Environmental factors including the extreme mountains and valleys
of New Guinea, the relative isolation of major islands, and the
vastness of Australia resulted in isolation of these small huntergatherer
groups, which, combined with the deep history of the
region, likely led to the significant genetic and linguistic variation
that is still seen today (Friedlaender et al., 2008; van Holst
Pellekaan, 2013). This region of early, Pleistocene human occupation
is generally referred to as Near Oceania, to delineate it from the
rest of the Pacific, which was settled much more recently and is
referred to as Remote Oceania (Green, 1991).