I still think this is unfairly discounting the native populations, because this thread is talking about Australia and Polynesia. Australia had been settled for

I still think this is unfairly discounting the native populations, because this thread is talking about Australia and Polynesia. Australia had been settled for 10s of thousands of years, and Polynesia for thousands of years, perhaps down to 1000 for the last islands to be settled. I do think the concept of "continuously inhabited city" is interesting, but ultimately distorting in several ways, especially in the Americas. Adding the loaded word "civilization" just further muddies the waters. However, if you consider that Antarctica was finally sighted in 1820, your figure of 200 years is very accurate. That said, I think it is interesting that there are probably islands on which no human has ever set foot. At least I think that's the case, I don't have proof. Large swaths of ice as well, but islands are easier to think about.