I’ve always understood that Australia, the country, and Australia, the continent, were one and the same. I was shocked to recently read that Australia, the continent, can be defined to include some other islands beyond Australia, the country. I’m going to ignore that because it would just complicate things. Oceania is another region up for debate. I’m defining it to consist of the 3 main Pacific Island groups: Melanesia (“black islands”), Micronesia (“small islands”), and Polynesia (“many islands”). Despite its name, Micronesia certainly hasn’t cornered the market on small islands in the Pacific. There are only 3 islands in the Oceania region of significant size: New Guinea and New Zealand’s South Island and North Island. (I guess Micronesia gets to claim its name as the only island group with no large islands.) Things continue to get complicated from here. Melanesia’s New Guinea, the world’s second largest island (after Greenland) is split down the middle. The eastern half is occupied by the independent country Papua New Guinea. The western half is part of Indonesia, a decidedly Asian country. New Zealand is part of Polynesia. Sometimes it’s excluded from Oceania, likely due to its size. I’m keeping things simple and including it with the rest of Polynesia.
Okay, the geography lesson is over. Once you get past Australia and New Zealand, you don’t find a whole lot of major world cities in the region. (None, actually.) So the rest of Oceania doesn’t have much relevance to Billy’s Cities. I will salute a couple of Pacific lands I’ve spent some time in, over both of which the flag of the United States flies: Micronesia’s Guam and Polynesia’s Hawaii. (Sorry Melanesia. I’ve got nothing for you.) For information about a specific region, country, or territory in Australia and Oceania, click on one of the links below: