Australia Explained: the Complete Guide to Its Country and Continent Status

Dive deep into Australia Explained: the Complete Guide to Its Country and Continent Status with expert analysis.

Political borders stop at shorelines and maritime economic zones, but geology pays no heed to national passports. To geophysicists, the true continent of Australia is vastly larger than the country itself. During past ice ages, when sea levels plummeted by more than 120 meters, massive land bridges connected the Australian mainland directly to north-lying islands.

This shared continental plate is known scientifically as the Sahul shelf, or Meganesia. Under this strict geological distinction, the true continent encompasses three distinct sovereign components: the Australian mainland, Tasmania, and the entire island of New Guinea (which consists of Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian territories of Papua and West Papua). The shallow waters of the Torres Strait and the Arafura Sea currently submerge this continuous continental crust, but beneath the waves, they form an unbroken geological unit.

When you ask a geologist if Australia is a continent, they answer yes, with the caveat that Papua New Guinea sits on that exact same continent. The political border separating Indonesia and Papua New Guinea or the marine border between Australia and Port Moresby are modern human inventions layered over a single prehistoric shelf.