Mainland Australia

This article is about the main landmass of the Australian continent. For the continent, see Australia (continent).

Mainland Australia
Map
Geography
Area7,591,608 km2 (2,931,136 sq mi)
Administration
Demographics
Population25,895,442

Mainland Australia is the main landmass of the Australian continent, excluding the Aru Islands, New Guinea, Tasmania, and other Australian offshore islands. The landmass also constitutes the mainland of the territory governed by the Commonwealth of Australia, and the term, along with continental Australia, can be used in a geographic sense to exclude surrounding continental islands and external territories. Generally, the term is applied to the states of New South Wales,[a] Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia, as well as the Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay Territory, and Northern Territory.

The term is typically used when referring to the relationship between Tasmania and the other Australian states,[1][2] in that people not from Tasmania are referred to as mainlanders.[3] Tasmania has been omitted on a number of occasions from maps of Australia, reinforcing the divide between Tasmania and the mainland. The 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane left Tasmania off the map of Australia during the opening ceremony, as did the designs of the Australian Swim Team uniform for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.[3]

The land mass covers 7,591,608 km2 (2,931,136 sq mi), about 98.7% of the area of the country of Australia and 1.5% of Earth's surface.[4] It is sometimes described as an island, in which case it would be the largest island by area–more than three times the size of Greenland.[5] Its population is about 25.9 million, 98% of Australia's total population. Mainland Australia has a variety of climatic regions, ranging from tropical rainforests and deserts to cool temperature rainforests to snow-covered mountains.[6] It is in these mainland regions that much of Australia's native flora and fauna can be found.


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  1. ^ "A quick look back". Basslink. Hydro Tasmania. Archived from the original on 18 July 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  2. ^ "Ex-interstate vehicles". Department of State Growth, Transport. Tasmanian Government. Archived from the original on 24 March 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Separation of Tasmania". National Museum of Australia. NMA. Archived from the original on 30 December 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  4. ^ "Area of Australia - States and Territories | Geoscience Australia". Ga.gov.au. 12 January 2001. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  5. ^ McMahon, Elizabeth (2010). "Australia, the Island Continent: How Contradictory Geography Shapes the National Imaginary". Space and Culture. 13 (2): 178–187. Bibcode:2010SpCul..13..178M. doi:10.1177/1206331209358224. S2CID 131158261.
  6. ^ "The Australian Continent". australia.gov.au. Australian Government. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022.