Is Australia A Continent Or Not?

[ToraToraTora]

OK I'm confused, if I ask Googtle:
1) what are the continents? I get - Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.
2) What continent is New Zealand in? I get - Oceania
3) What is Australasia? I get - Australasia comprises Australia, New Zealand, and some neighbouring islands

Australasia is was a contenent when I was at school. Anyway how can Australia be a continent when it is part of two supersets? Surely the outer of those should be the continent, ie Australasia, as we were taught at school in the 70s? So if I can ask the question in 2 above and get an answer that is not even a "continent" as defined in 1 above how can Australia possibly be a continent? When did someone somewhere decree it was? Confused!

[pixie374]

Just asked 16 year old son what they were taught. He says North America, South America, Africa, Australia, Europe, Antarctica.

[pixie374]

... and Asia

[jno]

not really, Mozz, they were only too happy to buy European rifles for their tribal wars. And most unusually for the British Empire, they accepted British rule by agreement rather than invasion, unlike ... well, most places.

There doesn't seem to be an agreed date on when Polynesians got there (oral records only) but maybe around 1300 according to Wiki. There's a more precise date for Iceland - 874.

[ToraToraTora]

Pixie 23:58, yep I can remember in School they all started and ended with the same letter: Arctica, America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Antarctica. I can accept removing the Arctic as it has very little land and also separating the Americas but just plucking Australia out of the middle of a group of Islands and calling it a continent makes no sense to me.

[ToraToraTora]

Alba, that map shows, what was once, Australasia in green, I'm starting to think Australasia has run been confusingly renamed as Australia.

[dannyk13]

//15 Feb 2018 - In many cases, you will regularly see the continent of Australia defined as “Australia/Oceania.” Fundamentally, Australia itself is both a continent and a country: Australia is a country that is part of a continent also called Australia, all of which is part of a region known as Oceania.//

[ToraToraTora]

where does that come from danny?
See Alba's link,
https://www.countries-ofthe-world.com/continents-of-the-world.html
" - "Australia includes 14 countries. It is the least populated continent after Antarctica, only 0.2% of the total Earth population live here." - it's what we called Australasia in School.

[dannyk13]

TTT //where does that come from danny?//
Google.

[Atheist]

TTT, why are you worried about this? Is it something to do with racial definitions? Is it simply a symptom of your need to defend England as a marvellous entity which must be protected against anti-British scum?