68-704: Flinders Bay is a bay in western Australia, immediately south of the townsite of Augusta , and close to the mouth of the Blackwood River . The bay lies to the north east of Cape Leeuwin which is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian Continent , in the state of Western Australia . On Matthew Flinders Terra Australis Sheet 1 1801–1803 the area was originally known as Dangerous Bight . The bay runs from Point Matthew 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) East North East of Cape Leeuwin to Ledge Point some 8 kilometres (5 mi) east. It
136-574: A continent as "a large space of dry land comprehending many countries all joined together, without any separation by water. Thus Europe, Asia, and Africa is one great continent, as America is another." However, the old idea of Europe, Asia and Africa as "parts" of the world ultimately persisted with these being regarded as separate continents. By convention, continents "are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by expanses of water". In modern schemes with five or more recognized continents, at least one pair of continents
204-520: A continent. This divides the entire land surface of Earth into continents, regions, or quasi-continents. The criterion that each continent is a discrete landmass is commonly relaxed due to historical conventions and practical use. Of the seven most globally recognized continents, only Antarctica and Australia are completely separated from other continents by the ocean. Several continents are defined not as absolutely distinct bodies but as " more or less discrete masses of land". Africa and Asia are joined by
272-615: A discrete landmass is completely disregarded if the continuous landmass of Eurasia is classified as two separate continents (Asia and Europe). Physiographically , Europe and the Indian subcontinent are large peninsulas of the Eurasian landmass. However, Europe is considered a continent with its comparatively large land area of 10,180,000 square kilometres (3,930,000 sq mi), while the Indian subcontinent, with less than half that area,
340-425: A geological continent has been disputed by some geologists. However, a study conducted in 2021 found that part of the submerged continent is indeed Precambrian , twice as old as geologists had previously thought, which is further evidence that supports the idea of Zealandia being a geological continent. All seven geological continents are spatially isolated by geologic features. The term "continent" translates
408-550: A nearby continent to divide all the world's land into geographical regions. Under this scheme, most of the island countries and territories in the Pacific Ocean are grouped together with the continent of Australia to form the geographical region Oceania . In geology , a continent is defined as "one of Earth's major landmasses, including both dry land and continental shelves ". The geological continents correspond to seven large areas of continental crust that are found on
476-715: A number of settlers, including John Molloy and members of the Bussell and Turner families, had arrived at the Swan River Colony on board Warrior . On their arrival the Lieutenant-Governor Captain James Stirling advised them that most of the good land near the Swan River had already been granted , and suggested that they form a new sub-colony in the vicinity of Cape Leeuwin. The following month, Stirling sailed with
544-468: A part of South America. Apart from the current continents, the scope and meaning of the term continent includes past geological ones. Supercontinents , largely in evidence earlier in the geological record, are landmasses that comprise most of the world's cratons or continental cores. These have included Vaalbara , Kenorland , Columbia , Rodinia , Pannotia , and Pangaea . Over time, these supercontinents broke apart into large landmasses which formed
612-599: A party of prospective settlers on board Emily Taylor . After arriving at the mouth of the Blackwood River, the party spent four days exploring the area. Stirling then confirmed his decision to establish a sub-colony, the settlers' property was disembarked, and the town of Augusta declared at the site. Stirling named the town in honour of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex , the sixth son of George III , due to its location within Sussex County , one of
680-472: A safe mooring location in the Bay for fishermen has seen a proposal for a marina in 2004 which had included plans for the marina close to the old settlement of Flinders Bay. The 2005 revised proposal was moved to a bay further around towards Cape Leeuwin. The Flat Rock site is complete and has been called "Augusta Boat Harbour" by the department of Transport. The landing area adjacent to the old railway station yard
748-523: A separate land. In 1507 Martin Waldseemüller published a world map, Universalis Cosmographia , which was the first to show North and South America as separate from Asia and surrounded by water. A small inset map above the main map explicitly showed for the first time the Americas being east of Asia and separated from Asia by an ocean, as opposed to just placing the Americas on the left end of
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#1732766105928816-821: A third part of the world. Division into three parts eventually came to predominate. From the Greek viewpoint, the Aegean Sea was the center of the world; Asia lay to the east, Europe to the north and west, and Africa to the south. The boundaries between the continents were not fixed. Early on, the Europe–Asia boundary was taken to run from the Black Sea along the Rioni River (known then as the Phasis ) in Georgia . Later it
884-502: A very large peninsula on the fringe of a continent. Where the Americas are viewed as a single continent (America), it is divided into two subcontinents ( North America and South America ) or three ( Central America being the third). When Eurasia is regarded as a single continent, Asia and Europe are treated as subcontinents. Some areas of continental crust are largely covered by the ocean and may be considered submerged continents . Notable examples are Zealandia , emerging from
952-890: Is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single landmass or a part of a very large landmass, as in the case of Asia or Europe. Due to this, the number of continents varies; up to seven or as few as four geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Most English-speaking countries recognize seven regions as continents. In order from largest to smallest in area, these seven regions are Asia , Africa , North America , South America , Antarctica , Europe , and Australia . Different variations with fewer continents merge some of these regions; examples of this are merging North America and South America into America , Asia and Europe into Eurasia , and Africa, Asia, and Europe into Afro-Eurasia . Oceanic islands are occasionally grouped with
1020-499: Is based on an artificial reef made up of 5000 (as of April 2016) separate concrete units called abitats (abalone habitats). The 900-kilogram (2,000 lb) abitats can host 400 abalone each. The reef is seeded with young abalone from an onshore hatchery. The abalone feed on seaweed that has grown naturally on the habitats. The ecosystem enrichment of the bay also results in growing numbers of dhufish , pink snapper , wrasse , samson fish and other species. The company emphasises
1088-451: Is considered a subcontinent. The alternative view—in geology and geography—that Eurasia is a single continent results in a six-continent view of the world. Some view the separation of Eurasia into Asia and Europe as a residue of Eurocentrism : "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, China and India are comparable to the entire European landmass, not to a single European country. [...]." However, for historical and cultural reasons,
1156-435: Is divided into several principal oceanic components by the continents and various geographic criteria. The geological definition of a continent has four criteria: high elevation relative to the ocean floor; a wide range of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks rich in silica; a crust thicker than the surrounding oceanic crust; and well-defined limits around a large enough area. The most restricted meaning of continent
1224-507: Is inhabited by more numerous people and animals than our Europe, or Asia or Africa", the first known explicit identification of part of the Americas as a continent like the other three. Within a few years, the name "New World" began appearing as a name for South America on world maps, such as the Oliveriana (Pesaro) map of around 1504–1505. Maps of this time, though, still showed North America connected to Asia and showed South America as
1292-430: Is joined by land in some fashion. The criterion "large" leads to arbitrary classification: Greenland , with a surface area of 2,166,086 square kilometres (836,330 sq mi), is only considered the world's largest island, while Australia , at 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi), is deemed the smallest continent. Earth's major landmasses all have coasts on a single, continuous World Ocean , which
1360-612: Is that of a continuous area of land or mainland, with the coastline and any land boundaries forming the edge of the continent. In this sense, the term continental Europe (sometimes referred to in Britain as "the Continent") is used to refer to mainland Europe, excluding islands such as Great Britain , Iceland , Ireland , and Malta , while the term continent of Australia may refer to the mainland of Australia , excluding New Guinea , Tasmania , and other nearby islands. Similarly,
1428-627: Is the nearest town to Cape Leeuwin , on the furthest southwest corner of the Australian continent . In the 2001 census it had a population of 1,091; by 2016 the population of the town was 1,109 (excluding East Augusta). The town is within the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River local government area , and is in the Leeuwin Ward. It is connected by public transport to Perth via Transwa coach service SW1. The town has its own airport. Augusta
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#17327661059281496-407: Is usually considered an island of Africa, but its divergent evolution has caused it to be referred to as "the eighth continent" from a biological perspective. Geologists use four key attributes to define a continent: With the addition of Zealandia in 2017, Earth currently has seven recognized geological continents: Due to a seeming lack of Precambrian cratonic rocks, Zealandia's status as
1564-458: The continental United States refers to "the 49 States (including Alaska but excluding Hawaii ) located on the continent of North America, and the District of Columbia ." From the perspective of geology or physical geography , continent may be extended beyond the confines of continuous dry land to include the shallow, submerged adjacent area (the continental shelf ) and the islands on
1632-666: The Black Sea . The names were first applied just to lands near the coast and only later extended to include the hinterlands . But the division was only carried through to the end of navigable waterways and "... beyond that point the Hellenic geographers never succeeded in laying their finger on any inland feature in the physical landscape that could offer any convincing line for partitioning an indivisible Eurasia ..." Ancient Greek thinkers subsequently debated whether Africa (then called Libya ) should be considered part of Asia or
1700-613: The Isthmus of Suez , and North America and South America by the Isthmus of Panama . In both cases, there is no complete separation of these landmasses by water (disregarding the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal , which are both narrow and shallow, as well as human-made). Both of these isthmuses are very narrow compared to the bulk of the landmasses they unite. North America and South America are treated as separate continents in
1768-456: The Pacific Ocean , as well as the continent of Australia . Zealandia (a submerged continent ) has been called the eighth continent. The following table provides areas given by Encyclopædia Britannica for each continent in accordance with the seven-continent model, including Australasia along with Melanesia , Micronesia , and Polynesia as parts of Oceania. It also provides populations of continents according to 2021 estimates by
1836-526: The Pleistocene ice ages , greater areas of the continental shelf were exposed as dry land, forming land bridges between Tasmania and the Australian mainland . At those times, Australia and New Guinea were a single, continuous continent known as Sahul . Likewise, Afro-Eurasia and the Americas were joined by the Bering Land Bridge . Other islands, such as Great Britain , were joined to
1904-782: The United Nations Statistics Division based on the United Nations geoscheme , which includes all of Egypt (including the Isthmus of Suez and the Sinai Peninsula ) as a part of Africa, all of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey (including East Thrace ) as parts of Asia, all of Russia (including Siberia ) as a part of Europe, all of Panama and the United States (including Hawaii ) as parts of North America, and all of Chile (including Easter Island ) as
1972-643: The Wadandi Track ), which was government run from the 1920s to the 1950s. Prior to that M. C. Davies had a timber railway system that went to both Hamelin Bay and Flinders Bay jetties in the 1890s. On 30 July 1986, a pod of 114 false killer whales became stranded at Town Beach, Augusta. In a three-day operation, co-ordinated by the Department of Conservation and Land Management , volunteers from around Western Australia, including forestry workers, wildlife officers, surfers and townsfolk, carried 96 of
2040-422: The tectonic plates , but exclude small continental fragments such as Madagascar that are generally referred to as microcontinents . Continental crust is only known to exist on Earth. The idea of continental drift gained recognition in the 20th century. It postulates that the current continents formed from the breaking up of a supercontinent ( Pangaea ) that formed hundreds of millions of years ago. From
2108-492: The "subcontinents" concerned are on different tectonic plates from the rest of the continent, providing a geological justification for the terminology. Greenland , generally considered the world's largest island on the northeastern periphery of the North American Plate , is sometimes referred to as a subcontinent. This is a significant departure from the more conventional view of a subcontinent as comprising
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2176-638: The 16th century the English noun continent was derived from the term continent land , meaning continuous or connected land and translated from the Latin terra continens . The noun was used to mean "a connected or continuous tract of land" or mainland . It was not applied only to very large areas of land—in the 17th century, references were made to the continents (or mainlands) of the Isle of Man , Ireland and Wales and in 1745 to Sumatra . The word continent
2244-479: The 26 counties of Western Australia that were designated in 1829 as cadastral divisions . During the 1880s, an expansion of the timber industry occurred following the construction of a timber mill at nearby Kudardup and the completion of jetties at Hamelin Bay and Flinders Bay. Augusta was a stopping place on the Busselton to Flinders Bay branch railway (now converted into a walking and cycling trail named
2312-533: The Americas, Columbus never believed he had reached a new continent—he always thought it was part of Asia. In 1501, Amerigo Vespucci and Gonçalo Coelho attempted to sail around what they considered the southern end of the Asian mainland into the Indian Ocean , passing through Fernando de Noronha . After reaching the coast of Brazil , they sailed along the coast of South America much farther south than Asia
2380-673: The Augusta area was first sighted by Europeans in March 1622 when the Dutch East India Company ship Leeuwin (Lioness) mapped and named the land north of Cape Leeuwin between Hamelin Bay and Point D'Entrecasteaux ' t Landt van de Leeuwin . In 1801 Captain Matthew Flinders named the "south-western, and most projecting part of Leeuwin's Land" Cape Leeuwin. Augusta was founded in 1830. In March of that year,
2448-530: The Barrack Point Jetties). The terminology for the jetties and port varied in the nineteenth century, including designation of Port Augusta, Flinders Bay . The settlement was in the earlier days considered to be separate from Augusta but now is more or less the southern portion of the larger Augusta community. The locality had a Post Office, general store and railway terminus station. The need for safe and efficient transfer of whale watchers and
2516-697: The Black Sea and the Caspian Sea , and the border between Asia and Africa at the isthmus between the Red Sea and the mouth of Lake Bardawil on the Mediterranean Sea . The Roman author Pliny the Elder , writing in the 1st century CE, stated that "The whole globe is divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa", adding: I shall first then speak of Europe, the foster-mother of that people which has conquered all other nations, and itself by far
2584-691: The Catholic church, began to associate itself with the concept of Europe. Through the Roman period and the Middle Ages , a few writers took the Isthmus of Suez as the boundary between Asia and Africa, but most writers continued to consider it the Nile or the western border of Egypt (Gibbon). In the Middle Ages, the world was usually portrayed on T and O maps , with the T representing the waters dividing
2652-498: The Earth, the text claims that the Earth has seven continents and Lord Vishnu Measured the entire universe from his first foot from the land of Earth which has 7 continents. ato devā avantu no yato viṣṇurvicakrame | pṛthivyāḥ saptadhāmabhiḥ || idaṃ viṣṇurvi cakrame tredhā ni dadhe padam | samūḷhamasya pāṃsure || trīṇi padā vi cakrame viṣṇurghopā adābhyaḥ | ato dharmāṇi dhārayan || The Gods be gracious unto us even from
2720-619: The Greek word ἤπειρος , meaning "landmass, terra firma", the proper name of Epirus and later especially used for Asia (i.e. Asia Minor ). The first distinction between continents was made by ancient Greek mariners who gave the names Europe and Asia to the lands on either side of the waterways of the Aegean Sea , the Dardanelles strait, the Sea of Marmara , the Bosporus strait and
2788-401: The area of the former Flinders Bay jetties. Many tourist websites and information conflate Augusta and Cape Leeuwin with features that exist nearby. The Augusta townsite now also includes the former separate Flinders Bay community at its southern end, where there had been a jetty, railway terminus, and whaling location. The new Augusta Boat Harbour to the south of Flinders Bay is well outside
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2856-527: The arrival of European settlers, with one site near Margaret River showing signs of human habitation around 47,000 years ago. Augusta lies within Wardandi land. Wardandi (often spelt Wadandi) traditional owners guided archaeological researchers to a spot on a granite outcrop near Flinders Bay which was excavated and reported on in 2021, revealing grooves and other signs that people ground stones to make tools here around 9,700 years ago. The coastline near
2924-477: The concept of a continent may go beyond the continental shelf to include oceanic islands and continental fragments. In this way, Iceland is considered a part of Europe, and Madagascar a part of Africa. Extrapolating the concept to its extreme, some geographers group the Australian continental landmass with other islands in the Pacific Ocean into Oceania , which is usually considered a region rather than
2992-405: The division into three of what is really a single landmass, a debate that continues nearly two and a half millennia later. Herodotus believed Europe to be larger (at least in width) than the other two continents: I wonder, then, at those who have mapped out and divided the world into Libya, Asia, and Europe; for the difference between them is great, seeing that in length Europe stretches along both
3060-490: The mainlands of their continents. At that time, there were just three discrete landmasses in the world: Africa - Eurasia - America , Antarctica , and Australia - New Guinea ( Sahul ). There are several ways of distinguishing the continents: In the English-speaking countries, geographers often use the term Oceania to denote a geographical region which includes most of the island countries and territories in
3128-429: The map and Asia on the right end. In the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio , Waldseemüller noted that the earth is divided into four parts, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the fourth part, which he named "America" after Amerigo Vespucci's first name. On the map, the word "America" was placed on part of South America. The Sanskrit text Rig Veda often dated 1500 BCE has the earliest mention of seven continents in
3196-549: The mid-17th century, Peter Heylin wrote in his Cosmographie that "A Continent is a great quantity of Land, not separated by any Sea from the rest of the World, as the whole Continent of Europe, Asia, Africa." In 1727, Ephraim Chambers wrote in his Cyclopædia, "The world is ordinarily divided into two grand continents: the Old and the New ." And in his 1752 atlas, Emanuel Bowen defined
3264-543: The most beauteous portion of the earth. Indeed, many persons have, not without reason, considered it, not as a third part only of the earth, but as equal to all the rest, looking upon the whole of our globe as divided into two parts only, by a line drawn from the river Tanais to the Straits of Gades. Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire , the culture that developed in its place , linked to Latin and
3332-475: The ocean primarily in New Zealand and New Caledonia , and the almost completely submerged Kerguelen Plateau in the southern Indian Ocean . Some islands lie on sections of continental crust that have rifted and drifted apart from a main continental landmass. While not considered continents because of their relatively small size, they may be considered microcontinents . Madagascar, the largest example,
3400-455: The others together, and it appears to me to be wider beyond all comparison. Eratosthenes , in the 3rd century BCE, noted that some geographers divided the continents by rivers (the Nile and the Don), thus considering them "islands". Others divided the continents by isthmuses , calling the continents "peninsulas". These latter geographers set the border between Europe and Asia at the isthmus between
3468-479: The place whence Vishnu strode Through the seven regions of the earth! Through all this world strode Vishnu; thrice his foot he planted, and the whole Was gathered in his footstep's dust. Vishnu, the Guardian, he whom none deceiveth , made three steps; thenceforth Establishing his high decrees. In regard to the above-quoted verses, it is commonly accepted that there are Seven Continents or 'regions of
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#17327661059283536-558: The present continents. Certain parts of continents are recognized as subcontinents, especially the large peninsulas separated from the main continental landmass by geographical features. The most widely recognized example is the Indian subcontinent . The Arabian Peninsula , Southern Africa , the Southern Cone of South America, and Alaska in North America might be considered further examples. In many of these cases,
3604-416: The road to Cape Leeuwin), and are effective barriers along with reefs for the outer reaches of the bay to the south. Like the majority of the southwestern coastal regions of Western Australia, Flinders Bay experiences a cool-summer Mediterranean climate with cool to warm summers and mild, wet winters. After trials in 2012, a world-first commercial "sea ranch" was set up in 2016, to raise abalone . The ranch
3672-534: The school children who had been evacuated from Karridale and Kudardup. A bushfire threatened the town in 2011 and over 200 residents were evacuated. The fire had already claimed 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) before reaching the outskirts of East Augusta, but was later brought under control and no homes were destroyed. In January 2018 the town was threatened by a bushfire. The CinefestOZ film festival stages some of its screenings and events in Augusta in late August each year. Continent A continent
3740-552: The seven-continent model. However, they may also be viewed as a single continent known as America . This viewpoint was common in the United States until World War II , and remains prevalent in some Asian six-continent models. The single American continent model remains a common view in European countries like France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Latin American countries and some Asian countries. The criterion of
3808-415: The shelf ( continental islands ), as they are structurally part of the continent. From this perspective, the edge of the continental shelf is the true edge of the continent, as shorelines vary with changes in sea level. In this sense the islands of Great Britain and Ireland are part of Europe, while Australia and the island of New Guinea together form a continent. Taken to its limit, this view could support
3876-451: The similarity to wild abalone and the difference from shore based aquaculture. "We're not aquaculture, we're ranching, because once they're in the water they look after themselves." 34°21′S 115°20′E / 34.350°S 115.333°E / -34.350; 115.333 Augusta, Western Australia Augusta is a town on the south-west coast of Western Australia , where the Blackwood River flows into Flinders Bay . It
3944-651: The three continents. By the middle of the 18th century, "the fashion of dividing Asia and Africa at the Nile, or at the Great Catabathmus [the boundary between Egypt and Libya ] farther west, had even then scarcely passed away". Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean in 1492, sparking a period of European exploration of the Americas . But despite four voyages to
4012-502: The townsite. In 2009, 2 Oceans FM was set up at the Augusta Community Centre and began broadcasting on 97.1 MHz FM. In 1961, over 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of farms, bushland and forests between Margaret River and Augusta were destroyed by bushfires . Augusta was saved from these because a serious fire a few months earlier had created a low fuel zone north of the town. The Augusta residents cared for
4080-479: The view of Europe as a separate continent continues in almost all categorizations. If continents are defined strictly as discrete landmasses, embracing all the contiguous land of a body, then Africa, Asia, and Europe form a single continent which may be referred to as Afro-Eurasia . Combined with the consolidation of the Americas, this would produce a four-continent model consisting of Afro-Eurasia, America, Antarctica, and Australia. When sea levels were lower during
4148-471: The view that there are only three continents: Antarctica, Australia-New Guinea, and a single mega-continent which joins Afro-Eurasia and America via the contiguous continental shelf in and around the Bering Sea. The vast size of the latter compared to the first two might even lead some to say it is the only continent, the others being more comparable to Greenland or New Zealand. As a cultural construct ,
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#17327661059284216-404: The whales on trucks to more sheltered waters. The surviving whales were then successfully guided out into the bay, flanked by a flotilla of boats, board riders and swimmers. A memorial to the rescue now overlooks Town Beach. The Augusta boat harbour on the coast towards Cape Leeuwin has replaced a range of points where boats have operated from between the mouth of the Blackwood River around to
4284-586: Was a summer holiday town for many during most of the twentieth century, but late in the 1990s many people chose to retire to the region for its cooler weather. As a consequence of this and rising land values in the Augusta-Margaret River area, the region has experienced significant social change. Noongar peoples, the Aboriginal Australian peoples of south-western Australia, inhabited the area for an estimated 45,000 years before
4352-438: Was known to extend, confirming that this was a land of continental proportions. On return to Europe, an account of the voyage, called Mundus Novus ("New World"), was published under Vespucci's name in 1502 or 1503, although it seems that it had additions or alterations by another writer. Regardless of who penned the words, Mundus Novus credited Vespucci with saying, "I have discovered a continent in those southern regions that
4420-482: Was named by either James Stirling or Septimus Roe in 1829 or 1830. Matthew Flinders was first in the Bay on 7 December 1801. The name of the Flinders Bay area is tied to the small settlement that had been a whaling and fishing location, as well as the terminus of the Busselton to Flinders Bay branch railway railway line (1920s, closed 1957). The name is also tied to the Flinders Bay jetties (also known as
4488-432: Was originally known as "The Whaling". It was the area where boats would work from in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Up until the early 1970s sheds and ramps were still present. In the late 20th century the area had whale rescue operations occurring very close to the area. Also businesses involved in whale watching have more recently used the bay. The St Alouarn Islands stretch out south of Point Matthew (on
4556-417: Was used in translating Greek and Latin writings about the three "parts" of the world, although in the original languages no word of exactly the same meaning as continent was used. While continent was used on the one hand for relatively small areas of continuous land, on the other hand geographers again raised Herodotus's query about why a single large landmass should be divided into separate continents. In
4624-685: Was viewed as running from the Black Sea through Kerch Strait , the Sea of Azov and along the Don River (known then as the Tanais ) in Russia . The boundary between Asia and Africa was generally taken to be the Nile River. Herodotus in the 5th century BCE objected to the whole of Egypt being split between Asia and Africa ("Libya") and took the boundary to lie along the western border of Egypt, regarding Egypt as part of Asia. He also questioned
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