# Australia an island?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-an-island/135715>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 7, 2002, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-an-island/135715 "2002-11-07T14:14:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-an-island/135715/21 "2002-11-07T22:31:33Z")

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For what it’w worth, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on its [official website](http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib2000/part_4/a.html) states:

> [@](#):
>
> Mainland Australia, with an area of 7.69 million square kilometres, is the largest island and the smallest continent on Earth. It stretches some 3700 km from its most northern to its most southern point, and about 4000 km from east to west.

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**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-an-island/135715/22 "2002-11-07T23:00:43Z")

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I thought I read somewhere that the determination of whether something was an island or a continent was whether it had it’s own continental shelf. In other words–a continent does, but an island is part of another “continent’s” continental shelf (or are current or former volcanoes). Does that ring a bell for anyone, or did I just make it up?

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australia-an-island/135715/23 "2002-11-08T00:02:08Z")

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Straight Dope Column:  
[Why do Europe and Asia count as two continents?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_166a.html)

Straight Dope Staff Reports:

[Why is Greenland considered an island but not Eurasia?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/misland.html)

[Why are Europe and Asia considered separate continents? What’s a continent, anyway?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/meurasia.html)

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