World Regional Geography

OCEANIA: Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific!

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Oceania Map!
There are 13 different countries in whats considered Oceania, these countries consist of:
  1. Australia
  2. New Zealand
  3. Tonga
  4. Fiji
  5. Vanuatu
  6. Salomon Islands
  7.  Kiribati
  8.  Tuvalu
  9. Marshall Islands
  10. Federated States of Micronesia
  11. Papua New Guinea
  12. Samoa
  13. Nauru


Climate:

The climate here is situated in the tropical and subtropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean. The tepid water temperatures of the central Pacific bring the year round mild climates to nearly all the inhabited parts of the region. The seasonal variation in temperature is greatest in the southernmost reaches of Australia and New Zealand.

Moisture and Rainfall: most of Oceania is warm and humid nearly all the time. New Zealand and the height islands of the Pacific receive copious rainfall and once supported dense forest vegetation.

Travelers approaching New Zealand either by air or by sea sometimes notice a distinctive long, white cloud that stretches above the two islands. This distinctive feature on the islands is brought by the legendary roaring forties, of powerful air and ocean currents that speed around the far southern hemisphere virtually unimpeded by landmasses.

In contrast, two-thirds of the Australian continent is overwhelmingly dry. The Great Dividing Range blocks the movement of moist easterly winds, meaning that the rainfall does not hit the interior.

Physical Features:

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Great Barrier Reef
Pacific Ocean    

       The Pacific Ocean covers a huge expanse of the world.

       It is used to get from Island to Island for transportation by boats.

       The Pacific Ocean at a point in time separated some animals and plants from certain islands and different continents but now with human development and the constant travel, sometimes plants and animals get to unusual environments.

Gondwana

       Formed from the super continent Pangaea.

       Present day Australia.

       This is now shaped roughly like a dinner plate.

Great Lowland Australian Desert

       Center of Australia (The center of the “Dinner Plate”)

The Eastern Highlands

       “The Great Dividing Range”

       The highest and most complex of these.

Great Barrier Reef

       The longest coral reef in the world

       World Heritage site since 1981

       Irregular arc for more than 1250 miles along the coast of Queensland covering 135000 square miles.

Population Patterns:

Population Patterns:  Oceania takes up a huge portion of the planet, but it only has about 34 million people, less than the state of California. The total land space is just slightly larger than the contiguous United States, but spread out in bits and pieces across an ocean larger than the Eurasian landmass.

Human Well-Being

The status in the Oceania area is probably a little better than what the statistics indicate, especially in the Pacific Islands. This is because here subsistence agriculture and the informal economy remain very important in everyday life. Statistics in Australia, New Zealand, and most of the larger island in the region are easier to obtain, but data for many of the smaller island groups are missing, or only partial data is available.
The united nations gender development index (GDI) rankings show that Australia nearly tops the world, where the males and females have equality in health care and access to education. Australian women all though, earn on average about 10,000 dollars less per year than men do. New Zealand also ranks fairly high on the GDI (17). This result partly from the high percentage of women in Parliament in 2005. Also from the fact that more than one-third of its administrators and manager, and more than half of its professional and technical workers are in fact women.

Environmental Issues:

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nuclear reactors causing pollution.
Resource Extraction and Pollution

Pollution from mining has disrupted traditional ways of life throughout the Pacific islands. Two mines have had particularly devastating effects. Both were operated by foreign owned mining companies that took advantage of poorly enforced or nonexistent environmental codes.

Nuclear Pollution:

Radioactive pollution from nuclear weapons test and the reactors waste.  Most independent countries in Oceania have signed this treaty, which bans nuclear weapons testing and nuclear waste dumping on their lands.

Roles of the Family:

People always assumed that Oceania had the characterization of the women of the pacific islands as gentle, simple, compliant love objects. Because some tourist brochures still promote that ideal. Although there is ample evidence to suggest that the Pacific Islanders did have more sexual partners in a lifetime than Europeans did, the reports of unrestrained sexuality related by European sailor were no doubt influenced by the exaggerated fantasies one might expect from all-male crews living at sea for months at a time.
In reality in Oceania, gender roles varied considerably from those in the European Continent, but not in the ways they assumed.
Women are often exercised a good bit of power in family and clan, and their power increased with motherhood and advancing in age. Women were primarily the craftspeople, but they could also contribute with gathering fruits and nuts and also fishing.
Today there is a great variation in gender roles here, and they are changing significantly throughout the region. Australia and New Zealand, woman's access to hobs and policy-making positions has improved over the last few decades. Increasingly young women are choosing careers and postponing marriage until their thirties.
Men traditionally were cultivators, deep water fishers, and masters of seafaring.

Cuisine:

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Most of its dishes are based on seafood, fresh fruit, nuts, fresh vegetables and game meat.
All though, Oceania cuisine is very big variety.
Australian cuisine has its influences from the European cuisine, basically the British cooking. Hence, Australian cuisine is a fusion of many types of cuisine, among old and contemporary; it means a multicultural variety including Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese, Greek, Lebanese, Moroccan and Italian cuisines based on low-salt, low-fat, light cook, color, and steamed vegetables. Some of their principal ingredients are seafood, lamb roast, kangaroo meat, wichety grubs, etc. in order to prepare typical dishes such as British traditions like the pies, roasted and grilled meat accompanied by vegetables, known as the "meat and three veg",  lasagna, kebabs, mousaka, sweet and sour pork, dim sums, hot curries, bouillabaisse, Creole carri poule, ghoulash, lahksa. Besides some basics and secrets ingredient are the world class Australian wine, delightful tangy fruits from the rainforests, aromatic herbs, pepperleaf and exquisite snowberries, and spicy tomatoes from the desert. Also, many of its desserts are based in fresh fruit, such as Anzac biscuits, Frozie cup, Frog cake, Lamingtons, Pavlova, Vanilla slice, Musk stick, etc.


References:

Top Picture from: http://www.globopix.net/immagini/oceania.jpg
Oceania map from: http://www.sftext.com/map/oceania_map.gif
Great Barrier Reef photo from: http://www.fillinn.com/img/life/ecological-disaster-on-the-great-barrier-reef/ecological-disaster-on-the-great-barrier-reef03.jpg
nuclear reactors from: http://www.emfnews.org/images/Nuclear%20Power%20Plant%20Fuel%20a%20source%20of%20Plutonium%20for%20Weapons.jpg
cuisine picture from: http://www.aboutcookingschools.com/cooking/images/resources/australiaCuisine.jpg