Click on a name of a country or region in Australia to find the travel guides which you want.
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Australia is the smallest of the geographic continents, though not of geological continents. There is no universally accepted definition of the word "continent"; the lay definition is "One of the main continuous bodies of land on the earth's surface." (Oxford English Dictionary). By that definition, the continent of Australia includes only the Australian mainland, and not nearby islands such as Tasmania or New Guinea. From the perspective of geology or physical geography, however, a "continent" may be understood to include the continental shelf (the submerged adjacent area) and the islands on the shelf, which are taken to be structurally part of the continent. By that definition Tasmania, New Guinea and other nearby islands such as the Aru Islands and Raja Ampat Islands are part of the Australian continent, also known as Sahul, since they are part of the same geological landmass. These islands are separated by seas overlying the continental shelf — the Arafura Sea and Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, and Bass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania.
When sea levels were lower during the Pleistocene ice age, including the last glacial maximum about 18,000 BC, the lands formed a single, continuous landmass. During the past ten thousand years, rising sea levels overflowed the lowlands and separated the continent into today's low-lying semi-arid mainland and the two mountainous islands of New Guinea and Tasmania. New Zealand is not on the same continental shelf and so is not part of the continent of Australia but is part of the submerged continent Zealandia. Zealandia and Australia together are part of the wider region known as Oceania or Australasia. |
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American Samoa (USA) 
Australia 
Christmas Island 
Cocos (Keeling) Islands 
Cook Islands (NZ) 
Easter Island (Chile) 
Federated States of Micronesia 
Fiji 
French Polynesia (France) 
Guam (USA) 
Hawaii (USA) 
Indonesia (Oceanian part only) 
Kiribati 
Marshall Islands 
Nauru 
New Caledonia (France) 
New Zealand 
Niue (NZ) 
Norfolk Island 
Northern Mariana Islands (USA) 
Palau 
Papua New Guinea 
Pitcairn Islands (UK) 
Samoa 
Solomon Islands 
Tokelau (NZ) 
Tonga 
Tuvalu 
Vanuatu 
Wake Island (USA) 
Wallis and Futuna (France)
