Which country in Oceania has the largest land area after Australia?

Papua New Guinea is the country in Oceania with the largest land area after Australia.

Papua New Guinea covers about 462,840 square kilometers, making it Oceania’s second-largest sovereign country by total area after Australia. It occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, along with numerous offshore islands in Melanesia. The western half of New Guinea belongs to Indonesia.

The country’s landscape is exceptionally varied. It includes tropical rainforests, coral islands, extensive coastlines, and the rugged Central Range, where mountains rise far higher than those in Australia. Papua New Guinea shares its only land border with Indonesia, while the Torres Strait separates it from Australia to the south.

Indonesia can cause confusion because its provinces on western New Guinea are geographically part of Oceania in some regional classifications. Even so, Papua New Guinea’s national territory is larger than that Oceanian portion of Indonesia and clearly ranks second after Australia among countries. New Zealand, Fiji, and the other island states are considerably smaller.