Australasia
Australia, New Zealand and Norfolk Island have no land borders. Each is an island or a group of them, and each drives on the left. Norfolk Island is an external territory of Australia, and the other two are sovereign states with a shared travel arrangement dating from 1973. What the name Australasia covers has never been settled, and the wider readings run north to New Guinea.
Common questions
Questions about Australasia
Which countries are in Australasia?
Australia and New Zealand, together with Norfolk Island, an external territory of Australia. That is the narrow reading and the one the catalogue files. The United Nations Statistics Division covers the same ground under the heading Australia and New Zealand, which also lists Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Heard Island and McDonald Islands. A biogeographic reading of the name reaches further north again.
Is New Guinea part of Australasia?
It depends which reading is in use. As biogeography, yes: the Australasian ecozone crosses the Wallace and Lydekker lines and takes in New Guinea and the islands around it. As a political or statistical grouping, no: the island is divided between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, which the catalogue files under Melanesia and Southeast Asia. Both readings are in print, and a hub page records the disagreement rather than settling it.
Is Norfolk Island a country?
No. It is an external territory of Australia. Self-government granted in 1979 was withdrawn by an Act that received assent on 26 May 2015, Commonwealth taxation and social security reached residents from 1 July 2016, and local services passed to a regional council that was placed under an administrator in 2021. Norf'k has been an official language of the island beside English since an Act of 2004.
Can New Zealand citizens live and work in Australia?
The Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement of 1973 allows citizens of each state to enter, live and work in the other without applying for authority beforehand. Australia has required a visa of every non-citizen since 1 September 1994, so New Zealand citizens are granted a Special Category Visa on arrival. Arrival before or after 26 February 2001 decides which terms are attached to it.
Why is New Zealand named in the Australian Constitution?
Covering clause 6 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 lists New Zealand among the colonies that could form part of the Commonwealth, and the door was left open deliberately. Delegates from New Zealand attended the National Australasian Convention of 1891 and none of those that followed, and a royal commission reported against federating on 30 May 1901.