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| Oceania, a continent of islands stretching across a vast area of the Pacific Ocean, is home to only
0.5 per cent of the world's population. Dominated by Australia, it includes few other countries
with significant land mass apart from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji, but has a
myriad volcanic and coral islands, split into three main groups: Micronesia, Melanesia, and
Polynesia. Australia, flat and dry, is sparsely populated, most people living along the coastal
lowlands, especially in the southeast. Its first inhabitants, the Aboriginal peoples, retain some of
their original lands in the interior, but the European and Asian settlers of recent centuries form
most of the population. Australia is rich in minerals, such as gold, uranium, and iron ore, which
are the basis of its prosperity. Mountainous Papua New Guinea is covered in tropical rainforest,
while New Zealand is temperate, rugged, and volcanic in the north. Owing to their isolation, these
countries' flora and fauna have evolved many unique species. The peoples of Oceania colonized
the Pacific by 1100 CE, and the many insular farming and fishing communities have developed
distinctive cultures, the Maoris of New Zealand being among the most notable.
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