Far West Greater Blue Mountains Area Hunter Illawarra Mid North Coast Monaro New England North West Slopes Northern Rivers Northern Tablelands Orana Riverina South Coast South West Slopes Southern Highlands Southern Tablelands
Northern Territory	Arnhem Land Barkly Tableland Central Australia Darwin Katherine Top End
Queensland	Central West Central Darling Downs Far North Gulf Country North South East South West Wide Bay–Burnett
South Australia	Adelaide Hills Barossa Light and Lower North Eastern Adelaide Eyre Western Far North Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island Limestone Coast Murray and Mallee Northern Adelaide Southern Adelaide Western Adelaide Yorke and Mid North
Victoria	Barwon South West Gippsland Grampians Greater Melbourne Hume Loddon Mallee
Western Australia	Gascoyne Goldfields–Esperance Great Southern Greater Perth Perth Metropolitan Area Kimberley Mid West Peel Pilbara South West Wheatbelt

Tasmania

External Territories

Australian Indian Ocean Territories	Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands

New Zealand‡

North Island

South Island

Outlying Islands

NZ Subantarctic Islands	Antipodes Islands Auckland Islands Bounty Islands Campbell Islands Snares Islands

Melanesia

Island Melanesia

East Melanesian Islands

Solomon Islands Archipelago	Bougainville Bonis Peninsula Solomon Islands

New Guinea

Aru Islands

Papua New Guinea	Highlands Region Momase Region Huon Gulf Huon Peninsula Southern Region
Western New Guinea	Central Papua Highland Papua Papua South Papua Southwest Papua West Papua

Micronesia

Polynesia

Polynesian Triangle

Phoenix Islands	Canton Island Howland and Baker Islands Baker Island Howland Island

Polynesian Outliers

‡ also part of Polynesia

Earth's primary regions and subregions

Africa	Mediterranean Saharan Northern Maghreb Mashriq Middle East Middle East and North Africa Sub-Saharan Central East Horn Great Lakes Southern Western
Antarctica	East Antarctica Antarctic Plateau Transantarctic Mountains West Antarctica Antarctic Peninsula
Asia	Asia–Pacific Central Aral Sea Aralkum Desert Caspian Sea Eastern Inner Asia Greater Central Asia Northeastern Far East Pacific Asia Russian Far East Northern Siberia Ural Pacific Asia Southeastern Mainland Maritime Southern Himalayan states Indian subcontinent Subregions Western Arabian Peninsula Caucasus South Caucasus Greater Iran Iranian plateau Levant Dead Sea Levantine Sea Middle East Mashriq Middle East and North Africa Near East
Europe	Central Eastern Balkans Caucasus North Caucasus South Caucasus Southern Russia European Russia Southeastern Northern Baltic British Isles Nordic Northwestern Scandinavia Scandinavian Peninsula Southern Mediterranean Middle East Italy Italian Peninsula South-eastern Balkan Peninsula South-western Iberian Peninsula Western Atlantic Low Countries Northwestern Celtic Germanic Romance Slavic
North America	Aridoamerica Caribbean Central Mesoamerica Middle Northern Appalachia Bible Belt East Coast Great Lakes Mid-Atlantic Midwest Mountain states New England Northeastern United States Pacific Northwest Southern United States Southwest West Coast West South Central United States Western United States Atlantic Canada Canadian Prairies Central Canada Eastern Canada Northern Canada Western Canada Northern Mexico West Indies Anglo French Latin Ibero Hispanic Portuguese Latin America and the Caribbean
Oceania	Australasia Australia Mainland Australia New Guinea Tasmania Zealandia Melanesia Island Melanesia Micronesia Near Oceania Polynesia Remote Oceania
South America	Amazon Plain Amazon Basin Amazon Rainforest Andean States Brazilian Highlands Caribbean South America The Guianas Latin America and the Caribbean Southern Cone Patagonia

Islands

By continent	Africa America North America Caribbean Central America South America Antarctica Asia Europe by area by population Oceania Australia New Zealand
By ocean	Arctic Ocean Atlantic Ocean Baltic Sea Black Sea Caribbean Sea Irish Sea Mediterranean Sea Adriatic Sea Aegean Sea Ionian Sea Indian Ocean Persian Gulf Pacific Ocean East China Sea South China Sea Southern Ocean