Australasia

Charles de Brosses coined the term (as French Australasie) in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes[1] (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).

Historian Hansong Li finds that against the backdrop of British colonialism, German geopoliticians considered "Australasia" as a counterweight to the former German South Sea Edge (Südseerand), both of which form the "Indo-Pacific" region.

[5] Two Merriam-Webster dictionaries online (Collegiate and Unabridged) define Australasia as "Australia, New Zealand, and Melanesia".

The American Heritage Dictionary online recognizes two senses in use: one more precise and the other broader, loosely covering all of Oceania.

Australia's concept of Australasia, which includes Australia, New Zealand and, in this case, Melanesia