<Li> Gold Coast - Tweed </Li> <Li> Canberra - Queanbeyan </Li> <P> Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul, Australinea or Meganesia, to distinguish it from the Australian mainland, is a continent comprising mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, Seram, possibly Timor, and neighbouring islands . </P> <P> It is the smallest of the seven traditional continents in the English conception . The continent lies on a continental shelf overlain by shallow seas which divide it into several landmasses--the Arafura Sea and Torres Strait between mainland Australia and New Guinea, and Bass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania . When sea levels were lower during the Pleistocene ice age, including the Last Glacial Maximum about 18,000 BC, they were connected by dry land . During the past 10,000 years, rising sea levels overflowed the lowlands and separated the continent into today's low - lying arid to semi-arid mainland and the two mountainous islands of New Guinea and Tasmania . Geologically, a continent extends to the edge of its continental shelf, so the now - separate islands are considered part of the continent . Due to the spread of animals, fungi and plants across the single Pleistocene landmass the separate lands have a related biota . </P>

What are the countries in the australian continent