Where Does Australia End?

Where does Australia end? Australia is famously an island continent so it seems like an easy question, but it’s actually a bit complex. The problem isn’t the Australian mainland, which definitely ends at its coastline, but rather which of Australia’s neighboring islands are actually part of the continent. In terms of biology, geology, and oceanography, Australia could extend far beyond its mainland – potentially even halfway into Indonesia. Let’s Explore!

End music: Waltzing Matilda

Chapters:

0:00 Intro
0:33 The Torres Strait
2:04 The Sahul Shelf
4:03 The Wallace Line & Lombok Strait
5:47 Sulawesi & Wallacea
7:07 All the other directions
9:12 Conclusion

Corrections:

7:41 Macquarie Island is pronounced "Muh-KWA-ree" island

Citations:

"The Malay Archipelago: the land of the orang-utan, and the bird of paradise" - Alfred Russel Wallace

Image Credits:
Cape York Sign: Gonzo Gooner, CC BY 3.0
Torres Strait Islanders: Tsima Radio4MW, CC BY 2.0
Boigu Dancer: u-tern77, CC BY 2.0
Didgeridoo Player: Official Nambassa Photographer, CC BY 2.5
Papua New Guinea Children: Amy Bauer, CC BY 2.5
Papuan women: Jeremy Weate, CC BY 2.0
Aceh Dancers: SuperSomebodies, CC BY 3.0
Kakadu Rock Art: Photo by Phil Whitehouse, CC BY 2.0
Footage and data from GPlates: CC BY 3.0
Goodfellow's Tree-kangaroo: Tim Williams, CC BY 2.0
Moluccan King Parrot: Helsinki***, CC BY 2.0
White Bellied Woodpecker: Sriniketana, CC BY 3.0
Strait of Malacca congestion: dronepicr, CC BY 2.0
Anoa, Sulawesi Bear Cuscus: Sakurai Midori, CC BY 3.0
Sulawesi Geology map: Macrostrat, CC BY 4.0
Sulawesi mountain: Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0
Duvaucel's Gecko: Jennifer Moore, CC BY 3.0
Eastern Stone Gecko: Matt, CC BY 2.0
New Zealand Short Tailed Bat: Colin O'Donnell, CC BY 4.0
Marsupial map: Michal Klajban, CC BY 4.0
Monito del Monte: José Luis Bartheld, CC BY 2.0

[MatthewChenault]

Interesting fact:

All Possums in Australia are called Possums based off of the Virginia Opossum. The word “Opossum” is an Algonquin loan word that was adopted by the English to describe the species.

So, when Cook encountered them in the late 18th century while sailing around Australia, he named them “Possums, ” derived from the short-hand term for “opossum.”

[MintberryCrunch.]

Love how you considered Indigenous viewers! I’m Indigenous (Gandangarra) and I rarely see this kind of consideration on Youtube ❤❤

[whophd]

Well as an Aussie I was quite happy with everything in this vidWAIT DID YOU SAY KOALIFY ???!

[commander]

G'day from Australia,
I've added this to my documentary playlist so others can enjoy and learn.
This is the most accurate Australian piece I've seen. Even us locals get it wrong, but you, sir, are 100% correct.
It shows the level of your fact-checking is spot on

[ibast]

politically it's even larger.

The Australian Antartic territory is huge, but even outside of that you have the Cocos Islands and Heard and Mcdonald islands and Christmas Island. As well as the Lorde howe island, Macquarie island mentioned in the video. (pronounced Mack-Qwar-rie, btw).

[jordanle]

Aussie here, I fuck with this explaination. Shit's well researched and articulated. Citations in description too? fucking ace! Acknowledgement of aboriginal cultural apprehension with pictures of dead? Done amazingly!

[liammcgrath]

Absolutely love how you included the article explaining the warning. This is something I never even knew about! Love learning knew things I wasn't expecting to learn when clicking on a video ❤

[Kneedragon]

It's not easy to Koalafy, because How much can a Koala Bear?

[Dinorexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

really nice to see the consideration of indigenous viewers!

[kezzla]

as an Aussie, at 00:10 when you blocked out Tassie while focusing on Australia I fuckin cracked up. Tassies will fuckin hate that lol

[Pokehero]

This is such a good channel, always posts bangers

[Tarragon-khko]

Great video! The acknowledgment of indigenous peoples was great to see, really showing an understanding and respect for the culture’s importance to our country, and the geological explanations were easy to understand and effective. Keep it up. :D

[Aourlis]

The way I see it
Australia: The Country
Oceania: The Continent
Boundaries of Oceania: Half of Indonesia, and the Pacific Islands

[CCABPSacsach]

I love how history has lined up perfectly so that the island of New Guinea and the Indonesian Archipelago look like one continuous island chain, rather than looking like New Guinea is too far up or down due to continental drift.

[noobieplayzandanimates]

The continent’s name is actually Oceania.

[Autotrope]

You won me over with your indigenous content warning - coming from a apparent non-Australian, that was a pretty culturally aware sign of respect!

[coraliemoller]

I enjoyed the video which brought together the various viewpoints about Australia.

As an Australian, I find outsiders are already so confused about Oz that giving them the broader views through different scientific research will just bamboozle them.

I doubt that many even know about Zealandia, which would likely never have been identified without the recent advances in satellite imagery.

I’ve learned about the Wallace line, the Sahul, biogeography, and Zealandia in the past year. I think it will take a long time for it to filter through the education system here in Oz, since they are so busy with social re-engineering, not scientific research.

Anyway, we see Australia (and the Australian continent) as the mainland and Tasmania, plus the few surrounding islands, and a slab of Antarctica. Tasmania was always known since many ships passed through Bass Strait in the early years and Tasmania was one of the penal colonies.

Our history acknowledges New Zealand as our closest neighbour, despite the closer distance with the far north. Still it is quite far away and totally different in many ways.

Far North Queensland was virtually impenetrable for the settlers for most of the ‘Australian’ history of European settlement. It was far from the movers and shakers of south eastern Australia.

New Guinea was a protectorate of Australia and was not considered to be part of Oz since the water was the boundary of our country.

[lizardthedragon]

This is so well done! I was honestly shocked to see that you have less than 100k subscribers.
🇦🇺

[revinhatol]

FUN FACT: The geographic center of mainland Australia is located due west of Alice Springs.

[captainclarky]

The Waltzing Matilda outro is a nice touch