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!
About the warning: www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/i...
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:
Bass Strait: archive.org/details/biostor-2...
Torres Strait: www.deepreef.org/2023/12/23/n...
"The Malay Archipelago: the land of the orang-utan, and the bird of paradise" - Alfred Russel Wallace
First people in Australia: digital.library.adelaide.edu....
Cuscus: www.iucnredlist.org/species/1...
Lombok Strait initiative: shipandbunker.com/news/apac/7...
Indonesian Throughflow: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.c...
Macquarie Island: www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topi...
New Zealand Fauna: doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2...
Australasian Realm: www.oneearth.org/realms/austr...
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
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!
Thanks! I try my best to keep my videos to this standard - I'm glad it worked here.
this shits (the video) bussin fr fr no cap
"Inney, mate"
Bro's cursing up a storm.
I used to have the office next to the Australian Liaison officer at a Joint Services Command. He inducted me as a member of the Bendigo Order of Old Bastards. I was the first non-Aussie. I got to visit Australia in the late 80s. Wonderful country and people. You do have some VERY serious empty going on once you get out of the cities.
Well as an Aussie I was quite happy with everything in this vidWAIT DID YOU SAY KOALIFY ???!
Haha, yep I did!
Don't forget the very creative "Macquarie"!
or PILL BAR RAR... pilbra 🤣
Who needs to say “remember to like” when a sublime pun will do. KOALAFY! 💜
Yeah, this was all very well done until he puled a cringe card.
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.”
That is an interesting fact, thanks!
sounds cap, I'm Australian and have never heard that possums were named after an american word.
I need to look them up because Australasian Possums look very different to every Opossum I've seen. (Kiwi here)
Ok.
@@mreggs3731you thought it was complete coincidence that the small marsupial Opossum (pronounced 'possum') of north america, was named the same as our small marsupial possums?
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).
Ringleader. Town
It's not easy to Koalafy, because How much can a Koala Bear?
I think it's best to just leave a ko-wallaby.
@@SignoreGalilei ~ She'll definitely lead you astray, Liana.
I don't know if I canberra-nymore!
Are you having a Go anna?
this is beautiful
Love how you considered Indigenous viewers! I’m Indigenous (Gandangarra) and I rarely see this kind of consideration on KZhead ❤❤
I'm glad to do it! I've seen this kind of warning on both online and legacy media that I respect a lot so I decided to look and find out more. I figured it was the responsible decision.
no one stops you from making videos yourself from any perspective you want but let me guess you need a white man to do that
Where can I learn more?
As a widajuri man I am glad you respected our culture thank you
@@thomasbarca9297What is it like being wiradjuri more broadly indigenous experience in australia? I an american have had much curiosity on the indigenous history and origins of australia.
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 ❤
Awesome, glad you could learn something extra!
Ringleader. WROLD
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
Ringleader. WROLD
Anyone who thinks that Oceania is a continent needs to give themselves an uppercut.
1000%
i'm an australian and i call the continent oceania though at the same time i also use it more often as a region for the pacific islands too
@@TYsdrawkcaBif you are Australian then you should know better. Australia is a continent, as a matter of fact it is the only land mass in the world that is a country, continent and island. Before you call yourself Australian learn about Australia
@@SuperJeshua007 you should know that it's not an island before telling people what does or does not make them australian
@@SuperJeshua007it’s actually they only solid rock in the world ! AUSTRALIA DOESNT MOVE ALL OTHERS ACTUALLY MOVE
This is such a good channel, always posts bangers
Thanks, glad you're enjoying the videos!
Another insightful video, well done!
Thank you! Glad you found it insightful.
This is some A+ work man!
Loved the video. I learnt so many new things
Thank you for excellent documentary 👏
Excellent depth and breadth in your research, well done mate! I love your work!
Ringland. News
Another great video, as always!
Thanks!
@@SignoreGalilei WHAT?
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.
Glad you enjoyed the video - thanks for that additional context. As someone from the US, I think a lot of Americans similarly don't think of Puerto Rico, Guam, or the other US territories as truly "American", if they even know that those places are part of our country at all. The idea that Brazilians consider themselves to be on the same continent as the US is also quite surprising to most in the US. My goal is to help people learn and think about the world, rather than make them confused, but I do acknowledge that there is a risk of confusion if people lack the proper context.
southeast papua new guinea was only a protectorate of australia briefly before being annexed, after which point it was the australian territory of papua until 1975. and northeast papua new guinea became part of australia in 1949. soooooo
@@TYsdrawkcaB That may be so, but as far as most Australians are concerned, we are the mainland, Tasmania, Norfolk Island, Melville Island, Kangaroo Island, the Cocos-Keeling Islands, Christmas Island, the Torres Strait and Tiwi Islands, and a few others. Papua New Guinea was always a responsibility, not really part of Australia. Maybe because it is mountainous and covered in vegetation. It just isn’t Australian, even though our Northern regions are similar. Having shared boarding school with students from PNG and Bougainville, etc, I can assure you that they do not consider themselves to be Australian. They come here to school on sufferance but cannot wait to get home again.
Interesting and insightful video. Nice to see well-researched content.
Thanks, glad you like it!
I loved this presentation. It was so well done and very well explained.
Thanks!
Very well rounded! Love it!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
Love your channel
Thanks!
Great vid! Thanks!
You're welcome - glad you liked it!
Excellent educational tutorial
Quality video mate
Thanks!
Is the Wallace Line where Wallis and Fortuna got its name from? Loved this, thankyou!
Awesome video, thanks! Keep up the great work
You're welcome! Glad you liked it.
Great video. I just found found some of the maps quite difficult to sea with low lighting. Otherwise great stuff!👍
Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into brightening them in the future. Glad you liked the video in general!
You didn’t really give us a strait answer just a bunch of suggestions and ideas of we’re it could end but still a great video
9:29, Im jumping into oncoming traffic and youre the reason why /j This was very interesting as an australian inhabitant, did know know cockies went that far up tbh, pretty cool
The Waltzing Matilda outro is a nice touch
Thanks!
Can you make a video on the debate about whether Oceania is a continent or a region.
How do I find the version of waltzing Matilda and the end of the song?
FUN FACT: The geographic center of mainland Australia is located due west of Alice Springs.
Cool!
But the Lambert thing is near Finke.
great content; but the voice recording was too soft, as the sudden loudness of the outro music clearly shows.
Hmm...yeah I had a slightly different setup this time than in the past (I have a new microphone shock mount which affected the positions of everything) so I may still have some tweaking to do for the ideal volume level.
Came to say the same thing - Great vid, well researched and fun presentation. But yeah, the mic levels were very low
The way you say Pilbara and Bali cracks me up
Hey mate you forgot Herd Island. Between Perth and South Africa. It’s the largest mountain in the world if u count it from its base which is below the ocean surface. Loved the vid btw
Great video and appreciate your acknowledgement of indigenous people like me. Just a quick pronunciation correction: “Cuss-cuss” not “cooss-cooss” - a hard letter “u” here.
Where is the map at 1.39 taken from? I knew that Madagascar had been populated from Southeast Asia, but I wonder what the evidence was for the area marked light green on the map. And i am very curious as to what the line to the Niger delta represents
It's based on a source by linguist Roger Blench - the green zone is places where there's weak evidence of Austronesian presence, not enough to be conclusive. The West African connection is based on Southeast Asian crops showing up in West Africa before East Africa and before the Portuguese arrived. It could have been Malagasy Austronesians that brought them over, but it could easily have been someone else too.
nicely illustrated #
When talking about the Lord Howe island, did you mean Norfolk Island by any chance? Howe is just a normal ocean island on ocean crust, but Norfolk is actually a volcanic tip emplaced on the sunken Zealandia continent, considerably further East. Norfolk's ecology is also very unique, yet tied closer to that of NZ/NC. Norfolk is a territory of Australia, but most stuff is handled by Queensland after it was handed over from NSW in the last decade or so. Fun fact, Kingston on Norfolk island is the 2nd oldest settlement in Australia, having been founded just over a month after Sydney. This makes it older than all other state capitals in the country! Also if I may make a suggestion, boost the vocal volume somewhat, I had to turn it up to hear you clearly. Great video otherwise.
Those are some fun facts! Both Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island are geologically part of Zealandia according to the sources I read.
@@SignoreGalilei Norfolk is indeed ruled by Australian by laws.
Thankyou for your disclosure at the beginning. I am a Kuarna woman from Adelaide, South Australia and it's a strict taboo in my culture. I will still watch, but it's always shocking and jarring to see images or hear names without a warning.
You're welcome, I'm glad the warning helped. I'll freely acknowledge I'm not an expert on this topic, but I've seen similar warnings on other shows, and I did some research on it. It seemed like the appropriate and respectful thing to do, and I'm happy that it helped you to be forewarned.
Hey, I love this channel. As an Italian I’m might suggest “Signor Galileo” sounds and readsmuch better. Just for you info, with love
Thanks, glad you like the channel! I had a poll a while ago about maybe changing the channel name but people pretty overwhelmingly wanted me to keep it despite the grammar.
@@SignoreGalilei oh ok! That’s ok, it’s not even a grammar mistake, it’s just a habit we have, kudos to you for the content you create
Can you do Antartica next
Can you do New Zealand Next? (mention these please:) Auckland Island Campbell Island The Snares Anitpodes Islands Bounty Islands Chatham Islands Kermedec Islands Balleny Islands Ross Dependancy Cook Islands Tokelau Nuie and The Three Kings Islands?
Well done.
Thanks!
You got a like becuse of the koala pun at the end. Well done good sir !
Haha amazing, thanks for the like!
Was that a History Matters reference? SO cool
Which are you referring to? I do like their stuff, but I didn't put in any intentional references to them this time.
@@SignoreGalilei During the Sahul Shelf portion at 3:56, how many others did I miss? Lol
Oh it's the "so" lol. I came up with that one independently but it does seem very similar to the History Matters vibe.
@@SignoreGalilei I mean it isn't a "well" but it's a nice touch. Excellent content btw
Great video about something that I never thought about and I even learned something about the indigenous people in Australia!
Australia also has a large territorial claim in Antartica, has a variety of islands, and used to run other places as colonies (such as PNG).
True - it's pretty interesting stuff
Actually it’s not a claim, half of Antarctica is Australian and our neighbours there have agreed our borders so that’s all that’s needed to define our land.
@@seanlander9321 Always was, always will be? lol
Would have been good to also include the boundary that encompasses all the islands that are part of Australia politically or the maritime jurisdiction of Australia.
Fair. That's not one continuous region, though.
This reminds me of how Australia defines the Southern/Antarctic Ocean as directly bordering it. Posted with a link to a map but looks like YT didnt like it :P
KZhead is being annoying about links
@@SignoreGalilei Strange too since it was just Wikimedia Commons
That was interesting
thank you for the Tasmania love even Australians don't recognise it as a state
As a Perth resident most of us here recognize Tassie as a state - since we ran out of insults for South Australia. Jokes aside would love to travel down there, got some of the most beautiful views in Australia.
Southern Tasmania's ancient rocks matched up with the North America continent. Kind'a broke off... Yeah, nah yeah
Continents are composed mostly of less dense rock with a chemical composition similar to granite. Oceania? Ocean is composed of salty water. Apparently in 1812 geographer Conrad Malte-Brun could not tell the difference.
Cool!
Thanks!
Norfolk island sobbing screaming and throwing up rn
This has always bothered me, I personally consider the edge of the continent to be the borders of Sahul, which also gives a convenient name to separate the continental landmass from the country and island. The complicated mess of Wallacea is realistically a collection of microcontinents jammed between Sahul and Afroeurasia. Similarly, the North American continental crust ends in the Cherskiy range in Russia, hence why the Bering sea was dry during the LGM (its epicontinental). Realistically, Afroeurasia and the Americas all form one gigantic supercontinent, which is evidenced by multiple groups which are spread across its 5 constituent landmasses but are excluded from the island continents and microcontinents.
Definitely a good way of thinking about things. One of my first videos that got traction on this channel was about the Bering Strait - I think it's a pretty cool and underappreciated bit of geography.
How would Australia and Antarctica compare in size if the ice cap were removed? Wouldn't Antarctica count as a number of separate land masses in that case?
The glaciers squish down the land, so some of the parts that are currently below sea level might rebound back and reconnect the continent
Goood Regurgitating
You forgot about Cocos Keeling Islands, which is a part of Australia, and sits in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
They are very cool! I wound up focusing this video on the continent of Australia rather than the country's external territories, but there are a lot of interesting territories.
@@SignoreGalilei fair enough. It was a good video.
Wow, a new signore video!
Yeah!
If you talk about connection arabia was millions of years longer connected to africa than eurasia. Even though now humans call it part of asia what I culturally understand but not geographically :o
India, too - it's got its own tectonic plate and everything. Continents can be weird sometimes.
@@SignoreGalileiand depending on how you classify it, India is on the same plate as Australia (indo Australian plate), although I think that hypothesis is a bit outdated now
@@SignoreGalileii like to keep simple "A continuose landmass" so Eurasia, Africa, Australia, South America, North America".
The warning at the start was for the aboriginals of australia or indiginous people and it is their culture that when somebody passes away they are not seen or talken about or anything like that in case you were wondering
Nice video. You should definitely find a better song for your outro tho, it didn't match the quality of the content, no offense
If I'm not mistaken it's Waltzing Matilda
It is Waltzing Matilda (a pretty famous Australian song) - I change the outro every video to something relevant to the topic.
Marching Matilda is australian classic very relavent
You should do this with what people consider the beginning of “Europe” and the beginning of “Middle East”
You didn't mention the Australian Arctic territory
Nice
Thanks!
@@SignoreGalilei Always a joy to learn something new!!
4:17 how ironic
As an Aussie I am proud to be a South Indonesian
Or are some Indonesians North Australian? Or Austronesian?
And I am a proud member of Canada's pants!
Great video but your pronunciation of Macquarie at 7:40 is terrible haha. It's muh-kwoh-ree
I will put a correction in the description - thanks for pointing that out.
But nobody ever ask how is Australia 😢
Well now that you mention it, how is Australia?
Why is Australia?
😿😿
@@SignoreGalileiwe are bad
Who is Australia
Am I the only one who ears the audio too low? I had to put the volume at 100% to barely hear
I think you're not the only one - I saw some other comments about that.
It all ends in tears.
The Moluccas are culturally part of Melanesia, because the indigenous peoples there have historically been Papuan. Nowadays, most Moluccans are descended from a combination of Melanesian and Austronesian ancestors, so they could be considered the westernmost archipelago of Oceania.
Cool! That would make sense culturally speaking.
3:56, What does this image comprehend, Signore?
It's a pun on the word "so" - specifically it's general "Tso" the namesake of the chicken dish.
@@SignoreGalilei Interesting feedback about this image: Seen this image of a high government official before on the topic of the Late Qing dynasty's overall affairs, with all the rebels and foreigners doing conflict upon each other and the Qing at multiple times throughout the 19th century. Couldn't really put my finger on who this person could be, regrettably, so I ended up having to point myself at a screen like Leo Dicaprio on who this old fella is.
It ends where I say it ends
YOU COME A WALTZING MATILDA WITH MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Whats the point
um... did anyone notice waltzing Matilda at the end
I like your style of explaining videos and your graphics! I am making science videos, would you like to see them?
I just took a look at one - always glad to see people making educational videos!
This leaves the question. Is Australia technically a transcontinental country due to the fact that the Christmas Island’s (owned by Australia) is in Asia.
AS A N ASSIE THIS IS GREAT ALL OF IT IS GREAT I LOVE IT
#MoreThanMeetsTheEye
Yeah, really!
Australia has shrunk since it gave independence to its colonies, however as Australia extends to the South Pole it’s the second largest country on earth.
Just felt like typing this.
Australia: Easter Island on a grand scale
WELL if you want to go off of biogeography, wouldn't that make Antarctica and parts of South America part of Australia? You did bring up that interesting bit about the Monito del Monte , after all. I'm just saying - but Antarctica should really be called South Australia.
These days they have pretty different biota, but there are some commonalities since they all used to be connected, so it's not all too farfetched. Also European explorers once thought all those places to be part of a single continent of "Terra Australis" before the area was fully mapped.
politicaly australia allso owns quite a few islands in the indian ocean
True, there are a bunch of those
I usually call this Oceania but this is a great video
Thanks!
As an Aussie I can confirm that this is true
1:06 Australia is an island too.
What about Christmas island? Thats part of Australia (or at least politically it is).
*looks at the top left of 8:15 * . . . . 🤨
The source I got this from apparently endorses the nine-dashed line (or at least thinks it represents the de facto state of things). Hadn't noticed it myself.
Thank you for not being as stupid as other people, most people say New Zealand is apart of Australia
You could have stopped at the beginning. Africa, Eurasia and America are all connected by Shelf, part of Siberia sits on the North American plate. The maximum depth of the Bering Strait is less than 100m. Israel sits on the African side of the great rift valley whereas Jordan in on the Indian Ocean side. Japan sits on three plates. So the bottom line is that Seafloor depths don’t define continents, humans do.
Only a little bit of the video is actually about the seafloor depths. This video not arguing against the idea that humans define continents. Instead, it's exploring where and when different definitions actually make sense to use (specifically for Australia).
@@SignoreGalilei Do you know the difference between Reindeer and Caribou? Hint: only one can fly😎. It’s the same problem with NE Siberia and Alaska. Not much difference between the wolves either, Siberia has tigers, Canada doesn’t, the Grizzley and brown bears aren’t all that different, “In addition to the mainland grizzly (Ursus arctos horribilis), other morphological forms of brown bear in North America are sometimes identified as grizzly bears. These include three living populations-the Kodiak bear (U. a. middendorffi), the Kamchatka bear (U. a. beringianus), and the peninsular grizzly (U. a. gyas)-as well as the extinct California grizzly (U. a. californicus†), Mexican grizzly (formerly U. a. nelsoni†), and Ungava-Labrador grizzly (formerly U. a. ungavaesis†). On average, grizzly bears near the coast tend to be larger while inland grizzlies tend to be smaller.”Brown bears originated in Eurasia, and first migrated to North America between 177,000 BP ~ 111,000 BP. Most grizzly bears belong to this initial population of North American brown bear (clade 4), which continues to be the dominant mitochondrial grouping south of subarctic North America. Genetic divergences suggest brown bears first migrated south during MIS-5 (~92,000 - 83,000 BP) upon the opening of the ice-free corridor, with the first fossils being near Edmonton (26,000 BP). Other mitochondrial lineages appear later- the Alexander and Haida Gwaii archipelagoes have an endemic lineage, which first appears around 20,000 BP. After a local extinction in Beringia ~33,000 BP, two closely related lineages repopulated Alaska and northern Canada from Eurasia after the Last Glacial Maximum (>25,000 BP).” Wolverine “There are two subspecies: the Old World form, Gulo gulo gulo, and the New World form, G. g. luscus. Some authors had described as many as four additional North American subspecies, including ones limited to Vancouver Island (G. g. vancouverensis) and the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska (G. g. katschemakensis). However, the most currently accepted taxonomy recognizes either the two continental subspecies or G. gulo as a single Holarctic taxon.” Red Fox. “The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus parts of North Africa.” ”The sister lineage to the red fox is the Rüppell's fox, but the two species are surprisingly closely related through mitochondrial DNA markers, with Rüppell's fox nested inside the lineages of red foxes. Such a nesting of one species within another is called paraphyly. Several hypotheses have been suggested to explain this, including (1) recent divergence of Rüppell's fox from a red fox lineage, (2) incomplete lineage sorting”
You used the wrong map at 8:15
Why is that the wrong map?
@@SignoreGalileihe doesnt like the 9 dash line or something should honestly just mind hes own business, this is a educational video no need for everything to conform to others political belief.
Virginia is part of Australia
I mean it definitely is if you only care about marsupials. Maybe opossums can't tell the difference between the two haha.
Well it ends at the coast lines of the cocos/keeling and Norfolk islands. The mainland isn't technically Australia.
islands
islands indeed
islands