Australasia

Australasia is a term variably used to describe a region of Oceania – namely 'Australia', 'New Zealand', and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes (1756). He derived it from the Latin for "south of Asia" and differentiated the area from Polynesia (to the east) and the southeast Pacific (Magellanica); it is also distinct from Micronesia (to the northeast).

Geopolitically, Australasia is sometimes used as a term for Australia and New Zealand together, in the absence of another word limited to those two countries. There are many organizations whose names are prefixed with "Australasian Society for" which are limited to just Australia and New Zealand.