AUSTRALIA NEW

ZEALAND AND

OCEANIAGeography

• Oceania is the name of the region consisting of island groups within the central and South Pacific Ocean. It spans over 3.3 million square miles (8.5 million sq km). Some of the countries included in Oceania are Australia, New Zealand, Tuvalu, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Palau, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Nauru. Oceania also includes several dependencies and territories such as American Samoa, Johnston Atoll and French Polynesia.

Land Area3,490,000 sq mi(8,490,000 sq km)

Highest PointMount Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea14,793 ft. Above sea level(4,509 m)

Lowest PointLake Eyre, Australia-52 ft. Below sea level(-16 m)

Longest RiverMurray-Darling Australia2,310 mi(3,718 km)

Largest LakeLake Eyre, Australia3,714 sq mi(9,690 sq km)

Mount Wilhelm (German: Wilhelmsberg) is the highest mountain in Papua New Guinea at 4,509 metres (14,793 ft). It is part of the Bismarck Range and the peak is the point where three provinces intersect, Simbu, Western Highlands and Madang. The peak is also known as Enduwa Kombuglu in the local Kuman language, a Papuan language.

Mount Wilhelm has a granite peak and is made with pure solid rock.

Lake Eyre-officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is the lowest point in Australia, at approximately 16 m (52 ft)below sea level, and, on the rare occasions that it fills, the largest lake in Australia and 18th largest in the world. The temporary, shallow lake is the depocenter of the vast Lake Eyre Basin and is found in South Australia, some 700 km (435 mi) north of Adelaide. The lake was named in honour of Edward John Eyre, who was the first European to see it, in 1840. The lake's official name was changed in December 2012 to combine the name "Lake Eyre" with the indigenous name, Kati Thanda.

The Murray–Darling basin is a large geographical area in the interior of southeastern Australia, whose name is derived from its two major rivers, the Murray River and the Darling River.

¬Australia’s Tropical Rainforests cover approximately 900,000 square hectares and are internationally recognized as being one of the most ecologically fascinating natural areas in the world, as one of few remaining truly pristine tropical rainforest places on the planet. These forests contain an amazing array and diversity of flora and fauna.

•Queensland•Tasmania•New South Wales•Northern Territory•Victoria•Western Australia

Grasslands are flat, open habitats covered mainly in grass, but also with other plants, wildflowers and a small number of trees and low shrubs. They receive less rainfall than forests and more than deserts. They contain many different kinds of grass. Grasslands contain the most species of plants in Australia.

• Great Victoria Desert• Great Sandy Desert• Tanami Desert• Simpson Deset• Gibson Desert• Little Sandy Desert• Strzelecki Desert• Sturt Stony Desert• Tirari Desert• Pedirka Desert

Desert Spadefoot (Notaden nichollsi)

The Perentie, a two meter monitor lizard

The Thorny Devil.

¬70% of the Australian mainland is classified as semi-arid, arid or desert; making it the driest inhabited continent on Earth. Only 3% of the Australian population live in the desert. Like most major deserts across the world the they are found around a certain latitude (roughly 30° north/south of the equator) where the weather phenomena create a dry climate.

• Landmarks

• Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock and officially gazetted as Uluru / Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory in central Australia.

• The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometers.

• Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin. Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory of Australia.

• The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park, by the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. Their proximity to one another has made the site a popular tourist attraction.

• Tongariro National Park is the oldest national park in New Zealand, located in the central North Island. It has been acknowledged by UNESCO as one of the 28 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. Tongariro National Park was the fourth national park established in the world. The active volcanic mountains Ruapehu,Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro are located in the centre of the park.

• The Bay of Islands is an area in the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located 60 km north-west of Whangarei, it is about 210 km by road to Cape Reinga at the northern tip of the country.

• Abel Tasman National Park is a national park located at the north end of the South Island of New Zealand. It is named after Abel Tasman, who in 1642 became the first European explorer to sight New Zealand.

• The Rabaul caldera, or Rabaul Volcano, is a large volcano on the tip of the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, and derives its name from the town of Rabaul inside the caldera.

• Owen Stanley Range is the south-eastern part of the central mountain-chain in Papua New Guinea. It was seen in 1849 by Captain Owen Stanley while surveying the south coast of Papua and named after him