Australia is either an island or a continent not both. It depends if you are considering it from a geographical or geological point of view. Geographically it only includes the Australian mainland therefore Australia is a continent, not an island. As a landform, it could be considered an island as it is entirely surrounded by water and not joined onto any other land mass. For this reason, it is often referred to as an island continent. Australia is too big to be FORMALLY classified as an island. The world's largest island is actually Greenland. If Australia is to be considered as an island then Antarctica would be as well making Australia the second largest island in the world. Geologically it includes the entire continental shelf.
A lot of different names have been used to describe the Australian continent: Australasia, Greater Australia, Sahul, Meganesia, Australinea and Australia-New Guinea
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.
It depends what you mean by 'Australia'. If you mean the Commonwealth of Australia, that's a country. If you mean the landmass that forms most of that country (ie 'mainland Australia') that's a continent. If you mean all of the Commonwealth of Australia (including Tasmania) plus New Guinea and a number of other nearby islands, that's also a continent, by a somewhat more technical definition.
To simply say that it's both is to overlook the fact that there is no sensible definition of 'continent' which would include all parts of the Commonwealth of Australia without including anything else. That is, the continent of Australia must be either smaller or larger than the country (depending on precisely how you define 'continent').
As for Australia being the 'largest island' that is true if, and only if, you define 'island' as a landmass smaller than a particular size, with that size being somewhere between 7.6 and 13 million km². The more common understanding is that Greenland is the world's largest island, and that Australia is an 'island continent' but not an island per se. But it's really just a question of how you define 'island'.
Of course one thing we can all agree on is that an island is a single landmass, which the Commonwealth of Australia is not. So, just like with the continent question, whether Australia is an island depends what you mean by 'Australia' (as well as your definition of 'island').
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It is a country,a continent & an Island,the largest island in the world.
Australia is either an island or a continent not both. It depends if you are considering it from a geographical or geological point of view. Geographically it only includes the Australian mainland therefore Australia is a continent, not an island. As a landform, it could be considered an island as it is entirely surrounded by water and not joined onto any other land mass. For this reason, it is often referred to as an island continent. Australia is too big to be FORMALLY classified as an island. The world's largest island is actually Greenland. If Australia is to be considered as an island then Antarctica would be as well making Australia the second largest island in the world. Geologically it includes the entire continental shelf.
A lot of different names have been used to describe the Australian continent: Australasia, Greater Australia, Sahul, Meganesia, Australinea and Australia-New Guinea
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.
It depends what you mean by 'Australia'. If you mean the Commonwealth of Australia, that's a country. If you mean the landmass that forms most of that country (ie 'mainland Australia') that's a continent. If you mean all of the Commonwealth of Australia (including Tasmania) plus New Guinea and a number of other nearby islands, that's also a continent, by a somewhat more technical definition.
To simply say that it's both is to overlook the fact that there is no sensible definition of 'continent' which would include all parts of the Commonwealth of Australia without including anything else. That is, the continent of Australia must be either smaller or larger than the country (depending on precisely how you define 'continent').
As for Australia being the 'largest island' that is true if, and only if, you define 'island' as a landmass smaller than a particular size, with that size being somewhere between 7.6 and 13 million km². The more common understanding is that Greenland is the world's largest island, and that Australia is an 'island continent' but not an island per se. But it's really just a question of how you define 'island'.
Of course one thing we can all agree on is that an island is a single landmass, which the Commonwealth of Australia is not. So, just like with the continent question, whether Australia is an island depends what you mean by 'Australia' (as well as your definition of 'island').
Australia is a continent in one country.
Both a country and a continent and the only place in the world like that.
Australia is both a continent and country, it is also an island. it is the only place in the world that is all three of thoes things.
australia is both a continent and a country
australia is the smallest continent. australia is the 6th largest country. australia is the only country that encompasses an entire continent
australia is also referred to as the largest island but that is incorrect. antartica is the largest island
read about australia in wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia
Both.
Australia is the only country that is also a continent (both with the same name).
It's both a continent and a country.
It is both a country and a continent.