Why is Australia considered a country and a continent?
This is what you get when you ask questions here and get answers from people, who have no idea what they are talking about and who don’t know the difference between Part of the World and Continent. Europe and Asia is one continent called Eurasia, but they are two parts of the world: Europe and Asia (this is for the guy, who “finds it interesting.”) Australia is not an island, it’s a continent, which has only one country by the same name. Oceania is not a continent, but a geographical and geopolitical region. Well, some other answers are so stupid, I do not even know what to say.
Australia includes the mainland of the world’s smallest continent, the island of Tasmania, & several other islands in the Southern, Indian & Pacific Oceans. Before becoming known as Austraillia, the mainland was inhabited for more than 42,000 yrs by Indigenous Australians (which could be comparable to the American Indians for America). In 1770, the eastern half of Australia was claimed by the British. Eventually, in the 19th century, it was divided into six colonies. On Jan 1, 1901, the colonies became a federation, & the Commonwealth of Australia was formed.
Most answers were good, but realize that not all countries teach that Australia is a continent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent I believe it is common in many countries to refer to Oceania as the continent and Australia as a country within the continent. This appears to be more accurate. Remember, in reality the country of Australia is not the whole of the land considered to be part of the Australian continent. New Zealand, for example, is normally considered part of the Australian continent, but it is *not* part of the country of Australia. BTW, Antarctica is not a country. I hope this helps.
Australia I think is considered soo, because was descoved after America, and is an island ,” biggest”, who is considered as continent because have wonderful fauna and flora ,but last he was part of Eurasia. Europa and Asia , they are one continent Eurasia, but a they are parts of the world: Europa and Asia .
