It is however known from movement studies that this definition of the Australian plate is 20% less accurate than one that assumes independently moving Capricorn, and Macquarie microplates.

The continent of Zealandia, which separated from Australia 85 million years ago and stretches from New Caledonia in the north to New Zealand's subantarctic islands in the south, is now being torn apart along the transform boundary marked by the Alpine Fault.

The southerly side is a divergent boundary with the Antarctic plate called the Southeast Indian Ridge (SEIR).

The subducting boundary through Indonesia is not parallel to the biogeographical Wallace line that separates the indigenous fauna of Asia from that of Australasia.

To the east of Indonesia there appears to be under the Indian Ocean a deformation zone between the Indian and Australian plates with both earthquake and global satellite navigation system data indicating that India and Australia are not moving on the same vectors northward and have started a process of again separating.

[6] It is known that the Eastern Pilbara Craton within present day Western Australia, contains some of the oldest surface rocks on earth being pristine crust up to 3.8 billion years ago.

[11] Australia and East Antarctica were merged with Gondwana between 570 and 530 million years ago starting in the Ediacaran (South African Kuunga Orogeny).

The Australian plate is moving about 6.9 cm (2.7 inches) a year in a northward direction and with a small clockwise rotation.

Due to vector complexities at the north eastern end of this collision, which includes several spreading centres, it is perhaps simplest to state that the average displacement rate to the north is about half that of the collision with the Sunda plate, but this would not explain some of the largest and most destructive recent earthquakes and eruptions on the face of the planet.

[19] At the central Alpine Fault in New Zealand the subduction component of the Pacific plate moving westward is about 3.9 cm (1.5 in) per year.

[21][22] Data from the 11,800 km (7,300 mi) long Southeast Indian Ridge only became available after about 1985 and this gives a fairly consistent spreading rate between the Antarctic and Australian plates of 6 cm (2.4 in) per year at a heading of 80° (slightly north of due east, at the Amsterdam transform fault to the south western side of Australian plate), 7 cm (2.8 in) per year with heading 120° (southeast) and 6.6 cm (2.6 in) per year near the Macquarie triple junction which is the south eastern side of the Australian plate.