Australia-Oceania

The "continent" of Australia/Oceania is a somewhat artifical construct, designed to link together the continental landmass of Australia with the huge number of widely scattered islands across the Pacific Ocean. By convention, this continent includes New Guinea, Tasmania, New Zealand, Hawaii, and the countless islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

The continent of Australia is such a relatively low and flat place it's really kind of ridiculous. Although the Great Dividing Range has some interesting escarpment areas such as the Blue Mountains area, and there is some nice mountain scenery here and there, the bulk of the continent is simply just not mountainous at all. The highest point on the Australian landmass is puny Mt. Kosciusko (7310'/2228m), a peak with a road to the top. Many tiny islands in nearby Indonesia have higher peaks.

However, the continent of Australia/Oceania still holds a respectable amount of serious mountains due to the contributions from the "Oceania" part in its name. In particular, New Zealand and New Guinea both hold world-class mountain ranges: Puncak Jaya (5030 m/16,500') on New Guinea is the highest summit in this quadrant of the world, and the Southern Alps of New Zealand are a craggy, snowy range that challenges the best climbers in the world.

Many other islands of Oceania hold mountains that are either higher or more intersting that those of mainland Australia; highlights include the ranges of Tasmania, Tahiti, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and the massive shield vocanoes of Hawaii.