Australia
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The Commonwealth of Australia is the sixth-largest country
in the world (geographically), the only one to occupy an entire continent,
and the largest in the region of Australasia. Australia includes the
island of Tasmania, which is an Australian State. Its neighbouring countries
include New Zealand to the southeast; and Indonesia, Papua New Guinea
and East Timor to its north. The name 'Australia' comes from the Latin
phrase terra australis incognita ("unknown southern land",
see Terra Australis).
Australia is divided into six states and several territories.
The states are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania,
Victoria and Western Australia. The two major territories are the Northern
Territory (NT) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The ACT also
incorporates a separate area within New South Wales known as Jervis
Bay Territory which serves as a naval base and sea port for the national
capital.
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Australia also has several inhabitated external territories
(Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands) and several
largely uninhabited external territories: Coral Sea Islands Territory,
Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory.
The Australian Capital Territory was created at the
chosen site of the capital city Canberra. Canberra was founded as a
compromise between the two largest cities, Melbourne and Sydney. The
name 'Canberra' is derived from the indigenous Ngunnawal language, which
is loosely translated into English as "meeting place".
Oceania
Oceania is a name used for varying groups
of islands of the Pacific Ocean. In its narrow usage it refers to Polynesia
(including New Zealand), Melanesia (including New Guinea) and Micronesia.
In a wider usage it includes Australia. It may also include the Malay
archipelago. Uncommonly usage includes islands such as Japan and the Aleutian
Islands. Although the islands of Oceania do not form part of a true continent,
Oceania is sometimes associated with the continent of Australia for the
purposes of dividing the whole world into continental groupings. As such,
it is the smallest "continent" in area and the second smallest,
after Antarctica, in population. This article primarily refers to the
grouping of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Australia. These traditional
divisions are no more in use amongst researchers, that prefer to divide
Oceania into Near Oceania and Remote Oceania.
In ecology, Oceania is one of eight terrestrial
ecozones, which constitute the major ecological regions of the planet.
The Oceania ecozone includes all of Micronesia, Fiji, and all of Polynesia
except New Zealand. New Zealand, along with New Guinea and nearby islands,
Australia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia, constitute
the separate Australasia ecozone.
Every country but one in Oceania is borderless.
The exception is Papua New Guinea which borders Indonesia.
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