 Although there are a few minor and inactive volcanoes on the Australian mainland, this list recognizes that the island of New Guinea is part of the Australian continent.Numerous scientific papers written in the 1970s and 1980s confirm that Mount Giluwe in Papua New Guinea is in fact an old eroded volcano,
unlike the higher mountains of New Guinea which are all non-volcanic in origin.Even if this continent is defined instead as Oceania (thus adding New Zealand and Polynesia including Hawaii), Giluwe remains the highest volcano since it exceeds the elevation of Mauna Kea in Hawaii and any volcano in New Zealand.