Australasia
is a
region of
Oceania:
Australia,
New Zealand, the island of
New Guinea, and neighbouring
islands in the
Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by
Charles de Brosses 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). It is also distinct from
Micronesia (to the northeast).
Human geography
Geopolitically, Australasia is sometimes used as a term for Australia and New Zealand together, in the absence of another word limited to those two countries. Sometimes the Island of New Guinea (including Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian part of the island) is encompassed by the term. There are many organizations whose names are prefixed with "(Royal) Australasian Society" that are limited to just Australia and New Zealand.
In the past, Australasia has been used as a name for combined Australia/New Zealand sporting teams. Examples include
tennis between 1905 and 1915, when New Zealand and Australia combined their best players to compete in the
Davis Cup international tournament (and won it in 1907, 1908, 1909, 1911 and 1914), and at the
Olympic Games of
1908 and
1912 Summer Olympics.
Ecological geography
From an
ecological perspective the
Australasia ecozone is a distinct region with a common evolutionary history and a great many unique
flora and
fauna. In this context, Australasia is limited to Australia, New Guinea, and neighbouring islands, including the
Indonesian islands from
Lombok and
Sulawesi eastward. The biological dividing line from
Asia is the
Wallace Line –
Borneo and
Bali lie on the western, Asian side.
New Zealand comprises another ecological zone altogether, as it had been isolated from the rest of the world, including the rest of Australasia, for even longer.
See also
